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Announcements For Fall 2023
Reminders
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New Announcements
LockDown Browser and Respondus Monitor: Protect the Integrity of Online Tests
This comprehensive training webinar is intended for instructors who plan to use LockDown Browser and/or Respondus Monitor with online exams. The session provides a detailed demonstration of both applications, including enhancements that make Respondus Monitor even more effective and easy to use.
Click the links to register for the webinar.
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Respondus 4 Question Banks: Quickly Create Online Exams
Find out how Respondus 4.0 allows you to create and manage exams that can be printed to paper or published directly to your LMS, and how the "Test Bank Network" enables instructors to create online tests from official publisher test banks.
Click the link to register for the webinar.
Note: Respondus 4 is a Windows-only software application. To get access to it, contact oatsupport@csustan.edu.
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Take a Workshop, Get Better at Canvas!
OAT is pleased to offer a week-long series of workshops that will get you comfortable using Canvas, the university's primary LMS for course web sites and online teaching. Even instructors with some experience using Canvas can benefit from reviewing the basics and maybe learning something you didn't know the first time!
Five sessions will be offered. Each lasts about one hour and will be held on Zoom. Recordings will be available for anyone who cannot attend live. Simple and free registration is required to aid organizers in planning.
1. Your Canvas Account + Modules: Learn to manage and customize your Canvas account and take a first look at organizing a course by adding files and links to Modules.
Monday, August 7 @ 11 am (registration required)
2. Communicating on Canvas + Ally: Learn about announcements, emailing your class, creating content and links using the Rich Content Editor, as well as how to improve the accessibility of course materials using Ally.
Tuesday, August 8 @ 11 am (registration required)
3. Canvas Quizzes (Classic & New): An introduction to creating quizzes in Canvas. Primary attention will be given to the Classic quiz engine with a brief look at the New quiz engine.
Wednesday, August 9 @ 11 am (registration required)
4. Assignments & Rubrics & Speedgrader, Oh My!: Learn how to build a graded assignment and create a rubric that will be applied using Speedgrader. This session will also show you how to organize course activities to use a weighted grade book.
Thursday, August 10 @ 11 am (registration required)
5. Canvas Potpourri: Discussions, grade book management, tracking attendance, creating custom links, closing courses and handling incompletes.
Friday, August 11 @ 11 am (registration required)
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Canvas Enhancement Workshops
Specialized tools are available to enhance Canvas and improve teaching and learning in an online environment. The tools presented in this series have been purchased by the university and are fully supported by OAT staff.
Five sessions are offered via Zoom, and each lasts about 90 minutes. Simple and free registration is required to help organizers plan.
1. VoiceThread: How do your students design and deliver online presentations? VoiceThread offers a highly flexible and interactive way for students to create multimedia content using a variety of media and invite comments. Generate social presence in asynchronous online courses.
Monday, August 7 from 1-2:30 pm (registration required)
2. Discussions Plus (Powered by Harmonize): Do you struggle to manage the flow of discussions in an online course? Do your students get lost in a long scroll of posts and replies and lose interest in the overall topic? Try Discussions Plus and create multiple due dates ("milestones") within the activity so students can keep track of expectations. Discussions Plus's unique grid layout enhances navigation and ease of use.
Tuesday, August 8 from 1-2:30 pm (registration required)
3. Padlet: Do you need a better way for your students to collect and share bits of information and knowledge? Create a more active and collaborative learning environment using Padlet, a digital bulletin board application that students can contribute to.
Wednesday, August 9 from 1-2:30 pm (registration required)
4. Hypothesis: Are your students coming to class without having done the assigned reading? Use Hypothesis to give them an annotation tool placed right on top of the text and make reading a social aspect of the course!
Thursday, August 10 from 1-2:30 pm (registration required)
5. Enhancements Potpourri: Panopto, Turnitin, Respondus Lockdown Browser
Friday, August 11 from 1-2:30 pm (registration required)
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Reminders
Canvas Support Options for Fall 2023
All Canvas users have access to various support options when questions or problems arise.
Instructors
Options for instructors are:
- Call Canvas support 24x7 (open Help menu)
- Chat with Canvas support 24x7 (open Help menu)
- Email oatsupport@csustan.edu
- Review online documentation
In general, the OIT Tech Support desk cannot help with Canvas issues - all Canvas administration is handled by OAT and it is best to start with one of the options listed above.
Students
Students can get basic support in these ways:
- Chat with Canvas support 24x7 (open Help menu)
- Review online documentation
Any issue that cannot be solved by Canvas support will be redirected to OAT for further assistance.
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OAT/OIT Procedure for Digitizing Complete Films for Educational Use
When an official streaming license for a film is not available or is infeasible in the context of an educational setting, OAT and OIT have developed the following process for handling requests for digitization of entire films or other complete audiovisual works to stream via Panopto to Canvas. In order to work within the limitations of Fair Use and the TEACH Act, all requests are handled on a case by case basis.
Evaluation
The requests to digitize a complete film or other audiovisual work can be sent to oatsupport@csustan.edu where they are first evaluated by Glenn Pillsbury in OAT. For example, existing streaming options that might be available are researched for possible use instead of custom digitization.
In the absence of existing streaming options, the request for digitization must meet the following conditions:
- The content to be digitized is part of direct instruction in a required course activity. The content cannot be optional or available apart from a required course activity.
- The breadth of the activity necessitates access to the entire work.
- The content is only available for the duration of that activity, with the content becoming unavailable after that. Shorter clips of the film can be made available separately for longer time periods.
Instructors must agree to those conditions and specify the start and end date of the course activity. This is needed to properly configure the stream in Panopto.
Completion
If approved, the instructor then creates a support ticket for OIT Learning Services staff to complete the digitization/conversion. Once that is completed, the instructor will be provided with the URL of the stream to use in Canvas. Access to the stream in Panopto requires a Stan State login and password.
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Respondus Lockdown Browser Survey
Do you rely on Lockdown Browser for online quizzes? OAT and OIT periodically evaluate usage of the tools they provide for instructors, and hearing from instructors about usage of Lockdown Browser is an important part of that process.
>> Take the Survey <<
Thank you!
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Using Hypothesis for Instructional Annotations
As an introduction to their product, Hypothesis is holding the following webinar, August 1 @ 9 am PDT.
From the description:
Delve into how educators, like you, can enliven course readings by annotating margins, fostering student engagement, and stimulating rich conversations.
Prepare to dive into practical pedagogical strategies shared by active Hypothesis educators from Belmont Abbey College, DePaul University, and Springfield Technical Community College. Discover how instructional annotation can act as discussion prompts or answer student queries, creating an interactive learning environment.
Speakers:
Dr. Daniel Hutchinson, Associate Professor, History, Belmont Abbey College
Dr. Marcia Good, Senior Professional Lecturer, Anthropology, DePaul University
Denise Flaim, Professor, English, Springfield Technical Community College
Lisa Delissio, Professor, Biology, Salem State University
Jeremy Dean, VP, Education, Hypothesis
Register Here
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Ally Accessibility Gauges
Ally is the automated accessibility checking tool that is installed within Stan State's Canvas system. This tool makes it easy to spot accessibility issues with your course materials and ensure access for all students. There are two main purposes of the Ally tool:
- Scan every piece of content/document/image in a course and gauge its accessibility. Instructors are then guided through steps to address the accessibility issues. The severity of issues (and the lack of issues at all!) are indicated by a color-coded system of gauges.
- Provide students with alternate formats for most content, and even language translations in some cases. Alternate formats may be PDF versions of documents, spoken audio versions of documents, etc.
Gauge Colors & Access
Ally uses a small gauge icon next to each piece of content or image to represent its accessibility status. The colors correspond to those on a traffic stop light:
The gauges are only visible to instructors. Students never see the accessibility status of an item. Instead, they only see a small "download" icon next to each item that allows them to access alternative formats for the item.
More Information
Learn more about Ally and accessibility.
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Canvas Teacher App
It's the Modern Era™, so everything has an app, even for Canvas instructors. In addition to the app for Students, instructors can install the Teachers app to help manage courses when you're not in front of a laptop or desktop computer.
Use the Teacher app for the following situations:
- Create a course Announcement (will be pushed to students based on their account notification preferences)
- Send a message to a specific student or class (will be pushed to students based on their account notification preferences)
- View your course and/or module content
- Grade submitted assignments and discussion posts
The Canvas Instructor guides have full details on the capabilities of the app (available in the app stores for iOS and Android)
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