Category Archives: Announcements & News

Announcements and news on technologies

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.

“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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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.

Early Summer Series on Hyflex!

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At the start of the Summer, the Learning Technology Center and the LEARN Center will host a series of discussions and interactive workshops geared towards improving HyFlex instructional practices, managing classroom technology, and developing programmatic strategies for the future.

Lessons Learned from HyFlex: Perspectives from the Classroom
May 25, 2021 at 1:00PM – Register at signup.uww.edu

This event will feature faculty from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and the UW System Collaborative Language Program who will share their experiences (the good and the bad) with course development, program management, and strategies for student engagement.

Collaborative Lesson Plan Development – Moving Towards HyFlex Course Design
Part 1: May 26, 2021 – 1PM – Register at signup.uww.edu
Part 2: June 3, 2021 – 1PM

Work through the iterative process of course design with colleagues from across campus to get started with your HyFlex course! In the first session, you will work through example lesson plans and course materials to better see the different puzzle pieces that combine in a hyflex course. You will work in groups to identify potential challenges (and their solutions!) with a hyflex course model as you consider your own course. Part Two will be dedicated to peer review and sharing of course maps, lesson plans, and other materials needed to help make your course as successful and meaningful as possible.

Even if you have already designed a HyFlex course, we would love to learn from your design strategies and perspectives!

Technology-inclusvie collaboration

Registration open for the LTDC 2021 Virtual Showcase “Transforming the Future of Education!”

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Registration to attend the FREE Learning Technology Development Council’s 2021 Virtual Showcase, themed Transforming the Future of Education is now open! The showcase will be held June 15 and 16, 2021.

2021 LTDC Virtual Showcase Registration Now Open
Registration Open!

Keynote speakers include Bryan Alexander, author of “Academia Next: The Futures of Higher Education,” and Kathe Pelletier, Director of Teaching and Learning with EDUCAUSE. They, along with instructors and staff throughout UW-System, will reflect upon ideas and innovations, lessons learned, the technologies utilized, and the experiments tried over the last year that may shape future educational opportunities.

To register for this free professional development opportunity, please go to the LTDC 2021 Virtual Showcase website: https://www.wisconsin.edu/learning-tech/events-conf/ltdc-virtual-showcase-2021/#about
Be sure to register even if you cannot attend the live sessions to gain access to session materials and recordings after the conference.