Faculty Resources
Technology Courses, Webinars, Training, and Professional Development
This resources page provides faculty and staff with helpful digital training, resources, and tools to successfully continue working remotely from home, professionally and personally.
Scroll down through the page to see all the useful information and tools available to you or select from the links to the right to be taken to a specific section of interest on the page.
Faculty Quick Links
Below are a set of important links for faculty to start the semester.
- Sample Welcome Email to Students: Use this template to send your introductory email to students stating important information about your course.
- Student Resources: Below are three resources to share with students. You can post this information in your Blackboard course or you can share this via email too.
- Instructional Videos: These short instructional videos cover CUNYfirst, an overview of MyLaGuardia, accessing student email, contacting faculty, and an overview of Blackboard. You can access all videos here.
- QuickStart Guide: This PDF document is a written guide to navigate different digital tools students will need to access including information in case they need technology equipment.
- Schedule Builder & CUNYfirst Student Guide: This guide shows students how to access Schedule Builder, search for courses, determine course modality, enroll/add courses, etc.
- Wellness Center Information: The Wellness Center offers free and confidential counseling services via Zoom or by phone to all students. To make an appointment, students can be directed to email wellnesscenter@lagcc.cuny.edu or call 718.482.5471. Faculty can also use the same contact information if they have any questions/concerns and would like to speak with a counselor. For more information, please visit our faculty/staff webpage.
- Assessment Information:Assessment at LaGuardia is a process designed to support meaningful learning and development—for students, of course, but also for faculty, staff, and the College as a whole. For more information visit LaGuardia’s Assessment webpage.
Increase Your Knowledge Through CUNY/CIS-Provided Training
You can view the CISTraining’s Stream channels with curated video clips from previously recorded webinars, designed to help walk you through the most common tasks and actions within various CUNY-provided systems. For upcoming webinar registrations, visit the CIS Training calendar. Remember to log in with your CUNY Login, which is the same @login.cuny.edu credentials you use to access CUNYfirst and Blackboard.
CUNY Cybersecurity
- CUNY Security Page
- Zoom Security Protocols
- Cybersecurity Training for Faculty & Staff
- Keeping Safe – DO’S & DONT’S
- Computer Use Policy
- CUNY Security Alert – Pishing Campaign Examples
Hispanic Educational Technology Services (HETS) Helps You and Your Students
LaGuardia I.T. is a member of HETS which allows all LaGuardia faculty, staff, and students to benefit from the many valuable services HETS offers.
HETS regularly schedules webinars in English and Spanish regarding technology, distance learning, and related topics to support faculty and administrators on this new modality.
For more HETS tools, resources, and tips about teaching, teaches/Health_Services/Coronology and productivity in a higher education scenario to better serve students, visit the Faculty & Administrators Placita (Plaza).
Blackboard Webinars, Recorded Training, and How-to Videos
- Converting Your Course for Distance Learning – Facilitated by Jennifer Arroyo (Business and for Technology)
- Blackboard Effective Teaching – Facilitated by Neetu Kaushik (Social Sciences)
- Blackboard Collaborate Ultra – Facilitated by Jose Castro (IT)
- Blackboard Orientation – Facilitated by Jetmir Troshani (IT)
- Blackboard Q&A Session for Faculty – Facilitated by Pablo Avila
- Blackboard Q&A Session on Grade Center (Level III) and BB Collaborate Ultra – Moderated by Pablo Avila and Priscilla Stadler from the CTL and with hands-on support from Jetmir Troshani and Jose Castro from LaGuardia’s IT division.
- Blackboard Q&A Session on Tests and Grade Center (Level II) – Moderated by Pablo Avila and Priscilla Stadler from the CTL and with hands-on support from Jetmir Troshani and Jose Castro from LaGuardia’s IT division.
- Blackboard Q&A Session on Discussion Boards and Grade Center –Moderated by Pablo Avila and Priscilla Stadler from the CTL and with hands-on support from Jetmir Troshani and Jose Castro from LaGuardia’s IT division.
Blackboard How-to Videos – Presented by Jose Castro and Jetmir Troshani
CUNY
Zoom Trainings and How-to Videos
- For topic-specific information on How to Use Zoom watch these Instructional Tutorial Videos.
- Zoom Meetings for Education (Webinar Recording) – Discover the power of virtual teaching and learning in the Zoom classroom. ZOOM will show you the steps and best practices from two points of view: student (downloading the app then joining and participating in the class), and teacher (scheduling, joining, hosting, and in-meeting tools) before wrapping up with live Q&A.
- Zoom for Real-Time (Synchronous) Learning – Facilitated by Olga Akcakale (English)
- Zoom Training Workshop for Faculty (Level I) – Facilitated by Pablo Avila (CTL)
- CUNY ZOOM login instructions
Share handouts with students too. - CUNY Login Help Page
If you don’t remember your CUNY login credentials. - Learn how to enable live captioning.
- Tips for a Smooth ZOOM Class
From the Graduate Center. - Virtual backgrounds from LaGuardia
Use a repository of images to add as a virtual background in your ZOOM meetings; encourage your students to use them too.
Dropbox Training and How-to Videos
- Overview of Dropbox Paper, DropBox Showcase, and Firefox Send – Moderated by Pablo Avila and Priscilla Stadler from the CTL and presented by Charles Keyes from the Library.
- Set up your CUNY Dropbox account
so that you can upload your video recordings to a folder and share the link to it with your students via Blackboard. See our webinar on how to set up your Dropbox account. - List of training materials and how-to videos
Using Navigate to Support Students
Navigate is a platform for viewing student profiles, sending emails or texts, issuing referrals and alerts, and more. Visit the Faculty Navigate Info page for detailed guides and videos.
Webinars and Recorded Training to Help You Teach Remotely
- Student Engagement with Distance Learning – Facilitated by Neetu Kaushik (Social Science) and Richa Gupta (Natural Science)
- Synchronous (Real-time) vs. Asynchronous Teaching: Why and How? – Facilitated by Nicole Maguire (Business and Technology) and Neetu Kaushik (Social Sciences)
- Academic Integrity for Distance Learning – Facilitated by Neetu Kaushik (Social Sciences)
- Active Distance Learning with Cool Tools – Facilitated by Milena Cuellar (MEC)
Technology Support and Access
Work and Life Support
Managing Stress and More CUNY’s EAP (Employee Assistance Program) provider CCA@YourService offers free assistance, resources, referrals, and counseling available to you any time, any day, for any issue—all provided by qualified professionals. Visit their website, The login code is: cuny. Once on the home page, you can access upcoming online seminars and prerecorded Virtual Support Offerings.For help with any technology, contact the LaGuardia I.T. HelpDesk by:
- Faculty & Staff Portal: From the LaGuardia Web Site choose My LaGuardia > Faculty & Staff, log in, then under Request Support, click on IT HelpDesk
- Email: ITHelp@lagcc.cuny.edu
- Phone: 718-482-6134
- To Know your CUNY (@login.cuny.edu) login and password or find it here by selecting New User or Forgot Username or Forgot Password.
- Blackboard Support at LaGuardia:
Email: blackboardsupport@lagcc.cuny.edu
Phone: 718-482-6121
After Hours: 8 PM – 8 AM, 646-664-2024. - CUNY Blackboard
- Blackboard Help for Instructors
- Blackboard Annotate inline assignment grading tool help.
- Blackboard Session Security Instructions
- Blackboard help
Microsoft 365 for Education is a cloud-based collaboration suite that works with the installed versions of Microsoft Office software you are already using at LaGuardia: Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.
Features:
In addition to the Office applications that you are already using, there are several new apps that are part of Microsoft 365 to enhance collaboration and information sharing with LaGuardia colleagues and students. Microsoft 365 video guides can be found here. Microsoft 365 is reliable, secure, and always up-to-date. Here is a preview of some of the Microsoft 365 apps you can use now:
- Use Forms for polls, quizzes, and surveys, and view the responses in real time.
- Share ideas with colleagues, committees, and project groups with Teams.
- Manage your work using Planner and Tasks.
- Collaborate in real time and develop course material using OneNote and Notebook.
- Brainstorm and map concepts using Sway, a digital storytelling app.
- Organize, share, and access your files on any device with 1 terabyte of space using OneDrive.
Sharing:
Microsoft 365 makes it easier than ever to share documents and collaborate with colleagues and students. Brainstorm and collaborate with colleagues by coauthoring in Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. Share right from your document with a click of a button or use the new features in Outlook to attach files from OneDrive and automatically configure permissions. Office apps pick up right where you left off, regardless of the device you are using. Review, edit, and present your documents across any of your devices — from your PC or Mac to your Apple, and Android phones and tablets.
Office across all of your devices:
CUNY is providing Microsoft Office to all active faculty and staff at no cost via the Microsoft Office in Education program. Each active employee of the University may install this suite of productivity software on up to five personal devices, including desktops and laptops, tablets, and smartphones. This free version includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. The Office 365 license remains active until you leave the University. At that point, you’ll be prompted to pay a license fee to Microsoft or can opt to stop using Microsoft Office.
This CUNY page will provide you with a variety of resources to help you navigate and utilize the sharing and collaborative services provided by the Microsoft Office365 platform, including the following applications:
- Excel 365 – the cloud version of MS Excel;
- OneDrive – the cloud storage service;
- OneNote – free-form information gathering collaboration tool;
- PowerPoint 365 – the cloud version of MS PowerPoint;
- Teams – a unified communication and collaboration platform that combines that, video meetings, file storage, and app integration;
- Word 365 – the cloud version of MS Word.
If you have any questions about Microsoft Office 365 training contact CISTraining@cuny.edu
We are excited to inform you that LaGuardia has successfully replaced our previous College-wide ticketing system, SysAid, with ServiceNow, a cloud-based system. This transition has significantly improved our efficiency, security, and our ability to connect, manage, integrate, and respond to help desk ticket requests.
As part of a university-wide change across CUNY, most campuses have already transitioned to ServiceNow to take advantage of the multitude of benefits offered by the new system.
Our dedicated team is available to provide the necessary support to ensure a smooth transition to the new system.
- See the Portal in Action
- Learn How to Create a ServiceNow Ticket
- Browse IT Services
- Request Support
If you have any questions regarding ServiceNow, please contact ITHelp@lagcc.cuny.edu
- To access your ZOOM account, go to ZOOM portal page and choose Sign in. You will be taken to familiar CUNY login prompt where you enter yourFirstname.LastnameNN@login.cuny.edu login credentials to reach your account.
- Using the ZOOM web-based portal is the best way to reach the ZOOM site. For Desktop and Mobile App users: Use Sign-In with SSO and the Company Domain: CUNY to use your CUNYFirst Login. For more detailed instructions with screenshots use this link for a printable PDF: Login Instructions
- ZOOM security protocols/practices are required for campuses, programs, academic departments, offices, faculty or staff that use ZOOM for any CUNY related activities.
- ZOOM installers and plugins are available for all platforms and the latest versions can be downloaded from the online Help Center
- Technical Support is available from ZOOM. As a licensed user you can go to the ZOOM Tech Help Center and Login support Issues can be reported to LaGuardia campus IT using the e-mail: ZoomHelp@lagcc.cuny.edu.
- Applications and services provided to faculty across CUNY
- CUNY-wide Software Licenses
- CUNY FAQS
Accessing and using CUNY technology to support remote teaching, learning and work.
- CUNY IT Help to browse IT Services, find answers and reach tech resources.”
- Brought online by CUNY in August
- For those interested, the Ex Libris Developer Network provides information about Alma APIs and other developer information
- If this is something you want to use, please email: Allie Verbovetskaya University Director of Library Systems Office of Library Services, alevtina.verbovetskaya@cuny.edu
Additional Resources
- LaGuardia Faculty & Staff Portal
- Project Management Request Form
- CUNY Guidance on Academic Continuity
- The Center for Learning in Practice: Higher Education – Teaching & Learning Café
Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) Training
Helpful Student Links to Share with Your Students
Blackboard Support
- How to check your grades on Blackboard
- Blackboard Support for Students (from Blackboard Enterprise)
- Blackboard Support for Students (from LaGuardia)
- Blackboard Guides
- Blackboard Collaborate Ultra Guides (For students and faculty)
- Blackboard After hours support
Contact Information for Student Blackboard Support:
Phone: 718-482-6121
Email: Blackboard Support
ePortfolio Support
- ePortfolio guides for students
- How to login, create, and share an ePortfolio
- How to add content to an ePortfolio
- How to customize the navigation of an ePortfolio
- How to use the Organize Tool to move ePortfolio content
Supporting Students
- Student Resources Website Page
- Mental Health Forum: Supporting Students’ Mental Health During the Pandemic – Facilitated by Frank LaTerra-Bellino, Matthew Joffe, and Shante Bassett
- Netiquette Guide for Students
Other Resources
- The Writing Center
- The Student Netiquette Guide for Distance Learning
- LaGuardia Distance Learning Student Resources Website, including information about requesting laptops.