The following Blackboard training sessions and workshops will be held in February. All workshops are suitable for instructors teaching face-to-face, hybrid, or online courses. Presentations will be one hour and are limited to 10 participants. The instructor will be available for an additional 30 minutes after the workshops for questions and discussion.

Please register online. All sessions will be held in Bulger Communication Center 104 or as a virtual webinar. 

Blackboard Learn 9.1: Utilizing Rubrics in a Blackboard Course
A rubric is an assessment tool listing evaluation criteria for an assignment. A rubric divides the assigned work into parts and provides clear descriptions of the characteristics of the work associated with each part, at varying levels of skill. Rubrics can be used to communicate the assignment requirements and acceptable performance standards. Rubrics can also help ensure consistent and impartial grading.

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to create and edit a rubric in Blackboard and use the rubric to simplify the grading of assignments. Rubrics can be attached to assignments submitted in Blackboard, to essay questions, to discussion forums, or to any campus-based activities or requirements that will be graded, such as papers, special projects, presentations, practicums, labs, or performances. Rubrics can be individualized to fit instructors' needs and make grading more efficient.

Blackboard Learn 9.1: Collaboration Tools
To build a successful community, students need the tools to interact and have conversations. Blackboard Learn offers five communication tools for self-reflection, collaboration, and communication. By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to use the discussion board, blogs, journals, wikis, and groups to provide rich assignments and evaluate students in authentic ways, where students can share and create knowledge.

Each of the five interactive tools can serve distinct purposes. Any or all of them can be used in a course, and they work well in combination. Select the tools that meet the course goals and allow students to interact in the most efficient ways.

Blackboard Learn 9.1: Student Performance and Retention Center
Knowing how students are performing helps instructors understand what they are ready for and capable of. Faculty members can ensure that all students have an opportunity for success while they monitor their performance in the course.

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to use the following Blackboard tools to effectively measure student performance to see exactly what they are doing and how they are participating:

Retention Center: An early alert and monitoring system that provides an easy way for instructors to quickly identify which students in the course are at risk. Instructors can communicate with struggling students and help them take immediate action for improvement, and also keep track of patterns over time.

Performance Dashboard: Instructors can view all types of user activity in their courses.

Course Reports: Course reports provide a detailed picture of student activity in each course, including details about which students are accessing the course and when.

Tasks: Faculty members can track student progress for tasks that they've created.

Item Analysis: Instructors can view statistics on overall test performance and individual test questions. These data help instructors recognize questions that might be poor discriminators of student performance.

Blackboard Learn 9.1: Enterprise Surveys
Enterprise Surveys is a system tool that provides a way to collect feedback from specified groups of people. Surveys can be sent to any selection of courses or departments, or to the entire institution. Surveys can also be sent to e-mail addresses outside the system. This training will focus on how to create a survey in Blackboard, how to deploy it in the most efficient manner, and how to create a report to analyze the results.

Please join fellow teacher education faculty members Pixita del Prado Hill, Bill White, and Jill M. Gradwell as they discuss their roads to continuing appointment (tenure) and promotion during a panel discussion on Thursday, March 10, from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. in Butler Library 181B. This panel will offer valuable insights into the promotion process that are unique to teacher education faculty. Ample opportunity for questions and answers will follow short introductory comments. Please register through the CyberQuad Workshop Registration website.

With support from Institutional Advancement, the Graduate School is sponsoring the first Underrepresented Graduate Student Scholarship Fundraising Event on Thursday, February 11, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. in the Campbell Student Union Assembly Hall.

The demographics of our graduate students are increasingly first-generation and diverse. The Graduate School has read many of their stories and interviewed many students through the New York State Diversity Fellowship Program. Through that process, it has also become increasingly apparent that our students are overcoming significant odds to pursue their master's degrees and that there continue to be many more deserving students than can be supported through this program.

RSVP to Marnie Letzelter, assistant to the dean, by Monday, February 8, if you would like to attend this event to hear personal stories from our graduate students and help this worthwhile cause.

Please join the Biology Department for the seminar "The Urban Wilderness," presented by Joyce Hwang, associate professor and director of professional studies in the University at Buffalo's Department of Architecture, on Friday, February 12, at 2:00 p.m. in Bulger Communication Center East.

All faculty, staff, and students are welcome.

Damian Mordecai, director of engagement and education for the Pride Center of Western New York, will present an overview of sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as a series of recommendations for creating a safe and diverse community on Friday, February 5, from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. in Ketchum Hall 113.

Mordecai has spent nearly a decade heading many of the Pride Center’s innovative services and supportive programs: Center Support, Pride Works, Center Arts & Culture, and the Silver Pride Project. Come and celebrate Buffalo State’s diverse community. Help strengthen vehicles of communication and information throughout the community by becoming an open individual. Learn something new and have fun in the process. Funded by the Faculty-Student Association Founders Fund at Buffalo State College.

Nominate your student employee as the “Student Employee of the Year” at Buffalo State. The SEOTY Award recognizes the hard work, dedication, and accomplishments of graduate and undergraduate students who work while attending college. Works-study students and student assistants are eligible and must meet the following criteria:

• Nominees must be undergraduate or graduate students enrolled in a degree program at Buffalo State.
• Nominees must have been employed for a minimum of three months full time or six months part time during the period June 1, 2015–May 31, 2016 (anticipated).

One undergraduate and one graduate award will be given. Nominees are evaluated on initiative, quality of work, reliability, contribution to the employer, and disposition. Nomination letters must be submitted electronically by Monday, February 22. Nomination forms are available on the Career Development Center website.

All elementary education majors, including undergraduate CED, CEN, CIT, CMT, CFR, CSH, CSS, ECC, ECE, and EXE, as well as graduate MIITC, will be held on Friday, March 4, from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. in Bacon Hall 115 or on Tuesday, March 8, from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. in Bacon Hall 116A. Students must attend one session.

Please contact Rosemary Arioli, lecturer in the Elementary Education and Reading Department, with questions.

Colin Phoenix from Fidelity Investments will be on campus for individual consultations with Buffalo State faculty and staff members on Monday, May 2, in Cleveland Hall 416.

Sessions are by appointment only, between 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. To schedule an appointment, please register online or call (800) 642-7131.

Colin Phoenix from Fidelity Investments will be on campus for individual consultations with Buffalo State faculty and staff members on Tuesday, April 12, in Butler Library 210B. Sessions are by appointment only, between 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. To schedule an appointment, please register online or call (800) 642-7131.

Colin Phoenix from Fidelity Investments will be on campus for individual consultations with Buffalo State faculty and staff members on Wednesday, March 9, in Butler Library 210B. Sessions are by appointment only, between 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. To schedule and appointment, please register online or call (800) 642-7131.