Meeting & Agendas

Adam Ramirez, Al Purcell, Alex Watkins, Angela Smith, Chandra Vanajakshi, Chelsey Dankenbring, Christopher Morris, DeEadra Albert-Green, Erasmus Addae, Hector Salas, Jack O’Grady, Jeanette McGowan, Job Hammond, Jorge Lopez-McKnight, Kasey Steffek, Kathleen Park, Kathy Statos, Maria Ruelas, Marisa Mendoza, Matthew Evins, Paula King, Rachel Barrera, Stephanie Long, Tamy Chapman

The agenda was approved. Minutes from the previous meeting were also approved.

The fall and spring semesters are for training and conversions, Ultra will be live in the summer of 2025. The Blackboard Ultra website has a wealth of information about the transition, including updates. The Office of Distance and Alternative Education has established a schedule for the spring semester with a variety of training sessions (days and modalities). Sign up for a training session and choose the best modality through Workday. Self-paced workshops are also available. One page guides have been created with steps for converting courses, adding content, creating assessments, and more. Faculty can access their summer courses in March 2025 in the Ultra view.

Recap from September. Proposed rulemaking sought to clarify and consolidate provisions that apply to Distance Education (DE) and Return to Title 4 funds (R2T4). DOE stated that DE could better measure accounts for DE student outcomes and to provide more oversight for DE instruction. The proposed regulations will likely not go into effect and could be overturned with the inauguration of the new administration. Other rules that met the deadline and are in effect. Accessibility regulations require all colleges and universities to make websites and mobile applications accessible to students with disabilities; this goes into effect on April 24, 2026 (institutions with more than 50,000 student population) or April 24, 2027 (institutions with less than 50,000 student population). To meet this deadline, Instructional Division and DE Goals for FY25: Increase accessibility compliance in online, hybrid, Hyflex, and on campus courses using Blackboard. Update from Marisa about the efforts IDs are putting forth to bring accessibility scores up across the board.

How can this committee be of service to you and your colleagues this year?

Questions from Committee members: 

Q: Will there be opportunities for department based training sessions?

A: Yes, department chairs can request these training sessions.

Q: Is there a way to find your accessibility scores on your own? 

A: Faculty can find out their accessibility score in Blackboard under Accessibility Tools and run an accessibility report (see slides for step-by-step instructions). The report can then walk you through how to begin making documents accessible. 

Q: Are there resources that departments can tap into to help make their documents more accessible? (e.g. lab manuals)

A: A team of accessibility checkers is available to support faculty members. If it cannot be done in house, a third party is contracted to help in extreme cases.

Q: Are there training sessions for integrating AI in asynchronous courses?

A: There are AI workshops available through Distance Education and micro credentials available through the Digital Innovation and Fluency Department.

The committee was reminded of the next meeting date on February 7th and asked to submit agenda items no less than 7 days before.