Center for Teaching and Learning
Faculty Blackboard Ally
Blackboard Learn Ally is a powerful tool designed to significantly enhance your teaching experience and ensure your course content is accessible to all students. Think of Ally as your built‑in accessibility assistant within Blackboard Learn. Its primary function is to automatically scan your course materials—documents, presentations, videos, and more—and provide you with immediate feedback on their accessibility. This means you can proactively identify and address any barriers that might prevent students with disabilities from fully engaging with your course content. Ally doesn’t just point out problems; it also offers practical, step‑by‑step guidance and even automated remediation options, making the process of creating inclusive learning environments more manageable and less time‑consuming.
This Quick Start guide is your fast track to understanding and utilizing Ally effectively. Whether you're looking to identify and fix accessibility issues within your existing materials or proactively create more inclusive content from the outset, Ally empowers you to make a significant difference with minimal effort. By the end of this guide, you'll be equipped with the essential knowledge to navigate Ally, interpret its feedback, and take actionable steps toward a more accessible and equitable learning environment for your students.
Open the Ally Quick Start web tutorial to learn more.
Ally automatically transforms your existing course files into a variety of alternative formats, such as HTML, tagged PDFs, ePub, audio versions, and more, directly within your Blackboard course. By leveraging Ally, you can proactively address the needs of students with disabilities, diverse learning styles, and those who simply prefer to engage with content in a different way, ultimately fostering a more inclusive and effective educational experience for everyone.
Open the Alternative Formats web tutorial to learn more.
One of Ally's key features is its accessibility scoring system, which provides instructors with immediate feedback on the accessibility of their course materials. This introduction will guide you through understanding these scores, empowering you to identify areas for improvement and make your course content more inclusive. By leveraging Ally's insights, you can proactively address potential barriers to learning and ensure that every student has an equitable opportunity to engage with your course.
Open the Accessibility Scores web tutorial to learn more.
The Course Accessibility Report provides you with clear insights into the accessibility of your uploaded content within Blackboard, highlighting areas that may present barriers and offering actionable guidance to make necessary adjustments. By reviewing this report, you'll be empowered to create a more inclusive learning environment, fostering greater engagement and success for all your students.
Open the Course Accessibility Report web tutorial to learn more.
As you add documents, presentations, and other resources to your lessons, Ally automatically generates an accessibility score for each item, visually represented by an icon. These icons are strategically placed next to your files within lesson modules or any area where you manage your course content, serving as a quick indicator of their current accessibility status. By selecting this intuitive icon, you unlock a wealth of information and actionable insights designed to help you understand and improve the accessibility of your materials, ensuring a more equitable learning experience for every student.
Open the File Accessibility web tutorial to learn more.
Once you have located the accessibility score for a piece of content, you can begin to explore specific issues and implement improvements to enhance its accessibility, ultimately raising the score. Accessible content is not just a best practice; it's a necessity for all audiences, and Ally equips you with the necessary insights and functionalities to understand common accessibility challenges and effectively refine your course materials.
Whether you're new to Ally or looking to deepen your understanding of its features, these FAQs will guide you through everything from understanding accessibility reports and making real-time content improvements to leveraging Ally's tools to create a more inclusive learning environment for all your students.
Open the FAQs web tutorial to learn more.
Anthology is deeply committed to ensuring that all its products and services are not only user‑friendly but also readily accessible to everyone, regardless of their abilities. This commitment is further reinforced by its adherence to the internationally recognized Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), a principle that has long been a cornerstone of its leadership in this vital area, ensuring its offerings are built with universal access in mind.
Open the Accessibility in Ally for Blackboard web tutorial to learn more.
Contact Us
- Center for Teaching and Learning
- Governors State University - C Building
- 708-534-4115
- blackboard@govst.edu