Beginning in late-August, Humber will introduce the new international webpages (www.humber.ca/international), the first phase of the new Digital Experience Platform (DXP) that will transform our website and the user experience on it. In this first phase, Humber International webpages will have a different look and feel, streamlined navigation and enhanced digital experience. The rest of the website is scheduled to be migrated to DXP and the new design by the end of 2025.
DXP is Humber’s investment in a new web platform that will support a radically enhanced online experience for all websites within the humber.ca domain. Learn more in the Communiqué post “What is DXP?”
The new international pages are designed for a wide audience from international learners who might be considering studying abroad, to those graduating and looking for information about post-graduate work permits and more.
The redesigned webpages will support enrolment goals by contributing to an unparalleled student experience. Once live, visitors to the pages will still be able to access current Humber webpages, which will retain the same design and function for the time being.
After this launch, additional webpages will begin to be updated over the months ahead.
This first phase of the DXP-enabled humber.ca website is part of the Digital Student Experience (DSX) Program that emerged from the 2023-2026 Digital Campus and Academic Plans and focuses on enhancing the digital student experience.
More information and details on this DXP milestone will be shared in August.
With summer in full swing and many of us taking vacations (or staycations), it is essential to keep safety in mind. Whether you are heading out of town or simply enjoying local summer events, it is important to secure your work environment before you go. Here are some tips to help you protect your workspace:
Ensure that all sensitive documents and valuables are secured in locked drawers or cabinets.
Do not leave any personal or valuable items at your workstation unattended.
If possible, arrange for a trusted colleague to periodically check on the office premises.
When leaving your workstation, unplug any equipment that will not be used, and leave your workstation clean and tidy.
By taking these precautions, you can safeguard your work and enjoy a worry-free vacation.
Fall 2024 semester part-time staff parking permits went on sale online through MyHumber earlier today.
Contact parking.sales@humber.ca if you have any questions.
Parking Services
Back by popular demand, we are excited to announce that Grace: One Story of Thousands will return for a three-month duration beginning this September!
Grace: One Story of Thousands follows the life and experiences of Grace, one of the 1,511 people buried in the Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital Cemetery at the corner of Horner and Evans Avenues in South Etobicoke. Through personal letters and surviving hospital records gathered by Grace’s great-niece, you are invited to pause and reflect on a life lived – not defined – by the institutional system in Ontario.
With a shift toward historical accuracy, personhood, and agency, the Interpretive Centre invites you to experience history through a new perspective.
Grace: One Story of Thousands will re-open on Tuesday, September 3, 2024.
After 23 years at the College, Valerie Walton has decided to retire.
Valerie started the post-secondary part of her career at the University of Guelph-Humber as a library technician. She then joined Humber Library’s Lakeshore campus, where she has helped countless students and faculty, and provided great support to librarians, especially to the three collections librarians at Humber during her tenure. Valerie’s knowledge and experience have been invaluable to the Library team and periodical collection, but I know the most important thing to her has been providing positive experiences for library users, particularly students.
Valerie’s last day at the College will be August 30, 2024.
Please join us in congratulating Valerie on her upcoming retirement! A virtual retirement card has been created. You are welcome to add a message and best wishes for Valerie by August 29. We are planning to gather on Friday, August 30 for an afternoon tea/coffee at Lakeshore Campus Library in B202 from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. as we say goodbye and wish Valerie a happy retirement.
Please RSVP by August 23.
SWEL/SWAC Services will be closed on August 15 from 8:30 a.m to 4:30 p.m. due to a staff PD day.
Please book your appointment ahead of time as needed.
Congratulations to all our employees celebrating Career Milestones in July!
The following employees are celebrating their 1, 5, 10, 15, and 20-year anniversary with Humber. We encourage you to reach out to your colleagues to congratulate them on their Career Milestones.
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5 Years |
10 Years |
15 Years |
20 Years |
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Anayaritza Gonzalez |
John Stilla |
Kern Lewis |
Debbie Krulicki |
Mary Goral |
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Tyrese Heliodore |
Colin Buddin |
Kirston Arbour |
Magno Cidade |
Nadia Kaminska |
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Vickie Jones |
Tayler Buchanan |
Mark Caballes |
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Radek Pacanowski |
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Linda Jin-Troendle |
Christine Raposo |
Robert Metcalfe |
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Erin Alvarez |
Melissa Beauchamp |
Nicole Tonus-Conti |
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Tamara Bahr |
Daniel Maher |
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Anam Ahmad |
Sukhpreet Gill |
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Katherine Horodnyk |
Alyson Green |
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Tumpe Trotter |
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Zoë Baines |
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M’kaylah Fridal |
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Anjana Munasinghe |
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Regina Valiakhmetova |
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Riya Jose |
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Adrian Hillis |
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Nabeel Rahman |
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Daniel Galati |
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Kanupriya Gupta |
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Although we do our best to ensure we don't miss anyone, sometimes it happens. If we have missed anyone on this list, our sincere apologies. Please let us know so we can correct our records and ensure the employee receives recognition.
Questions? Please email us at oe@humber.ca.
Here are the highlights of this month’s new and improved features in Blackboard Ultra. For more details, please follow the links below:
Content Designer: Enhanced Documents
Content design is a critical element of learner experience. The new release includes features that offer flexibility for instructors, making it easy to create engaging content. Comprehensive new layout options have been added. The content also works seamlessly with a mouse, trackpad, and keyboard. These new features help instructors create robust and engaging course content, enhancing student learning. The user interface on the Document editing page has been redesigned. Instructors can populate content by selecting a block from the list. The list is also available from the block panel on the left by clicking the + sign.
You can design rows and columns within the Document to create structures as shown below. You can drag and move the content blocks to position and resize them easily.
Improved navigation between students in Flexible Grading
To provide convenience and efficiency, new navigations are added to move between previous and next students in the Student tab in Flexible Grading.
Status information removed from the gradebook download file
When the gradebook is downloaded, the status information with the grade in brackets is shown for 1) grades that are not yet posted and 2) grades with a second attempt in progress. For example, “Ready to Post (75)” or “In Progress (75)”. While such status information may be useful, it causes inconvenience when performing analytical calculations. The new release removes these status messages, keeping only the numeric value. The “Needs Grading” status will remain the same. This improves the usability of the downloaded file for statistical analysis and calculation.
Anonymous student responses for Forms
Many instructors have requested anonymous response support for Forms since its initial release in Blackboard Ultra. Anonymous responses promote honesty and more direct input by making students feel safe.
Here are changes from the previous version of Forms.
You can view the submissions from the gradable items tab in the Gradebook. You can not see which students submitted if the Form is anonymous.
Improvements to creating assignments
This release addresses many usability issues with Assignments, making it easier to manage and remove confusion for both instructors and students.
Multiple rules for release conditions
This release includes the addition of multiple release conditions for content items. This feature adds flexibility and convenience for instructors by enabling multiple conditions for different sets of students.
The summary of an added release condition is inserted on the left, making it easy to track which conditions have already been entered.
Ability to ‘Follow’ Discussions for Enhanced Engagement Assessment
Discussions promote communication and create a learning community. However, missing new posts or replies can delay or lose opportunities to interact. The new feature allows notifications to appear in the activity stream, allowing students to react in a timely manner. The available settings for this feature are: activity on my response, activity on responses I have replied to, responses from instructors, responses for followed discussions, and replies to followed discussions.
Send a message to a group from Group Spaces
When groups are created for assignments, it's crucial that members communicate promptly and effectively. To promote more interactions among members, the new release includes a feature to send messages to a group from group spaces. This enhances the use of group spaces for better interactions.
The full list of August updates is available on the Blackboard Help Center website.
The full article is also posted on BB Hub: New and Improved Features in Blackboard Ultra – August 2024 Update
Need additional support? The IL Support Centre is here to help!
We would like to inform you of ongoing construction activities affecting access to Buildings B (third floor) and E at the North Campus. The construction has already begun and is expected to continue, and during this period, certain areas and facilities within these buildings will be temporarily inaccessible.
Key Details:
Affected Areas:
We encourage all students, staff, and faculty to plan accordingly and allow extra time for navigating the campus during this period.
Weekly Layout Updates: The layout for each week's closures will be posted on the Friday of the preceding week.
Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
Here are the highlights of faculty questions from July. These are not necessarily the most frequently asked questions, but helpful for all faculty members.
Question (Panopto link): I need help adding a Panopto video link to Blackboard. How can I do this?
Answer: We have a step-by-step guide on how to embed videos in Blackboard. For more information on using Panopto, please visit Humber Panopto. You can also use Microsoft Stream as a video platform and share its link. Learn how to share videos on Microsoft Stream.
Question (Student email): I need to send an email message to a student. Where can I find email addresses of my students?
Answer: Sending a message to one or more students can be done directly from Blackboard’s Messages. To learn about sending course messages, visit Sending Course Messages in Blackboard Ultra – Faculty Blackboard (humber.ca). By selecting “Send an email copy to recipients”, the message is also sent to the student’s email address. By selecting “Allow replies to this message,” students can reply to you. Alternatively, you can find them at myhumber.ca under the courses you are currently teaching.
Question (Test bank): I need to reuse the Test Bank from my old course. How can I reuse only the Test Bank without copying the entire course?
Answer: You can copy a specific item from your other courses. Please see Copying a Blackboard Ultra Course – Faculty Blackboard (humber.ca) for more information. When copying an item from another course, make sure to verify that any referenced items are also copied. If not, copy those items separately. You may also use Respondus software to export and import test banks. Please see Downloading and Installing Respondus Software – Faculty Blackboard (humber.ca) for more details. If your test questions only include multiple choice, multiple answer, true/false, essay, matching, fill-in-the-blank, fill-in-multiple-blanks, and numeric response, without graphics or automatic feedback, you can create them in a file and upload it. This way, you can keep the file and upload it to future courses. To learn more, visit Upload Questions (blackboard.com). Similarly, you can use an external tool to create and generate a file or content package to import into your course. For more information, read Creating Question Banks Using the Oklahoma Test Generator – Faculty Blackboard (humber.ca).
Question (Overall Grade weight distribution): How can I distribute assignment percentages within the same category in a way that is not “proportional” or “equal” in Overall Grade calculation? I have five assignments, and I want them to be 5%, 5%, 25%, 25%, and 40% for the Assignment category.
Answer: You can achieve this in several ways.
Method 1: Moving items out of the category group is the simplest way to achieve this. By clicking the unlink icon on the right of each item, you can separate the item from the category group. The item is still associated with the category; it is only removed from the calculation group in Overall Grade, so that you can assign the custom percentage.
However, you must be careful about the percentage adjustment. For example, if your original plan was to give the entire Assignment category 50% of the final grade, then 5% within the Assignment category would translate to 2.5% (50% of 5%) when you remove it from the category group.
Method 2: Creating a separate Calculation column is perhaps the most intuitive way to achieve this. You can create a new Calculation column in the Grade Center. To avoid confusion, please keep this not visible to students. Let’s name this column Assignment Calculation.
Select the name of the first assignment from Variable, select the multiplication operator, then add the value of 0.05 for 5%, then select the addition operator and continue to select the next assignment, and so on.
In the end, you will have the Assignment Calculation column that holds the calculation such as: Assignment 1 * 0.05 + Assignment 2 * 0.05 + Assignment 3 * 0.25 + Assignment 4 * 0.25 + Assignment 5 * 0.4 (or you can use brackets to simplify it, too) Once you create this calculation, then go back to Overall Grade. Unlink the Assignment Calculation column from Calculations, then assign 50%. Don’t forget to exclude Assignment category from the total.
Method 3: (Not recommended): Using Advanced calculation instead of Weighted in Overall Grade is another method. If you select this option, you have to use the calculation as described in Method 2 for all assessment items. Here are some useful links:
Question (Moving columns in Gradebook): I have taken over a course in the middle of the term. I want to rearrange the Gradebook columns to make them easier to manage. How can I achieve this?
Answer: Go to the gradable items view in the Gradebook, and drag items by holding the arrows on the right side of the item. This allows you to freely move and reorder the items. For a more detailed description, please visit our website.
The full article is also posted on BB Hub: Questions of the Month at the ILSC (July 2024)
Need Blackboard support? The ILSupport Centre (ILSC) is here to help.
