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Dear Faculty,<\/span><\/p>\n As we make way into the Spring 2026 semester, we invite you to participate in our training sessions to help you <\/span>learn about different technologies<\/b> and <\/span>new approaches to online pedagogy. <\/b>Topics include Adobe Express for SPS faculty, quick refreshers on Navigating the Gradebook and Grading in Brightspace, and <\/span>new topics to promote student engagement, <\/b>such as using rubrics and Intelligent Agents in Brightspace. Those interested in exploring alternatives to text-only online discussions may wish to attend trainings on VoiceThread, social annotations in Perusall, and video notes in Brightspace.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Registration is now open for the <\/span>Open for All Workshop: Using OER & Open Pedagogy to foster DEIA in online courses (March 6-31)<\/a><\/strong>, and proposals are being accepted for the community discussion series that is part of this hybrid workshop. If you are curious about the topic, the workshop, and the community discussions, we are offering two infosessions: one <\/span>Tuesday, February 24 at 10:00am<\/a><\/strong>, and another <\/span>Thursday February 26 at 4:00pm<\/a><\/strong>. Join us for Open Spring 2026!<\/span><\/p>\n All of our training sessions are listed in Eastern Standard Time (ET). <\/b>We look forward to working with you this semester!<\/span><\/p>\n In this training, we will discuss rubric basics in Brightspace. We will cover how to create a rubric, how to attach a rubric to an assignment and how to grade using a rubric.<\/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.<\/p>\n Creating video content for your course can be a little overwhelming with the number of options available.\u00a0Join 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.\u00a0Participants will learn how to access Panopto and its features through Brightspace, focusing on a workflow to create, organize, and publish video content.\u00a0The Brightspace platform itself has video tools too.\u00a0We’ll highlight when it’s beneficial to use one over the other.<\/p>\n In this training, we will discuss using automation tools to enhance learning engagement.<\/p>\n This training will introduce VoiceThread, an asynchronous video discussion board. VoiceThread allows faculty and students to create multimedia presentations that engage 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.<\/p>\n Join us for this infosession on the DEIA annotations to the SPS Course Review Rubric that are used in the\u00a0Open for All Workshop<\/a>. The SPS Course Review Rubric determines the standards and criteria for the creation, revision, and launch of all SPS courses. These annotations are suggested design and teaching practices that enhance students\u2019 sense of belonging in the virtual space of your online classroom, beyond the basics of effective online course design. All are welcome!<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0In this session, participants will learn how to access the robust analytics showing us who watched a video and for how long.\u00a0They will see how faculty can leverage the power of a low-stakes quiz with the in-video quiz tool.\u00a0A 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.\u00a0It’s all part of the Panopto platform built into Brightspace.<\/p>\n In this training we will discuss how to navigate the gradebook and the options for grading in Brightspace.<\/p>\n 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!<\/p>\n Have you been hoping 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\u2019s Pressbooks Network might be the right tool for you.<\/p>\n 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\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n Adobe Express is available to all SPS faculty, offering a powerful way to create polished graphics, banners, flyers, and other media. This one\u2011hour session introduces the essentials from access to the tool, to creating a graphic and finally publishing it.\u00a0Participants will explore practical examples of classroom\u2011ready visuals and learn how to draw from Express\u2019s rich library of images, templates, and AI\u2011generated 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019ll look at the pedagogical benefits of social annotation across a range of disciplines and discuss how this practice can build students\u2019 skills, foster community, and promote intellectual growth. In addition, we\u2019ll look at how to use the Perusall LTI in Brightspace to build social annotation assignments in your courses.<\/p>\n 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!<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n
\nBrightspace: Grading with Rubrics\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
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Using ePortfolio in your Course<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
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Using Video in Brightspace (Panopto\/Video Notes)<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
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Brightspace: Intelligent Agents\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
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VoiceThread for SPS Faculty<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
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Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) in the SPS Course Review Rubric<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
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Advanced Panopto for SPS Faculty<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
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Brightspace: Navigating the Gradebook and Grading<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
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Anthology Ally: An Introduction<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
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\u00a0<\/strong>Introducing CUNY Pressbooks<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
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Adobe Express Essentials: Quick, High\u2011Quality Graphics for Your Course and Beyond\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
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The Pedagogy of Social Annotations\/Using Perusall in Brightspace<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
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Brightspace: Advanced Gradebook Topics<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
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Brightspace: Finalizing your Gradebook<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n