OFDIT Newsletter September 2025

Dear Faculty,

Hard to believe we are in the second September delivering instruction in Brightspace, but we congratulate you as things seem to have really fallen into place! In this edition of our newsletter, you’ll find a range of professional opportunities, including UDL communities to join, OpenLab support drop-in sessions, calls for conference proposals, and a CUNY-wide series on adult learning. We also hope you’ll consider dropping by one of our many OFDIT trainings on various Brightspace and pedagogy topics, and checking out some tips from our teaching guides and your fellow faculty! Wishing you a great start to the semester and a happy autumn!

UDL Collaborative: September Meeting

Happy fall from the facilitators of the UDL Collaborative! We’re a community of practice bringing together faculty and staff to explore accessibility and Universal Design for Learning principles. Whether you’re new to UDL or experienced, we discuss best practices, answer questions, and brainstorm solutions for inclusive learning environments. We welcome both returning members and newcomers—all faculty and staff are invited to participate.

We’re excited to invite everyone to our first meeting of the semester:
Tuesday, September 23 at 1pm ET via Zoom. Register here. 

During this meeting, we’ll share updates on our accessibility and UDL projects and provide time for members to discuss their own work or questions. More importantly, we want to brainstorm together about how our community can become more collaborative and member-driven, with opportunities for you to take leadership roles and help shape our direction moving forward.

We’re looking forward to seeing everyone and building this collaborative space together.

Brian Le Lay, Antonia Levy, and Amarna Williams
Facilitators, UDL Collaborative

Open UDL Workshop:
Making Your Courses Accessible to All

OFDIT and the CUNY SPS OER Initiative are pleased to invite all faculty to participate in the Open UDL Workshop (October 20 to November 3, 2025). 

This fifteen-day, asynchronous online workshop provides an in-depth introduction to Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and to the intersection of UDL and Open Educational Practices (OEP), which include OER and Open Pedagogy. Participants will review the principles of UDL and explore how OEP can help reduce accessibility barriers for all learners, including those with disabilities. Participants will also learn about best accessibility practices in online courses, including identifying and fixing common accessibility issues. For their workshop project, participants will complete an inventory of one of their courses from a UDL perspective and create a plan for implementing UDL principles and open practices.

Eligible faculty participants will be compensated with 7 NTA hours upon successful completion of the workshop. Registration is open through Tuesday, October 14. For more details, please see our Advanced Workshops page on the SPS Faculty Community Site.

Drop In, Connect, Create:
OpenLab Support Hours Return for Fall 2025

The CUNY SPS OpenLab team is excited to announce the return of our Support Hours for the Fall 2025 semester! Whether you are a faculty member building a project site, or a staff member looking to enhance your online presence, our virtual drop-in sessions are here to support your journey on the OpenLab and will be held via Zoom.

💡 What You Can Do During Support Hours:

  • Get help customizing your project or portfolio site
  • Learn how to use OpenLab tools more effectively
  • Explore digital pedagogy strategies
  • Connect with other OpenLab users and share ideas

📣 Join us this fall and make the most of what OpenLab has to offer! Whether you’re just getting started or looking to take your site to the next level, our team is here to support you. Drop in, ask questions, and get inspired.

For more information, visit the SPS OpenLab Support page or email us at openlab@sps.cuny.edu.

Register or Plan to Join
Tuesday 9/16/2025 6-7PM
Tuesday 9/23/2025 3-4PM
Monday 9/29/2025 6-7PM
Tuesday 10/21/2025 6-7PM
Monday 10/27/2025 6-7PM
Monday 11/10/2025 6-7PM
Monday 11/24/2025 6-7PM

Brightspace Office Hours Schedule

OFDIT’s open Brightspace office hours will continue this fall on Tuesday evenings (6-7pm ET) and Wednesday afternoons (1-2pm ET). We look forward to seeing you in one of the drop-in Zoom sessions with your questions!

Welcome to the New
OFDIT Faculty Advisory Board Members!

A warm welcome to the new members of the OFDIT Faculty Advisory Board (FAB), and an appreciative welcome back to our returning advisors! One of the key functions of FAB members is to connect OFDIT with the faculty community by gathering input, sharing needs and ideas, and helping promote professional development opportunities. Together, we’ll be working on projects such as hosting faculty discussions (both in-person and on OpenLab), advising on best practice recommendations for instruction in Brightspace, and serving on the selection committee for the Teaching Excellence Award in the spring.

Members of the Board for the 2025-2026 academic year:

  • Chelsea Hansen (2025-27) – Psychology
  • Mark Friedman (2024-26) – Disability Studies
  • Ray LaManna (2025-27) – Business
  • Hannah Miller (2024-26) – General Education
  • Hamad Sindhi (2025-27) – Sociology / Human Relations
  • Norlene Thomas (2024-26) – Health Information Management
  • Chris Kchao (ex officio) – Office of Student Disability Services
  • Mahdu Mammen (ex officio) – Information Technology

Did you know?

Many SPS courses make use of group work as a way to foster student-to-student interaction, but it’s important to ensure that Groups have been set up correctly and connected to Discussions, Assignments and other activities each semester. If you have Group work in your class, this is a good time to review the enrollment and associations so that things are in order. Check out our related teaching guides:

Managing Groups in Brightspace
Setting Up Group Discussions in Brightspace
Setting Up Group Assignments in Brightspace
Overriding Individual Grades in a Group Assignment

You can reach out to facultysupport@sps.cuny.edu if you would like additional support! 

CUNY Opportunities for SPS Faculty

CUNY Innovative Teaching Academy’s Adult Learning Series

CUNY Office of Faculty Affairs/CUNY Innovative Teaching Academy (CITA) will be offering a new professional development series on adult learning. Click here for session descriptions and Zoom registration links!

Session 1 – Foundations of Adult Learning

Presenters: Jennifer Valad (CUNY Central) and Meghan Gilbert (Guttman Community College)

Join us for an introductory session that dives into the world of adult learning. We’ll explore how adult learning builds upon traditional pedagogy, examine real-world adult learner profiles, and discuss shifts in teaching philosophy that empower students as autonomous partners in their own learning journey.

Friday, October 10, 2025 from 11am – 12 noon ET. Register here. 

Upcoming sessions include:

Session 2: Designing Adult-Centered Curriculum. Friday, November 14, 2025 at 11am ET
Session 3: Engagement & Motivation Strategies. Friday December 5, 2025 at 11am ET

CUNY IT Conference – Proposal Deadline Extended 

The proposal submission deadline for the CUNY IT conference, Moving Forward: Reimagining CUNY in an AI-Enhanced World, has been extended. If you have developed any AI-related components in your course site or in your teaching approaches, consider joining the conversation and submitting your presentation or panel using this form by September 23rd.

UPCEA Digital Learning Conference Call for Papers

There is still time to submit a proposal for the 2026 UPCEA Digital Teaching and Learning Conference (virtual, Feb 4 and 5th) by September 19th.  The conference is a free, virtual event centered around the theme of Designing the Future that aims to showcase innovative practices, research, and digital teaching design and strategies —  things we know our SPS faculty are doing every day!

Faculty corner imageFaculty Corner:       
Adjusting Learner Sort Order
Submitted by Curtis Izen, CUNY SPS, Online Business Program

When entering grades in Brightspace, or comparing it with your roster from CUNYfirst, you may find that the default order of student names is not the most convenient for your workflow. Brightspace allows you to change the sort order so that the roster appears the way you prefer.

The default setting typically lists learners alphabetically by last name (A to Z). However, depending on the task, you may prefer a different view.  Below are the instructions to change the order:

  1. Open the list in Brightspace (for  example, inside the gradebook).
  2. Locate the Learner column heading.
  3. Click the small arrow next to Learner.
  4. From the drop-down menu, choose your preferred option:
          • First Name, A to Z
          • First Name, Z to A
          • Last Name, A to Z
          • Last Name, Z to A

 

OFDIT Fall 2025 Trainings 

Brightspace: Managing Dates and Visibility of Items

In this training we will discuss due dates, start and end dates, the calendar, and the date management tool and how the visibility toggle interacts with start and end dates. (30mins)

Brightspace: Navigating and Grading Discussions

Learn to navigate the Discussions area seamlessly and to efficiently grade student participation in Discussion Boards in your course! (30 mins)

Brightspace: Managing Groups

In this training we will discuss how to set up groups, group discussions, and group assignments in Brightspace. (30 mins)

Brightspace: Notifications and the Pulse App

Brightspace Pulse is a mobile app that can help users stay connected with their courses in Brightspace through a quick view of announcements, grades, course calendars and content. Learn what Brightspace features are and are not available through the app, and how to enable and view Notifications to enhance the app’s functionality. (30 mins.)

Brightspace: Advanced Gradebook Topics

Setting Up the Gradebook: In this training, we will discuss setting up your gradebook for the semester, how to add items for extra credit, using grade schema for items requiring special circumstances, and more! (60 mins)

Brightspace: Navigating the Gradebook and Grading

In this training we will discuss how to navigate the gradebook and the options for grading in Brightspace. (60 mins)

Brightspace: Feedback

There are many options in Brightspace for giving students feedback on their work. In this short brown-bag training, we’ll go over how to give feedback on discussions, assignments, quizzes, and group assignments and show you how students access your feedback so you can guide them to all of it. (30 mins)

Anthology Ally: An Introduction

Learn how Anthology Ally can increase access and improve the overall learning experience in your course by providing choice and flexibility for how students consume content and access media. We will cover both alternative file formats and the accessibility gauge features that are now available to all in your courses and the support Ally provides in addressing any areas where accessibility can be improved, often very quickly! (60 mins)

Brightspace: Finalizing your Gradebook

Review all the grading options that apply at the end of the semester when you are preparing final grades, and learn the steps for automatically transferring final grades from Brightspace to CUNYfirst. (30 mins)

Using ePortfolio in your Course

In this session, you will explore the structure of ePortfolio and learn how to use the platform from the instructor view. You will learn how to navigate the Digication in Brightspace, review your students’ signature assignment submissions, and share the various support resources available for both students and instructors. There will also be time to answer any questions you might have about ePortfolios at CUNY SPS. (45 mins.)

Using Video in Brightspace (Panopto/Video Notes)

Creating video content for your course can be a little overwhelming with the number of options available.  Join this session to learn which tools work best for creating a reusable welcome message or lecture, a weekly update or one-time recordings, like giving feedback to students. In this session participants will be introduced to Panopto, the SPS video platform integrated into Brightspace, which streamlines video production.  Participants will learn how to access Panopto and its features through Brightspace, focusing on a workflow to create, organize, and publish video content.  The Brightspace platform itself has video tools too.  We’ll highlight when it’s beneficial to use one over the other. (60 mins)

Advanced Panopto for SPS Faculty

As many of us have learned, Panopto is a handy tool to create video in Brightspace. But many of us have yet to unlock the powerful features inside it.  In this session, participants will learn how to access the robust analytics showing us who watched a video and for how long.  They will see how faculty can leverage the power of a low-stakes quiz with the in-video quiz tool.  A video quiz can be automatically graded and mapped to your grade book. Finally, we’ll demonstrate how a regular assignment can be turned into a video assignment with students as the media creators.  It’s all part of the Panopto platform built into Brightspace. (60 mins)

VoiceThread for SPS Faculty

This training will introduce VoiceThread, an asynchronous video discussion board.  VoiceThread allows faculty and students to create multimedia presentations that creates a classroom community through threaded audio and video discussions. You and your students can add commentary to a presentation by means of microphone, webcam, keyboard, or phone. The ensuing conversation feels like a live classroom, but in an online environment. In this session, SPS faculty will learn how to create a VoiceThread and integrate it into their Blackboard course. (60 mins)

From Open Educational Resources (OER) to Open Pedagogy

Whether you’re looking to lower course costs for your students, update or customize instructional materials to make them more relevant and engaging, or empower your students to become active contributors to your field, Open Educational Resources (OER) and open pedagogy may be just what you’re looking for. In this one-hour session, we’ll introduce the why and how of OER—materials that are free and openly licensed for you or your students to reuse, retain, revise, remix, and redistribute. We’ll also explore how student-created or student-remixed OER can fulfill the goals of open pedagogy—an approach that invites students to create knowledge rather than to merely consume it. At the end of this interactive training, we’ll share upcoming opportunities to participate in workshops geared toward using OER and open pedagogy to improve learning outcomes, to create interactive multimedia content, and to increase representation, inclusion, accessibility, and student voice and choice in online courses. (60 mins)

Introducing CUNY Pressbooks

Have you been meaning to adopt, adapt, or create OER for your courses? Do you wish that an OER you use were more inclusive, accessible, or customized for your students? Do you dream of having self-check questions or social annotation built into course readings? CUNY’s Pressbooks Network might be the right tool for you.

The CUNY Pressbooks Network is an elegant publishing platform that offers the opportunity to find, adapt, or create openly licensed course materials. With pedagogical features ranging from glossaries and built-in social annotations to interactive questions and LMS grading functionality, CUNY Pressbooks is a great option for presenting customized course readings. In this hands-on, one-hour training, we’ll preview some of these features, see them in action in resources just waiting to be adopted, and then dive in to get familiar with the platform and its robust tools. (60 mins)

The Pedagogy of Social Annotations

Social annotations can radically change the way your students engage with your course materials, each other, and you, combining the benefits of annotation, dialogue, accessibility, and digital accountability. In this one-hour workshop, we’ll look at social annotations across a range of disciplines, platforms, and assignment types, and discuss how this practice can build students’ skills, foster community, and promote intellectual growth. (60 mins)

As always, OFDIT is here to help! We are available for one-on-one support and are also happy to schedule a Zoom call to discuss any questions you may have. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us at facultysupport@sps.cuny.edu 

All the Best,
Your OFDIT Team