OAT Update for 07/03/25

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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.  Recordings will be sent to all registrants.

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 11 @ 11 am

Workshop #1 registration

2. Communicating on Canvas + UDOIT Accessibility
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 UDOIT.
» Tuesday, August 12 @ 11 am

Workshop #2 registration

3. Canvas (New) Quizzes
An introduction to creating quizzes in Canvas. Primary attention will be given to the New Quizzes engine with a brief look at the Classic quiz engine.
» Wednesday, August 13 @ 11 am

Workshop #3 registration

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 14 @ 11 am

Workshop #4 registration

5. Canvas Potpourri
Discussions, grade book management, tracking attendance, creating custom navigation links, closing courses and handling incompletes.
» Friday, August 15 @ 11 am

​​​​Workshop #5 registration

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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.  Recordings will be sent to all registrants.

VoiceThread logo1. VoiceThread
VoiceThread offers a highly flexible and interactive way for instructors and students to create presentations and engage with multimedia content. Generate social presence in asynchronous online courses.
» Monday, August 11 from 1-2:30 pm

Enhancements #1 registration

Discussions Plus powered by Harmonize2. Discussions Plus (powered by Harmonize)
The "plus" means it's better! Create multiple due dates ("milestones") within discussions, add annotations to video posts, easily create private student writing assignments with AI coaching.
» Tuesday, August 12 from 1-2:30 pm

Enhancements #2 registration

Padlet logo3. Padlet
A collaborative digital bulletin board used for curating media and generating a wide ranging of learning experiences.
» Wednesday, August 13 from 1-2:30 pm

Enhancements #3 registration

Hypothesis logo4. Hypothesis
Place active discussion right on top of course readings via annotation and enable students and teachers to add comments and start conversations in the margins of texts.
» Thursday, August 14 from 1-2:30 pm

Enhancements #4 registration

Panopto logo5. Canvas Enhancements Potpourri
Learn more about Panopto (video storage), Turnitin (plagiarism and AI detection), and Respondus Lockdown Browser (secure test-taking environment)
» Friday, August 15 from 1-2:30 pm

Enhancements #5 registration

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Reminders

Transitioning from Ally to UDOIT

On June 16, OAT enabled a new accessibility tool in Canvas: UDOIT (pronounced "you do it").  The tool is enabled in the course menu of all courses by default (but hidden from students). It can be disabled if desired by the instructor like any other navigation item.

With the change, two items have been added to the course navigation menu: "Declutter Course With TidyUp" and "Check Accessibility With UDOIT".

screenshot of new course menu links

Two new links in the course navigation menu.

Click "Check Accessibility With UDOIT" to open the accessibility checker and begin remediating your content.

Comparing UDOIT and Ally

Overall, UDOIT is a more "realistic" tool than Ally, meaning it is better targeted at assessing content that students will realistically see in a course.  Also, the ability to generate data about accessibility of courses is much more fine-grained and better shareable with campus stakeholders.

Nevertheless, the overall work flow of UDOIT is very similar to Ally.  Like Ally, UDOIT has the following features:

  • One-click scan of the accessibility of course materials
  • Simple percentage 'score' for the course
  • A breakdown of issues by type and severity
  • Guidance on fixing issues based on "easiest to fix" and "most urgent to fix"
  • Make some fixes right in the accessibility tool or upload a replacement file
  • Allows students to generates alternative formats of course items, such as MP3 or ePub

Improvements available in UDOIT

UDOIT has a range of features beyond what was available in Ally.

  • UDOIT's accessibility score is more transparent and sophisticated in its calculation
  • UDOIT scans more Canvas content areas than Ally, including:
    • Announcements
    • Discussion descriptions (not posts)
    • Assignment descriptions (not submissions)
    • Quiz questions added directly to a quiz (not question banks)
    • Module links
  • UDOIT ignores unpublished/unused course content, thus focusing on the content that is actually presented to students
  • UDOIT can convert a PDF into a new Page in Canvas (more successful with simpler PDFs)
  • UDOIT scans the text of links to make them more readable
  • UDOIT allows users to manually mark an item as "resolved" for situations where that is warranted

Ally features not present in UDOIT

The main feature of Ally that instructors will not see in UDOIT are the colored gauges for each content item.  Instead, UDOIT has a centralized remediation section of the course where all issues are presented.

Getting Started Resources

Workshops and Training

OAT is working on a schedule of trainings and workshops on UDOIT for the Fall semester.  Details will be announced shortly.

In the meantime, instructors can contact OAT with any questions!

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Introducing TidyUp

As part of the roll out of UDOIT, instructors also have access to TidyUp, a file and content cleanup tool for Canvas courses.

TidyUp is intended to be the first step in course accessibility. It works by making sure only relevant files are in the course once you begin checking accessibility.  When a course is scanned by TidyUp, the report that is generated shows all the files in the course and also where they are used.  This allows the instructor to know what files can be safely deleted.

Click "Declutter Course with TidyUp" to open the tool and run the scan.

After the scan, instructors will see a report like the one in the screen shot below. (Click thumbnail to enlarge image)

Uploaded Image (Thumbnail)

In addition to course files, TidyUp also tracks Canvas Pages, highlighting any duplicates or unneeded content.

From the report, instructors can do three things:

  1. Change the published status of a content item
  2. Edit the name of the item
  3. Delete the item from the course (it will be recoverable from the hidden "/undelete" location in the course)

Though it's not required before using UDOIT, decluttering your course with TidyUp first will make the accessibility tasks more efficient!

Workshops and Training

OAT is working on a schedule of trainings and workshops on TidyUp for the Fall semester.  Details will be announced shortly.

In the meantime, instructors can contact OAT with any questions!

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