ITSpotlight is designed to keep the campus up to date on ITS activities and services.
Posted February 12, 2025
Did you know that the maximum size for a Blackboard course at SIUE is 2 GB? If your course exceeds this limit, it will not import into a new shell. This can cause major headaches when preparing for future semesters. Here’s what you need to know to stay within the limit and keep your course running smoothly.
How to Check Your Course Size
While the Package Size in Blackboard gives an estimate, it’s not a true reflection of your course’s actual size. Th...
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Posted February 12, 2025
Ready to transition from Zoom to Microsoft Teams? Join our interactive, hands-on sandbox sessions—live via Teams!
🔹 For Staff: February 25, 9 AM – 12 PM
🔹 For Faculty: February 28, 9 AM – 12 PM
These drop-in sessions offer a casual, pressure-free space to explore Teams features like meetings, office hours, breakout rooms, attendance tracking, and more—all with real-time support from our team.
No formal agenda—just hands-...
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Posted February 12, 2025
Join us as we explore the ever-evolving world of instructional design, three themes at a time.
IDLThree is designed to keep you at the forefront of instructional design and technology in higher education. Each issue is a collaborative masterpiece crafted by our talented instructional design team. Together, we’ll dive deep into a shared theme, bringing you the latest trends, best practices, and innovative ideas.
What makes IDLThree unique? Our topics are directly i...
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Posted February 12, 2025
Are your class materials, activities, and assessments designed so they are usable for all students? ITS invites you to participate in our Accessibility Challenge! This is an exciting opportunity to enhance the accessibility of your courses, making them more inclusive for all students while also earning professional recognition for your efforts to maintain compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act as it pertains to higher education .
Challenge Details
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Posted January 08, 2025
by IDLT
SIUE is making an important shift in its communication and collaboration tools. Beginning in FY 2025, Microsoft Teams will become the University’s primary platform for meetings, instruction, and collaboration. This change will take full effect on July 1, 2025, replacing Zoom as our go-to video conferencing tool. Additionally, YuJa will continue to serve as our video storage and lecture capture solution.
To help you prepare for this transition, we encourage faculty, staff, a...
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Posted January 08, 2025
by ITS
At SIUE, we’re committed to enhancing your online security and streamlining your digital experience. That’s why ITS recently upgraded the e-ID system with a new Microsoft password management portal, launched on November 13.
This new portal replaces the former e-ID Creation and Maintenance page and offers a range of enhanced features to make managing your account easier than ever. With this update, you can:
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Posted January 08, 2025
As a new semester approaches, the following tips may be useful for faculty.
Blackboard and Course Management:
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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.
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For assistance with building your co...
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Posted January 08, 2025
by Curt Price
Are you looking to improve your verbal presentation skills? Maybe you tend to slip in a few too many “ums” or maybe you need to work on your speaking speed. Microsoft Teams Speaker Coach is here to help.
Speaker Coach is another Microsoft Teams feature that you might not be using to your full potential.
Turn on Speaker Coach
From within a Microsoft Teams Meeting...
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Start your meeting and go to More (…).
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Posted December 11, 2024
by IDLT
As the term nears completion, the following tips will be useful for faculty in wrapping up their courses.
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Posted December 11, 2024
by Curt Price
With the upcoming switch to Teams Meetings, experienced Zoom users may be curious if they can do everything in Microsoft Teams Meetings that they did in Zoom.
Some feature comparisons between Teams Meetings and Zoom are available in this ITS KnowledgeBase article.
But in short, Teams Meetings features meet or exceed pretty much all of the features SIUE has had with our Zoom license.
If you're new to Microsoft Teams Meetings, the interface resembles Zoom in many ways...
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Posted November 13, 2024
Build More Engagement in Discussion Boards
By Pamela D. Williams/IDLT for Spotlight, November 2024
Discussion boards, like online courses, are here to stay, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be an engaging and lively component of your course. Here are 3 tips to help invigorate your discussion boards.
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Consider using multimedia in your prompts. A song, music video, cartoon, or brief interview can help spark students’ interest and evoke deeper responses to course...
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Posted October 09, 2024
Poll Everywhere – A Campus-Wide Solution for Engagement
Did you know the University has a campus-wide license for Poll Everywhere ? We mostly focus on how the tool can be used for faculty in their classrooms, but it is also versatile to be used in events, meetings, workshops, and beyond. It’s a powerful tool that can be used to foster engagement, gather feedback, and promote collaboration in any setting.
by IDLT
For Faculty and Courses: Poll Everywhere can be used to q...
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Posted September 11, 2024
by IDLT
Transform Your Course Design with IDLT's Updated Course Planning Grid
Elevate your course development with IDLT’s updated course planning grid. This document will help you organize your content, align learning objectives with assessments, plan regular and substantive interaction, and create a cohesive learning journey for your students.
Members of our instructiona...
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Posted September 11, 2024
by IDLT
Using Grade Center Smart Views for More Efficient Grading
Have you used the “Tests” or “Assignments” links available under the Full Grade Center in your course management menu? Those are default Smart Views included in every shell template, and you can create your own! A Smart View is a focused look at the Grade Center. It shows only the columns that match a set of criteria, and the view is saved for continued use. As an instructor, creating custom smart...
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Posted June 19, 2024
by Curt Price
Microsoft Teams is a collaboration platform available to SIUE Faculty, Staff and Students that can help you and your department improve communication, productivity, and more.
Since its launch, Microsoft Teams has become the fastest growing app in Microsoft’s history with more than 330,000 companies worldwide using it.
Collaboration
Teams allows users to share files, work on them simultaneously, and collaborate in real time. It also integrates with oth...
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