Summer Workshops and Professional Development Opportunities

Beginning the week of August 9th we will be offering a number of instructional development webinars geared towards preparing for the start of the fall term. Topics include: Using Moodle to supplement your face-to-face classes, Supporting students in the return to the classroom, Community and Citizen Science in the Classroom, Virtual Lab Resources Roundup, Principles of Inclusive Syllabus Design, and Accessibility and Assistive Technologies. View the full list of offerings and the Zoom links to preregister.

Instructional Design, Engagement and Support team (IDEAS) webinars are available throughout the summer with topics that include Getting started in VoiceThread, Creating interactive content with H5P in Moodle, and Best practices for Lecture Capture.

Join the UMass Amherst Assistive Technology Center (ATC) on Thursdays starting 6/3 from 10 - 11 a.m. on Microsoft Teams to investigate and solve your questions regarding accessibility and assistive technology.   

CNS Faculty Development

CNS Faculty Development and Programs help meet the mission and strategic goals of the College of Natural Science by actively supporting the research, teaching, and service work of our faculty while also promoting their wellbeing and resilience. Visit the CNS Faculty Development page for information on upcoming events and resources for individuals, teams, and departments.

Preparing for Fall 2021

Preview Week begins Wednesday, August 25 for fall courses. By the start of Preview Week faculty should have their Syllabi posted in their Blackboard or Moodle course space and a "Getting Started" or "Course Overview" section available for students that provides them with information on how course is structured (face-to-face, hybrid, online), meeting dates and times if applicable, instructor and/or TA contact information, and an overview of the materials needed and technologies used in the course. See the Preview Week Suggestions document for screenshots and recommendations for what to include for a successful student Preview Week experience. 

Move of Moodle to off-site hosting (Moodle in the Cloud) and upgrade to version 3.9

Beginning in mid-July course content from Summer 2019 through Spring 2021 will begin to be available in Moodle in the Cloud. In Moodle in the Cloud, under My Courses, you will start seeing your Moodle courses from the 2020 – 2021 academic year first. Earlier courses will also appear in this location in the next few weeks. Once course content from Legacy Moodle has been migrated to Moodle in the Cloud, you can use the Import tool to copy it to a new course.

The IDEAS team will be offering "Whats new with Moodle in the Cloud" workshops this summer. View the IDEAS Webinar calendar for more information and upcoming offerings. 

Migration from Box to OneDrive

  • As a reminder, Box has been retired and all existing Box content was migrated to Microsoft OneDrive.
  • The migration of content from Box to OneDrive happened automatically, however, links that currently exist within Blackboard and Moodle that point to Box content will need to be updated manually. 
  • IMPORTANT - when you share files from OneDrive make sure you check the sharing settings! View this short screencast to learn how to share files and folders from OneDrive and adjust sharing settings from "allow editing" to "view only."

Learn more about using OneDrive with April Bellafiore, Director of Multi-Modal Education for the College of Natural Sciences. Click the date below to pre-register:

OneDrive Resources:

  • Join the OneDrive and Teams Resources Microsoft Team by logging into Teams and in the "Join Team with a Code" box enter the following code: 6spf9hj
  • View the learning options provided by IT.