by IDLT

As a new semester approaches, the following tips may be useful for faculty.

Blackboard and Course Management:

1. If you are teaching multiple sections of the same course and want them in one Blackboard shell, please request that your sections be merged before starting work in your Blackboard courses.
2. If you want to copy a course from the previous semester, please follow these export/import instructions.
3. For assistance with building your course, contact the ITS Instructional Design & Learning Technologies team. The IDLT Teaching Toolkit also provides additional resources, including an accessible syllabus template, course planning grid, and other relevant materials.
4. For more tips on Blackboard, review this start-of-semester activities list, which includes instructions on what to do if you cannot see your course in Blackboard and how to make your course available before the semester begins.
5. Under ITS' 5+1 retention practice, only course shells from the five previous semesters, as well as the current semester, are kept in Bb. Course shells outside of the 5+1 will be removed at the start of spring, summer, and fall semesters. Faculty are responsible for downloading and keeping copies of older course shells. ITS will retain no backups of deleted courses.

Synchronous Online Sessions & Lecture Recording:

• YuJa is the video platform where all videos should be stored. Visit the ITS Training Services Organization in Blackboard for self-paced trainings (navigation path below). You can also refer to the ITS KnowledgeBase articles for YuJa.
• Microsoft Teams is SIUE’s primary platform for meetings, instruction, and collaboration, while YuJa will serve as our video storage and lecture capture solution. For guidance on this platform, please refer to the Microsoft Teams User’s Guide.
• Enable Teams Live Auto-Transcription option for synchronous online sessions and remember to caption all recorded videos. YuJa videos are automatically captioned; however, please ensure accuracy by editing them. Consider requesting captioning services through the Office of Online Services and Educational Outreach when recording lectures in advance.

On-demand training for learning technologies is available in the ITS Training Services Organization (navigate to myOrganizations > ITS Training Services > Training Resources by System/Application) in Blackboard. Additional upcoming programs are listed on the IDLT Programs page. Additionally, overview and how-to articles on numerous learning technologies and University services are accessible from the ITS KnowledgeBase. If you need help, please contact ITS at 618-650-5500 or help@siue.edu.