Category Archives: Announcements & News

Announcements and news on technologies

Canvas Update (09/18/2021)

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On Saturday, September 18, Instructure will deploy the latest release to the Canvas environment.  The highlights of this release are listed below.  The full release notes are also available.

  • Rich Content Editor – Accessibility Checker Indicator: When accessibility issues are detected within the Rich Content Editor, the Accessibility Checker automatically displays an indicator. This indicator helps users know about these issues without having to open the Accessibility Checker. Opening the Accessibility Checker will show the number of errors and how to correct each error.
  • New Analytics – Canvas Online Attendance: New Analytics includes an Online Attendance tab, which updates according to criteria set at the account level. Instructors will be able to tell which days a student has done at least one of the following:
    • Accessed a Page in Canvas.
    • Created a Page (if you have provided that permission).
    • Made a Discussion post.
    • Submitted an Assignment.
    • Started and/or submitted a Quiz.
    • Loaded a collaboration to view/edit.

Prior Canvas Updates

It can be really hard to keep up with Canvas releases, so the following are the prominant updates that have happened since the end of spring semester.

  • Assignments – Student Annotated Submissions: Instructors can use annotated document assignment type to upload a document for students to annotate and submit directly in Canvas. This assignment type is included under the online assignment types so that instructors can select additional submission options for students unable to annotate onscreen.
  • Course settings – Section Date Enhancement: A visual change was made to the availability dates option for sections of a course. This update made the visuals of the date settings for the sections match those of the course.
  • SpeedGrader – Comment Library: Comments can be added and saved for reuse within SpeedGrader, allowing individual users to save frequently used comments to be reused across assignments in multiple courses.
  • Canvas – Maintenance Window: Instructure has moved their intermittent maintenance to twice monthly scheduled maintenance windows. Moving forward, maintenance will be performed on the first and third Thursdays of each month, beginning at 1:00am, and running no later than 3:00am. Canvas may be unavailable to users during these windows. All users are able to view maintenance window times through Account then Settings. For additional information, please refer to the Canvas Community discussion.
  • New Quizzes – Multiple Attempts First Score Option: It is now possible to give students multiple attempts on a New Quiz, but retain their first score as their grade.
  • New Quizzes – Item Bank M​​​​​anagement: Item banks can now be shared with the entire account or individual users. When instructors share an item bank, the item bank supports a new View permission, which can be given to a user and provides access to the bank as read only. The user who shares an item bank can continue to specify editing access for other users.
  • New Quizzes – Save and Build Button Workflow: The New Quiz creation page includes both a Save and a Build button. When an instructor creates and enters details for a quiz, the page displays both a Save and a Build button. Previously the page only included the Save button, which counterintuitively launched in the New Quiz editor. 

If you have any questions or concerns about the service pack updates, or even just curious about how they can help you, please contact UW-W Canvas Support.

Fall 2021 LTC Training and Workshops

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The LTC is offering a full roster of learning opportunities ranging from training on Webex and Canvas to rethinking the possibilities of learning, teaching, and working with technology. Please visit the LTC’s calendar to see all sessions, descriptions, and dates.

Can’t join at scheduled times? No problem, email ltc@uww.edu to request a personal or department session. Links to previously recorded sessions are also often available.  

Don’t see a session on something you’d like to learn? Let us know! We look forward to meeting your needs as best we can — email ltc@uww.edu with your request. And, don’t forget, LinkedIn Learning offers on-demand classes on many topics!

Instructional Workshops:

Webex (follow links for dates and times):

Canvas (follow links for dates and times):

General Campus Technology (follow links for dates and times):

If you have any questions, please reach out to the UW-W Learning Technology Center.

New for Fall 2021 – Pathways!

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What is a “Pathway”? The LTC offers a wide variety of trainings, but how are they tied together? We have organized our trainings into groups that drive towards common ideas. The “Pathway” courses are designed for users who are already familiar with the basics of tools such as a Canvas (e.g., building a Page) or Webex Teams (e.g., creating a Space). The sessions blend advanced skill development with deeper conceptual discussion into the affordances of more technology-inclusive environments on campus, regardless of whether you are an instructor or not!

Register in advance and be sure to tell your colleagues!

Read below about our two Pathways, Blending My In-Person Course with Online Elements and Creating Dynamic Course Content!

Blending My In-Person Course with Online Elements

This pathways approaches “blended” classrooms from a larger perspective, namely the integration of technology to enhance learning, streamline instructor workload, and maximize student engagement. Instructors will utilize materials created during the 2020 school year to improve face to face, and blended courses. Leveraging recently digitized content, while making small adjustments to it, to engage students and get the most use out of content.

  • Google Apps for Education
    Learn about the different Google Apps for Education you can use to collaborate and file-share on the go! This workshop is an overview of Google Apps including Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Presentations, Forms, Drawing, and Sites. Learn the basics of each program to get you up and running quickly with Google applications.

    September 10, 9:00AM | Register here
    October 19, 1:00PM | Register here (hybrid session)
    November 9, 1:00PM | Register here
    December 1, 9:00AM | Register here (hybrid session)
  • DX1 – Culture: Design for the Student Perspective
    This is the first of a three partworkshop series exploring impacts of Digital Transformation on Higher Education.
    Digital Transformation #1 — Culture: Designing with the Student Perspective in Mind.

    September 14, 3:00PM | Register here
    Learn more about this series from the blog post.
  • Breakouts in Webex Meetings
    Would you like to breakout your meeting participants into smaller groups allowing them to collaborate and share ideas over audio and video? Use Webex Meetings new integrated breakout sessions for workshops, classrooms, or for when you need a moment to talk privately with a few participants, outside of the main meeting. Join this lively class and check out what you can do in breakout sessions as a meeting host, co-host, or attendee.

    September 16, 9:00AM | Register here
    October 8, 9:00AM | Register here
    November 5, 1:00PM | Register here
    December 14, 1:00PM | Register here
  • Improving Navigation
    This session explores modular organization, use cases like the FAQ syllabus, links and tricks to save you time copying courses from one section to another, and other tips to reuse modules.

    September 18, 2:00PM | Register here
    September 21, 1:00PM | Register here
    September 22, 9:00AM | Register here
  • Teaching with Webex (Teams)
    Searching for ways to build community with students in your online class? Looking for a way to facilitate communication and collaboration between your students in your face-to-face class? You may benefit from the Learning Technology Center’s (LTC) “Teaching with Webex.” (Webex is the application formerly known as Webex Teams.)
    The facilitator will provide examples to help participants understand what Webex is (and is not), how it works, and the purpose in using it. We will also provide some examples of instructors who have integrated Webex into their course and some “best practices” for use.

    September 20, 9:00AM | Register here (hybrid session)
    October 7, 3:00PM | Register here
    December 3, 10:00AM | Register here (hybrid session)
  • Canvas Higher Integrity Quizzes
    This session will focus on the things you can do with your quizzes besides monitoring software to improve the integrity of your quizzes. We will use the description area of the assignment to remind students what they can and can’t do during your quizzes, set up timing and randomized questions, use different question types to make looking up answers more difficult, and try to change the focus of questions to application of skills.
    Feel free to review this phenomenal seven minute video to try some of these on your own.

    September 29, 2021, 1:00PM | Register here
    October 7, 2021, 10:00AM | Register here
    Note: To get the most out of this session, we recommend that you are already familiar with the following tools: Quizzes
  • Suggestions for Effective Webex Meetings & Events
    Do you know how to schedule a Webex Meeting and/or Event, but are looking to make them more smooth, efficient, productive, and comfortable? We’ll cover some pre-meeting details that can help as well as and facilitation techniques to help you and your attendees have better virtual meeting experiences. We’ll focus on tips and tricks found in Webex Meetings and Events to take your baseline skills to the next level.

    October 15, 2:00PM | Register here
    November 16, 3:00PM | Register here
    December 7, 1:00PM | Register here
  • Interactive Polling with Slido
    Polls are a great way for hosts to get input from meeting participants. Use them to engage your audience, test knowledge, and ask for feedback. Webex Meetings now has an interactive polling feature built right into the meeting so you can easily engage with your participants.
    In this session, you’ll learn how to:
    • Create, edit, delete and activate a poll, quiz or survey;
    • Share the poll;
    • View poll results and reset a poll;
    • Export and share poll results after a meeting;
    • Add guest collaborators; and
    • Access your Slido account from https://slido.com and manage your polls.

    October 26, 1:00PM | Register here
    November 3, 10:00AM | Register here
  • What Students Want in Canvas
    There are many good ways to set up a course. This training will focus on making a series of small, easy, and optional, shifts from your current course design to a setup backed by feedback from student panels conducted right here at UW-Whitewater.

    November 3, 2021, 9:00AM | Register here
    November 9, 2021, 1:00PM | Register here
    Note: To get the most out of this session, we recommend that you are already familiar with the following tools: Assignments, Announcements, Pages, Modules, Rubrics.
“Arrows showing up (Blender)” by FutUndBeidl is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Creating Dynamic Course Content

Instructors will be able to create Canvas content that uses embedded video, active links to content both inside of and out of the Canvas course, and/or utilizes other campus supported technologies, while remaining accessible for all users. Dynamic course content has been shown to improve student engagement. This pathway will explore ways that instructors can produce and recycle dynamic, multimodal and multimedia course materials that strengthens student content interactions.

  • “Next-Level” Design in Canvas – Chunking and Modular Design
    This session explores modular organization, use cases like the FAQ syllabus, links and tricks to save you time copying courses from one section to another, and other tips to reuse modules.

    September 24:  1:00-3:00PM | Register here
  • “Next-Level” Design in Canvas – Navigation and Gating
    This session explores how faculty use gating and timed releases, prerequisites in Canvas, and use cases when – and when not — to use these techniques.

    October 8: 1:00PM-3:00PM | Register here
  • “Next-Level” Multimedia – Creative Use Cases
    This session explores how faculty use multimedia in creative ways, from intro videos to weekly video “to-do” lists, to short podcasts.  We will also explore how to incorporate multimedia into student assignments, video presentations, and discussion boards.

    October 22:  1:00-3:00PM | Register here
  • Campus Technology Resources to Help You Succeed
    The goal of this session is to create awareness of the campus-supported communication, collaboration, and work productivity tools that apply to all staff and introduce participants to support resources. This session will be particularly helpful to those new to campus, however, all staff may benefit from hearing about technology tools they might not be aware of or changes to technology that make the tools more useful for their work.

    September 8, 9:00AM | Register here (hybrid session)
    October 21, 1:00PM | Register here
    November 27, 1:00PM | Register here (hybrid session)
  • Google Apps for Education
    Learn about the different Google Apps for Education you can use to collaborate and file-share on the go! This workshop is an overview of Google Apps including Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Presentations, Forms, Drawing, and Sites. Learn the basics of each program to get you up and running quickly with Google applications.

    September 10, 9:00AM | Register here
    October 19, 1:00PM | Register here
    November 9, 1:00PM | Register here
    December 1, 9:00AM | Register here
  • Better Courses Through Better Pages:
    Have you moved past the basics of how to get content into Canvas, and looking for a simple way to improve the learning experience for your students? This synchronous training is meant as a supplement to our asynchronous, self-paced resource designed to help instructors take lengthy modules, and turn them into sleek pages.
    Not only is the content of the course about how to create more engaging pages, it also demonstrates simple steps you can take to do this with your own courses, by showing the transition from a typical course design to one based on a more dynamic page.

    September 14, 1:00PM | Register here
    November 2, 1:00PM | Register here
    November 10, 9:00AM | Register here
    Or, check out this on-demand course: https://uwwtw.instructure.com/enroll/DFPGRA
  • Faster Grading With Better Feedback:
    Be prepared to edit an upcoming assessment in this hands-on session. We will focus on transforming existing quiz questions into tools able to remediate student misconceptions, and point them back to the relevant materials in your course. We will also go through updating rubrics to include targeted feedback about specific reasons students lose points. We will also go over the new Comment Library available in SpeedGrader.

    September 28, 2021, 1:00PM | Register here
    October 6, 2021, 9:00AM | Register here
    October 14, 2021, 2:00PM | Register here
    October 27, 2021, 9:00AM | Register here
    November 16, 2021, 1:00PM | Register here
    November 17, 2021, 9:00AM | Register here
    Note: To get the most out of this session, we recommend that you are already familiar with the following tools: Assignments, Rubrics, Quizzes.
  • “What Students Want in Canvas“:
    There are many good ways to set up a course. This training will focus on making a series of small, easy, and optional, shifts from your current course design to a setup backed by feedback from student panels conducted right here at UW-Whitewater.

    November 3, 2021, 9:00AM | Register here
    November 9, 2021, 1:00PM | Register here
    Note: To get the most out of this session, we recommend that you are already familiar with the following tools: Assignments, Announcements, Pages, Modules, Rubrics.

“Next-Level Tech” for Teaching and Design

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Pexels photograph by Andrea Piacquadio.

Are you looking to learn from other faculty examples what works for Next-Level pages in Canvas?  Now is your chance!  Join us for hands-on workshops filled with faculty examples, step-by-step instructions on how to adapt those innovations to your own courses, and tips and tricks to take your Course designs to the “Next Level”.

TWO sets of three related workshops.  EVERY workshop is independent; you don’t have to commit to more than one to attend.

Every workshop will have both faculty examples and a guided “how to” take away that they can work through in the workshop and immediately apply it to your classes.  Pexels photograph by Andrea Piacquadio.

Program Goals:

  • Discover use cases in practice by Whitewater instructors and faculty.
  • Apply innovation solutions to your specific classroom challenges.
  • Explore the techniques, processes, methods, and technology to level up your course design.
  • Improve teaching skills across modalities.

“Next-Level” Design in Canvas – Improved pages

  • September 17:  1:00PM-3:00PM | Register here
  • This session explores modular organization, FAQ syllabus, links and tricks to save you time copying courses from one section to another.

“Next-Level” Design in Canvas – Modular Design

  • September 24:  1:00-3:00PM | Register here
  • This session explores modular organization, use cases like the FAQ syllabus, links and tricks to save you time copying courses from one section to another, and other tips to reuse modules.

“Next-Level” Design in Canvas – Navigation and Gating

  • October 8: 1:00PM-3:00PM | Register here
  • This session explores how faculty use gating and timed releases, prerequisites in Canvas, and use cases when – and when not — to use these techniques.

“Next-Level” Multimedia – Creative Use Cases

  • October 22:  1:00-3:00PM | Register here
  • This session explores how faculty use multimedia in creative ways, from intro videos to weekly video “to-do” lists, to short podcasts.  We will also explore how to incorporate multimedia into student assignments, video presentations, and discussion boards.

“Next-Level” Multimedia – Rethinking the “Blended Lecture”

  • November 5: 1:00-3:00PM | Register here
  • This session explores how to rethink the “Blended Lecture”.  What are the best practices for multimodal video capture?  How long should videos be?  What shouldn’t be captured?  How can I interleave lecture content with other blended materials? How else can I connect content and assessment?

“Next-Level” Multimedia – Rethinking the “Discussion Board”

  • November 19: 1:00-3:00PM | Register here
  • This session explores rethinking the “Discussion Board”:  Examples of how to use video discussions; when to use Canvas compared to when to use other discussion tools like Webex; equity and privacy concerns; and faculty use cases of discussion boards.  

Digital Transformation (DX)

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Pexels

Digital Transformation is the adoption of digital technology to transform services or businesses, by replacing non-digital or manual processes with digital processes. Digital solutions may enable new types of innovation and creativity, rather than simply enhancing and supporting traditional methods. 

Join the LTC as we explore how these concepts can impact traditional teaching and learning methods within Higher Education and your classroom including:

  • Exploring the challenges and opportunities that Digital Transformation will have on Higher education.
  • Improving design by exploring the impact from the student perspective.
  • Learning strategies to save time in a digital environment.
  • Discovering tips and tools to increase performance utilizing technology.

Check out the details of the upcoming three-part series below. We hope to see you soon!

Digital Transformation #1 — Culture: Design for the Student Perspective
September 14th 3:00 pm | Register here

Digital Transformation #2 — Workforce: Strategies for Saving Time in a Digital Environment
September 28th, 3:00 pm | Register here

Digital Transformation #3 — Technology: Tips and Tools to Increase Performance in a Digital Environment
October 19 3:00 pm | Register here

Canvas Update (07/17/2021)

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On Saturday, July 17, Instructure will deploy the latest release to the Canvas environment.  The highlights of this release are listed below.  The full release notes are also available.

  • SpeedGrader – Comment Library: Comments can be added and saved for reuse within SpeedGrader, allowing individual users to save frequently used comments to be reused across assignments in multiple courses.
  • New Quizzes – Item Bank M​​​​​anagement: Item banks can now be shared with the entire account or individual users. When instructors share an item bank, the item bank supports a new View permission, which can be given to a user and provides access to the bank as read only. The user who shares an item bank can continue to specify editing access for other users.
  • Canvas – Maintenance Window: Instructure has moved their intermittent maintenance to twice monthly scheduled maintenance windows. Moving forward, maintenance will be performed on the first and third Thursdays of each month, beginning at 1:00am, and running no later than 3:00am. Canvas may be unavailable to users during these windows. All users are able to view maintenance window times through Account then Settings. For additional information, please refer to the Canvas Community discussion.

If you have any questions or concerns about the service pack updates, please contact UW-W Canvas Support.

Honoring Campus Innovators

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“Fireworks 04” by drjoshuawhitman is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

On May 19, 2021, UW-Whitewater colleagues gathered for a day-long discussion and series of presentations about equity, inclusion, and technological innovations in teaching and learning. The Learning Technology Center and the LEARN Center joined to host both of these events. Many thanks to those who were able to attend and for those behind the scenes!

The morning session began with the LEARN Center Equity Ambassadors: Jenna Cushing-Leubner (COEPS), Nate Maddux (COIS), Juk Bhattachryya (COLS), Christine Hoover (COBE), and Susan Wildermuth (COEPS). Each of the presentations offered keen insight into the development of equitable courses and inclusive classroom communities with each talk offering participants precise strategies to implement in the future. Thank you for your hard work!

The afternoon sessions marked the beginning of “Celebrating Teaching and Learning,” a yearly event hosted by the Learning Technology Center designed to showcase technological innovations by UW-Whitewater instructional staff and faculty. This time around, Erin Bauer (Music) walked us through the affordances of online platforms to critically interrogate traditional music history curricula. Meg Waraczynski (Psychology) dove into granularity of adaptive, scenario-based learning using the Realizeit platform. Jeannine Rowe (Social Work) articulated her foundations in the PICRAT framework and methodology to structure students’ technology-mediated engagement in the course. Finally, Steven Girard (Chemistry) exhibited his use of interactive quiz technologies (Kahoot) to engage students and build community, as well as his creation of an online, open resource textbook created specifically for his students.

The Celebration concluded with the announcement of this year’s Cisco/Presidio “Teaching with Technology Innovator” honorarium, awarded to Meg Waraczynski! Congratulations again to each of this year’s finalists!

Next year’s “Celebrating Teaching and Learning” is scheduled for May 18, 2022 – we hope to see you there!

Canvas Update (05/15/2021)

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On Saturday, May 15, Instructure will deploy the latest release to the Canvas environment.  The highlights of this release are listed below.  The full release notes are also available.

  • Assignments – Student Annotated Submissions: Instructors can use annotated document assignment type to upload a document for students to annotate and submit directly in Canvas. This assignment type is included under the online assignment types so that instructors can select additional submission options for students unable to annotate onscreen.
  • New Quizzes – Save and Build Button Workflow: The New Quiz creation page includes both a Save and a Build button. When an instructor creates and enters details for a quiz, the page displays both a Save and a Build button. Previously the page only included the Save button, which counterintuitively launched in the New Quiz editor. 

UW-Whitewater Updates

Planned Data Center Outage, May 21: Due to a state-initiated project, a temporary power shut-off of the UW-W data center will be required to complete planned maintenance at 6 p.m. on Friday, May 21st, with a targeted return to full service by 8 a.m. on Saturday, May 22nd. During this maintenance window, all IT services, applications, and web pages will be unavailable so please plan accordingly.

If you have any questions or concerns about the service pack updates, please contact UW-W Canvas Support.

Webex Updates (May, 2021)

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May brings many updates to the Cisco Webex suite! In this post, we’ll summarize the critical updates for Webex Meetings as well as what’s new in Webex (formerly known as Webex Teams).

Webex Meetings

Webex Meetings

On Tuesday, May 11th, Cisco will release the Webex Meetings 41.5 update. The highlights of this release are listed below, with full release notes also available.

Learn More

Webex (Teams)

On Friday, May 14th, Cisco will release the Webex (Teams) 41.5 update. The highlights of this release are listed below, with full release notes also available.

Learn More

Webex Meetings 41.5 Update

  • Web App Attendee Functionality: Attendees, hosts, and cohosts who join from the Web App will see greater parity in functionality for answering Q&A, video layouts, and syncing their stage.
  • Stop Video for Attendees: Meeting hosts can now stop video coming from video devices and mobile attendees. When any of these attendees leave and re-join the meeting, their video will start, even if it had been stopped previously by the host.
  • Share Post-Meeting Content to the Webex (Teams) App: From the post-meeting web page, share meeting content to an existing or newly created space in Webex (Teams) to continue collaborating.
  • Recording Availability Indicator Icon: Your Recorded Meetings page will now display within how much time the recording will be generated, which is typically within 24 hours, depending on file size and bandwidth.
  • Tool Tip for Customizing the Stage: Participants will see animated tool tip in the stage views to quickly show how they can customize the stage by drag and dropping participants from the filmstrip onto the stage.

Webex Events (New) Now Available: This update brings a new service called Webex Events (New), which includes many of the advanced features you’re familiar with from Webex Meetings, as well as some from Webex Events (Classic). When scheduling a Webex Event, you will have the option to use the New or Classic service.

  • This is a new service that has not been available for any length of time. UW-Whitewater staff have not had the opportunity to test it with live audiences. At this time, we recommend you continue to use Webex Events (Classic). Events scheduled from the Webex Events (Classic) scheduler will continue to have the original Webex Events experience.
  • View our Knowledge article Webex Events (New) – Information to compare the two services and to learn about to learn about current known issues and limitations with Webex Events (New).
  • View directions on how to Schedule a Webex Event (New) to try it out.
  • Look for training and additional resources to be available soon!
  • You may see this highlighted next time you sign in to uww.webex.com with a walk-through.
  • Webcast mode is not available on our account.

Webex (Teams) 41.5 Update

  • Full-Featured Meetings: When you join a Webex Meetings scheduled or Personal Room meeting using Webex (Teams), you’ll have access to full-featured meetings, which offers you most of the Webex Meetings features even when you join from Webex (Teams). These features include stage view, breakout sessions, reactions, Webex Assistant, and People Insights profiles.
    • Webex (Teams) meetings from a space will remain unchanged at this time. Mobile users will see Webex Meetings launch when they join.
  • Schedule Webex meetings right from the app: No need to go outside the app to schedule your standard and Personal Room meetings. Add important meeting details, check the availability of the attendees, and send out the invites right from the Webex (Teams) app.
  • Additional In-Meeting features: No more self view when your video is off; shared content is automatically optimized; a new Stop Sharing button for ease; new connection and computer indicators will help meeting quality; and the ability for hosts to turn off attendees videos will improve Webex (Teams) meetings.
  • Messaging Updates: Mark messages as unread, move quickly between spaces you’ve visited with navigation history, and choose your default tab when the app opens.
  • Webex now on Linux: All the core capabilities are in a single app for Linux users, with the full-featured meetings to be added soon.
Full-Featured Meetings in the Webex (Teams) App

If you have any questions or concerns about this update, please contact the UW-W Learning Technology Center.

Canvas to WINS Final Grade Submission

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Each semester, grades need to be entered into WINS. While many instructors do this manually, Canvas can help automate some of the steps for you. The Learning Technology Center is providing training on the three steps needed to push grades from Canvas so they can be accepted in WINS.

  1. Finish grading (including entering 0s) and setting the Grade Scheme
  2. Export from Canvas
  3. Verify and accept grades in WINS

The Spring 2021 WINS Grades Roster will be open on May 10 and close at noon on May 18. We have scheduled 60 minute hands on training sessions if you are interested in receiving live support.

Date/TimeLocationRegister
Wednesday, May 12th
2:00pm – 3:00pm		WebexRegistration
Thursday, May 13th
3:00am – 4:00pm		WebexRegistration
Monday, May 17th
10:00am – 11:00am		WebexRegistration
Monday, May 17th
2:00pm – 3:00pm		WebexRegistration

If you have any questions or concerns about this update, please contact the UW-W Learning Technology Center.