Check Your Banner Rosters

Over winter break, we had a problem with the data connection that passes information from Banner to Blackboard. While the underlying issue that caused the problem is now fixed, we still see instances where Blackboard are classes are not showing up for both instructors and students. For some, this problem can only be fixed “by hand,” by WSU staff.

Here are some of the issues and what to do to address the issue:

You do not have access to a class you are teaching:

What to do: Open a ticket with the OneStop and include your WSUID and the Course CRN (Course ID Number)

If you see students in Banner who are not visible in Blackboard (for a spring term class)

What to do: Open a ticket with the OneStop and include the CRN of the course and the WSU IDS of students who are not in the course

If you see students in Blackboard who are not visible in Banner (for a spring term class)

What to do: Open a ticket with the OneStop and include the CRN of the course and the WSU IDS of students who should be removed from the Blackboard course

ARC21 is Underway!

The Academic Resources Conference has grown from a one-day, in-person event to a three-week, online extravaganza of training and enrichment events for instructors. Our January events took place in Zoom during the week of January 11-15, and many of the 44 sessions are now available online as video recordings. You can find these recordings along with the the PowerPoint slides and other resources at the ARC21Jan schedule page, and SAVE THE DATES for our ARC21May events, which will run May 17-21 in Zoom.

Take the LinkedIn Learning Challenge

As you probably know by now, all WSU employees and students have access to a free LinkedIn Learning account. As part of ARC21Jan, IDA curated several LinkedIn Learning courses that we think WSU instructors will enjoy and benefit from. If you didn't get a chance to try out one of the LinkedIn Learning Challenge classes, you still can! Here is what's on offer:

So You Think You Can Teach?

Congratulations to Maria Sclafani, Coordinator of Library Instructional Services, for her recent publication, "So you think you can teach? Finding my teacher identity in the classroom, the writing center, and the library" in Library Pedagogies: Personal Reflections from Library Practitioners (available here). This is what Maria has to say about her work:

"This chapter traces my journey to figure out what type of teacher I want to be, and what type of classroom environment I want to foster. My pedagogy has been heavily influenced by feminist and critical pedagogies, along with theories from developmental psychology. It has also been influenced by the nature of my work as a teaching assistant in an English department, a writing tutor, an adjunct professor of writing and rhetoric, and an instruction librarian."

Reminder about the ARC21 Big Read

The ARC21 is organized around a few big ideas in teaching, most of which are linked to the book Higher Expectations by Derek Bok. The WSU Libraries has generously made this book available through an ebook with unlimited user access. Get your copy of the ARC21 Big Read today!

Leverage Bb for Great Discussions

Discussion boards sometimes get a bad rap. It's true they can be boring, box-checking exercises that neither students nor professors particularly like. But that doesn't have to be the case! They key to success in discussion boards boils down to making the right decisions in the setup and execution so the online discussions are doing what you want them to do. For excellent insight and training on this topic, we always turn to John Jones, Director of the Media Resources Center. His experience in Blackboard discussions comes from his online science fiction literature classes, and the lessons he has learned can be applied in any class.

Improve Engagement in Zoom Classes

Stop for a moment and reflect on how far you have come in a year. Wichita State instructors have made extraordinary strides in technical knowledge and ability, and nowhere is that more obvious than in the case of Zoom use. One year ago, most instructors didn't even have a Zoom account, let alone know how to do things like make breakout rooms or use polls. Congratulations on how far you have come!

For many, though, simply knowing how to make Zoom go is not enough. You may now be struggling with engagement in the Zoom (online/synchronous) classroom. If that is the case, we have a couple of trainings to help you to take the next step from technical mastery of the space to feeling like your Zoom classroom is a "real" classroom where you and your students engage fully.

The first video we would recommend is called Leveraging Your Synchronous Class Time. While this video addresses both online and in-person interaction, we think it will help those of you working in Zoom particularly. The second video is of the session called Better Student Engagement and Learning in Zoom Classes. As a bonus, check out the Brain-Based elearning Design class in LinkedIn Learning.

FYS Says: Watch the Student Panel!

Aaron Rife, the faculty coordinator for First-Year seminar wanted us to devote this space to making sure everyone has heard about the fantastic student panel that took place on Friday, January 15. If you missed this ARC21 event moderated by Dr. Carolyn Shaw, you are in luck because it's now available as a recording. This is a great opportunity to hear directly from students about what did and what didn't work for them over the last year and what they would like their professors to know as we move forward. This is a great panel!

LightBoard Studios are EASY

Thanks to Cares Act money that was distributed as SPARK funds, Wichita State now has several LightBoard studios for faculty to use to QUICKLY and EASILY record lecture videos while also getting to write on a "board." John Jones, Director of the Media Resources center used the LightBoard studio to present about them for ARC21Jan, and we just happen to have his recording right here!

Intro to Panopto Gets You Started

Once you get that awesome LightBoard video, you are going to need a place to put it. Remember! You should never upload MP4 or MOV files right to Blackboard because they are huge, costly, and lead to technical problems. But don't worry, Panopto is here to save you from your video hosting problems. Panopto is WSU's video hosting platform, and it is an easy place to store and edit your videos, and it even integrates easily with Blackboard. If you have never used Panopto, check out IDA's resources here. Already a Panopto user but want to learn about new tricks? Prefer to watch video versions? Well, do we have some ARC21Jan resources for you!

Blackboard Grade Center Help

Of all the Blackboard problems we see in the IDA Labs, the most difficult to untangle are the ones that involve the Blackboard Grade Center. The Grade Center is a powerful tool, but it can easily go awry when things get complicated. If you are just beginning to learn Blackboard, or if you have encountered problems with the Grade Center, you may benefit, and dare we say enjoy this ARC21Jan session with Carolyn Speer, and if you need a bit more instruction before you jump right to that, you should start with Intermediate Blackboard with Taylor Moore.

The #WeSupportU Program

As you may have seen in WSU Today, there is still time to request a free set of #WeSupportU Mental Wellness in the Classroom Cards before the semester begins. The cards are designed to give instructors an easy-to-use mental wellness curriculum to incorporate into their content delivery. The set includes 30+ cards one can use to lead students in 2-5 minutes activities designed to increase peer connections and overall well-being.

Think it sounds cool, but need to hear more? Check out this panel discussion from ARC21Jan and hear from other instructors who have used the cards in their own classes:

Quick FERPA, Copyright, and COVID in-person Information

We here in IDA consider ourselves a hub for information from all over campus. Not sure where to go with a question, you can bring it to us and we will try to get you to the right place! Over the last year, of all the "campus" questions we have seen in IDA, those dealing with FERPA, copyright, and in-person contact for teaching top the list. We can't help you with most of those questions, but we know who can! For ARC21Jan we reached out to University Registrar, Gina Crabtree, Director of Student Health Services, Camille Childers, and Coordinator of Library Instructional Services, Maria Scalfani for help. What we got was one of the very best sessions from January! Take a look, and get those questions answered:

Links to Useful Resources

IDA is proud of our partnership with the Wichita State University Graduate School. Each semester, a representative of our office works alongside Dr. Kerry Wilks to help onboard brand new GTAs as part of our yearly ARC events. This January's GTA session was great! We had such good questions from these new WSU instructors. Did you know that over 70% of all WSU freshmen have a direct instruction GTA for at least one class their first year? The key to the success of those GTAs is a lot of training from around the campus. If you work with GTAs or would simply like to see the kinds of resources they are offered, have a look at some of these:

Using Teams to Teach

Thanks again to a valuable partnership, this time with the great people over in ITS Applications Training, we are now able to offer some training and guidance in using Microsoft Teams to teach. As part of the ARC21Jan week, Ali Levine, ITS Applications Training Lead offered both Teams Essentials and Teams Advanced early in the week, and on Friday Ali and Carolyn Speer teamed up (!) to offer a workshop in using Teams to teach. If you are interested in learning more, the first step is to sign up for Teams Essentials through WSU's MyTraining interface. Teams is a great tool, and it's well-suited for lots of class and program level uses. For more, check out the Teams Hub.