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.
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!
The Blackboard Ultra Transition Academy consists of three components:
To be considered for the first fall offering (September 18 - October 8), please apply by September 4. Applications received by then will be reviewed and notifications of acceptance will be sent by September 11. To be considered for the second fall offering (Ocober 30 - November 19), please apply by October 16 (notifications will be sent by October 23).
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.
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:
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!
Yes, all courses taught in Spring 2024 will use the Ultra Course View. Original Course View will no longer be available for new courses. Past courses (those taught in prior semesters) will retain the course view in which they were originally taught.
There will be no stipend available for participating in the Ultra Transition Academy. A stipend was available for prior offerings to encourage faculty to make the transition to the Ultra Course View earlier. Because this is the final semester before the deadline and due to budget constraints, the stipend is no longer available.
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 learn at your own pace using our self-paced Transitioning to Ultra workshop. 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.
The Ultra Ambassadors are either members of the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning team or faculty members (tenured, tenure-track, and instructional faculty) who have extensive experience teaching with the Ultra Course View.
815-753-8100
servicedesk@niu.edu