Other Frequently Asked Questions

If you don’t find an answer to your question(s), please use the contact form to submit your question(s) to the IDMP Studio. A representative from the IDMP Studio will contact you to provide you with an answer to your question(s).

Whether you are teaching online or in the classroom, instructional designers can help you:

  • Design accessible course elements, including course goals, learning objectives, assessments, learning activities, and instructional materials. 
  • Develop engaging, high-quality curriculum, instruction, and courses.
  • Leverage educational technology aligned with course goals to enhance learning activities.
  • Implement effective synchronous or asynchronous pedagogy.
  • Overcome instructional challenges (e.g., student engagement, student performance, etc.).
  • Determine how to collect and review data and feedback for continuous quality improvements.
  • Improve student performance and outcomes in courses.

Yes, you can schedule instructional design consultations throughout the year for support with updating your course site.

Or email LTS for technical assistance with Blackboard at LTS@uic.edu.

Because each course has a storage limit of 2GB, do not upload videos directly to your course. Instead, share videos using Panopto. Panopto allows you to record, edit, caption, and upload videos to Blackboard. Videos can also include graded assessments. Videos uploaded to Panopto can be accessed from multiple courses. You can also email LTS@uic.edu to request that your Zoom recordings automatically be uploaded to Panopto. Learn more about Panopto . Panopto is often used to record lectures ahead of class, while Echo360 is often used to record in-class lectures. Learn more about Echo360 .

If you need to upload video or presentations that students need to comment on or have discussions about, use VoiceThread. It can be used for graded assessments and can function similarly to a discussion board that is multimedia based. Learn more about VoiceThread.  You can also embed a YouTube video into your course. Find out how to embed a YouTube video into Blackboard.

Schedule class meetings using the Zoom tool within your Blackboard course. See step-by-step instructions for using the Zoom tool.

Share Zoom recordings by recording your meetings to the cloud, then manually share the recording link as an item in Blackboard, or email LTS@uic.edu to have your Zoom recordings automatically shared to Panopto.

Upload presentations to Panopto or VoiceThread. Both allow integration with assessments, but Panopto will allow you to make quizzes integrated into the slideshow.

Use Panopto if you would like to record yourself speaking during the slideshow. Use VoiceThread if you would like students to have discussions about the presentation.