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Dear Faculty,<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s starting to feel like summer in NYC and we hope that wherever you are, and whether you are teaching or having a break, that you are enjoying some warm sunny times! The faculty newsletter will be on hiatus in July, but we wanted to alert you to an opportunity to join our OFDIT Faculty Advisory Board (nominations due June 30), give you an update on the Level Up! Accessibility campaign, and invite you to test out the Brightspace New Content Experience, Creator+ and Lumi Pro tools. In addition, our media team has an update on Adobe Express and news about the Adobe Podcast tool that all SPS faculty and staff can use. Finally, SPS faculty and staff can attend OLC Elevate <\/span>for free<\/b> in early August. Read on for all the details!<\/span><\/p>\n Are you passionate about shaping faculty development at CUNY SPS? Nominations are now open for the 2026-2028 cohort of the OFDIT Faculty Advisory Board!<\/span><\/p>\n Established in 2021, the Faculty Advisory Board plays a vital role in guiding OFDIT’s programming, assessing faculty needs, and promoting professional development across our diverse academic community. As a FAB member, you’ll join six faculty colleagues from different programs to:<\/span><\/p>\n What’s the commitment?<\/b> The board meets monthly during Fall and Spring semesters, with some remote work outside meetings. Members serve two-year terms and are eligible to apply for grants toward registration fees for teaching and learning conferences or workshops.<\/span><\/p>\n Interested in serving?<\/b> Nominate yourself or a colleague by filling out <\/span>our nomination form<\/a><\/strong>. Three new members will join the board this fall, and each voice and perspective is highly valued. Learn more about the Faculty Advisory Board on <\/span>our website<\/a><\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n Syllabus accessibility, as indicated by the Ally score listed alongside the item in Brightspace, will continue to be reviewed as part of course prep before each semester. While OFDIT will not be directly remediating syllabi, we are here to provide support as you make updates or create new documents. The following resources can help you ensure your Word documents are accessibly formatted:<\/span><\/p>\n If you need assistance working toward an Ally score of 100% for your syllabus, please don\u2019t hesitate to <\/span>contact us<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Also be on the lookout for additional resources on course content accessibility, which we will share in August as you prepare for the Fall semester.<\/span><\/p>\n The <\/span>New Content Experience (NCE)<\/b><\/a> will be introduced in CUNY Brightspace next academic year. All existing content will remain intact, so no changes are required, but you and your students will benefit from cleaner navigation and more streamlined workflows involving fewer clicks. We will provide advance notice before the new experience is made available, but if you\u2019d like to check it out in the meantime, you can visit the <\/span>CUNY Brightspace <\/span>test <\/b>environment<\/span><\/a>, enter a course, select Content, and then Turn it on. Please note that the <\/span>CUNY Brightspace <\/span>test <\/b>environment<\/span><\/a> is for individual exploration only, and should never be used for teaching or any other function.<\/span><\/p>\n D2L also offers additional authoring tools (<\/span>Creator+<\/b>) and AI tools (<\/span>Lumi Pro)<\/b> for Brightspace. CUNY has not made a decision about purchasing these tools, but we have an opportunity to learn more about them in a sandbox environment that is available until July 13. <\/span>D2L\u2019s sandbox site is not part of CUNY Brightspace <\/b>and is intended for exploration only, not for teaching or any other function. It includes 3 courses: one on Creator+, one on Lumi Pro, and a blank course for experimentation. CUNY faculty and staff can <\/span>sign up for access<\/a><\/strong> (MFA required). If you are interested, please take advantage of this opportunity while the sandbox site is live <\/span>until Monday, July 13, 2026<\/b>!\u202f<\/span><\/p>\n The OFDIT Media Team has found much to admire in our new <\/span>Adobe Express<\/a><\/strong> license (CUNYFirst login). While faculty and staff need to request access from the HelpDesk, all CUNY students have access by default, which lowers the barrier to creative, multimodal work. Better yet, faculty need not start from scratch. Adobe has created “<\/span>Learning Kits<\/a><\/strong>,” which are ready\u2011to\u2011use support guides and assignment ideas developed by faculty, for faculty.\u00a0 Check out the learning kits or import them into your Brightspace course. Seven kits are available, covering multimodal writing, infographics, research posters, presentations, explainer videos, and podcasts.<\/span><\/p>\n One tool deserves special mention: <\/span>Adobe Podcast<\/a><\/strong>. It streamlines audio recording and editing while using AI to enhance audio quality. Even a rough recording can sound polished.\u00a0 The <\/span>Media Team Vault site<\/a><\/strong> on OpenLab describes the process, we can teach you how to use it or let us know, we can do it for you!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The OFDIT Media Team stands ready to support faculty who wish to integrate Adobe Express into their courses. We invite you to schedule a <\/span>one\u2011on\u2011one consultation<\/a><\/strong> and design an assignment with us.<\/span><\/p>\n Did you know that CUNY SPS faculty are Online Learning Consortium (OLC) members and can attend this year\u2019s OLC Elevate Conference for free? The fully virtual, accessible conference will take place over two days in August. <\/span>Register for the conference<\/a><\/strong> with your OLC account or create one using your CUNY SPS email.<\/span><\/p>\n Theme:<\/b> Rethinking the Learning Enterprise: From Institutions to Ecosystems<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Explore how learning moves beyond institutional bounds into flexible, AI-mediated ecosystems. This day focuses on the \u201cbig picture\u201d\u2014governance, infrastructure, and the strategy required to lead a digital enterprise.<\/span><\/p>\n Theme:<\/b> Bridging Innovation: Transforming Education through Digital Learning and AI Integration<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Turn innovative theory into instructional practice. This day serves as a deep dive into the human-centered design and pedagogical shifts required to integrate AI responsibly into the student experience.<\/span><\/p>\n The CUNY SPS OpenLab is in summer mode! We\u2019re expanding our suite of built-in accessibility tools and launching new templates that come with these tools already installed, so it\u2019s easier than ever to make your OpenLab site accessible. We\u2019ve got <\/span>summer availability<\/a><\/strong> to support your OpenLab needs, and we\u2019re always happy to find a convenient time for you if you cannot attend our scheduled offerings! <\/span>Contact us any time<\/a><\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n As always, OFDIT is here to help! We won\u2019t be holding set office hours in the summer, but you can always check out our <\/span>Faculty Hub page on Brightspace at CUNY SPS<\/a><\/strong>, and 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\u2019t hesitate to reach out to us at <\/span>facultysupport@sps.cuny.edu<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n All the Best, Dear Faculty, It\u2019s starting to feel like summer in NYC and we hope that wherever you are, and whether you are teaching or having a break, that you are enjoying some warm sunny times! The faculty newsletter will be on hiatus in July, but we wanted to alert you to an opportunity to join our …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","portfolio_post_id":0,"portfolio_citation":"","portfolio_annotation":"","openlab_post_visibility":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7886"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7895,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7886\/revisions\/7895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.sps.cuny.edu\/sps-faculty-community-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nOFDIT Faculty Advisory Board:
\nCall for Nominations (2026-28 Cohort)<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n\n
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\nLevel Up! Accessibility Update<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
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Thank you to everyone who helped ensure that Summer session syllabi were accessible! Over the last few months, OFDIT partnered with programs and faculty to align syllabi formatting with accessibility guidelines. We encourage you to review the notes about changes that were made to individual syllabi, in order to help guide future syllabus updates.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n
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\nExplore New Brightspace Features<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n
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\nAdobe Express at CUNY:
\n<\/strong><\/span>Creative Tools and Ready\u2011to\u2011Use Learning Kits<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
\nOLC Elevate Conference August 4-5<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n
Tuesday, August 4, 2026<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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Thursday, August 6, 2026<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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\nOpenLab; Summer 2026<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
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\nYour OFDIT Team<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"