A while back, I wrote a post about what, exactly, the plan was for our transition to Ultra.
It all started with a pilot only a year ago. Then a lot of training from the Learning Technologies department. And, for some of us, a progressive transition to Ultra.
The key feature of the plan was to put faculty in charge of their own transition, either individually, or by department.
That is still the plan, along with the hard deadline of everyone on Ultra by Spring 2026.
How Far Are We Into The Transition?
Well, not far enough.
Some curricular areas, such as Dual Credit and Continuing Ed and a few others, are fully on Ultra.
A few of us have fully migrated individually.
But for the rest of the academic areas, there is still a lot of work to do.
So…
What’s Worst Case Scenario (Which We’d Like to Avoid)?
What we don’t want to happen is for A LOT of people to open Blackboard before Spring 2026 and realize their course shells look completely different a few days before classes start, or to just wait and convert all their classes over Winter break at the end of Fall 2025. So, yeah, don’t be that person:
What’s wrong with waiting? Well, it’s wrong for the same reason you tell your students not to wait until the last minute before a deadline to start their work. What if you encounter problems? What if you weren’t really paying attention and you have not done any Ultra training?
“Oh, Christine”, you say, “no problem! I’ll just ask someone in Learning Tech to just convert my courses for me”.
Yeah, no.
I don’t speak for the Learning Tech folks but what I can guarantee is that if dozens of us wait until the last minute, and then demand individualized help in a rush before classes start, it’s going to be a ginormous mess. There are only so many people in LT, with only so many hours in the day. Such a demand would overwhelm that department’s capacity very quickly.
Please don’t put them in that position.
Ideally, by Fall 2025, we would hope to have about 90% of all COD classes converted. That would avoid that worst case scenario.
What Can (Should) You Do?
Have you completed any training? If not, well, get going. The training schedule is posted in every Learning Tech newsletter.
If you have completed some training but have not yet switched over to Ultra, why not? Do you think you might more individualized help? Then ask now.
Do you think your classes might need more than just get transitioned over to Ultra? Then, maybe, take the Foundations of Online Teaching courses with me and Gabi Frahm, over the Summer. That might help you get ideas on how to build your classes in Ultra.
If nothing else, make a plan and set a deadline for yourself.
If You’re A Chair…
Encourage your full-time colleagues to switch as soon as possible (Summer 2025 or Fall 2025 at the latest) or to take any training they need (there are still options between now and the end of Spring 2025) ASAP.
Check in with your adjuncts. Do they even know this transition is taking place? Are they aware of the timeline? This is especially the case if your program has adjuncts who only teach, say, one course for your program, and maybe only online. In that case, these adjuncts (who often have full time jobs elsewhere) have no real reason to keep up with what goes on on campus. You don’t want those adjuncts to have the realization I mentioned above at the beginning of Spring 2026.
Therefore ask them if they have completed any training. If not, give them the information that is posted in every Learning Tech newsletter. It contains the latest schedule of training options (on campus, on Zoom, asynchronous). If they have completed some training, ask them what is stopping them from converting in Summer or Fall 2025. Maybe you can help, or Learning Tech can help.
If you have department / program meetings, invite someone from Learning Tech (I know some of you already do that), or me (if you’re really desperate).
On a Personal Note…
I have supported the idea of letting faculty run this transition.
I would very much like it if, when all is said and done, I could say “See? We don’t need administrative directives. Look at how we handled the Ultra transition” as opposed to hearing “we let faculty figure out their transition to Ultra and look what a mess that turned out to be. Next time, we’ll just have an administrative diktat.”
Anyhoo:
