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New Announcements
Introduction to Hypothesis Annotations
On January 16, Hypothesis users Jey Strangfeld (Sociology), Kelly Cotter (Psychology), and Kyra Pazan (Anthropology) shared their knowledge and experience with this awesome tool.
Watch the recording
Learn more about Hypothesis
Bonus: Hypothesis Academy - Social Annotation 101 is taken enrollments (free) for the February and April cohorts. Learn more
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Introduction to GoReact in Canvas
Funding has been secured to make GoReact available again for video submission assignments in Canvas for the remainder of the 23-24 academic year.
On January 17, Profs. Christopher Claus and Joe Carranza from Communication Studies demonstrated how GoReact has become a gamechanger for evaluating student video presentations and providing a way to solicit student comments about course videos.
Watch the recording
Learn more about GoReact
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Introduction to VoiceThread Presentations
On January 18, Ronda Munoz (Teacher Ed) shared her experiences using VoiceThread as part of an overall introduction to this versatile and popular tool.
Watch the recording
Learn more about VoiceThread
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Canvas Course Alert
Canvas course shells for the Summer '24 and Fall '24 terms will be available soon. Access is governed by the information departments have added to PeopleSoft. If you're not seeing a course in your list of Canvas shells, be sure to check the "All Courses" link first and then contact your department to confirm they've finished assigning you to the course. Canvas refreshes its data from PeopleSoft at the top of every hour.
Still have questions? Contact OAT!
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Reminders
Introduction to AI Tools For Teaching & Learning
The following professional development opportunity is being offered by the Online Course Services division of the CSU Chancellor's Office.
Introduction to Artificial Intelligence tools where guided experimentation empowers participants to understand some of the basics of AI functionality, including its workings and methods for detecting its usage. Learn basic AI terminology, engage in hands-on exploration of AI Tools, learn strategies for detecting AI-generated content, and techniques to address potential misuse of AI tools by students. Participants will apply the knowledge gained to develop a personalized AI use policy for their course, and find resources to maintain currency in this dynamic field.
Course Commitment: 3 weeks, 20-25 hours, online, asynchronous. Seating is limited due to high demand, so register early.
Dates Offered:
Feb 26 – Mar 17, 2024 (Spring 2024)
Mar 25 – Apr 14, 2024 (Spring 2024)
Learn More and Register
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Use Turnitin With Discussions Plus Activities
Discussions Plus (a.k.a Harmonize) is a tool available in Canvas that enables more engaging discussion activities. OAT is excited to announce that our Discussions Plus installation now includes the option for Turnitin similarity checking on the posts students make in the discussion.
How? When you edit the Post Settings of the activity [1] in Discussions Plus, simply check the box for Turnitin Settings [2]. This new feature is not part of Canvas's own discussions tool.
About Similarity Checking in Discussions Plus
Here are some things to keep in mind with this new feature.
- Only a student's posts are sent to Turnitin. Replies to other students are not checked.
- Only posts longer than 30 words will be checked.
- It's important to let students know to expect Turnitin checking on their posts. Students must accept an authorization agreement shown to them on their very first post in any Discussions Plus activity that has Turnitin enabled. The authorization does not need to be done ever again.
Learn more about using Turnitin in Harmonize
Discussions Plus overview
Questions? Contact OAT!
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Informal QLT Course Assessments for Winter and Spring Courses
All instructors who are teaching asynchronous online courses in Winter and Spring are invited to have their course informally assessed using the QLT rubric. QLT consists of 52 'objectives' spread across 9 categories of best practices in online course design. It was assembled by a collection of CSU instructional designers and faculty members and was most recently updated in 2022.
After requesting an assessment, OAT will review the course with the QLT rubric and send the feedback to the instructor only. A follow-up consultation to discuss the assessment can be scheduled if desired. This is a great way to get a second pair of eyes on your course for constructive feedback!
Email oatsupport@csustan.edu and specify which course you're interested in. Content should be in a regular Canvas shell.
Additional links:
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Canvas Support Options
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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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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