As an instructor, you are always working to make sure that your course is the best it can be. One element of that quality course is accessibility. In this new section in the newsletter, we’ll share tips for creating accessible courses and materials.  

This month, we focus on Alternative Text (Alt Text) for images. You want to include images to support your content and need to be sure that students who are sight impaired can still get information from those images. Did you know that the Alt Text will show even if your image is broken? That is a great way to make sure anyone can get the information you are sharing.  

For instance, how might your Alt Text change for this picture of Jon Lennon and Yoko Ono if you were in Hospitality and Hotel Management versus if you were teaching History? Get ideas from this Harvard article;

ChatGPT has been getting a lot of attention lately. This is a tool that uses artificial intelligence to create items. The current debate is basically:  

• Is the college essay as we know it dead? 
• Is this an opportunity to reevaluate how we structure student learning?  

There are also several other functions of this tool that include coding, music lyric generation, and mathematical problem-solving.  What are your thoughts? 

Read about the debate in the ChatGPT article Friend or Foe in the Classroom, and learn about 11 Things You Can Do with ChatGPT.

Building a sense of community in our courses not only makes students feel more welcome, it also increases student achievement!  

Check out these articles for ideas on how to build a community in your course:  

• Foster a Sense of Belonging – From Iowa State University, find out what belonging means in the educational context and how to create that feeling for your students. 
• Building Community – From Western University in Canada, read about specific actions you can take in your courses to create a community.  
• Building Community and Belonging – From Cornell University, discover 10 ways to establish a sense of connection for your students. 

CCIT offers support in a variety of ways. There are documents, videos, and instructional tools. This section of our newsletters helps you find what you need. 

Recently, we have been talking about personalizing courses with the addition of graphics, videos, or Bitmojis. Course personalization adds to your presence in the course and helps students feel connected to you. 

Just in case you missed it, we talked about Bitmojis in a Coffee Talk. This recorded training session gives you information about reasons you might like to use Bitmoji, how to create Bitmoji characters, and how to insert your characters into D2L to inject your personality into your courses.  

This month, you can choose to watch a video about Bitmojis or read a document with directions for using Bitmojis. Of course, you are welcome to use both!