Author: Carolyn Speer

• “Learning to be Approachable,” 28 minutes
• “Conflict Resolution Foundations,” 51 minutes
• “Communicating about Culturally Sensitive Issues,” 55 minutes
• “Teaching Techniques: Creating Effective Learning Assessments,” 35 minutes
• “Measuring Learning Effectiveness,” 47 minutes
• “SPSS for Academic Research,” 2 hours and 42 minutes
• “Managing Self Doubt to Tackle Bigger Challenges,” 25 minutes

For more information or to access LinkedIn Learning as a WSU employee or student, visit the WSU Linked in Learning website.

The May sessions of Wichita State’s Academic Resources Conference will take place May 23-27 via Zoom. All sessions are free. Instructors of any rank and student-facing staff should find sessions of interest.

You can access the ARC schedule at the May 2022 ARC Events website, and all session links include Outlook Calendar invites with the Zoom link Here are some highlights to look for:

• President Muma will discuss a campus freedom of expression update at 10 a.m. Wednesday, May 25.
• Each day at noon, a different panel discussion will take place. Check out the Student Panel on Monday, May 23.
• Special evening sessions will focus on technical training for Ultra.
• Two Chronicle of Higher Education articles will be highlighted at “Article Club” at 2 p.m. Wednesday and at 1 p.m. Thursday.

Faculty and staff speakers from across the university as well as vendor representatives will provide training and helping to lead discussions.

Are you an instructor who tried teaching in the Ultra Course format and then went back to old Blackboard? If so, the Office of Instructional Resources is putting together a focus group of instructors who tried Ultra and decided against it.

The focus group will meet on Zoom for about an hour. This is a great opportunity for you to tell us what you did not like about Ultra.

Offices interested in having their voices heard can contact at OIR@wichita.edu.

Ultra Format Courses are currently experiencing an intermittent bug involving the rubric tool. Most rubrics are functioning but are failing and causing the page to reload. If instructors are having these issues, please contact the Office of Instructional Resources (OIR) at OIR@wichita.edu and provide them the following:

• The course CRN and the assignment(s) that have the problem
• Include information about the rubric, including if it is points-based or percent-based and if it is new or copied in from a previous version of the course.

This information will then be added to the ticket OIR has with Blackboard. The only fix available for instructors at this time is to delete the rubric and recreate it.

Check out the February issue of Teaching Today. This edition includes the Office of Instructional Resources’ annual “Fall in Love with Teaching” issue. It also includes advice, technical help and a few warnings about known issues teachers are currently seeing in Blackboard.

To subscribe to Teaching Today or to make recommendations to Teaching Today, send a request to the Office of Instructional Resources know at OIR@wichita.edu.

The January issue of Teaching Today is now available. This issue includes highlights from the Academic Resources Conference earlier in the month. It also includes important technical information and updates that all instructors need to know including how to obtain human captions in lecture videos.

To subscribe to Teaching Today or to make recommendations to Teaching Today, send a request to the Office of Instructional Resources know at OIR@wichita.edu.

Students, please check your Blackboard Courses area and make sure you can see the links to all of your full-term and first-eight-week courses. If you are missing one or more classes, please submit a ticket to the Blackboard Support website. When submitting a ticket, you will need to provide the course reference number, the five-digit number that identifies the specific course, and your WSUID.

There was recently a glitch in reporting between Banner and Blackboard during the spring 2022 enrollment period. This means some spring 2022 classes have a mismatch between their Banner rosters and their Blackboard rosters. If a student is on a faculty member’s Banner roster, they should also be on their Blackboard roster.

To resolve this issue, faculty first need to review their rosters as soon as possible. If they find a mismatch between their Banner rosters and their Blackboard rosters, they can send the course registration number and the WSUIDs of students that need to be added to Blackboard to the Office of Instruction Resources at OIR@wichita.edu.

Today, Jan. 13 is the last day of the Academic Resources Conference (ARC) at Wichita State. The ARC happens three times a year and is free and open to the campus community. All sessions are online via Zoom. You can view the full schedule, including links to recorded training and LinkedIn Learning challenges, at the WSU January 2022 ARC Events website.

All of Thursday’s events will take place in Central Standard Time. Captioned recordings will be available on the ARC Events website approximately one week after the session completes. Here is a list of the events for today, Jan. 13:

• 9-9:50 a.m., Keys to Successful Courses: Organizing Your Blackboard Course: Do you have content in Blackboard but feel like it needs a bit of organization? This session is for you. The session will cover ways to organize Blackboard courses and answer questions about making the tools work for you.
• 10-10:50 a.m., Get Creative with Academic Creative Services: Did you know the Office of Instructional Resources now has a visual design group? Come to this session and learn about Academic Creative Services and what they offer.
• 11-11:50 a.m., What Do Great Courses Have in Common? A discussion: This session is designed to spark a discussion about what it means to have a great class. The session will also  discuss a home-grown course quality program for Wichita State, replacing Quality Matters on the campus.

Today, Jan. 12 is the third day of the Academic Resources Conference (ARC) at Wichita State. The ARC happens three times a year and is free and open to the campus community. All sessions are online via Zoom. You can view the full schedule, including links to recorded training and LinkedIn Learning challenges, at the WSU January 2022 ARC Events website. Here is a list of the events for today, Jan. 12:

All of Wednesday’s events will take place in Central Standard Time. Captioned recordings will be available on the ARC Events website approximately one week after the session completes. Here is a list of the events for today, Jan. 12:

• 9-9:50 a.m., Building a Course in the Ultra Course Format: Are you interested in trying out a course in the Ultra Course Format for spring or fall 2022? If you are, join this session and learn how the Ultra Course Format works and getting started.
• 10-10:50 a.m., Ultra questions: This session is designed for people who have questions about the Ultra Course format and other Ultra questions.
• 11-11:50 a.m., Ultra questions, advanced: Do you have advanced or in-depth question about Ultra? Join this session and make your life easier with Ultra.