Dear Faculty,
We are springing into action with a whole set of faculty development opportunities for you this March. Don’t miss the Level Up! Accessibility initiative, including the Ally Brightspace widget; our Accessibility Challenge; and a new video series for you, kicking off with a demonstration of the first prompt in the challenge. We have a faculty corner on using group lockers in Brightspace and listings of upcoming events for faculty. Enjoy!
Student Survey on AI
Please encourage your students to complete the anonymous survey on student AI use, which will be open through April 3. Responses will help us better understand how students at CUNY SPS are using and thinking about GenAI and will inform ongoing conversations about AI in education across our community. We plan to share the findings and continue the conversation with an event in May.
Level Up! Accessibility in our Online Courses
In our last newsletter, we announced a new project to strengthen accessibility in online courses as part of new ADA Title II requirements. The Level Up! project has launched and is now underway with the following key initiatives:
New Ally Widget Added to Brightspace
You will have seen the new Ally Accessibility Score Widget on your course home page (not visible to students). It displays your Ally score at a glance and provides direct access to the full report and support resources.
Did you know that the Ally report shows you specific items that can be improved for accessibility? Some fixes are simple and can be done right on the same page, while others may require editing the original file. We encourage you to explore the report and try a few updates. Increasing your score will be motivating, but note that the focus is on addressing severe and selected major issues, especially for summer courses and beyond.
Please also keep in mind that Ally only scans content stored inside the course; externally linked materials are not reviewed.
Learn more about Ally in our Ally teaching guide, at the next Ally workshop on March 20, or by joining Matt as he “works it out” (see below).
Let’s Work It Out – Video Series
To help you get started, OFDIT’s Matt Lewis has launched a new Let’s Work It Out video series where he tackles issues related to teaching online and asynchronously. The first topic: The Accessibility Challenge!
In this episode, Matt walks through Prompt 1, learning about Ally, reviewing an Ally Course report, and reflecting on the process. We encourage you to follow along as he “works it out” and shares practical strategies for improving accessibility one step at a time. Watch the full video here: Let’s Work It Out – Accessibility Challenge Prompt 1
The Accessibility Challenge has Launched!
The Level Up! Accessibility Challenge is designed as a quick and approachable way to start to “level up” your course’s accessibility. There are 2 prompts per week with a focused accessibility tip, a quick action you can take in your course, and a recommendation for future planning. Participants can also earn a certificate for completing the challenge. Although the challenge is now in its 3rd week, you can still sign up and catch up anytime through the Brightspace site.
We hope these tools and activities are helpful, but our goal is not necessarily a “perfect” score. Designing courses that work for all learners is a shared journey, and every improvement helps build stronger courses for the summer term and beyond!
UDL Collaborative Meeting – April 20: UDL Sustainability
Join us for our second UDL Collaborative meeting of Spring 2026:
- Monday, April 20, from 1-2pm ET. Register here
In this session, we’ll explore how to make accessibility and UDL part of our ongoing professional practices as a sustainable habit. We’ll connect our discussion to the school’s ongoing Accessibility Project and Accessibility Challenge, exploring what’s working well, what next steps might look like, and how UDL principles can support long-term change. This will be a practical, strategy-sharing session where we’ll learn from colleagues who have successfully integrated UDL and accessibility into their daily work. Bring your ideas, questions, and experiences!
Brian Le Lay, Antonia Levy, and Amarna Williams, Facilitators, UDL Collaborative
CUNY Wide Opportunities for CUNY SPS Faculty
Save the Date! CUNY’s 3rd Annual Teaching and Learning Conference
The conference centers on the theme Reimagining Possibilities: Adult Learning for a Changing World. This theme underscores the importance of designing meaningful education to include adult learners at the center of institutional practice.
Date & Time: May 8, 2026, 9:00am- 3:30pm
Attendance: In Person (Free and open to all members of CUNY)
Location: CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Ave, New York, NY 10016
CUNY CIS Accessibility Training Series
This series is ongoing, with many opportunities remaining to strengthen your accessibility skills and empower your work with inclusive design.
- Designing Accessible PowerPoint presentations (3/18)
- Building Accessible Excel Spreadsheets (3/24)
- Ensuring Accessibility in Brightspace (3/26)
- Writing Effective Alternative Text (3/30)
- Making PDFs Accessible with Adobe Acrobat (4/1)
View full descriptions and register here (Login required using your @login.cuny.edu account).
Faculty Corner
Group Lockers in Brightspace
Submitted by Curtis Izen, CUNY SPS, Online Business Program
Brightspace lockers are helpful for student group work because they give each team one shared place to store and exchange files. Instead of emailing documents or juggling multiple versions, students can upload drafts, data files, screenshots, and notes that every member can access anytime. This keeps everyone working from the same materials and makes multi-step projects easier to manage.
To enable lockers, create your groups and check the Lockers option in the group settings. Once turned on, each group gets its own shared space automatically, helping students stay organized and collaborate more effectively.
OFDIT Trainings Spring 2026
Upcoming training sessions are listed here, but for the full list please see Training Sessions for SPS Faculty.
Introducing CUNY Pressbooks
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.
- Tuesday, March 17 at 10:00am – Register Here
- Thursday, March 19 at 4:00pm – Register Here
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.
- Wednesday, March 18 at 2:00pm – Register Here
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!
- Friday, March 20 at 10:00am – Register Here
Adobe Express Essentials: Quick, High‑Quality Graphics for Your Course and Beyond
Adobe Express is available to all SPS faculty, offering a powerful way to create polished graphics, banners, flyers, and other media. This one‑hour session introduces the essentials from access to the tool, to creating a graphic and finally publishing it. Participants will explore practical examples of classroom‑ready visuals and learn how to draw from Express’s rich library of images, templates, and AI‑generated art. We will also discuss ways to involve students, who have full access by default. The session concludes with guidance on publishing and exporting media for use in courses, collaboration with other users, and sharing to external platforms like Brightspace and OpenLab.
- Monday, March 23 @ 4:00pm – 5:00pm – Register Here
- Thursday April 23 @ 10:00am – 11:00am – Register Here
The Pedagogy of Social Annotations/Using Perusall in Brightspace
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 the pedagogical benefits of social annotation across a range of disciplines and discuss how this practice can build students’ skills, foster community, and promote intellectual growth. In addition, we’ll look at how to use the Perusall LTI in Brightspace to build social annotation assignments in your courses.
- Tuesday, March 24 at 10:00am – Register Here
- Thursday, March 26 at 4:00pm – Register Here
OpenLab Support Hours
Whether you’re building a new site, have questions, or just want to bounce around ideas, join the OpenLab team to collaborate and explore. Drop in, co-work, or just come see what others are working on! We also have the full spring semester schedule published on the CUNY SPS Open Road. You can also book daytime appointments at your convenience.
- Mondays, 6:00pm
- Thursdays, 6:00pm
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
Did you know?
Faculty Corner:
Humanized learning makes an online course feel more “real,” which can boost student motivation to log in and stay engaged week after week. Small touches like adding a profile picture in Brightspace can go a long way toward creating a welcoming, approachable course space.. Without a picture, a generic avatar is used. A clear headshot (or simple professional photo)helps students connect your name to a person, and carries through the system in places like discussions, class lists, and messages.
The OFDIT Media Team always sees an uptick in video production at this time of year. It’s a great time to create engaging videos for your students! Whether you’re working on a course overview, a faculty introduction, or mini-lectures, the OFDIT Media Team is here to help you shine. Here’s how to we can support you:
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