In our January 2025 edition of Online Campus News You Can Use, we advise you of important tool updates, tasks, and upcoming events to help faculty deliver high quality online instruction.

 

The following new features and fixes will be available with our update to version 3900.108 by January 11, 2025. To prepare your SP2025 sections, see our Semester Success Toolkit.

By January 11th, we will release the Blackboard AI Design Assistant tools for generating a Journal and AI Conversation. AI Conversation is a new assessment type for creating Socratic questioning and role play exercises. See the following videos for a demonstration of creating these assessment types.

Per the Assessment Committee, the Spring 2025 semester course shells will be issued with updated versions of the Career Essentials rubrics. When setting up a Career Essentials assessment, choose a rubric that starts with "2024" in the name to ensure that you are using the latest version. The new rubrics utilize revised performance level labels and a consistent percent-grade scoring system. The goals and assessment process will remain the same.

Anthology will discontinue the legacy Cengage Partner Cloud integration in the Ultra Content Market in Spring 2025. When preparing your upcoming sections, use the Cengage Content LTIA tool to make a smooth transition to the supported integration. Any remaining Partner Cloud integrations will be migrated to LTIA after May 30, 2025. Contact a Cengage representative and Cengage Technical Support for direct assistance with this product. 

Join educators from around the globe in this dynamic three webinar series. The first session, about using the power of AI for personalizing learning, will be offered on February 7th at 11 AM CST. Sign up today!

Have questions about Blackboard, Regular & Substantive Interaction, or online teaching? Join Online Learning's faculty liaisons at our drop-in workshops for expert guidance and hands-on training. Explore the Spring 2025 Drop-in Workshop Schedule for topics, dates, and times!

The accessibility of course materials has a direct impact on a student’s learning experience, sense of inclusion, and ultimate success. In collaboration with MATC's Center for Teaching Excellence, we are pleased to announce our Ally Workshop Schedule for Spring 2025. See the schedule for dates and registration links.

In these virtual and in-person sessions, you will learn how Ally benefits students, practice using Ally to address common file accessibility barriers, and explore Alternative File Download formats, such as speech-to-text MP3 audio, and text translation to over 71 languages.

The Center for Teaching Excellence provides one on one faculty Blackboard Ultra support. Contact your faculty development coach or cte@matc.edu. The Online Learning faculty liaisons are available by appointment to consult regarding high quality online instruction. For high-level troubleshooting of errors or activity that requires investigation, Contact the Online Campus. A Blackboard administrator will be in contact with you.

 

For self-directed or just-in-time training on Blackboard Ultra and other tools, see the following resources on the Ultra Faculty Support website:

 

Share our self-paced Online Readiness module and live orientation webinar schedule with your students to help them learn about the tools, tasks, and strategies to start their studies strong. If you share the Online Readiness module as a link in your course, use this specific URL: https://www.go2orientation.com/learn/course/matc-online-readiness?client=matc. This will take the student to an MATC login page where the student will log in with their MATC network account!

Online Campus

Milwaukee Area Technical College

onlinelearning@matc.edu