Hello everyone,

With mixed emotions, I would like to share that Jey Sadad (Sadadcharashanmugathas) who is currently seconded to the Admissions Rethinking Project as a Business Analyst for Enrolment and Admissions, is leaving Humber. Jey will be starting a new position as the Manager, Reporting and Data Analytics at George Brown College.

Jey has a long history at Humber, starting in 2006 as a Student Support Advisor for eLearning (The Centre for Teaching and Learning), and also taught courses through Continuing Education in VB.Net, MS Office Applications, and Computer Basics. She also worked in the Humber Library where she helped migrate data from Linux servers to Windows servers and created a web-based archive for Humber’s magazines and images. In 2013, Jey began working in the Office of the Registrar where she held several roles including, Fees and Reporting Analyst, Business Systems Analyst, and Data Management & Reporting Analyst. Jey has been a pillar to the RO reporting team and her incredible work ethic and dedication to her colleagues will be truly missed.

More recently, Jey has been working on the Admissions Rethinking Project since February 2023 as an ITS Business Analyst. In that short time, she has quickly stepped into her new role and became an integral part of the project business analysis team. 

Jey, thank you for your 17 years of service to Humber. Your presence and contributions have been invaluable, and you will forever be part of the Humber family. Here’s to your future endeavours – may they be filled with growth, fulfillment, and every success.

George Brown is lucky to have you and we wish you all the best in this new chapter.

Please send Jey your best wishes by signing the virtual card.

Thank you,

Clay MacDougall
Deputy Registrar, Academic Services

Here are the highlights of this month’s new and improved features in Blackboard Ultra. For more details, please follow the links below:

Auto-captioning for video and audio feedback

The following feature has been added to improve accessibility and promote inclusivity. It also supports diverse language preferences, aligning with the user's chosen language.

• Automatic captioning is available for audio and video content used in assessment feedback and announcements.
• Auto-captioning also supports diverse language preferences.

Batch Edit support for recursive actions (items inside Folders and Learning Modules)

Batch edit actions now apply to all items inside of Folders and Learning Modules instead of selecting each item.

1. At the right of the Course Content area, select the three dots > Batch Edit.
2. You can expand and collapse Folders and Learning Modules to deselect or select items.
3. The following tasks can be performed faster: Shift Dates, Adjust Visibility, and Remove date/time release conditions.

Usability improvements have been made to the following features: Truncated Long Titles (preventing overlap with dates and times), Fixed Table Header (now follows when the page is scrolled), and Replaced Dropdown (of batch edit actions with buttons).

Copying Announcements

Instructors can now copy specific announcements or all announcements from another course. Copied announcements are set as drafts. Reusing content eliminates the need to create everything from scratch, saving time and effort in the content development process.

Flexible Grading support for tablets and other improvements

Flexible Grading (to grade by question or student etc.) is now available for tablet devices.

Improvements have been made to clearly indicate which student is selected. This is achieved by showing a purple outline around the selected student, and a gray outline when hovering over a student.

AI Design Assistant in Blackboard Ultra — Tool in Testing Stage in Innovative Learning Department

This fall, Innovative Learning will be testing a new feature within Blackboard Ultra called AI Design Assistant. Blackboard has included this feature to support instructors who wish to employ generative artificial intelligence (GAI) into their course creation process with the promise that this will build engaging course content. The AI Design Assistant can also help with content-based test generation, rubric creation, and royalty-free image sourcing. We in IL will test their claim, identify opportunities to ensure that the release of this tool is supported in the Humber community. We will communicate with you around the time of Reading Week to provide with further updates.

The full list of September updates is available on the Blackboard Help Center website.

Need additional support? The IL Support Centre is here to help!

I am pleased to inform you of two recent additions to Humber’s Senior Administration Team.

Scott Briggs recently welcomed Barb McConvey, Executive Assistant, Office of the Vice-President, Digital Innovation and CIO succeeding Reva Harknett. Barb will also provide administrative support to the Digital Campus Committee and to members of the executive team.

Barb joined Humber as an Administrative Assistant in Information Technology Services in November 2022. Her role was to provide administrative support to two Digital Campus Plan initiatives: Enrolment & Admissions Rethinking and Digital Identity. In her time at Humber, Barb has become a trusted resource who prides herself on taking the initiative to get the job done.

Additionally, Jason Seright welcomed Adwoa Rascanu, Executive Assistant, Office of the Vice-President, Inclusion and Belonging. Adwoa will provide administrative support to the Office, and to members of the executive team, as they focus on the continued implementation of Humber’s EDI Framework and the braiding of Indigenous ways of being, knowing, and doing into curricula, teaching practices, and operational and decision-making approaches along with our leading work in Sustainability.

Adwoa is joining us from York University where she worked closely with the Dean of Libraries. She has also held various positions supporting C-level executives in the health sector. Adwoa is passionate about EDI work and this passion was a key factor for her wanting to join the college and be involved in our Inclusion and Belonging area.

We are thrilled to have both Barb and Adwoa join the Humber team!

Sincerely,

Nancy Brennan
Director, Office of the President and Board of Governors

Humber's COI Network comprises five COIs that focus on key areas of proven strength and industry sector growth, Technology Innovation, Creative Business Innovation, Innovation in Health & Wellness, Entrepreneurship, and Social Innovation.

COIs provide an experiential learning environment for Humber students and prepares them to become the innovative and strategic problem-solvers of tomorrow while providing all kinds of organizations the room to innovate and succeed—empowering them to meet the challenges of today’s economy through innovation.

Meet the COI Network Team

The COI Network brings together talented people with the insight, imagination and skills to put ideas into action. Our COI teams examine problems from many different angles, leveraging their diverse backgrounds and industry expertise to disrupt traditional thinking and design creative, user-centred solutions.

For more information on the COI Network, visit humber.ca/coi-network or reach out to Tyler Charlebois, Director, Centres of Innovation Network and Partnership Development.