Changes to Course Provisioning, Etc.

As announced in an email to faculty sent on April 15, 2020, the OPALS system has been removed from service. Beginning with the Summer 2020 semester, faculty will receive a blank Blackboard shell for every course that they have in the schedule for that term. Faculty will be able to use the Course Copy feature in Blackboard to copy content from whichever previous semester offering or existing master course they desire into the new blank shell. Please use the links provided below for information about how to complete tasks that were previously processed in OPALS:

• Copy contents into your new semester shells
• Merge multiple courses/sections into a single Blackboard shell
• Request development of a new fully online course

If you have any questions about these, or other, Blackboard-related tasks, please contact your designated instructional designer or contact the Support Center to have a help ticket created and assigned to a member of our team. You may contact the Support Center via any of the following means:

Email: supportcenter@uhcl.edu
Phone: 281.283.2828
Create a Support Ticket

Faculty Instructional Technology Support Options

Faculty are reminded that our instructional technology staff (both instructional designers and learning technology administrators) are available to provide support for and assistance with your instructional technology needs (including Blackboard, web conferencing, online proctoring), active teaching/learning strategies, and course design/development (fully online, flexible/bimodal, etc.).

To request an appointment with a member of our team, faculty may contact the Support Center. Their inquiry will be entered into a help ticket that will be assigned to a member of our team, who will then schedule an individualized virtual meeting with the instructor. Our only request is that faculty extend us some patience in getting these meetings scheduled, as we are currently lacking a designated instructional designer for the College of Business, so the remaining three IDs are currently shouldering an additional 20-25% workload, depending on demand. Our goal is to schedule individualized web meetings, upon request, within 48-72 hours (2-3 business days).

In addition, we would like to remind you and your colleagues that our team is continuing to host virtual "drop-in" support hours on the following day/times each week (excluding holidays):

• Monday, 10 - 11 a.m.
• Tuesday, 1 - 2 p.m.
• Wednesday, 6 - 7 p.m.
• Thursday, 10 - 11 a.m.

No reservations or appointments are required for these sessions. Faculty may use the following link to join the session that best suits their schedule: https://uhcl.zoom.us/j/91324561229.We look forward to working with you, either individually or in one of the drop-in sessions!