What is B-ROLL?

B-ROLL is supplemental footage inserted as a cutaway under narration or interview that helps tell the story. It can be used to introduce a segment or to cover a speaker’s audio or video miscues.

Acquiring B-ROLL

Multimedia Services has a significant amount of B-ROLL, however, there are projects that are so specific that we will not have the exact material required. In these situations, the producer will need to schedule a day(s) to acquire the footage. In some cases, scenarios may need to be created. If B-ROLL needs to be recorded off campus, permits may be required.

Requesting Access to B-ROLL Previously Captured

We currently grant access to existing B-ROLL via direct request. Our B-ROLL catalog is currently hosted on Sony CI and can be shared with anyone in and outside of FDU upon request. For access to our B-ROLL, please email danielpando@fdu.edu.

Zoom comes equipped with numerous security features to help control online classrooms, prevent disruptions, and support educators in teaching remotely. Below are best practices for securing your virtual classroom using Zoom.

Securing Your Meetings

Blackboard Ultra gives students a modern, streamlined way to access course materials, keep track of due dates, submit assignments, take assessments, review grades and feedback, and communicate with instructors and classmates. This guide brings together essential student tutorials to help you navigate Blackboard confidently and stay on top of your course work.

Getting Started & Navigation

Get an introduction to Blackboard Ultra and the main tools you will use to access course materials, activities, and updates.

Review and update the profile information and settings available through your Blackboard account.

Locate current, upcoming, and previous courses from the Courses page in Blackboard.

Use the course navigation to find content, discussions, grades, messages, and other course-specific tools.

Review recent course activity, new content, grades, and upcoming work from the Activity page.

Use the Blackboard calendar to review due dates and course events and stay organized across your courses.

Choose how and when Blackboard notifies you about course announcements, due dates, grades, and other activity.

Use the browser checker and Blackboard Help resources to confirm that your browser is ready for course work.

Course Content & Tools

Learn how common Blackboard content types are presented so you can find files, learning modules, links, and activities.

Use the Blackboard content editor to format text and add links or media when completing course activities.

Assignments & Assessments

Learn how to open assignments, review instructions and due dates, and understand submission status.

Upload your work, review the attached files, and submit an assignment in Blackboard.

Find instructor comments, grades, and other feedback after an assignment has been reviewed.

Learn how SafeAssign works within the Blackboard assignment submission process.

Review assessment details and complete the recommended checks before beginning a Blackboard test.

Navigate test questions, enter your responses, and submit a completed assessment in Blackboard.

Review your test results, submitted responses, scores, and instructor feedback when they are available.

Learn how to answer hotspot questions by selecting the requested area within an image.

Grades & Progress

Use the Gradebook to review scores, submission status, and feedback across your course work.

Use the How Am I Doing? report to understand your activity and progress within a course.

Find and review course grades from the Blackboard mobile app.

Discussions & Collaboration

Open course discussions, create a response, and reply to classmates or your instructor.

Read and send course messages to communicate with instructors and classmates within Blackboard.

Create and manage journal entries for reflective or instructor-guided course activities.

Use Blackboard group spaces and tools to collaborate with classmates on shared course work.

Blackboard Ultra gives instructors a modern, streamlined way to manage courses, communicate with students, deliver engaging content, and assess learning in one centralized platform. This guide brings together essential instructor resources—covering navigation, announcements, discussions, grading, assessments, course content, and student management—to help you work more efficiently and get the most out of Blackboard Ultra, whether you’re setting up a course for the first time or refining an existing one.

Navigation & Getting Started

Locate your course list immediately after logging in. You can view current, past, and upcoming courses from the “Courses” page in the global navigation menu.

Find Your Course

Access global tools such as your Profile, Activity Stream, Calendar, Messages, and Grades from the main menu on the left side of the screen, outside of any specific course context.

Navigate Outside Your Course

Use the course navigation bar (usually at the top) to access Course Content, Calendar, Discussions, Gradebook, and Messages specific to that course.

Navigate Inside a Course

This page (often the “Activity Stream”) highlights important updates such as new content, grades, and due dates, featuring institutional announcements at the top.

Activity Page

Helps students stay organized by automatically populating due dates from assessments and content. Instructors can also add custom events.

Calendar

A tool to share updates, reminders, and weekly overviews with students. You can schedule them in advance to maintain consistent communication.

Announcements

View your course exactly as students will see it before making it available. Use this feature to verify content visibility, layout, and the overall student-facing experience without publishing live changes.

Enter a temporary student account within your course to experience it as a student would. You can submit test submissions and review results to confirm that content and assessments behave as intended.

Customize how and when you receive alerts about student activity, discussion posts, assignment submissions, and course updates. Proper configuration helps you stay informed without being overwhelmed by notifications.

Learn how Blackboard Ultra supports an inclusive learning environment through built-in accessibility features, including screen reader compatibility, keyboard navigation, and tools for creating accessible course content.

Discussions & Communication

Facilitate class-wide conversations to encourage peer interaction and critical thinking. You can set up graded or ungraded forums.

Create Discussions

Instructors and students can reply to threads and posts directly within the discussion board to maintain the conversation flow.

Respond to Discussions

Monitor student engagement and participation levels within discussion forums to assess their activity.

View Discussion Performance and Analytics

Create discussions specific to groups of students to foster smaller, focused collaboration.

Group Discussions

Edit, delete, or organize discussion threads and forums to keep the conversation relevant and appropriate.

Manage Discussions

Find specific posts or threads within the discussion board for review or grading.

Search and Collect Discussions

Communicate privately with students or groups within the course context. This is distinct from email and keeps course-related queries in one place.

Send Messages

View the list of enrolled students and other course members. It is often used to manage course roles and accommodations.

Roster

Access detailed progress reports and activity logs for individual students to track their performance and engagement.

Student Overview

Set up private or shared student journals to support individual reflection, formative writing, and ongoing communication between you and each student throughout the course.

Record audio or video feedback directly within the gradebook to provide students with richer, more personal responses to their work—an effective alternative to written-only comments.

Monitor and record student attendance directly within your course. You can manually update attendance records or configure automatic tracking tied to participation or login activity.

Grading & Assessments

Use the Gradebook to review student submissions, manage grades, track progress, and keep assessment information organized within your course.

Review assignment submissions, enter grades, and provide feedback so students can understand their performance and next steps.

Use flexible grading tools to review test submissions efficiently, move between students and questions, and focus on the grading workflow that works best for the assessment.

Grade student discussion participation, review responses, and provide feedback from the discussion grading workflow.

Create and manage rubrics to define grading criteria, communicate expectations, and support more consistent evaluation of student work.

Apply rubric criteria while grading submissions to provide structured feedback and align scores with the expectations shared with students.

Set time limits for tests and other assessments to manage availability, pacing, and completion expectations for students.

Configure tests to show one question at a time when you want students to move through an assessment in a more controlled sequence.

Content Management

The primary action to build your course. You can create new items, upload files, or import content from other sources using the plus (+) sign in the Course Content area.

Add Content

Build content pages directly in the course that can combine text, images, and other media elements into a single viewable item.

Creating Documents

Use the content editor to type instructions, descriptions, or lessons directly into Documents, Assignments, or Tests.

Add Text

Upload files (documents, images, slides) from your computer directly into the text editor for students to view or download.

Insert Local File in the Content Editor

Blackboard supports a wide range of file formats for upload, including standard office documents, PDFs, and media files.

Supported File Types

Create shortcuts within your course content that link students directly to other tools or materials (e.g., a link in Week 1 content that leads to a Test).

Course Links

Add direct links to external websites and resources as standalone items in your course content.

Web Links

Build structured, step-by-step learning paths that guide students through course materials in a set sequence. Learning Modules support conditional release to help you control the pace of student progress.

Set rules that control when content, assessments, or activities become accessible to students based on criteria such as specific dates, prior completions, or group membership.

Reuse materials by copying content items, folders, or entire banks from your previous courses into the current one.

Copy Content From Other Courses

Create a downloadable package of your course content for backup purposes or to share with another institution.

Export and Archive Courses

FDU faculty can access these recorded Zoom training sessions to learn the essentials of teaching with Blackboard Ultra. The three-part series covers key areas of course setup and management, including Getting Started with Blackboard Ultra, creating and managing Assignments and Tests, and using the Gradebook to track student performance. These recordings are designed to help instructors become more comfortable navigating Blackboard Ultra and preparing their courses for students.

Getting Started

Gradebook

Assignments and Tests

FDU’s Acceptable Use Policy prohibits running software that accepts incoming connections from other computers. Programs such as BitTorrent or other P2P file sharing hosting program all contain server components that allow others to connect to your computer and retrieve files off of your system. In addition to the legal implications of sharing copyrighted materials, file sharing software creates a security concern. Improper use of these programs could result in the compromise of your private files and may leave your system open to attacks from other computers.

To view FDU’s stance on this issue in its entirety, please view the document below.

Fairleigh Dickinson University’s implementation of Box.com is designed to enable secure, scalable, and collaborative file sharing and content management between members of the FDU community and parties external to the institution.

The platform offers:

• Unlimited cloud storage for academic, administrative, and research content
• Secure access and sharing with encryption and granular permission controls
• Seamless collaboration with internal and external users via shared folders and links
• Integration with tools such as Microsoft 365, Zoom, and Adobe Sign
• Version control and file recovery, minimizing data loss and ensuring continuity
• Mobile and remote access for flexible work from any device

Fairleigh Dickinson University has a limited number of licenses available for qualified faculty and staff to use Box.com. Qualified in this case is defined as FDU faculty and staff members who have an approved business need to share confidential information with parties external to the University.

To acquire a license for Box.com, a user must complete a request form located on samisupport.fdu.edu using the link below:

Box License Reqest Form

Once a license is provided and a folder built, the licensee has complete accountability of the data and any access provided to others. As with any sensitive information, the licensee is reminded to pay careful attention to following WISP guidelines and when in doubt, ask before sharing content.

Getting Started

Logging into Box

Follow these steps to log in to your FDU Box account:

1. Go to fdu.box.com

FDU Box Login

2. Click “Continue” to proceed to the FDU network login
3. Complete the FDU Single Sign-On process

Learn how to create a new subfolder in your Box account, upload content, and share it with your colleagues.

Creating a New Subfolder

1. Click “New” in the upper-right corner
2. Click “Folder”
3. In the pop-up window, enter a name for your folder. You can also invite collaborators at this step. If you don’t invite anyone, the folder will remain private
4. Click “Create”

Uploading a File or Folder

1. In the All Files section, click “New” in the upper-right corner
2. Select “File Upload” or “Folder Upload”, depending on your needs
3. Choose the file(s) or folder to upload
   • Use Command (macOS) or Control (Windows) to select multiple files.

4. Click “Open” or “Upload”

You can share Box content in two primary ways:

• Inviting collaborators to files or folders
• Sending shared links

Adding Collaborators

A collaborator is someone you invite into a file or folder. The shared item will appear in their All Files view.

1. Hover over the row of the file or folder you want to share
2. Click “Share” on the right to open the Share window
3. Under “Invite People”, click “Add names or email addresses” and enter the collaborator’s details
4. Use the “Invite as” drop-down to assign a role
5. Type a message in the “Message” field (this step is optional and has a character limit of 750)
6. Click “Send”

Sending a Shared Link

Shared links allow quick access to content for both internal and external users.

1. Hover over the file or folder you want to share
2. Click “Copy Shared Link” on the right. The Shared Link window will open
3. Choose one of the following access levels:
   • People with the link: Anyone with the link can access. Add password protection, expiration, or restrict downloads if needed
   • People in your company: Only Box users with your organization’s email domain can access
   • Invited people only: Only invited collaborators can access the content
4. Choose allowed actions for recipients:
   • Can edit: Edit, comment, annotate, and download
   • Can view and download: View and download only
   • Can view only: View within Box but cannot download or edit
5. Copy and paste the link into your preferred app (email, messaging, etc.)

When allowing other to access a folder, here is breakdown of permission levels:

To manage existing collaborators:

1. Click the three dots to the right of the folder
2. Hover over “More Actions”, then click “Manage Collaborators”

Project Quotes

Upon request, we are able to provide an initial quote for your video project, giving you an estimated cost. For a more accurate estimate, please provide as many details as possible about the project. To initiate your video project and request a quote, please email danielpando@fdu.edu.

Invoicing After Project Completion

Once a project is completed, an invoice will be generated that accurately reflects the predetermined cost associated with the production. An e-mail will be sent to the initial contractor of the production, and a GL account number will be requested to be added to the invoice and sent to Finance to complete the transfer.

NJ Campuses

Dial the University Switchboard

Florham Campus (973)-443-8500
Metropolitan Campus (201)-692-2000

Dial the Campus Voicemail System

Florham Campus (973)-443-8100
Metropolitan Campus (201)-692-7600

Dial 411, you will hear a recorded message regarding campus closures.

Vancouver Campuses

An email message will be issued regarding campus closures.

FDU offers cellular phones to Faculty and Staff members when approved by a Vice President or Officer of the University.

Mobile Communication Device Request Form

To place an order for a cellular phone (new or for an existing phone upgrade), please fill out the form below:

Mobile Communication Device Request Form

Approved accessories, such as a case, screen protector, charging cable and plug, will be provided with the purchase of a new phone.

Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Cellular Policy can be reviewed below: