The Office of Information Technology maintains a suite of software aimed at providing the continuation of academic services in the event of all or parts of the Institution are unavailable.
In the event of an emergency, knowing what to do will contribute to our resiliency and academic success. We have curated key content in the form of guides, tutorials, and articles on how to implement and use our Institution’s tools and platforms in support of online learning.
Looking for links to the training webinars?
Start Here
Use Blackboard Learn as your first stop for online teaching and learning. This learning management system contains a suite of tools intended to compliment the classroom experience. It’s integrated with our student system so your course, student roster, and permissions for you as a faculty are already available. Think of Blackboard as a way to visually structure your course for your students.
The Blackboard Essentials guide features brief instruction on Adding a Syllabus, Managing a Discussion Forum, Adding an Announcement, & Emailing your class.
Communicating with Your Students
Use the Announcement tool in Blackboard to communicate with your students. Sending an announcement will post a persistent message within Blackboard’s ‘Announcement‘ section and send an email to each class member’s NYLS email account.
Post Course Materials
In an online environment, instructors have multiple ways of sharing course materials but in the interest of consistency, the simplest approach is usually the best. Our Blackboard courses are created with a familiar set of course topics. set of frequently requested set of features.
We recommend placing relevant course materials such as PDFs, Word Documents, Links as links organized by class weeks and or class meeting times. Visit the Blackboard Learn knowledge base article to learn more about making use of your course template.
Deliver Course Lectures
- Deliver Lectures in Writing: The most straightforward, low-tech way to deliver course lecture material is type out in a document what you would have said during lecture and then post this document in your Blackboard course. Since these notes are meant to be read by students rather than heard during class, compose them so they are clear and easy to understand.
- Voice Annotate PowerPoint: If you make use of PowerPoint during your instruction, leverage the built-in tools to record a slide show with narration and slide timings. Follow the step-by-step guide to record using PowerPoint on a Mac or PC.
- Use Existing Recorded Lectures: There may be instances where previously recorded class captures can be used as supplemental course materials. Contact OIT for details on retrieving archived class recordings.
- Record New Lectures: If you facilitate a large class, some instructors find it challenging to manage a lecture while also managing live interactions with a high number of students though a console. In this case writing, or using new or prerecorded lectures would be your approach. You can leverage Microsoft Stream to create 15 minute – bite size, training modules.
- Engage in Real-Time: Depending on the size of your class, some prefer to have everyone online together at the same time and find value in lecturing live though an online classroom. This allows the instructor to simultaneously interact with students, posing questions, and soliciting responses. Live student engagement we recommend the following:
| Teams | Video Chat, File Sharing, Office 365 (Video Overview) |
|---|---|
| Advantages | Persistent chat rooms, file sharing, video recording, great for team huddles, small groups, clinics. All interactions are stored within Office 365. |
| Disadvantages | Designed with team collaboration rather than lecture in mind. |
| Access | Microsoft teams is available though our Office 365 subscription and can be accessed directly via the web, mobile device, or desktop application. |
| Via Web | https://teams.microsoft.com/
Login to using your NYLSid |
| Desktop or Mobile | Download and install Teams on your devices to launch an manage video conferencing. |
| Zoom | Virtual Classroom, Webinar, Break-Out Sessions (Video Overview) |
|---|---|
| Advantages | Virtual classroom management tools for managing large numbers of participants, up to 300 participants. |
| Disadvantages | Video recording, and access logs, are stored in your Zoom account and distribution of recordings must be managed by the faculty member. |
| Access | Zoom is available for access through our Blackboard Learn environment. |
| Note | Your fully licensed NYLS account is integrated with Blackboard, in order to avoid account access issues, launch your Zoom instance using the link provided in your Blackboard Course. |
Technical Support
The process for receiving technical support remains largely the same:
- Submit a form to ensure your request is sent directly to the appropriate team member.
- Email helpdesk@nyls.edu and our team will review & assign the request.
- Call 212-431-2316 and leave a voicemail, we process requests between 9 AM and 7 PM.
We will provide ‘best effort’ support over the phone for personal IT resources. Unfortunately, we cannot dispatch support to your home for any reason. Public Wi-Fi hot-spots are not secure and should be avoided whenever possible. In order to provide the best support possible, please be available with your equipment at home so we may assist with troubleshooting the issue.