In light of the current COVID-19 (Coronavirus) emergency, and per the Chancellor’s directive, our entire campus is currently prioritizing support for our students, faculty and staff as the transition to Distance Education is underway.
In order to assist you with the transition, the Information Technology and Educational Technology Departments have been coordinating a comprehensive information, resource and training effort. The goal is to ensure that all of our constituents have access to the necessary technology and support that may be needed.
A single resource website has been set up as the Go-To for all of your transition readiness needs. This website will be updated frequently and we recommend you to bookmark it for easy access.
Go to information on:
Blackboard
Live Online Teaching Through Blackboard
Roadmap to Teaching Innovation
Blackboard Support
Video Tutorials
Tips of the Week
Other online resources, rich media, hardware and softwareBlackboard
Blackboard, CUNY and Hostos’s Learning Management System, allows you to have an online site containing your course content, activities and assessments so that your class can carry on whether it’s in-class, hybrid, fully online, or off-campus because of snow day, make-up for missed class, flu season, or the coronavirus.
If you’ve never used Blackboard before please review the Hostos Blackboard Support tutorials below, including “How to Get to Blackboard.” Once in Blackboard you will see links to your courses on the left side in the My Courses module. You should also see the link to the Roadmap to Teaching Innovation Blackboard training course (description and links below) which contains all the information you need to get your courses up and running in Blackboard. It will be lower down in the My Courses module under Courses in which I’m enrolled: Student.
For more tutorials, visit Blackboard’s YouTube Channel: Blackboard YouTube Channel
The first step is to ensure that your Blackboard course is available to students in order to establish a viable line of communication. With the Edit mode set to On you should:
- Use the Announcement tool to post announcements to students and check the Email Announcement box so that the announcement is sent to students’ emails.
- Upload your syllabus.
- Post your Contact information.
- Upload files (PowerPoint slides, Word documents, PDF, etc.) that are part of your course content.
- Create items and folders to add additional content.
- Post Assignments, Discussion Forums and threads, blogs, journals and wikis to increase student particiption and engagement.
Blackboard Mobile Apps
Blackboard offers two mobile applications and which application one uses depends on whether you are accessing a course as a student or as an instructor. If you are both a student and a faculty member, you will need both apps to fully interact with all of your courses. The apps are free for you to use and are available in the Apple and Android app stores.
Blackboard app – this is the app for students. Watch the video introduction here: Blackboard App
Blackboard Instructor – this is the app for instructors. Watch the video introduction here: Blackboard Instructor App
The CUNY Blackboard support website has a site that provides support for the Mobile apps, including how to set-up your courses to be mobile-friendly: CUNY Blackboard Mobile App site
Live Online Teaching Through Blackboard – Collaborate Ultra and Panopto
As Hostos instructors, you have two tools available to you that allow you to conduct real-time streaming lessons online through Blackboard – Collaborate Ultra and Panopto.
With Collaborate Ultra you can conduct live streaming videoconferencing lesson with your class, and includes breakout rooms, application and document sharing and live chat. This tool allows you to conduct a lesson live.
Watch a video overview on how to use Collaborate Ultra: Collaborate Ultra video
The CUNY Blackboard site has a links to Collaborate tutorials for both faculty and students: CUNY’s Blackboard Collaborate for Students and Faculty
Panopto allows you to record a lecture-capture lesson and also upload videos. To learn more about Panopto, as well as the Panopto Initiative, click on the following link:
Panopto at HostosAll Blackboard courses have these tools available to them. You can access them through the Collaboration Link in the course Navigation Menu:
This section has access to both Collaborate Ultra and Panopto as well as instructions on how to get started. Roadmap to Teaching Innovation covers both Collaborate Ultra and Panopto in detail.
Roadmap to Teaching Innovation
Roadmap to Teaching Innovation is a self-paced online course in Blackboard that covers the important basic and advanced features of Blackboard. Current full-time and adjunct faculty are enrolled in the course and are free to navigate throughout the course and look up specific Blackboard topics.To go directly to the Roadmap course, click on the following link: Roadmap to Teaching Innovation.
If you are a current faculty member and cannot access the course or do not see it in your My Courses module, click on the following link to enroll: Roadmap to Teaching Innovation Self-Enrollment.
To learn more about Roadmap to Teaching Innovation, click on the following link: Roadmap to Teaching Innovation page.
Hostos is a national leader in introducing and facilitating innovative ways of using recording/video streaming applications and smart mobile devices in teaching and learning. Please talk to us about how we can help you in your plans to go online both for your classroom and distance.
Roadmap to Teaching Innovation Contact:
If you have any questions about the Roadmap course please contact:
George Rosa
C559
EDTECH@hostos.cuny.eduHostos Blackboard Support
Video Tutorials
Tips of the Week
Other online resources, rich media, hardware and software
The EdTech Media Center offers powerful software and hardware technology to capture and record lessons, classroom activities and quickly and easily be make them available as streaming media and podcasts.