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Dear Faculty,<\/span><\/p>\n We hope you\u2019ll join us for next month\u2019s <\/span>Brightspace Day<\/b> event on May 15th! <\/span>A year in<\/b>: What have you learned from your experience using Brightspace? What would you still like to know more about? Sign up to share in one of our \u201cUnsession\u201d slots, or to attend a morning (in-person) or afternoon (virtual) session for training on an array of Brightspace topics. You\u2019ll find registration and session descriptions in this month\u2019s newsletter, along with links to learn more about the upcoming <\/span>SPS Transformative Learning and Development Conference<\/b> and the <\/span>Bronx EdTech Showcase<\/b>, too. We wanted to alert you to updates about the Brightspace <\/span>email<\/b> tool, and to share information about accessing CUNY\u2019s <\/span>Enterprise Copilot<\/b> AI chatbot and a tip about <\/span>creating a Practice Quiz<\/b> in your course. We\u2019re looking forward to seeing you at one of our spring training sessions and to hearing your discoveries and questions during Brightspace Day!<\/span><\/p>\n Join us in-person in the morning or virtually in the afternoon. When you sign up, you can choose either the in-person session, the virtual session, or both.\u00a0 Here\u2019s <\/span>the day\u2019s program<\/a><\/strong>:<\/span><\/p>\n Brightspace Day In-Person from 10:00am \u2013 Noon UDL Collaborative Meeting<\/strong><\/p>\n 1:00pm \u2013 2:00pm Break<\/span><\/p>\n Brightspace Day Virtual Session from 2:00pm \u2013 4:00pm<\/strong><\/p>\n The Unsession is dedicated time for faculty members to share their best Brightspace advice with the community.\u00a0 Show, demo, or talk about a tip, trick, or workflow you\u2019ve used in Brightspace! It could be an efficiency hack you\u2019ve discovered for yourself or for students, or a way of using Brightspace in your teaching that your colleagues might like to try.\u00a0 On Brightspace Day, Unsession participants will share their tip in<\/span> 3-minutes or less.<\/i><\/b>\u00a0 Sign up when you register in Zoom, or you can also sign up for and view the Unsession info on this page: <\/span>CUNY SPS Brightspace Day Unsession<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Register Here<\/a><\/p>\n You may have noticed that the <\/span>Email tool no longer appears in the Brightspace minibar<\/b>. That\u2019s because that minibar tool allowed users to send messages beyond their course rosters, which raised concerns about privacy, FERPA compliance, and the potential for misuse\u2014like mass emails to unintended recipients. As of April 11, 2025, CUNY has removed the <\/span>Email tool from the minibar<\/b> for all users, including faculty, staff, students, and admins. Don\u2019t worry\u2014course communication via email is still fully supported through the <\/span>Classlist<\/b>, so you can continue messaging students as usual within your courses. Check out our <\/span>Sending Email in a Brightspace Course<\/strong><\/span><\/a> teaching guide to learn how to email individual students, groups of students, or your whole class, and steps for changing your email signature and for reviewing Sent Mail.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Take part in the conversation about transformation at SPS! The inaugural Transformative Learning & Development Conference invites to you a collaborative community and supportive space to share activities, ideas, and best practices for creating transformative teaching and learning experiences at CUNY SPS. Come together to hear about the professional development and projects your colleagues found interesting and impactful.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n All sessions will be offered online via Zoom on <\/span>Wednesday, April 30 from 12-3pm<\/b><\/p>\n Register Here<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n On <\/span>Friday, May 2, 2025, from 9 am- 4pm<\/b> at Lehman College, you can explore the theme “Human-AI Synergy: Shaping Education to Promote Digital Equity and Inclusion” at the Bronx EdTech Showcase. The keynote speaker will be Ina Wanca, Chief Academic AI Officer at CUNY, to discuss insights on AI\u2019s transformative role in education. There will be over 20 concurrent presentations on innovative methods and modalities, as well as a student panel featuring a candid discussion about how AI impacts learning and experience.<\/span><\/p>\n Register Here<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n Join us for our upcoming UDL Collaborative meeting on <\/span>\u201cUDL and Accommodations\u201d on Wednesday, April 23 from 2-3pm ET.<\/b> where we’re thrilled to welcome staff from the Office of Student Disability Services (OSDS) as our special guests! This is your opportunity to learn directly from the experts who support our diverse student population daily. OSDS staff will share insights about their work and common student requests, and answer all those questions you’ve been wondering about but haven’t had the chance to ask.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/b>Register Here<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The CUNY SPS OpenLab is open!<\/span><\/p>\n We\u2019re excited to introduce <\/span>The Open Road<\/a><\/strong>, a site maintained by the OpenLab team to highlight the exciting projects, collaborations, and community-building happening on the CUNY SPS OpenLab.<\/span><\/p>\n By joining<\/a><\/strong>, you can stay in the loop with updates from student organizations, follow OpenLab news, and explore our growing collection of blogs.<\/span><\/p>\n Think of The Open Road as your go-to hub for OpenLab announcements, events, and helpful guides whether you\u2019re new to WordPress, exploring Creative Commons licenses, or looking to get the most out of OpenLab\u2019s features. Built by CUNY, for CUNY, since 2011.<\/span><\/p>\n Did you know that CUNY faculty, staff and students have access to the Microsoft Copilot AI chatbot?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Why use Copilot?<\/b> Copilot Chat is built on the same engine as ChatGPT, and includes features such as image generation, the ability to upload files, and citations for each response. It is available to all faculty, staff and students. You might ask:<\/span><\/p>\n How is this different from the free version of Copilot chat?<\/b> CUNY\u2019s Enterprise version includes data protection: chat data is <\/span>private and secure<\/span><\/a>, and is not used to train the model or shared with third parties.<\/span><\/p>\n Is this Copilot built into Word or other Office products<\/b>? No, this version is for the standalone chatbot only. Integration with Office applications is a separate license and fee.<\/span><\/p>\n How do I access the Enterprise version of Copilot Chat?<\/b> Go to <\/span>office.com\/chat<\/span><\/a> and log in with your CUNYLogin (the same as you use for Brightspace).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Create a Practice Quiz without a Gradebook Column Recently, I wanted my students to practice taking a quiz to make sure they were comfortable with the process.\u00a0 Therefore, I needed a Brightspace quiz that would NOT have an associated column in the gradebook.\u00a0 If you\u2019d like to try this in your course, here\u2019s how to set it up:<\/span><\/p>\n You can refer to the OFDIT page on <\/span>Quizzes in Brightspace<\/a><\/strong> for details.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Now that your quiz is set to be \u201cNot in Grade Book,\u201d let your students know they can attempt the quiz for practice only \u2014 no grade book column involved!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n OFDIT\u2019s spring trainings can help you learn more about how you can use Brightspace tools and features to support efficient, accessible course delivery and foster student engagement. We look forward to seeing you at some of our upcoming sessions! Refer to our trainings page on the<\/span> SPS Faculty Community Hub site<\/a><\/strong> or use links below to register.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 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.<\/span><\/p>\n 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!<\/span><\/p>\n Learn to navigate the Discussions area seamlessly and to efficiently grade student participation in Discussion Boards in your course!<\/span><\/p>\n
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Brightspace Day is May 15!<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
\n<\/strong>119 W 31st Building (2nd Floor- Room 216)<\/span><\/p>\n\n
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Brightspace Updates and Notes<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n
\nEvents for SPS Faculty<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
CUNY SPS
\nTransformative Learning & Development Conference<\/small><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n12th Annual Bronx EdTech Showcase<\/strong><\/span><\/small><\/h2>\n
UDL Collaborative: April Meeting<\/small><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
\nOpenLab<\/span><\/h2>\n
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Did You Know?<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n![\"Faculty](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2022\/03\/Faculty-corner-image.jpg?resize=214%2C259&ssl=1\")
Faculty Corner
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\nSubmitted by Curtis Izen, Online Business Program<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n
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\nOFDIT Spring 2025 Trainings\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
Using ePortfolio in your Course<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n
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Advanced Gradebook Topics for SPS Faculty\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n
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Brightspace: Navigating and Grading Discussions<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n
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