IT News and Updates:

Posted 7/17/24

Prepare for the Fall 2024 Term

It’s never too early to prepare for the new semester. Fall 2024 courses are available on Blackboard, and the Academic Technology team is available to meet with you this summer to build out your course. As you think about improvements to your course, are there opportunities for more student engagement through the Learning Management System? If so, FeedbackFruits may be the perfect solution! FeedbackFruits is an online educational technology platform that offers a suite of tools designed to enhance student engagement and collaboration in both online and in-person learning environments. The platform provides various tools for activities such as peer review, group evaluation, interactive documents, and more! If you are thinking about changing some assessments for your course, schedule a FeedbackFruits training to get started. 

Artificial Intelligence: What's New?

Blackboard Ultra Design Assistant

The AI Design Assistant was created in accordance with Anthology's Trustworthy AI framework. Leaving instructors in control, the AI Design Assistant uses artificial intelligence to streamline the course building process, giving subject matter experts a head-start on creating engaging, effective Learn Ultra courses. These system features allow for auto-generated modules (without populated content), assignment prompts, discussion board prompts, test questions and rubrics. The assignment creation functionality allows instructors to generate assignment prompts that encourage students to engage in higher-order thinking, apply their learned knowledge, and produce authentic submissions that are evidenced and emulate real-world situations.  To ensure the instructor is in control, the generation process allows instructors to enter an assignment description, select a desired cognitive process based on Bloom's Taxonomy, set the complexity, and generate an assignment title.

If you are interested in learning more about these features as you build Fall 2024 courses, please schedule a Blackboard Ultra training appointment. The university will continue to review forthcoming advancements to artificial intelligence within the LMS environment to ensure they are aligned with university expectations for instructor contributions to course design and development.  

Zoom AI Companion:

Zoom’s AI companion is a feature designed to collaborate, communicate and get work done more efficiently. Below is a highlight of the features that are available within Zoom.

• Meeting Summary with AI Companion allows the host of the meeting to generate a summary. The meeting summary is only be shared with the host once the meeting has ended. The host can then share the summary with the participants of the meeting.
• Meeting Questions with AI Companion allows hosts and invited participants to ask questions to AI Companion during a meeting. The questions are answered based on the conversation transcript. The feature is enabled for all participants of the meeting, and participants will receive answers based on the time they joined the meeting.
• Smart Recording with AI Companion adds recording highlights, smart chapters and next steps to cloud recordings. This will not be available if the recording is being saved to the computer.

Artificial Intelligence Supports:

As we continue to implement AI technology into our systems, please remember to review the Evolving Landscape of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) which covers AI supports, updates and key considerations such as ways to protect your personal information. If you are looking for additional ChatGPT & Artificial Intelligence Guidance, please access the Center for Teaching and Learning resources.

Tech Tips:

Secure your Data: Use Microsoft OneDrive

Microsoft OneDrive is a cloud storage and file-sharing service that offers several security features to help protect your data including data loss prevention, threat detection and compliance tools. OneDrive encryption functionality ensures your files are protected even if the physical hardware is compromised. Two-factor authentication adds an extra layer of security by leveraging a second method of verification to access files, such as the authenticator app. File sharing features within the application allow the content owner to set specific permissions such as view only or edit access to shared content.

Please note, if you are due for a laptop refresh this summer, you will need to have your data in Microsoft OneDrive for a seamless refresh process. You do not need to wait to get a head start! Schedule a Microsoft Office 365 training appointment today and meet with a member of the team for assistance.

Increase Productivity using Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a collaboration platform that enables colleagues to communicate, collaborate, and share files in real-time. It is part of the Microsoft 365 suite of productivity tools and is commonly used for document sharing and collaboration. Message colleagues, connect with one click, collaborate on documents, and integrate additional applications for even more functionality, all with the confidence of working in a secure environment! To learn more about Microsoft Teams, schedule a Microsoft Office365 training appointment with the team.