Teaching - Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning

Smiling college student sitting on campus wearing headphones and working online with a laptop

Diversifying an online course

July 11, 2022 Megan Holt Best Practices, Teaching, Tips

Online education can remove geographical barriers and restore scheduling flexibility to students seeking alternatives to the traditional classroom experience. Yet, while the online learning community

Student using computer laptop for learning online

The evolving conversation about quality in online learning

June 15, 2022 CITL Best Practices, News, Resources, Teaching, Technology Trends, Tips

What does quality look like in online learning? How has the landscape of online learning changed over the course of the pandemic? What is the

Person on Zoom in online class with laptop displaying video tiles of participants

New Zoom features

June 15, 2022 Amanda Hirsch News, Resources, Teaching, Technology Trends, Web Tools

Zoom has introduced several new features to provide a better educational experience for faculty and students: enhancements for Chromebook, audio sharing in breakout rooms, video

Black male professor taking notes with pencil while navigating laptop

Blackboard Ultra Transition Academy

March 31, 2022 CITL Best Practices, News, Resources, Teaching, Technology Trends, Tips, Web Tools, Workshops

As NIU moves forward with our transition to Ultra Course View, CITL is increasing our support to help faculty prepare. While we have provided a long

Vector Illustration Coming Soon Banner With Clock Sign

Coming soon to Blackboard!

March 23, 2022 Amanda Hirsch News, Teaching, Technology Trends, Web Tools

Blackboard has tripled their development team, so the rate of new features is accelerating rapidly! Many exciting features and updates are coming soon to Blackboard

computer keyboard, a blank smartphone laying on top of the keyboard, and the word Accessible appearing above the keyboard

Highlighting accessibility resources

March 17, 2022 Amanda Hirsch Best Practices, News, Resources, Teaching, Technology Trends, Tips, Web Tools, Workshops

Accessibility continues to be a high priority at NIU. Here are just a couple of our notable accessibility resources, as well as an exciting announcement!

Male professor wearing headset and recording a lesson on laptop

Get creative with Kaltura

March 16, 2022 Megan Holt Teaching, Technology Trends, Tips, Web Tools

NIU’S video platform, Kaltura, is teeming with activity, but you might be surprised to learn what else you can do with your video content. In

Female presenting student wearing glasses and holding books yells into megaphone.

New affordable textbook search and filter in MyNIU

March 10, 2022 CITL News, Teaching, Web Tools

Do you teach a course with zero-cost or low-cost course materials? Beginning with the Fall 2022 course schedule, students will be able to search for

Smiling African American woman working on a laptop in her home office

Things you didn’t know Blackboard could do

February 23, 2022 Amanda Hirsch Resources, Teaching, Technology Trends, Tips, Web Tools

Blackboard has many features that can help you enrich your students’ learning experience and improve your teaching experience, but you may not know they are

Students huddled around a laptop, sitting at a table in a study room

Supporting first generation college students

February 9, 2022 Amanda Hirsch Best Practices, Resources, Teaching, Tips

Workshop Takeaways NIU’s Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning recently hosted a workshop on Supporting First-Generation Students. The workshop featured Kimberly Shotick (Assistant Professor, Student

Two female students looking at classwork on computer together

New library resource on blended learning

February 7, 2022 CITL Best Practices, Resources, Teaching, Tips, Web Tools

The NIU Library has secured the eBook Blended Learning: Research Perspectives. Volume 3, edited by Anthony G. Picciano, Charles D. Dziuban, Charles R. Graham, and