Ready to Teach Week; order your course sites

2 Feb 2026

Ready to Teach Week starts next week!

Join ITaLI from Monday 9 to Friday 13 February for Ready to Teach Week! Register to attend the diverse line-up of hands-on sessions on offer, designed to help you prepare for the upcoming semester. Ready to Tutor Week is also just around the corner and will be held from Tuesday 24 to Thursday 26 February.

Explore these Ready to Teach Week event highlights:

Have you ordered your Semester 1 site(s)?

In preparation for Semester 1, 2026, you can now order your Learn.UQ (Blackboard) course sites for courses previously delivered in Ultra or still using Original. New Ultra course sites should already be available to you.

See the guide >>

Turnitin update

A Turnitin vendor update was deployed on Tuesday 27 January for use in Semester 1, 2026 courses. This update includes an enhanced similarity report, mark range rubrics, decimal totals, individual student extensions, and improved workflows for marking and managing submissions.

Course coordinators should delete and replace any existing Turnitin submission links in Blackboard to ensure they use the updated tool.

Find out more >>

Student preferred names in Blackboard

The next stage of the Student Preferred Names Initiative will introduce the use of students’ preferred names in Blackboard and connected subsystems such as Turnitin etc. From the start of O-Week Semester 1, the first name displayed in Blackboard will be sourced from the preferred first name field, if set by the student in mySI-net.

View the project page >>

New lectern PC web sign-in

UQ has introduced a new sign-in experience for Lectern PCs called Web Sign-In. This feature lets UQ staff log in using their UQ username and password, and includes Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) as part of the login process. This allows you to use applications such as Microsoft Teams, Office, and Microsoft Edge to sign in without further MFA prompts.

View the guide >>

Find out more >>

Getting your course ready for the semester

For new staff in Semester 1, 2026 the Getting started with Learn.UQ (Ultra) guides provide information about UQ eLearning tools, support, ordering courses and adding content. Attend a Learn.UQ Ultra Basics workshop or complete the Learn.UQ Ultra Basics self-paced online module.

Complete the Course Setup Checklist to ensure you have correctly set up your Learn.UQ course.

See the Getting started guide >>

Copy course content

You can copy content into your new Learn.UQ course site from a previous Ultra course, import content from an Original course, or copy items from elsewhere within the same course. Remember to review dates, links and assessment settings after copying

See the Copy course content guide >>

How accessible is your Blackboard course content?

Accessibility tools are available in Blackboard to help you identify and improve the accessibility of your course content. Use the Instructor Feedback Panel to view detailed guidance on how to fix identified issues with specific items and access the Course Accessibility Report to view accessibility improvements at a course level.

Alternative formats

Students will be able to automatically generate a range of alternate formats for course materials that teaching staff can upload to Blackboard including HTML, ePub, electronic braille, audio, Beeline Reader, tagged PDF, OCRed PDF and Immersive Reader.

See the Blackboard Ally guides >>

Microsoft Teams site created for each course

A Microsoft Teams site is now automatically created for each Learn.UQ course site. Activation of each course Teams site is at the discretion of the course coordinator.

Review the Teams for Teaching and Learning Guide >>

Staff training now available for supporting students with mental health concerns

The UQ Counselling Team has designed an in-person workshop to build staff awareness and skills on how to identify and support students with signs of mental health concerns. This training is available for all staff and will cover specific support services available to students and the pathways to follow when making referrals. 

Learn more and register >>

What's on

eLearning online workshops (Zoom)

Learn.UQ Ultra Basics | 3 February, 17 February, 10am–12noon
Learn.UQ Ultra Assignments | 3 February, 1–2:30pm
Turnitin | 4 February, 10–12noon
Learn.UQ Ultra Tests | 4 February, 1–2:30pm
Microsoft Teams for Teaching and Learning | 5 February, 10am–12noon
Learn.UQ Ultra Gradebook | 18 February, 10am–12noon

eLearning training (self-paced)

Teaching and learning support

eLearning support

For technical support with central eLearning tools, email eLearning support.

eLearning Advisers

To receive pedagogical advice from UQ's leading teaching technology experts on using our central eLearning tools, including how to select and configure learning technologies, book a Zoom consultation with an eLearning Adviser.

Workshops

Workshops (via Zoom) and self-paced online modules are available for a variety of systems and tools. eLearning advisers are available to deliver custom workshops in your school or faculty. Organise a custom workshop.

Learning Designers

Learning Designers provide pedagogical support to academics in curriculum and assessment design, collaborating on learning experiences and activities, and integration of evidence-informed teaching and learning practices.

For faculty or school-level support, please refer to the list of Learning Designers in your area.

Educational Media Production

The ITaLI Educational Media Production Team works closely with academics and Learning Designers to produce educational videos, audio content, graphics and animations that support teaching and learning initiatives across UQ. If you have a project that could benefit from video, animation or graphic design, you are invited to submit an Expression of Interest.