Archived Email Communications

Deans, Associate Deans, Department Chairs, and School Directors:

As the spring semester flies by, it's time again to look ahead to planning for the fall startup programming. We wanted to share the details for our August Teaching Effectiveness programs to assist with your own planning for welcoming new and returning faculty, instructors and teaching assistants for the fall 2025 semester.

Locations, additional details, and registration information for these programs will be available in the coming weeks and sent via email.

Where possible, please make every effort to avoid scheduling college meetings during these days/times so that faculty, instructors, and teaching assistants can attend.

Teaching Effectiveness Institute
In-person

Topics:

• The Present Professor: Authenticity and Transformational Teaching
• Teaching During Times of Uncertainty and Upheaval

Speaker: Liz Norell, Associate Director of Instructional Support, University of Mississippi

Thursday, August 14, 2025, 9 AM – 12 PM and 1 PM – 4 PM
Open to all NIU faculty, instructors, and staff

Teaching Assistant Institute
Virtual, mix of synchronous and asynchronous engagement
Open to all graduate teaching assistants

• Asynchronous materials available starting Monday, August 11 – we are providing early access for those who are hired ahead of the semester, but the Institute will continue through the first few weeks of the semester for those who are hired later
• Virtual synchronous sessions from 9-10:30 AM on 8/18, 8/19, and 8/21 – recordings will be made available for anyone who is hired later or is unable to attend.

Thank you,

Jason Rhode
Associate Vice Provost for Teaching, Learning, and Digital Education

Dear Colleague,

As you prepare for the upcoming semester, I’d like to highlight two valuable resources to help you ensure that your syllabi and course materials are accessible to all students. Accessibility is essential to fostering an inclusive learning environment, and these tools can make the process easier while benefiting your students.

1. Tips for Creating Accessible Syllabi

Did you know that PDF files often lack the accessibility features required for screen readers used by students with visual disabilities? Instead of navigating the complexities of making PDFs accessible, consider using Microsoft Word to create fully accessible syllabi.

Word’s built-in accessibility features, such as styles and formatting tools, allow you to design documents that are easy to navigate for all students. To get started, explore this step-by-step guide, Creating an Accessible Syllabus in Word. The guide includes:

• Tips for formatting accessible Word documents
• Additional syllabus development resources
• A sample accessible syllabus template

2. Blackboard Ally for Course Content Accessibility

Blackboard Ally is a powerful tool that integrates into your Blackboard courses, helping you create accessible content while providing alternative formats for students. Ally scans your uploaded materials and generates multiple format options, such as audio or electronic braille, so students can access content in the way that works best for them.

Additionally, Ally provides guidance to help you improve the accessibility of your course materials. As you make improvements, Ally tracks your progress and offers recognition and digital badges for your efforts. Learn more about these badges and how they acknowledge your commitment to accessibility: Blackboard Ally Digital Badges.

You can explore how to use Ally to improve your course accessibility here: Blackboard Ally at NIU.

If you have questions or need support in your teaching, the team at the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning (CITL) is here to help. Let us know how we can assist you as you prepare for a successful semester.

Go Huskies!

Jason Rhode
Associate Vice Provost for Teaching, Learning, and Digital Education

As someone who has registered for at least one program this past year sponsored by the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning (CITL), you are able to login and print on demand an attendance report of the institutes, workshops, and other programs you’ve attended. If you ever need to generate a listing of the events you’ve attended, perhaps for a service report or award nomination, follow these steps:

• Go to go.niu.edu/citl-programs
• Log in with your NIU Account ID and password
• Click the Print Attendance Report button
• View/print the list of workshops attended

For further assistance or answers to questions regarding attendance at Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning events, call 815-753-0595 or email citl@niu.edu.

Dear Colleague:

As someone who is scheduled to teach an online course during the upcoming spring semester, I wanted to make sure you were aware of an important federal requirement from the U.S. Department of Education of all online courses, that “there is regular and substantive interaction between students and faculty.” All NIU online courses are expected to meet this requirement and include regular and substantive interaction.

What is “regular and substantive interaction?” You can find a detailed explanation with examples, but in essence, regular and substantive interaction is:

1. Initiated by the Faculty - To count as ‘regular and substantive,’ interactions need to be started by you. This doesn’t mean students should be discouraged from contacting you or asking questions – far from it! But you should expect to take an active part in initiating and guiding a range of interactions with your students throughout the semester. This ensures that interactions are not optional and left up to each student’s individual discretion; rather, they are an integral part of your instructional plan for the course.
   
   
2. Frequent and Consistent - Interactions with students should be reasonably frequent and consistently repeated throughout the term. This means that once a course begins, long intervals of time shouldn’t pass between the interactions you initiate with students. The mode of interaction may vary throughout the course, depending on your aims and the needs of your students, but the regular cadence of interactions you establish should remain as consistent as possible. Daily communication isn’t required, but at a minimum you should seek to interact with every student at least once each week and you should log in to the course every 1-2 days.
   
   
3. Focused on the Course Subject - Interactions should be connected to the subject of the course and contribute to the students’ progress toward course, program, and college learning objectives. Routine procedural interactions, such as reminders of upcoming deadlines, aren’t ‘substantive’ on their own; neither are activities like assigning grades, unless they are accompanied by personalized feedback or suggestions for improvement. This doesn’t mean that interactions designed to welcome students or build classroom community aren’t important, merely that they aren’t sufficient by themselves.

Please take a look at the regular and substantive interaction guide on the CITL website for recommendations for promoting regular and substantive interaction in online courses and consider as you are drafting the syllabus and preparing your online course for the spring semester how you will ensure that your online course is meeting this federal requirement. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me or any of the rest of our CITL team with any questions.

Have great spring semester ahead!

Jason Rhode
Associate Vice Provost for Teaching, Learning, and Digital Education

Dear Online Teaching Colleagues,

Just wanted to pass along that registration is open for the free virtual Illinois Online Higher Education Symposium on Friday, November 8th. You can now download the program and schedule (PDF) as well as register for the keynote and main sessions. I hope you can join for even part of the day as your schedule permits for some great conversations about innovation in online education with others from across the state of Illinois.

You can find all the details at citl.niu.edu/online-symposium

Jason Rhode
Associate Vice Provost for Teaching, Learning, and Digital Education

Dear NIU Online Faculty,

I hope this message finds you well. As we continue striving to provide the best possible learning experiences for our students, I want to invite you to participate in two exciting opportunities to showcase your commitment to excellence in online teaching.

Fix Your Content Day: Improve Accessibility & Earn a Digital Badge

On Fix Your Content Day, you'll have the chance to make a significant impact by improving the accessibility of your online course materials. This university-wide initiative focuses on creating a more inclusive learning environment for all students. By participating, you’ll not only contribute to accessibility but also earn a digital badge in recognition of your efforts, which can be showcased in your professional portfolio.

Learn more and register for the event here. If you’re not able to participate on Thursday, October 3^rd, you can still earn recognition for the great work you are doing to improve the accessibility of your course materials!

Excellence in Online Teaching Award

The Excellence in Online Teaching Award recognizes NIU faculty who demonstrate outstanding performance in online teaching. This includes developing and delivering innovative courses that enhance student engagement, foster an inclusive learning environment, and make effective use of technology to create rich and meaningful educational experiences.

Awardees will receive recognition for their achievements in providing exceptional online learning experiences. Faculty who consistently innovate, engage students, and demonstrate a commitment to high-quality online instruction are encouraged to apply. Additionally, improving the accessibility of your digital course materials during Fix Your Content Day (or anytime using Blackboard Ally) is excellent evidence to include in your nomination, showcasing your dedication to making your courses more inclusive and accessible to all learners.

Learn more about the award and the nomination process here.

Participating in Fix Your Content Day and nominating yourself for the Excellence in Online Teaching Awards are two ways you can be recognized for your hard work and innovation in the online learning space.

Thank you for your ongoing dedication to our students’ success! I look forward to seeing your contributions recognized and celebrated.

Jason Rhode
Associate Vice Provost for Teaching, Learning, and Digital Education

Department Chairs and School Directors:

We are pleased to announce the call for nominations for Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Awards for the 2024-2025 academic year. You can find the details and submission guidelines at go.niu.edu/outstanding-ta-award and please forward this email to your Director of Graduate Studies.

Each academic or academic support unit that employs graduate TAs for teaching and related activities is invited to nominate two (2) outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistants, one at the master’s level and the other at the doctoral level, from its department/school for the awards.

Nominations can be submitted by the department chair/school director or designee. Nominators must complete the nomination form (Word doc) for each nominee, although you may also provide additional supporting documents.  We encourage nominations to be as descriptive as possible in supporting the nominee, and to include additional evidence such as student testimonials, course evaluations, or samples of teaching materials. 

Email the entire nomination, including any supporting documents, by Friday, October 25, 2024, to citl@niu.edu with the subject line “Nomination for 2024-2025 Outstanding TA Awards”.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Jason Rhode
Associate Vice Provost for Teaching, Learning, and Digital Education

Department Chairs and School Directors:

I wanted you to be among the first to hear of an exciting new opportunity that our students will have to express gratitude to their faculty, which we’re calling “Thank a Professor”. Modeled after the current Applaud a Colleague, we’ve worked with EMMC to establish a quick 4-question online form for students at go.niu.edu/thank-a-professor  that will be featured for students on the Student Life page, among others, where students can say thanks to a faculty member who as contributed to their success. Submissions from students will be emailed to the faculty member and featured in a new section of the Academic Affairs News site (still under development) as well as included in other future communications to share broadly.

Many thanks to Brian Williamsen in the Provost’s Office for getting this setup and to Diane Alberts in CITL who will be managing as we move forward. 

Jason Rhode
Associate Vice Provost for Teaching, Learning, and Digital Education

Dear Colleague:

As someone who is scheduled to teach an online course during the upcoming fall semester, I wanted to make sure you were aware of an important federal requirement from the U.S. Department of Education of all online courses, that “there is regular and substantive interaction between students and faculty.” All NIU online courses are expected to meet this requirement and include regular and substantive interaction.

What is “regular and substantive interaction?” You can find a detailed explanation with examples, but in essence, regular and substantive interaction is:

1. Initiated by the Faculty - To count as ‘regular and substantive,’ interactions need to be started by you. This doesn’t mean students should be discouraged from contacting you or asking questions – far from it! But you should expect to take an active part in initiating and guiding a range of interactions with your students throughout the semester. This ensures that interactions are not optional and left up to each student’s individual discretion; rather, they are an integral part of your instructional plan for the course.
   
   
2. Frequent and Consistent - Interactions with students should be reasonably frequent and consistently repeated throughout the term. This means that once a course begins, long intervals of time shouldn’t pass between the interactions you initiate with students. The mode of interaction may vary throughout the course, depending on your aims and the needs of your students, but the regular cadence of interactions you establish should remain as consistent as possible. Daily communication isn’t required, but at a minimum you should seek to interact with every student at least once each week and you should log in to the course every 1-2 days.
   
   
3. Focused on the Course Subject - Interactions should be connected to the subject of the course and contribute to the students’ progress toward course, program, and college learning objectives. Routine procedural interactions, such as reminders of upcoming deadlines, aren’t ‘substantive’ on their own; neither are activities like assigning grades, unless they are accompanied by personalized feedback or suggestions for improvement. This doesn’t mean that interactions designed to welcome students or build classroom community aren’t important, merely that they aren’t sufficient by themselves.

Please take a look at the regular and substantive interaction guide on the CITL website for recommendations for promoting regular and substantive interaction in online courses and consider as you are drafting the syllabus and preparing your online course for the spring semester how you will ensure that your online course is meeting this federal requirement. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me or any of the rest of our CITL team with any questions.

Have great fall semester ahead!

Jason Rhode
Associate Vice Provost for Teaching, Learning, and Digital Education

Dear Department Chairs/School Directors,

Please forward this to all your faculty, instructional faculty, and TAs who are instructor of record. The tips below will help those who are new to Blackboard get started, but they also highlight some new and exciting features for everyone.

New Features in the Ultra Course View
Many new features have been added to Ultra Course View recently (like multi-column layouts in Ultra Documents, the ability to convert a Word, PDF, or PPT to an Ultra Document, updates to Assignment creation, printing blank tests, anonymous discussions, following discussions, and more!). Check out more features in our monthly update videos.

AI Design Assistant Available to All Instructors and Teaching Assistants
Based on positive feedback from the spring 2024 pilot, the AI Design Assistant is now available to anyone with the Instructor or Teaching Assistant role in a course. The AI Design Assistant gives you a head start on some of the more time consuming aspects of building a course in Blackboard, while keeping you in control. Some of the tasks it can help with include suggesting authentic prompts for Assignments, Discussions, and Journals; writing test questions; creating rubrics; generating images for Learning Modules and Ultra Documents; and suggesting a structure for your course with Learning Modules. Over the summer, Blackboard added the ability for you to specify the output language of the AI Design Assistant, as well! 

Requesting a new course on Blackboard 
Your courses are not automatically listed in Blackboard; you must request your courses to be able to build them.

After logging into webcourses.niu.edu, click the Tools tab at the left of the page, followed by Blackboard Faculty Tools. Click My Courses and then follow the prompts to request your upcoming courses. (Instructions and step-by-step tutorials for requesting your course are also available.) In order to request a Blackboard course, you must be the "instructor of record" for the course in the MyNIU system.

Those teaching dual-level courses (e.g. 400 and 500 or cross-listed courses) or multiple sections may want to combine their sections into a single course. You must be instructor of record for both sections to be able to combine the courses. The resulting combined course will include all of the students from both sections and will be identified with "PRIM" in the course name.

Course requests are processed immediately. It takes an additional day for someone newly assigned as instructor of record in MyNIU to have permission to request the course in Blackboard. Learn more about requesting Blackboard courses. 

Accessing your courses
You can access all of your courses from the current and previous semesters by clicking Courses at the left of the page. Use the search and filters to find the course you are looking for. Note that you may need to remove existing filters, such as Current Courses, because fall courses are considered Upcoming Courses until the start date. For quick and convenient access, you can favorite the courses you use most frequently by clicking the star icon. Learn more about the Courses page.

Open your course with confidence and welcome students 
We recommend making your course available to students a few days early with a welcome message, to help them anticipate the structure and expectations of the course. Your course may open automatically at the date you specified when you requested your course in Blackboard, or you can open it manually if you did not set a date. The Course Availability Settings tool, custom-built by the Division of IT, will tell you definitively whether your course is open to students and let you modify any of the availability settings, including the start date of the course. 

Adding an image and name pronunciation to your profile
Did you know you can customize your profile in Blackboard to include a profile image and your name pronunciation? It's an easy step that can help students to feel more connected to you. In the Ultra Course View, your profile image appears on the Course Content page and in Messages; both your image and name pronunciation appear on the Roster and in Discussions. In the Original Course View, your profile appears in Discussions. Your students can also customize their profile with an image and name pronunciation, which are visible to their classmates. 

Customizing email notifications
The most important information from across your courses, like new materials, discussion posts or replies, assignment and test submissions, or grades will be automatically emailed to you daily as a digest each night. You will only receive the daily digest email if there was activity in at least one of your courses. You can modify your notification settings to determine what you see in the daily digest emails from your profile or by clicking the gear icon in the upper right of the Activity Stream. Uncheck any notification you do not wish to receive; uncheck all of the items on the email tab to stop receiving the Daily Digest emails. Learn more about the Activity Stream and Notifications. 

Learn more about Blackboard
The Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning regularly schedules workshops on using Blackboard for teaching purposes. Faculty, Instructors, and Teaching Assistants receive the program schedule via email each month, or you can view the list of upcoming programs on our website. For those who cannot attend any of the scheduled sessions, CITL has created a self-paced workshop on the Ultra Course View.  

The Teaching and Learning with Blackboard site contains instructions, tutorials, and other helpful information related to using Blackboard for your courses, including answers to Frequently Asked Questions.

For login and password-related questions, please contact the IT Service Desk at 815-753-8100 or ServiceDesk@niu.edu, or use the Division of IT Self-Service system to submit a ticket. For other teaching-related Blackboard questions, faculty can submit questions at niu.edu/blackboard/ask.

Stephanie Richter
Director of Teaching Excellence and Support

Dear New Faculty Colleagues:

Again, welcome to NIU! I wanted to share some information and links to a few of the resources that will be most helpful to you this week as you prepare to teach your first semester. You can find these and much more at the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning (CITL) website – citl.niu.edu

New to Teaching at NIU
Find course policies, teaching policies, and teaching-related resources to help you start your teaching career at NIU successfully!

https://www.niu.edu/citl/resources/guides/teaching-at-niu.shtml

Syllabus Toolkit
Find guides, checklists, and statements to include in your syllabus as you design a course syllabus to best meet your teaching style, course content, activities, and departmental requirements. Consider creating a learner-centered syllabus that targets student learning and success!

https://go.niu.edu/syllabus-toolkit

Strategies for Starting the Semester Well
This list of strategies you can use the first day and into the first weeks of the semester that will help you create an engaging, motivating, and organized classroom environment.

https://www.niu.edu/citl/resources/guides/starting-the-semester.shtml

Week of Engagement Toolkit
The first week of classes is a critical opportunity to engage students actively and early, thereby setting the expectation for a high level of participation throughout the semester. The connections that students form in the first week with you and their classmates can have a profound impact on their sense of belonging and ultimately their success and persistence in the course. This toolkit offers principles and strategies to keep in mind as you develop your syllabus and plan your first week of class.

https://www.niu.edu/citl/resources/toolkits/week-of-engagement

Support Units for New Faculty
Many support units are available at NIU to assist new faculty in their teaching, research, scholarship and artistry. This guide provides a quick overview and contact information to the support units that new faculty often connect with for support.

https://www.niu.edu/citl/resources/guides/support-units.shtml

Learning Technologies at NIU
Catalog of available and institutionally supported software and web tools to promote collaboration, enhance communication, share multimedia, teach online and more.

https://citl.niu.edu/learning-technologies

Tips for Starting the Semester with Blackboard
Answers to frequently asked questions new faculty, teaching staff, and TAs may have, as they request course space and get ready to develop their courses in Blackboard, NIU’s learning management system.

https://www.niu.edu/blackboard/guides/tips-for-starting-the-semester.shtml

Our Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning (CITL) is here to support you as you teach either in-person, hybrid, or online. If you ever have any questions or need assistance, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me personally or anyone on our team. You can contact us by phone at 815-753-0595, email citl@niu.edu, or schedule an appointment with a member of our team. We look forward to serving you!

Go Huskies!

Jason Rhode
Associate Vice Provost for Teaching, Learning, and Digital Education

Department Chairs and School Directors:

For new hires that may be awaiting the processing of hiring paperwork and activation of their NIU Account ID necessary to access Blackboard, we continue to have a technical solution in place that allows for new hires to receive access to their Blackboard courses for the upcoming semester using a temporary guest Blackboard ID associated with their personal email address. With this temporary Blackboard guest ID, new hires are able to login to access their fall Blackboard course(s) to develop and begin teaching as needed until their employee NIU Account ID is activated and they've been assigned as instructor of record in MyNIU. They then will be able to transition to using their activated employee ID and password to login to their Blackboard course(s) without any need to transfer any course content or settings.

If you have any new hires for fall who are still awaiting their employee Account IDs for Blackboard access or who have yet to be assigned their course(s) in MyNIU, please reply back to me or submit using the Blackboard Ask A Question Form the following for each new hire who still needs Blackboard access so we can expedite creation of temporary accounts: first name, last name, contact email, course(s) assigned to teach for fall (include course number and section). Upon receipt we will promptly ensure they receive access to their course(s) and follow-up individually with each to provide them their login details.

Best,
Jason Rhode
Associate Vice Provost for Teaching, Learning, and Digital Education

Dear Colleague:

As you head into your summer, I wanted to share with you a date to hold on your calendar as well as consider perhaps submitting a presentation proposal for – the inaugural Illinois Online Higher Education Symposium, a free virtual conference to be held November 8, 2024!

NIU is proud to be partnering with all other Illinois public universities, in lieu of our institution-specific online teaching symposium that we’ve offered in the past, to bring together thought leaders and practitioners with expertise in online teaching and learning from across the state of Illinois to discuss the latest trends in online learning—from pedagogy to technology. This free virtual conference welcomes all those who learn, teach, develop, support, or administer online education.

We’re excited to have Ray Schroeder, UIS Professor Emeritus and UPCEA Senior Fellow, as our featured keynote speaker and the call for proposals has recently opened, deadline for submission is June 30^th.

I personally look forward to submitting a proposal to present as well as to attending this conference and I encourage you to consider doing so as well! You can find more details, including links to submit your proposal as well as pre-register for updates and reminders, at citl.niu.edu/online-symposium.

Thanks for your commitment to the success of our online students and I wish you a wonderful summer ahead! 

Best,
Jason Rhode
Associate Vice Provost for Teaching, Learning, and Digital Education

The Division of IT and the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning are excited to announce that all NIU faculty of all ranks and classifications now have access to the full Adobe Creative Cloud suite. NIU students will be able to request access to the full Adobe Creative Cloud suite this fall. This includes all of the industry-leading Adobe applications, like Photoshop, Premiere, Illustrator, InDesign, as well as Adobe Stock, a library of over 200 million images and videos. It also includes the new Adobe Express, an easy-to-use platform that integrates graphic design, image editing, video production and website creation with cutting-edge generative AI features.

NIU is the 2^nd in the state, and one of only 70 institutions globally, to be designated as an Adobe Creative Campus. This recognizes our commitment to empower students in all disciplines with essential skills in digital literacy, creativity and visual communication to succeed in the classroom and beyond.

You can get started by logging in at creativecloud.adobe.com with your NIU credentials (i.e., A-ID@mail.niu.edu). You can also open the Adobe Creative Cloud application, which may already be installed on your NIU-managed computer. From either the web or the application, you can click Request Access and install the tools you would like to use. If you already have an Adobe license through NIU, your account will not be affected.  

Access Adobe Creative Cloud

Learn About Being an Adobe Creative Campus

Learn More

There are so many ways to learn more about teaching digital literacy skills across the curriculum in addition to using Adobe Creative Cloud applications.

• Fall 2024 Teaching Effectiveness Institute on Engaging Students through Digital Literacy – join us on August 16 for a day of dynamic conversations and hands-on challenges to learn how you can help students develop critical skills in digital literacy and creativity.
• Adobe Education Institute – attend a fully online conference for faculty featuring live, hands-on training sessions with Adobe experts, June 10 – 14. You choose the sessions that are relevant to you to build your schedule; sessions are recorded for on-demand viewing, as well. Complete any 3 workshops to receive the Adobe Education Institute Fellow credential!
• Self-Paced Online Courses - learn what creativity is, why it’s important, and how to develop creativity in your students. In particular, complete Creativity for All (Level 1) and Design Your Creative Course (Level 2) to receive the Adobe Creative Educator certification and badges.
• Digital Literacy Cafe – live and on-demand webinars with faculty experts about incorporating digital literacy concepts and tools in higher education.
• Education Exchange – explore lesson plans and templates shared by other educators to serve as inspiration for your own teaching.
• Creative Cloud Tutorials – learn how to use Adobe Creative Cloud applications.
• FAQs – learn more about accessing adobe Creative Cloud at NIU.

Be on the lookout for additional resources, professional development and inspiration. Additional communication is planned for this fall to promote Adobe Creative Cloud to NIU students

Need Help?

• For technical issues with signing in or licensing, please contact the Division of IT Service Desk.
• For issues with installing software on your NIU-managed computer, please contact your local IT support.
• For more information about being an Adobe Creative Campus or integrating digital literacy in your curriculum, please contact CITL at citl@niu.edu.

Deans, Associate Deans, Department Chairs, and School Directors:

With the end of the semester rapidly approaching, it's time again to look ahead to planning for the fall startup programming. We wanted to share the details for our August Teaching Effectiveness programs to assist with your own planning for welcoming new and returning faculty, instructors and teaching assistants for the fall 2024 semester.

Locations, additional details, and registration information for these programs will be available in the coming weeks and sent via email.

Where possible, please make every effort to avoid scheduling college meetings during these days/times so that faculty, instructors, and teaching assistants can attend. 

Teaching Effectiveness Institute
In-person

Topic: Promoting digital literacy as a critical skill across the curriculum

Speaker: Justin Hodgson, Associate Professor of Digital Rhetoric and Director of the Digital Garnener Initiative at Indiana University

Friday, August 16, 2024, 9 AM – 4 PM
Open to all NIU faculty, instructors, and staff

Teaching Assistant Institute
Virtual, mix of synchronous and asynchronous engagement
Open to all graduate teaching assistants

• Asynchronous materials available starting Monday, August 12 – we are providing early access for those who are hired ahead of the semester, but the Institute will continue through the first few weeks of the semester for those who are hired later
• Virtual synchronous sessions from 9-10:30 AM on 8/19, 8/20, and 8/22 – recordings will be made available for anyone who is hired later or is unable to attend.

Thank you,

Jason Rhode
Associate Vice Provost for Teaching, Learning, and Digital Education

Open Classroom Weeks is a new program that provides you with the opportunity to sit in on a colleague's course or a cocurricular learning event. Participating in Open Classroom Weeks is an opportunity to learn new approaches to teaching and make connections across disciplines. Unlike peer observation for tenure and promotion, the focus is on learning as opposed to critiquing. 

Some of NIU's best faculty are opening their classrooms to colleagues interested in exploring teaching strategies and techniques, including recipients of the Presidential Teaching Professor, Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, Excellence in Undergraduate Instruction and Excellence in Online Teaching Awards, as well as ACUE Distinguished Teaching Scholars.

Learn more and register to observe a colleague.

As someone who has registered for at least one program this past year sponsored by the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning (CITL), you are able to login and print on demand an attendance report of the institutes, workshops, and other programs you’ve attended. If you ever need to generate a listing of the events you’ve attended, perhaps for a service report or award nomination, follow these steps:

• Go to go.niu.edu/citl-programs
• Log in with your NIU Account ID and password
• Click the Print Attendance Report button
• View/print the list of workshops attended

For further assistance or answers to questions regarding attendance at Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning events, call 815-753-0595 or email citl@niu.edu.

Dear Colleague:

As someone who is scheduled to teach an online course during the upcoming spring semester, I wanted to make sure you were aware of an important federal requirement from the U.S. Department of Education of all online courses, that “there is regular and substantive interaction between students and faculty.” All NIU online courses are expected to meet this requirement and include regular and substantive interaction.

What is “regular and substantive interaction?” You can find a detailed explanation with examples, but in essence, regular and substantive interaction is:

1. Initiated by the Faculty - To count as ‘regular and substantive,’ interactions need to be started by you. This doesn’t mean students should be discouraged from contacting you or asking questions – far from it! But you should expect to take an active part in initiating and guiding a range of interactions with your students throughout the semester. This ensures that interactions are not optional and left up to each student’s individual discretion; rather, they are an integral part of your instructional plan for the course.
   
   
2. Frequent and Consistent - Interactions with students should be reasonably frequent and consistently repeated throughout the term. This means that once a course begins, long intervals of time shouldn’t pass between the interactions you initiate with students. The mode of interaction may vary throughout the course, depending on your aims and the needs of your students, but the regular cadence of interactions you establish should remain as consistent as possible. Daily communication isn’t required, but at a minimum you should seek to interact with every student at least once each week and you should log in to the course every 1-2 days.
   
   
3. Focused on the Course Subject - Interactions should be connected to the subject of the course and contribute to the students’ progress toward course, program, and college learning objectives. Routine procedural interactions, such as reminders of upcoming deadlines, aren’t ‘substantive’ on their own; neither are activities like assigning grades, unless they are accompanied by personalized feedback or suggestions for improvement. This doesn’t mean that interactions designed to welcome students or build classroom community aren’t important, merely that they aren’t sufficient by themselves.

Please take a look at the regular and substantive interaction guide on the CITL website for recommendations for promoting regular and substantive interaction in online courses and consider as you are drafting the syllabus and preparing your online course for the spring semester how you will ensure that your online course is meeting this federal requirement. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me or any of the rest of our CITL team with any questions.

Have great spring semester ahead!

Jason Rhode
Associate Vice Provost for Teaching, Learning, and Digital Education

We are finally at the finish line – all Blackboard courses will use the Ultra Course View this semester! Don’t worry, though, because your courses from previous semesters will remain exactly as they are so that you can continue to retrieve assessment data and course materials from them. 

For anyone new to the Ultra Course View this spring or looking to learn more about it, Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning (CITL) has a number of programs available for you.

Workshops

Making the Move to Blackboard Ultra Course View

1-hour online workshop that introduces the Ultra Course View and how to move or build your course

• January 9, 2 – 3 PM
• January 12, 11 AM – 12 PM

Using the Blackboard Ultra Gradebook

1-hour online workshop that introduces how to set up the Gradebook, grade assignments, and calculate grades

• January 18, 11 AM – 12 PM
• January 30, 10 – 11 AM

Self-Paced Workshop on Transitioning to Blackboard Ultra Course View

• Online, self-paced, scaffolded content to introduce building a course in the Ultra Course View (same content as our previous 3-week Ultra Transition Academy)
• Check it out

Blackboard Ultra Drop-In Support

Drop-in opportunity to meet individually with CITL staff and ask questions about setting up your course in the Ultra Course View; registration is not required, but registering will provide you with a calendar appointment and reminder of the session

In-Person Drop-In

• January 10, 12 – 1 PM in Art Building, Room 310A
• January 12, 1 – 2 PM in Dusable Hall, Room 140
• Available at other times based on staff availability by stopping by our building or via appointment; email citl@niu.edu to request an in-person appointment

Virtual Drop-In

• January 17, 12 – 1 PM
• January 19, 12 – 1 PM

One-on-one Consultations with CITL staff

• Schedule a dedicated time to meet online or in-person with CITL staff to ask questions about your courses
• To schedule an online consultation: citl.niu.edu/conversations
• To schedule an in-person consultation: email a request with potential meeting times to citl@niu.edu

Other Resources

Optional Course Template

• Optional and fully editable templates with best practices for using Ultra Course View baked in
• Provides a structure you can use to start building your course (which is sometimes easier than starting with a blank page)
• Request at citl.niu.edu/ultra-templates

Tutorials and Documentation

In addition, CITL has provided extensive documentation and tutorials on the Teaching and Learning with Blackboard website, including a guide with Tips for Building Effective Courses in Blackboard. 

The Ultra Course View creates a more modern, accessible, and mobile-friendly learning environment for our students, which helps us all be more student-centered. For the latest information, support and resources on Blackboard Ultra Course View, visit niu.edu/blackboard/ultra

As you prepare for your spring semester ahead, please don’t hesitate to reach out if our CITL team can be of any assistance.

Best,

Jason Rhode
Associate Vice Provost for Teaching, Learning, and Digital Education

Spring 2024 Classroom Updates

Over the winter break, the DoIT classroom team focused on overhauling the technology in LaTourette Hall 200 (FW200). This is a frequently-used auditorium that was ready for some updates. For this spring, the room should include touchscreen controls, a document camera, a high-definition PTZ room camera (for recording or streaming to remote students), lapel microphone at the instructor station, and an upgraded projector. Full details will be available following the break.

Sessions

CITL will be offering 2 sessions targeted for FW 200 and the standardized updates to classrooms introduced in Fall 2022 to the following rooms: Anderson Hall, Room 248; Barsema Hall, Room 110, 131,240, and 333; Center for Black Studies, Room 112; Cole Hall, Room 100; DuSable Hall, Room 170, 176, 206, 212, 254, 268, 270, 274, 306, and 446; Engineering Building, Room 101, 209, 221, and 241; Graham Hall, Room 339, 340, 341, and 424; McMurry Hall, Room 205; Montgomery Hall, Room 231; Reavis Hall, Room 201, 202, 205, and 209; Swen Parson Hall, Room 150 and 173; and Wirtz Hall, Room 101, 103A, and 103B.

• For faculty teaching in any of the previously updated rooms Wednesday, January 10, 2 - 3 PM
• For faculty teaching in LaTourette Hall 200 (FW 200) Friday, January 12, 12 - 1 PM

You can attend in-person or online. Sessions will also be recorded.

Individual Consultations

CITL staff are also available for a limited number of individual consultations, in-person or online, particularly if you want to learn more about teaching in a classroom that has not been updated to the standard configuration. You can request an in-person meeting by email us at citl@niu.edu or schedule an online consultation at citl.niu.edu/conversations.