Join us for an overview of the bCourses learning management system (LMS) and its native (built-in) features, and gain familiarity with basic site setup and navigation.
In preparation for the Spring 2024 term, we will be making an updated Zoom-bCourses integration available to all instructors. The newer integration is actively supported by Zoom and receives regular feature improvements. Read about the new features
For a short period, there will be two Zoom integrations listed in your course navigation settings (“Zoom” and “Zoom (2024)”). As you begin setting up your Spring 2024 course sites, we...
Include Beginning of the Course and Mid-Semester Surveys
One way to learn more about your students and their experience in your course is to conduct surveys at the beginning and mid-semester points. A survey at the beginning of the course will allow you to get a better understanding of the challenges students may face in a remote instruction course, as well as provides an opportunity to learn more about each student on an individual basis. A mid-semester survey provides an opportunity to find out what’s working and what’s not in your course, and then make adjustments where needed. It...
Canvas Commons is a repository of digital resources that allows users to share and import content into a course site. The DLS Core Template is available in Canvas Commons to UC Berkeley users in the Instructor, TA, or Designer roles.
Follow the steps below to import the template to your new course site.
We are happy to announce a new batch of features and fixes for the SuiteC collaboration tools:
Whiteboards
While we had initially planned to retire the SuiteC Whiteboard tool, it had a lot of fans, so we’ve brought it back! Users can once again collaborate on Whiteboards directly from SuiteC, and publish them to the Asset Library. Whiteboards can be enabled in all bCourses sites under Settings > Navigation. See this knowledge base article for more detailed instructions:...
When we re-built the SuiteC tools earlier this year, we prioritized the popular Asset Library and Engagement Index tools and made the decision to retire the native whiteboard tool and support use of the many available third party whiteboard tools. Our first major update to SuiteC includes a number of ways to make it easier to bring these external whiteboards into the Asset Library.
Starting January 6, 2021, at 8 am, whenever any campus member uses their UC Berkeley Zoom account to host a meeting that is recorded to the Zoom Cloud, the resulting recording will be automatically copied to UC Berkeley’s campus video management system, Kaltura. One of two things will happen:
If the Zoom account owner has no Kaltura account, the recording will be deleted from Kaltura within 24 hours (this does not affect the Zoom Cloud recording, which will still be available in Zoom for 30 days). It will never be shared with anybody else.
In-between Spring and Summer instruction, we will upgrade the Turnitin academic integrity integration available inside bCourses: On May 23rd, we will enable a new Turnitin integration, and turn off the legacy integration.
Turnitin Similarity Reports generated before 5/23/21 will no longer be accessible by instructors in bCourses after that date.
We scheduled this upgrade in-between semesters to minimize the impact of this change, but understand that some instructors may need to access reports generated from the legacy integration, and we will have options available...
The Asset Library and Engagement Index tools are being rebuilt, and new versions will be available in the fall, while Whiteboards and Impact Studio are being retired.
Background:
The SuiteC tool set was developed as part of a grant-funded project and first piloted in 2015. Over time, technologies have modernized, class sizes have increased, and the performance of SuiteC has fallen behind, ultimately leading to the need to retire the current toolset.
Learning requires a social component, and much of what is enjoyable about teaching and learning is wrapped up in the exchange of ideas. This is true for in-person and remote instruction. In an in-person class, methods for creating an environment for engaging students can seem more intuitive, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t possible to also create this environment in a remote instruction course, too. So, the first thing you might consider is how to relay and share in that sense of camaraderie in your remote instruction class. Discussion...