Tag Archives: Canvas

On-demand Canvas External Tools site launches just in time for Winter term prep

ITS Teaching & Learning has launched a self-paced Canvas External Tools training site! The site raises awareness for the variety of external tools available to enhance U-M Canvas courses. Substituting live Zoom training, the Canvas External Tools Site offers access to workshop recordings/slides and help guides anytime, anywhere. Canvas External Tools Site features include: Instructors and staff are… Read More »

New Canvas App Explorer tool helps faculty get the most from Canvas

By | September 6, 2022

In the several years since Canvas became the university’s primary learning platform, the ITS Teaching & Learning team has leveraged Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI), a standard that allows courseware and learning tools from different vendors to be launched within a learning platform, like Canvas. LTIs make available to Canvas users a significant number of external tools that can be… Read More »

NameCoach pronunciation tool now available in Canvas

NameCoach is a tool that allows students and faculty to create an audio recording to help peers better pronounce their names within officially-provisioned Canvas courses. Provided by Information and Technology Services (ITS), NameCoach is now available on all campuses (Ann Arbor, Dearborn, Flint, and Michigan Medicine) to support inclusive teaching and learning.  The tool has two parts: NameCoach… Read More »

Simplified placement exams save time by going digital

An innovation born out of necessity during the pandemic has led Information and Technology Services, the LSA Language Resource Center and the Registrar’s Office to address an ongoing challenge with language placement exams: time. The teams partnered to move four placement exams — German, Chinese, Italian and Latin — to an online format in Canvas. This sped up… Read More »

Piazza Q&A available to all U-M faculty

Information and Technology Services has worked with Piazza to secure a universitywide license for Piazza Q&A, an online forum used by many faculty to manage class discussions and Q&A. Many faculty have used Piazza over the past several years to address teaching and learning challenges specific to their courses and extend student discussion beyond the classroom. The new licensing arrangement means that Piazza will continue to… Read More »

Does Canvas allow faculty to track students online?

By | January 13, 2021

Learning management systems like Canvas allow faculty to see some student activity. But UM-Dearborn’s Coordinator of Digital Education Chris Casey says it’s far from being a surveillance system. The rumor he hears most often is that faculty can see if students open other browser tabs or websites outside of Canvas. “This one is definitely false,” Casey says, noting… Read More »

Access to BlueJeans in Canvas ends Jan. 12

Last month, ITS announced that the university will retire BlueJeans effective May 1, 2021. To prepare for this change, ITS has begun work on the steps needed to replace BlueJeans with Zoom in ITS-supported applications, including Canvas. As part of this process, BlueJeans integrations in Canvas will no longer be available starting Tuesday, January 12, 2021. Users will… Read More »

Creating a Canvas course homepage

By | July 10, 2020

Your course homepage will be the first thing students see when they open your course on Canvas. Take advantage of this by making a course home page that introduces the course and directs students where to go and what to do, to begin the course. This is especially important when teaching remotely, as students who are normally in-person… Read More »

Why accessible material helps everyone

By | June 22, 2020

Accessible materials are a good basic practice precisely because they are often easier for all students to understand and process. Creating accessible materials helps all learners in your course and provides them with equal access to course materials and learning opportunities. Digital accessibility like consistent semantic markup and clean links makes it easier for everyone to navigate and… Read More »

ITS offers online Canvas workshops

ITS Teaching & Learning is hosting a series of live Canvas workshops called “Teaching Online with Canvas Workshops: From Good to Great.” Sessions are held daily at noon. Topics will change based on need and interest. Please share this information with faculty and staff in your units who might be interested. Visit the Canvas training page to register. All sessions are… Read More »

ITS and OIE partner with campus to pilot new accessibility tool in Canvas

The Office for Institutional Equity (OIE), the University Library, Information Technology Services (ITS), College of Literature, Sciences and the Arts (LSA), and other campus partners are piloting the Universal Design Online Content Inspection Tool (UDOIT) in Canvas to address more content accessibility issues earlier in the course creation process. The team, collectively the Learning Materials Accessibility Team (LMAT),… Read More »

Brush up your Canvas skills before the end of the year

Attention teachers, TAs, and designers (and the IT staff who support them): You don’t have to do it alone!  Canvas experts are here to help you. Wrap up fall courses Save time and reduce stress with your Winter courses prep Master assignments and the new Gradebook Choose one or all of the following workshops: Start the Year Off Right: Clean up… Read More »

ITS Teaching and Learning Unit Technology Forum, Aug. 21

The ITS Teaching and Learning team will hold a Unit Technology Forum on Wednesday, August 21, 12–4 p.m. at 1010 Weiser Hall. Registration is requested and appreciated. This is a great opportunity to gather the academic community together to share new application features, discuss upcoming services in ITS Teaching & Learning, and promote collaboration and collegiality. We are… Read More »

CTools retirement set for July 1, 2019

ITS has announced that the final step in the multi-year process to decommission CTools will take place on July 1, 2019 when the platform will be retired and content will no longer be accessible. For more than a decade, the U-M community had used CTools for learning management, file sharing and storage, project collaboration, and research support. The… Read More »

DeMonner & Whyte recognized for leadership at IMS Global Learning Institute

Sean DeMonner, ITS executive director of Teaching and Learning (TL), and Anthony Whyte, ITS-TL IT program manager, each received leadership awards at the 2018 IMS Global Learning Impact Leadership Institute held in Baltimore in May. DeMonner was recognized for leadership in higher education, while Whyte received his fourth consecutive IMS leadership award for his work leading the Caliper… Read More »

ITS uses Canvas data to improve Undergraduate Nursing program’s clinical evaluations

By | April 27, 2018

ITS Teaching & Learning data concierge Jeff Ziegler recently completed a project for the School of Nursing’s Undergraduate Nursing program that has greatly improved their student evaluation process. Working with clinical instructor Diane Accurso and student advisors Rachel Patterson and Chad Gorski, Ziegler designed and implemented a custom solution for their Professional Nursing Education (PNE) clinical course that uses… Read More »

Secure testing with Canvas exams

  LSA instructors who assign Canvas in-class exams now have a way to secure the testing environment with the LockDown Browser. Taking a Canvas exam in the LockDown Browser prevents users from copying, pasting, printing, accessing other applications, or visiting other websites during an online exam. Interested in learning more about how to give secure in-class exams in… Read More »