Welcome to the CTRL Newsletter! For those of you not familiar with the CTRL, we are the Center for Teaching, Research, and Learning—home of Brightspace, Grace Library, and the University Archives. We also house the newly launched Office of Student Retention, as part of the Title III grant work.
In this issue, you will find:
Creator+ is a new toolset created for Brightspace that helps users create interactive content for courses. This package extends the editing capabilities within Brightspace with additional features to help users create more dynamic customized content in their courses. In addition to all basic Brightspace Editor features, these Creator+ features make it easier for users to customize their courses.
Visit our Creator+ page to find documents that will help you navigate these new tools:
Brightspace has also introduced a new AI tool, Lumi, to help instructors create quiz opportunities from course content. This tool is located in the Creator+ question menu.
Stay tuned for upcoming training opportunities on this tool, including a Learning Lab led by David Harpine on October 11th.
The CTRL team kicked off the Lunch & Learn series with Norton Gusky, local tech expert, educator, and AI specialist on Wednesday, September 11th. During "Generative AI 101: What you need to know about how AI is affecting teaching & learning," Norton gave an excellent overview of the impact of AI on teaching, learning, and what we can expect from the future.
He kindly put together a website of useful resources for us, including his slide deck: https://nlg-consulting.net/ai-for-teaching-and-learning/
Altough we did not intend to record the two guest lectures, Norton graciously agreed to let us. You can watch the recording here.
Our second guest, Keving Gannon, is scheduled to speak on October 9th from 12:30–1:30pm. He will be discussing AI and policy development. We are not planning to record that session.
More information about the Lunch & Learn series, including our new Learning Labs, can be found on the next tab.
Check out the detailed list of Lunch & Learn sessions and Learning Labs on our website!
Lunch & Learns are held every other Wednesday from 12:30pm to 1:30pm. All L&L sessions will use the same Teams link.
September 11, 2004: Generative AI 101: What you need to know about how AI is affecting teaching & learning
September 25, 2024: AI Red Flags and Detection Tools
October 9, 2024: Draft a Syllabus Policy on Using Generative AI
October 23, 2024: Using AI to Help Students Learn
November 6, 2024: Integrate AI into Your Practice
November 20, 2024: Citing AI-Produced Content
Learning Labs are hands-on workshops that will be held twice a month on Fridays from 12pm to 1pm on Teams. Please use this link for all Learning Labs.
September 13, 2024: Brightspace Fundamentals
October 4, 2024: Syllabus Design Using UDL and AI Policy Development
October 11, 2024: Brightspace: Creator+ and LUMI
November 1, 2024: UDL and Integrating AI into Your Practice
November 15, 2024: Brightspace: Intelligent Agents
December 6, 2024: AI Prompt Engineering
If you are interested in additional training, check out the following free webinar:
Owning the Unknowing: Teaching and Learning with AI on September 25th, at 2:30pm.
If you are craving even more Brightspace Training, no worries! There are great resources, including webinars that you can download at your convenience. Please create an account and join the D2L Brightspace Community to access this content.
There are two Brightspace Guided Training: Q&A sessions coming soon. These are hosted by D2L and require registration—but they are free! Come with your questions and concerns.