You can expect to spend at least 2-3 hours a week on activities for the online course and additional work on building your course in the Ultra Course View.
Blackboard Ultra Transition Academy
We are accelerating our transition to Ultra Course View with the recommendation that faculty expect to teach in the Ultra Course View for the Fall 2023 semester and planned full migration by December 31, 2023. The Blackboard Ultra Transition Academy is a great opportunity to make that transition now with the ongoing support of a CITL staff member or Ultra Ambassador as your partner!
Overview
The Blackboard Ultra Transition Academy consists of four components:
- Three-week online course on how to use Ultra Course View and best practices for creating an intuitive and user-friendly experience for your students
- Ongoing consultation with a dedicated partner; either a member of the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning team or a faculty member serving as an Ultra Ambassador
- Your commitment to teach using the Ultra Course View in the next semester
- Membership in the ongoing Teaching with Ultra Community at NIU (via Microsoft Teams)
Faculty who complete the online course, commit to teaching the next semester in the Ultra Course View, and make significant progress in developing their course in the Ultra Course View will receive a certificate, digital badge, and $250 stipend.
Dates
- May 15 - June 4 with a commitment to teach in Ultra Course View for Fall 2023 - Applications will open later this semester - Apply Now!
- The Academy will be offered again in the Fall 2023 semester, but there will not be a stipend for participating and some features, like the course partnerships, may not be available.
- Open to all faculty (including tenured / tenure-track, clinical, research, visiting, and instructional faculty), staff who teach, and teaching assistants (unfortunately, teaching assistants are not eligible to receive a stipend).
- Instructional faculty must be currently on contract
- Limited to faculty who have not taught with Ultra Course View in the last 12 months
- Limited to 1 stipend per person (the course can be repeated but the stipend will only be paid once)
- Funding is limited, so acceptance in the academy is not guaranteed
- $250 stipend for completing the online course, committing to teaching the next semester in the Ultra Course View, and making significant progress in developing your course in the Ultra Course View
- Digital badge via Badgr that can be shared to social media
- Printable certificate of completion for faculty service report
- Featured on Teaching and Learning with Blackboard website as an Academy Participant
Application
The priority deadline for applications is April 15 for the May offering; applications received by then will be reviewed and notifications of acceptance will be sent by May 3. Applications are welcome after April 15, if there is space available, and notifications of acceptance will be sent within one week of submission.
Ultra Ambassadors
Faculty who are experienced with teaching in the Ultra Course View are invited to become an Ultra Ambassador, which consists of the following:
- Attend an Ultra Ambassador kickoff session (virtual, recorded)
- Participate in the three-week online course as a mentor
- Serve as a partner to 1-2 faculty members through a few in-person or virtual meetings (at the discretion of you and your partner) and email exchanges
- Record a 3-5 minute course tour video to share how you have taught with the Ultra Course View
- Membership in the ongoing Teaching with Ultra Community (via Microsoft Teams)
Faculty who serve as an Ultra Ambassador can expect to spend 2-3 hours a week as a partner during an offering of the Academy and will receive a $500 stipend. Pending availability of funding, previous Ambassadors may choose to renew their positions for Spring 2023.
- Open to faculty (including tenured / tenure-track, clinical, research, visiting, and instructional faculty) and staff
- Must have taught at least 1 semester (preferably at least 3 courses) with the Ultra Course View in Fall 2022 or Spring 2023
- Unfortunately, teaching assistants and members of CITL are not eligible
- $500 stipend for each cohort served as an Ambassador
- Digital badge via Badgr that can be shared as social media
- Featured on the Teaching and Learning with Blackboard site as an Ultra Ambassador
- Course tour highlighted as part of the Ultra Course View gallery on the Teaching and Learning with Blackboard site
- Letter of appreciation and printed certificate for faculty service report
We are not seeking new Ambassadors at this time.
FAQ
Academy
Everyone who is interested in the Blackboard Ultra Transition Academy will complete a short application form. We hope to have enough room for everyone who is interested in participating, but space is limited. If interest exceeds our capacity, we will be using the following priorities to select participants who are:
- teaching fully online courses, particularly those in fully online programs
- teaching high-enrollment courses
- coordinating courses with multiple sections (where the course is built in Blackboard and copied to multiple sections)
- teaching gateway courses (a course that a student needs to take within a major or is a course required to complete general studies requirements, as defined for our Higher Learning Commission Quality Initiative)
- using the Original Course View extensively for their current courses
You can definitely focus on building a new course and not transitioning an existing course from Original to Ultra for the Academy. In fact, that is a perfect time to start using the Ultra Course View instead of building the course in Original first!
While it would be great to teach all of your courses in the Ultra Course View, you only need to teach at least one course in the Ultra Course View during the next semester to be eligible for the stipend.
Unfortunately, NIU employment policies prohibit us from paying teaching assistants for participating in professional development. If you work with a teaching assistant who uses Blackboard extensively, we would be happy to include them in the online course, but they would not be eligible for the stipend.
The stipend will be paid after the Academy is complete.
Blackboard is currently investing significantly in developing new features for the Ultra Course View, particularly features that are available in the Original Course View but currently missing in Ultra. Check out Is Ultra Right for Me? and the Ultra Course View Feature Guide for detailed information on the tools that are currently available. What's New in Ultra? has details on the features coming soon to the Ultra Course View as well as the features recently added to it.
There are a lot of resources available to help you get started with the Ultra Course View! You can watch some tutorials, attend a workshop, schedule a conversation with a CITL team member, or browse through the Ultra Course View pages on this site.
You can also try the Ultra Course View yourself or request one of our optional course templates.
Ultra Ambassadors
The Ultra Course View has changed significantly in the last year, so we are limiting eligibility for Ambassadors to those who have taught with it recently.
We hope to select Ambassadors from across the university, so a limited number can be selected from the same college or department.
Ambassadors will be chosen based on their experience level with the Ultra Course View. We will also consider the specific tools the Ambassadors have used in the Ultra Course View (such as discussions, assignments, tests, etc.) to be able to match Ambassadors with their partners. You do not need to have used all of the tools in Ultra to apply for or be selected as an Ambassador, but we do need to have some Ambassadors who have used some each of the tools.
Yes! Anyone who is selected as an Ultra Ambassador for May may choose to renew their term as an Ultra Ambassador for the September cohort.
The Ultra Ambassadors will have access to a dedicated CITL team member who will be your primary contact for support. If you are working with a partner and you aren't certain how to answer a question or you experience a technical issue, your CITL contact will be able to offer assistance.
Get Help
Technical Support and Student Help
Division of IT Service Desk815-753-8100
servicedesk@niu.edu