I was excited when I learned that two of my colleagues, Laura Jervis and Ariel Gunn, were organizing an accessibility community of practice at UF last fall because I know the dedication and passion they have for digital accessibility and inclusive course design. In the last six months, I’ve watched the group in Teams share resources, discuss issues, and grow to about 50 members.

While there were virtual options to attend, for the first time since Fall 2019, I opted to participate in Online Learning Consortium (OLC) Innovate in person, a conference centered around sharing best practices, testing new ideas, and collaborating on moving online, digital, and blended learning forward.

Near the beginning of the pandemic, I wrote a piece called Perusall: New #EdTech That’s Worth Your Time. I described it as a collaborative eReader to transform the typical isolated reading experience (yawn!*) into one where students can engage in social annotations of the material that would then be auto-graded based on their participation. I’m happy to report that this free product has continued to make improvements to broaden its utility beyond course readings to other media, such as videos and podcasts.

Please join me in congratulating and welcoming Dr. Heather Maness, the new Assistant Director of Learning Analytics and Assessment in the Center for Instructional Technology and Training. Dr. Maness will be leading a new team where we are refocusing our efforts in learning analytics and assessment to ensure we are meeting UF's Strategic Plan for IT's goals of enabling student success and advancing an analytics-enabled environment. We look forward to Dr. Maness's leadership to help us better understand the impact of teaching and learning services and technologies on student success, and to enable us to continue to provide best-in-class learning experience to our students and instructors.

On-location video is a powerful tool that helps immerse your students into any subject. Whether you’re teaching remotely or in person, effective video content is invaluable for enhancing classroom engagement.