Category: Uncategorized

OFDIT April 2026 Newsletter

Dear Faculty,

With Spring Break now behind us and the semester entering its final stretch, April provides a timely moment to re‑engage with purpose and momentum. In this month’s newsletter, we have a student-centered roundtable discussing recent survey results on Gen AI use, an update on the Level Up! Accessibility Project happening at SPS and across CUNY, an early reminder to prepare your course for the upcoming term, an information session on OER Creation Grants, a Faculty Corner Tip, and listings of upcoming training opportunities for SPS faculty. Enjoy!

Student Voices on AI: A Roundtable Discussion

What are SPS students really thinking about AI — in their courses and their work? We want to hear from them, and we want you to hear it too.

Join us on Thursday, May 7th, from 12:00pm to 1:30pm ET on Zoom for a student-centered roundtable hosted by our Faculty Advisory Board and OFDIT. This event grew directly out of our Spring 2026 student survey on AI in educational and professional contexts and we’ll be sharing the results live, using them as a springboard for conversation. Students will take the lead in reflecting on what the data reveals, sharing their experiences, and exploring what it means for learning at SPS. Faculty and staff are invited to listen, engage, and think together about how we can respond.

Level Up! Accessibility Project

 Our Accessibility in Online Courses project continues, with the Accessibility Challenge wrapping up, links to upcoming and videos of past workshops on the Training page, and a new video from OFDIT’s Matt Lewis on Prompt 2 of the Accessibility Challenge. 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 2.

For those of you using the Ally Report widget in your courses, the OFDIT Team has created a Teaching Guide for the Anthology Ally tool in Brightspace and is offering additional training on Ally on April 24.

A great way to start thinking about accessibility is to ensure that your syllabus document is formatted to be fully accessible to all your students, including those using screen reader technology. We’ll be working with programs and faculty in the coming weeks on Summer 2026 syllabi, but you can begin with this Word Accessibility Quick Start Guide, check out the resources on our SPS Faculty Community Hub Accessibility page, or come to OFDIT’s open office hours (Tuesdays: 6-7 pm or Wednesdays 12-1 pm ET) for help formatting documents to be accessible.

 

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 access content and 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!

Course Prep For Summer

Finalizing course sites for the Summer semester? You can refer to our Course Site Prep Checklist for CUNY SPS Faculty for steps and links to assist as you prepare. In the Checklist, you’ll find links to guides for how to:

    • Post your welcome announcement
    • Fill out your Instructor Profile Widget
    • Upload your accessible syllabus/course schedule documents
    • Check that due dates reflect the upcoming semester’s calendar

In addition, on the SPS Faculty Community site, you will find an array of Teaching Guides from our OFDIT team, including ones on accessibility with Anthology Ally; on setting up and managing Groups in Brightspace; or on Creating Rubrics in Brightspace. And you can also check out our Teaching Guide Video Playlist for handy how-to videos!

⚡TIP: If you want to test how your course looks from a student point of view, including grades and feedback, use the handy CUNY Demo Student tool!

Discussion due dates, a new feature rolled out in December, can be added to first posts. For an overview of this new feature see the OFDIT Teaching Guide: Setting and Updating Discussion Dates in Brightspace

OER Creation Grant Opportunity

The CUNY OER Initiative is offering grants to faculty interested in creating new Open Educational Resources, including projects that combine and adapt existing OER and new, original works. Awards are tiered into Planning Grants, Production Grants, and Revision Grants and range from $3,000 to $7,000. Applications will be due in early May. For more information, please attend one of two info sessions, Tuesday, April 14 at 5 pm ET, or Thursday, April 16 at 5 pm ET (registration). For more information, please reach out to Sarah Kresh in OFDIT (sarah.kresh@cuny.edu).

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

Did You Know?

Building out a new project site on the SPS OpenLab, or just in the thinking and planning stages? Did you know that you can join OpenLab support hours all through the semester to get one-on-one attention for any of your OpenLab projects? Come join us to chat about how OpenLab can support the projects you’re building! We can also help troubleshoot technical issues or add custom styling to your site! Register for any of our scheduled sessions to receive an email reminder, or drop in if you’re feeling spontaneous!

 

 

Faculty Corner

Using Brightspace Release Conditions to Prepare Students for Online ExamsFaculty corner image
Submitted by Curtis Izen, CUNY SPS, Online Business Program

Brightspace’s release conditions can be a simple but powerful way to ensure students are prepared before taking a high-stakes exam. One useful approach I currently use is requiring students to complete a short practice test before the first actual exam becomes available. By setting a release condition on the real exam, the exam will only become visible to students after they have attempted the practice version. 

This method gives students a chance to become familiar with Brightspace test taking mechanics in a low-pressure setting. They can get familiar with the testing environment ahead of time. As a result, technical issues are more likely to be resolved before the real exam, reducing stress for students and minimizing troubleshooting during the assessment itself.

OFDIT Trainings Spring 2026

Below are the next OFDIT training sessions. For the full list please see Training Sessions for SPS Faculty. 

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!

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.

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.

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