Stacey Johnson

If you are new to teaching at Vanderbilt, I hope you got to attend the CFT’s new faculty orientation called Teaching at Vanderbilt (TAV). It’s always a wonderful opportunity to get to know new faces and learn some tips for success at Vanderbilt.  I did a session at TAV this… Read More

In a recent article, Inside Higher Ed described the results of a new survey highlighting a few of the biggest challenges instructors have faced during remote and online teaching over the last two years. You can find the article here: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/03/23/survey-views-pandemic-learning-overwhelmingly-negative   According to this survey, labs, group… Read More

The CFT first published a guide on considering how to work with wireless devices in the classroom in 2010. Given the rapidly changing digital landscape since then, this guide has been updated to better consider and account for the changes in how personal electronic devices are used, and how widespread they have become. It considers how personal electronic… Read More

As we near the beginning of a new semester, many of us are thinking about how we can make space in our classrooms to learn about our students’ needs. In higher education, the question of how we can support students coming back to campus after mostly online experiences is a… Read More

If you are new to teaching at Vanderbilt, I hope you got to attend the CFT’s new faculty orientation called Teaching at Vanderbilt (TAV). It’s always a wonderful opportunity to get to know new faces and learn some tips for success at Vanderbilt.  I did a session at TAV… Read More

For many of us at Vanderbilt, August is the busiest month of the year. That is certainly true for us here at Brightspace support at the CFT! And to get ready for our return to campus in August, we have new guides and resources, new faces, and a new expanded… Read More

The Brightspace team normally provides support to the Vanderbilt campus Sunday through Friday, usually from 7am to 11pm. In particular over the last year at Vanderbilt, we have been proud to step up to the challenges of remote and online teaching and offer expanded hours and services.  For the next… Read More

Have you been wondering about recording your live class meetings? We have several new guides available on our On-Demand Resources page that will walk you through some commonly asked questions. Should I record my live class meeting? New! How can I record and share my… Read More

Click tracking refers to the ability that both instructors and students have in Brightspace to see where students have clicked within a course. This tool can be very useful for students trying to track their own progress in a course and for instructors evaluating their own course design and learning… Read More

by Stacey M. Johnson, Assistant Director for Educational Technology If you will be teaching online, how do you plan to convert your course plan into a clean, easy-to-follow Brightspace course? The course plan or syllabus is the blueprint of your course, but now you have to construct the virtual structure… Read More

If you are using the Quizzes tool in Brightspace to conduct some end-of-semester assessment in your course, the CFT is here to help. With input from the support team, our ever-growing On-Demand Resources page also features a troubleshooting guide that you can use to navigate common questions. Check out… Read More

by CFT assistant director, Stacey M. Johnson Faculty, are you thinking about how to develop online assessments of student learning in a hurry? At Vanderbilt most courses meet face-to-face, but with campus closed through the end of the spring 2020 semester, we are all rethinking assessments. The CFT has resources… Read More

If the speed of video processing is a problem… Video isn’t always necessary or even the best tool for the job. Lots of other technologies are just plain more accessible to everyone but especially to students on unreliable wifi. Read our blog post about low-bandwidth alternatives to video… Read More

by CFT assistant director, Stacey M. Johnson Video-based tools (like Zoom and Virtual Classroom, the two video conferencing tools available in Brightspace, or Kaltura Media, the video creation and storage tool) can be very useful for recreating the classroom experience in an online format. However, some faculty and students might… Read More

by CFT assistant director, Stacey M. Johnson With both Zoom and Virtual Classroom available in Brightspace for live video conferencing, many faculty will be moving their face-to-face classes online in a very literal sense, doing similar activities as usual that happen to be conducted video conferencing. However, for some… Read More

by CFT assistant director, Stacey M. Johnson Accessibility in an online environment is essential. All students should be included and valued as our campus transitions to remote teaching through the end of the semester. Some Brightspace tools that will help are: If you will be creating recorded lectures or other… Read More

by CFT assistant director, Stacey M. Johnson Faculty, are you thinking about how to put some of your course content online in a hurry? Perhaps to deal with unexpected events? At Vanderbilt most of our courses meet face-to-face, however, if you find that you need to make adjustments in… Read More

by Stacey M. Johnson, Assistant Director If you are interested in making your Brightspace course more accessible to your students with disabilities, we have a few resources that you might find useful.  First, read through the CFT Teaching Guide on Creating Accessible Learning Environments.  This will provide great background… Read More

When you (or your students) first click on a course from the main landing page in Brightspace, the default first page is a homepage that has the announcements tool and the calendar tool pre-loaded. However, the default is not your only option. In fact, you have quite a bit of control… Read More

Recently, the CFT updated the teaching guide Dealing with the Unexpected: Teaching When You or Your Students Can’t Make it to Class to reflect all of the tools now available to conduct class online. If you are wondering how to teach this week with the unpredictable road conditions, this… Read More

Brightspace support is taking an administrative day today along with the rest of the campus. The support team will be back on for email support 5-11pm on Sunday. You can find our support schedule here: https://www.vanderbilt.edu/brightspace/brightspace-support/ If you plan to work on Brightspace today and need assistance, we… Read More

When you (or your students) first click on a course from the main landing page in Brightspace, the default first page is a homepage that has the announcements tool and the calendar tool pre-loaded. However, the default is not your only option. In fact, you have quite a bit of control… Read More

In this video, Stacey walks through how to create an announcement or email for students with links that take students directly to different content files or assignments inside of the course. Using the Quicklinks tool, you can send students a direct link to just what they need. Here… Read More

We at Brightspace Support hope you are able to take some time on Monday to observe the historic eclipse. We plan to take advantage of some of the great on-campus activities at Vanderbilt, and we hope you do too! We will be available Monday morning for drop-in sessions and… Read More

If you are trying to get your new Brightspace course up and running in a hurry, check out our new resource! Using this Quick Start Guide for Instructors, you can walk through the five most common steps instructors need to take to get their course set up. As always,… Read More

Many instructors have asked us where students will go to learn about Brightspace, Vanderbilt’s new course management system. While students are always welcome to reach out for support, we put together a list of four important resources that students will find helpful as they navigate this new course management system. Instructors can… Read More

We love helping the Vanderbilt community use the course management system effectively and efficiently. To that end, members of our Brightspace support team will be spending this week at a conference learning more about how to serve faculty, staff, and students as we transition to Brightspace. Next week we will be… Read More

Starting this summer, Turnitin will replace SafeAssign as Vanderbilt’s plagiarism detection software. This powerful tool can help instructors teach and promote good citation practices as well as provide detailed feedback more efficiently. You can log on to this fully online webinar from any computer at home or on campus,… Read More

Have you heard about the Chancellor’s summer flex schedule policy? While most of the CFT will be open as usual on Friday afternoons this summer, the Brightspace support team will be taking advantage of the policy to rearrange our staff hours during the months of June and July. For… Read More

We know many of you have come to rely on Brightspace support’s availability six days a week, and we love hearing from you! However, on Sunday May 28, Monday May 29 (Memorial Day), and Wednesday May 31 (CFT Staff Retreat Day), the Brightspace team will be taking a few days… Read More

As Vanderbilt transitions to Brightspace, our new course management system, some faculty may wonder what will happen to the video content they have created, stored, and/or shared using Kaltura (“My Media”) on Blackboard. We are happy to report that Kaltura media works well within Brightspace and that plans are underway… Read More

Many instructors have asked us where students will go to learn about Brightspace, Vanderbilt’s new course management system. While students are always welcome to reach out for support, we put together a list of four important resources that students will find helpful as they navigate this new course management system. Read More

The Center for Teaching is glad to announce that Brightspace will be replacing Blackboard as the campus-wide course management system beginning Summer 2017. This transition will bring change for students, faculty, and staff. As Brightspace’s administrative home, we at the Center for Teaching want to reassure you that we are… Read More

With the fall 2016 semester winding down, the Blackboard support team at the Center for Teaching has already begun working with many instructors around campus to ready spring courses. If you plan to work on your Blackboard courses over the winter holiday, we will be available to help via… Read More

You may have heard about SIPX, a tool recently acquired by the Vanderbilt Library to streamline the copyright compliance process for course readings. With the addition of SIPX to the Blackboard tool set, instructors now have the ability to find course readings themselves from the library holdings (or from… Read More

Here at Blackboard support, we often get questions from faculty and teaching assistants about Blackboard’s compliance with the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act, the federal law that governs the privacy of student educational records. The good news is that the guidelines that protect student privacy in your physical classroom work… Read More

This summer the Blackboard support team will focus their support efforts from 7am to 4pm Monday through Friday. You can expect a fast and thorough response from our team whether you contact us by email or phone during those hours. We will continue providing support via email 4-11pm Sunday through… Read More

You should have received emails alerting you to Blackboard’s upgrade this weekend, or you may have seen the announcement on the Blackboard log in page. That upgrade period is now underway. We expect Blackboard to be available to users again no later than 8pm on Sunday May 22. Updates about… Read More

Regular Blackboard Maintenance Window: Early Sunday Morning 1:00-5:00 AM Central Time Between 1-5am early Sunday mornings, Blackboard undergoes weekly mmaintenance. Often, Blackboard continues to be available for users during that time, but occasionally a shut-down and restart of the system is required. Users should not plan on scheduling or taking… Read More

Many of you have visited us for Blackboard trainings and drop-in hours here at the CFT. What you may not know is that we have also taken that support model on the road to various schools, centers, and departments across campus. If you work with a group that you think… Read More

Beginning in the spring 2016 semester, Vanderbilt faculty will be able to integrate online textbook materials and grading with Blackboard. If your textbook includes publisher-provided online content, email us at blackboard@vanderbilt.edu or come see us during our drop-in support hours to find out if your textbook is one of the many… Read More

Using SafeAssign is easier than ever now that it is integrated directly into the Blackboard assignments feature. SafeAssign is a tool used to prevent plagiarism and to create opportunities to help students learn to properly attribute sources. How does SafeAssign work? SafeAssign’s proprietary algorithm… Read More

We are excited to announce our November/December schedule of drop-in support hours. Drop-in support hours will take place on Mondays 1-3pm in the CFT workshop space from November 2nd – December 14th, with the exception of November 23 when we will be observing Thanksgiving break). During drop-in hours, faculty and… Read More

The Vanderbilt academic community has access to a useful online testing tool for the 2015-2016 academic year. The Respondus LockDown Browser is a custom browser that locks down the testing environment within Blackboard during online quizzes and tests. When students use Respondus LockDown Browser they are unable to print, copy, go… Read More

We are excited to announce our September/October schedule of drop-in support hours. During drop-in hours, faculty and staff who have Blackboard-related questions can stop by the workshop space of the CFT (even without an appointment) and find a team of specialists ready to assist. We can get you up… Read More