Weekly Quercus Updates

In this Weekly Update:

1. Recent BB Collaborate Update
2. Training, Documentation, Communication
3. This Week's Faculty Question

BB Collaborate Update

Blackboard Collaborate just released a new update today (December 10th). New features include:

Large sessions support for 1000 attendees

Please note that this feature has been postponed until further notice.

You must change a session to webinar mode to support the 1000 attendees. To help manage the increased number of attendees, webinar sessions have these limitations.

• Webinar sessions can't be longer than 24 hours in length
• Guests must be assigned the participant role
• Participant permissions are turned off
• Breakout groups aren't available

To create a session in webinar mode, go to the Session Settings and select Allow 250+ attendees to join.

Chat mentions

Now attendees can tag someone in Chat when they mention them. Anyone tagged is notified (with a special audio notification) so they don't miss it. Type the at (@) symbol and start typing who in the session you want to tag. Select the name when it appears in the list. Moderators are identified with a MOD label so they are easy to find.

Attendees can turn off chat mention notifications in their personal notification settings.

Chat formatting

The Rich Text Editor has also been updated in the Chat panel. Attendees can now format their messages to really get their point across.

Training, Documentation, Communication

Updated Support Site UTSC

Academic Continuity at UTSC is here to help instructors transition to remote and online teaching. They've recently updated their support site, so be sure to check it out for additional tips for online course design! They also have a session on final exams, and with finals coming up, be sure to take a look - they have lots of useful information such as mock exams, tip sheets, and external support!

ACT Support drop-in consultations: Dec. 21 & 22 and Jan. 4-8

ACT provides support for instructors teaching in online and hybrid environments to develop courses, assignments, and learning platforms. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to drop in on Dec 21 & 22 or Jan 4-8 for consultations with the ACT team! The booking calender will be posted on the CTSI site and each session will be 15 or 30 mins and hosted on MS Teams.

ARCDO (Anti-Racism and Cultural Diversity Office) Series

The Anti-Racism & Cultural Diversity Office offers professional development courses to increase faculty and staff’s understanding of their roles/responsibilities and key strategies to advancing racial equity, diversity and inclusion at U of T. In light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, all training sessions will be offered virtually on Zoom.

This Week's Faculty Question

Each week, we'll answer a question that's been commonly asked in the faculty!

Q: How can I set a different availability period for my students taking a quiz in a different time zone?

A: Remote teaching is hard, especially since our students are scattered across the world. Fortunately, Quercus allows instructors to assign different due dates for individual students. You'll need to identify ahead of time which students need time zone accomodations, then modify the quiz settings accordingly for those individuals.

1. Choose who to assign the quiz to: everyone, a course section, or an individual student.
2. Due Date: the date and time that the Quiz is due
3. Available From: the date and time when the Quiz will become available for students to take the quiz
4. Until: the date and time when students can no longer take the quiz

For more information on accessibility and accomodations, see What accessibility accommodations are available in quizzes?

Have a Quercus (or EdTech) question? Please contact FASE's EdTech Office.