Distance Education & Instructional Technology Committee (DEITC) Newsletter April 2024

DEITC welcomes a new member representing Library Services: William Crowell, Assistant Librarian for Instruction & Online Learning.

QM Course Certified

The eLearning Team continues to assist faculty through the QM course development process for online courses. For an overview of the course development process, visit our Development Process of Distance Education Courses page.

EDRD 5303 is the first course to be QM certified in the Blackboard Ultra Course view!

QM Development Stipend

We are happy to announce that starting September 1, 2024, the following stipends have been approved for online course developments:

• New course development: $3,000
• Redeveloped/Recertification of a course: $1,500

Attendance Course Reports and Anthology Illuminate

Faculty concerns have arisen regarding the inability to access course reports in Blackboard Ultra for data on students who have withdrawn from courses.As of now, Blackboard Ultra lacks a course reports feature similar to what was available in its Original view. However, efforts are underway to implement this functionality in the future.a new platform named Anthology Illuminate is being introduced. This new database platform will enable designated faculty and staff to access comprehensive student records. Illuminate will provide capabilities to view course reports for students who have withdrawn, including those from Ultra courses.. This new platform should be available by Maymester 2024 and will allow the Registrar and Financial Aid Office staff to run reports on students' last access date in a course and student engagement/activity in a course.

Blackboard Ultra Implementation Updates

It's coming! Blackboard Ultra's full launch goes live on May 13, 2024 for all TAMIU courses. The eLearning team visited faculty in early April to share the Blackboard Ultra Features Guide for faculty and answer any questions they may have about the new Ultra experience.

On April 29, the eLearning team had a student information table set up outside of the Pellegrino Breezeway with activities, games, popsicles and prizes for students to de-stress before finals. They also gave out the Blackboard Ultra Features Guide for students and answered any questions students had about the new transition. They got good feedback from students that have used Ultra this Spring 2024 semester. Students said that they like the new interface because it is more user-friendly with a cleaner, smoother interface and better organized with new learning modules.

For the Spring 2024 term, the eLearning team deployed a survey focused on faculty experiences with Blackboard Ultra. The survey aimed to collect insights into which Ultra features faculty found most beneficial and to understand their preferences for using the platform for teaching and learning.

Register for a Blackboard Ultra workshop today through the OIT Trainings website.

• Bb Ultra: Communication with Students
• Bb Ultra: Creating and Organizing Content
• Bb Ultra: Assessing Student Learning
• Bb Ultra: Gradebook Management

Proposed Department of Education Negotiated Regulations Impacting Distance Education

The DEITC reviewed the proposed Department of Education negotiated regulations presentation, Department of Education Rulemaking, Spring 2024 that could possibly affect distance education. The following regulations were briefly discussed: State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement Changes and the following

Concerning Distance Education:

• Attendance Tracking
• Withdrawal of Students after a 14-day absence
• Creation of a Virtual Location for Online Students.

After the public comment period ends, the Department of Education will make final changes and released the final version of the regulations. Regulations released by November 1, 2024 can go into effect on July 1st of 2025. Dr. Abrego will continue to update the committee members on any developments and has requested that the members also share any information they receive regarding these regulations.

Follett Integration Process

Currently, students in BooksIncluded access eBooks via a BryteWave Course Materials link (RedShelf) provided by Follett or they access publisher courseware material via publisher LTI links configured in the Blackboard course by the faculty member. Over the summer, this process will continue to be used in Bb Ultra courses.

Follett has a new courseware integration tool, called Willo, that can help streamline the process for faculty and students to access publisher courseware. Willo will be piloted over the summer with select courses and will be deployed in the Fall 2024 semester. Courses that only adopt eBooks will continue to use the BryteWave Course Materials link.

As the deployment for Willo approaches, Follett will provide additional workshops and support for implementing this new tool in courses, and the eLearning Team will be available to provide additional support.

Instructional Technology Excellence Award.

The Distance Education and Instructional Technology Committee (DEITC) is accepting nominations for the 2024 Instructional Technology Excellence Award. DEITC is committed to recognizing faculty who have excelled in integrating technology within their courses.

Faculty being nominated for this award should be contacted by the nominator to be given the opportunity to submit any additional supporting artifacts on their own behalf. Self-nominations are also welcomed.

Instructional Technology Excellence Award Nomination Form

Please submit the nomination form as well as supporting documents to Dr. Pat Abrego, Director of Academic Technology, via email at pabrego@tamiu.edu or in person to the Office of Instructional Technology & Distance Education Services located in Killam Library, Room 259. Deadline for nominations is May 31, 2024.

To facilitate the nomination process, a copy of the rubric that will be used to score is linked below:

Instructional Technology Excellence Award Scoring Rubric

CATIE Conference

A reminder that the 2024 Chancellor’s Summit on Academic Technology (CATIE) will take place on June 24 - 25 at RELLIS in Bryan Texas. Registration is free, please encourage your colleagues to attend. The theme for this year’s conference is AI & U: Agency, Innovation, & Understanding for Future-focused Learning.

Open Education Resources Initiative (OER)

Dr. Cynthia Sosa shared an opportunity for faculty to participate in an initiative at the system level. Through CATIE, the OER/Affordable Learning Task Force has discussed implementing OER more purposefully throughout the system. The task force is in the process to identify participants in this initiative. TAMIU is looking for 2 to 3 departments or group of colleagues interested in participating. If interested, please email Dr. Cynthia Sosa, cynthia.sosa@tamiu.edu, with your intent to participate.

Registrar's Office Announcements

• Graduation rosters are open, and they close on May 7
• May 7 - Final grades for graduates are due by noon
• May 9 - Commencement for Spring 2024 semester (11am/4pm)
• May 10 - Final grades for non-graduates due by noon
• May 14 - Grades are posted on Uconnect

Next Meeting

The next DEITC meeting will be held virtually in May, date and time TBA

Past DEITC Newsletters

You may view past DEITC newsletters here.