Blackboard Training

The Online Learning and Technology team hosts workshops, labs and presentations throughout the year to provide faculty development on instructional technology. The goal of these sessions is to educate, inform, and inspire faculty on how today's learning environment can be enhanced through technology.

💻 Drop-in Support Sessions for Faculty

The Online Learning and Technology (OLT) team invites all CCRI faculty to take advantage of our weekly Blackboard Drop-In Lab Sessions for personalized, one-on-one support—no appointment necessary!

🕙 Every Thursday from 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM
📍 Location: Warwick Campus, CIT Room 4100

Bring your own laptop or use one of the available desktop computers in the lab. Whether you need help cleaning up your course, setting up assignments, or troubleshooting a specific tool, we’re here to help. Sessions are open throughout the semester, especially during the start of term. Be sure to check below for upcoming workshop dates and topics. If you are an adjunct or if you can not make it to the scheduled drop-in dates/times we will be happy to schedule a 1:1 personal consultation session with you! Just simply fill out this consultation form.

Setting Up Your Blackboard Course - Self-paced

Register for our online, self-paced course to learn the basics of Blackboard. Get your course up and running with a solid foundation. Topics include; basic understanding course navigation and menu, identifying various tools, setting up assessment items, organizing delivery of course content and course file management best practices.

Self-Enroll

Faculty will earn 3 - 7 CTE Knight Points for each workshop and/or webinar attended. The course will also be a handy tool to refer back to while working in your course(s).

Upcoming Learning Events:

Spring Semester 2026

🧹 Blackboard Content Cleanup

📍 Location: Warwick Campus, CIT Room 4100
🗓️ Dates:
Thursday, February 6 2026 | 10:00–11:00 AM
Thursday, March 6 2026 | 10:00–11:00 AM
Thursday, April 3 2026 | 10:00–11:00 AM
💬 Followed by: Open drop-in support until 1:00 PM

Description:

Looking to weed your content collection in preparation for a clean transition to the new LMS? Learn how to safely remove outdated, hidden, or duplicate files using Blackboard’s 360° Content Tool. This hands-on session will walk you through how to identify unused materials, update broken links, and organize your Content Collection to prepare for our inevitable LMS migration. Get the cleanest course copy you ever had! Bring your laptop

🖥 Blackboard Basics: Tools, Navigation & Communication

📍 Location: Warwick Campus, CIT Room 4100 
🗓️ Dates:

• Thursday, January 22 2026  | 10:00–11:00 AM
• Thursday, February 12 2026 | 10:00–11:00 AM
•  💬 Followed by drop-in support until 1:00 PM

Description:

New to Blackboard or just need a refresher? This workshop covers the essential tools and features every instructor should know. Learn how to navigate your course, post announcements, upload materials, create assignments, communicate with students, and manage your Grade Center. Great for new faculty or anyone looking to build confidence in Blackboard. Bring your laptop or use one of our lab computers.

🎥 Video Captioning Solutions

📍 Location: Warwick Campus, CIT Room 4100
🗓️ Thursday, January 29 2026 | 10:00–11:00 AM
💬 Followed by drop-in support until 1:00 PM

Description:

Improve accessibility and student engagement with practical video captioning strategies. This session introduces CCRI-supported tools such as Medial v.9 (featuring AI Auto-Captioning, quizzing, and more) as well as Microsoft Stream. We’ll also cover best practices for transcript uploads and WCAG 2.2 compliance. Bring your laptop or use one of our lab computers.

More About OLT Drop-in Support Lab Sessions for Faculty:

The Online Learning and Technology (OLT) team invites all CCRI faculty to attend our Blackboard drop-in lab sessions for one-on-one support each semester start-- No appointment needed!

You may bring your laptop, or use any available desktop computers in the lab. Sessions are held at the Center for Institutional Technology (CIT), Room 4100, at the start of each term. Check often for updated dates and times! (see graphic below for details).

This infographic outlines the Blackboard Faculty Drop-In Lab schedule. Full details are provided in accessible text on this page.

• Important: Please embed Medial videos before copying courses for J-Term or Spring to avoid fixing Medial videos in multiple sections
• Get Started: For detailed instructions, please refer to the "Embed a Medial Video" article.
• Join Medial Support Drop-in Lab Sessions Every Thursday | Warwick Campus CIT Rm 4100 (holidays excluded).
• See also step-by-step Medial Embed guide and drop-in details below:

This infographic visually summarizes the Medial Drop-In Lab and embedding instructions. The full step-by-step instructions are provided below on this page.

This infographic provides step-by-step instructions for embedding Medial videos into Blackboard. All session details are provided in text below.

Updating Blackboard Medial Videos

Online Learning and Technology wants to inform you of an important change in Blackboard’s support for the Medial building block tool. As part of a Blackboard system-wide update, the Medial tool Blackboard integration will be retired on December 31, 2024. Medial is not going away, only the access through Blackboard will be going away.

Here's what to expect:

1. Existing Blackboard Medial videos will no longer function.
2. The Medial tool will disappear from the Blackboard menu.
3. Medial will still be available for faculty outside of Blackboard by logging into medial.ccri.edu

If no action is taken, existing Medial videos which were placed via the Medial tool will no longer play, and only nonfunctioning thumbnail images will remain. Please know that although the Medial-Blackboard integration will no longer be available, you will still have continued use of the Medial platform outside of Blackboard by logging directly into: medial.ccri.edu. To avoid disruption, please follow our work-around found in the step-by-step Medial Embed guide to re-embed the Medial content into your courses.