Celebrating Teaching and Learning – Register Now!

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After a one-year hiatus, the Celebrating Teaching and Learning conference is back in an online format on Wednesday May 19th, 2021. The day will start with a workshop led by the UW-W Equity Ambassadors followed by presentations from the Cisco/Presidio Teaching with Technology honorarium winners.

Registration is available at: Celebrating Teaching and Learning Event Registration.

Morning Session – 10 AM to Noon
The conference will start with an Equity in the Classroom workshop led by the LEARN Center Equity Ambassadors. The workshop will begin with a panel discussion followed by interactive breakout sessions focused on practices that you could use to create a more equitable and inclusive learning environment. For more on the Equity Ambassadors: https://www.uww.edu/learn/equityambassadors

Afternoon Session – 1 PM to 4 PM
The afternoon will consist of virtual presentations from the 5 finalists for the 2021 Cisco/Presidio Teaching with Technology Honorarium. The session will wrap up by announcing the individual selected as the 2021 Teaching with Technology Innovator.

All sessions will be held via Cisco Webex. Please contact us as soon as possible for any accessibility accommodations.

Please contact the Learning Technology Center if you have any questions about the event.

We want to hear from you!

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The Learning Technology Center invites you to complete it’s Learning Technology Center’s 2021 Instructor and Non-Instructional Staff Support Survey!

This brief questionnaire should only take 10 minutes of your time and the results will help us better understand campus technology needs, especially following the transition to remote teaching, learning, and administration. Your responses will remain anonymous.

Once you complete the survey, enter to win a $25 gift card from the University Bookstore!

The deadline to complete the survey is April 16, 2021 at 11:59PM.

Thank you!
– LTC Staff

You’re invited!

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Engaging Students in Online Courses: Building Community & Increasing Interactivity

Join an interactive hour-long collaborative online workshop where faculty, instructional staff, and campus partners will actively problem-solve struggles with engagement in online courses. This workshop will be held on April 6th at 12pm and is co-sponsored by the Learning Technology Center and the LEARN Center.

Visit our event page for more information and to sign up for this workshop.

For more information contact the Learning Technology Center.

[RESOLVED] Error Joining Webex Meetings from Canvas

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Resolved. Between 10:50 AM and 1:42 PM on Thursday, March 25th, users were unable to access the “Cisco Webex” link in the course navigation. The issue is now resolved and working as expected. Please reach out to Canvas 24/7 support for any additional issues.

Original Message:
Starting around 10:50 AM, users may be receiving a “502 Bad Gateway” when trying to launch the “Cisco Webex” link from the navigation bar inside of a Canvas course. The vendor is aware of this issue and they are currently implementing a fix.

Instructors: Webex meetings can still be launched from the uww.webex.com site. The meeting link will need to be sent out to your students while the fix is being implemented.

We will post updates as they are received.

[RESOLVED] Canvas Unplanned Outage (03/25/2021)

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RESOLVED: Between 7:40 AM and 9:12 AM on Thursday, March 25th users may have had issues accessing Canvas. For additional details see: Canvas Unplanned Outage. The issue has been resolved. Please reach out to Canvas 24/7 support for any additional issues.

Beginning at roughly 7:40AM on Thursday, March 25th users may have started receiving timeout and gateway errors when accessing Canvas. The vendor is aware of the issue and currently investigating.

We will update this post as more information is available.

Resolved: 9:12AM the issue has been resolved.

Update 8:07AM: The issue has been identified and a fix is being implemented.

Scheduled Canvas Outage – Thursday, March 25th, 2021

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On Thursday, March 25th starting at 3:00 AM Instructure will be performing maintenance on Canvas. The maintenance is expected to take no longer than 60 minutes. Canvas may be unavailable during this maintenance. Please plan your course work accordingly.

If you have any questions about this outage, please contact Canvas Support.

Canvas Update (03/20/2021)

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On Saturday, March 20, 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 – Webcam Submissions: File upload assignments that allow for the upload of a .png file will allow students to use their webcam to take a photo.
  • Course Settings – Course Availability Date Enhancements: When an instructor views the Participation section in the Course Settings page, the Participation section displays a menu that defaults to Term dates for new courses. This option sets student course participation to the start and end dates defined for the term.
  • Modules – New Quiz Support: When an instructor adds an item to a module and selects a quiz, the Create Quiz option displays both the New Quizzes and Classic Quizzes quiz engines. New Quizzes is the default, but instructors can switch to Classic Quizzes and create a name for the quiz.
  • Outcomes – Learning Mastery Gradebook Student Filters: The Learning Mastery Gradebook includes filters for inactive and concluded enrollments. This change allows instructors to view outcomes data in the Learning Mastery Gradebook for students who no longer have an active enrollment in their course.
  • Rich Content Editor – File Preview Enhancements: Files linked in the Rich Content Editor can be previewed in an overlay or inline. This change allows users to control the display of the file preview. Previously all file previews opened in a new browser tab.
  • SpeedGrader – Submission Reassignments: In SpeedGrader, instructors can reassign an assignment to an individual student and ask them to redo their submission, as long as the student has submissions remaining on the assignment.

UW-Whitewater Updates

  • Resolved Issue – Webex Meeting Password required: Students joining a Webex Meeting from Canvas using the web browser were being prompted for a meeting password. This issue has been resolved. For additional details, please see our post.
  • Additional Canvas Personal Pronoun Options – March 23rd. UW-System will be enabling additional personal pronouns inside of Canvas on Tuesday March 23rd. For additional details and the full list of pronouns, please see this announcement.

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

[RESOLVED] Canvas / Webex Meeting Password Required – Known Issue

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Issue Resolved. Cisco Webex support was able to correct the issue over the weekend. Joining Webex Meetings from the web browser is now working as expected.

What’s the issue?

Students joining a Webex Meeting from Canvas using the web browser are currently prompted for a meeting password. This password is not available to the student and they will not be able to join using the web browser. Students joining using the Webex Desktop App or Webex Apps on mobile devices are not impacted by this issue.

What’s the workaround?

Students using Chromebooks must use workaround 2 below. Please contact your instructor for the direct Webex meeting link.

Workaround 1: We recommend students download and join using the Webex Desktop App. This will provide the best user experience for the student during the meeting. Additional information is available at: Download the Cisco Webex Meetings Desktop App.

Workaround 2: Instructors can provide the direct Webex meeting join link to students. Follow this guide: Inviting a User to a Webex Meeting in Canvas. Note: If you are Tracking Attendance with Webex Meetings in Canvas this workaround will cause attendance to not be automatically recorded inside of Canvas.

What’s the fix?

Cisco Webex Support has notified us that this is scheduled to be fixed on April 7th with the Webex 41.4 software release. Cisco Webex Support was able to deploy a patch on March 13th which corrected the issue. Joining Webex meetings from Canvas using your web browser is now working as expected.

If you have additional questions about this issue please contact the UW-W Learning Technology Center.

[RESOLVED] Canvas Unplanned Outage

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RESOLVED: Between roughly 3:29PM and 4:31PM on Wednesday March 3rd, 2021 users may have received an error message when accessing Canvas. The issue has been resolved. Please reach out to Canvas 24/7 support for any additional issues.

Original Message:

Several users have reported “504 Gateway Error” and other related errors when trying to access Canvas and Lockdown Browser. The Instructure Canvas vendor is aware of this issue and they are working towards a resolution.

Resolved: 4:31PM. The issues has been resolved.

Monitoring: 4:07PM. A fix has been deployed, and the Instructure vendor is monitoring results.

Update 4:00PM. The issue has been identified and a fix is in process.

Update 3:50PM. Canvas developers are investigating the cause of the errors. Thank you for your patience.

We will update this post as soon as the services have been restored.

Call for Participants: Canvas Skill Mastery Certification Opportunity

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Canvas Certified Educator - Higher Ed Badge

The UWSA Office of Learning and Information Technology (OLIT) is pleased to issue this call for participants for the new Canvas skill mastery certification program offered by Instructure.

This professional development program for educators includes a series of six courses designed to strengthen knowledge and use of Canvas through hands-on experiences that lead to certification of their skill in using the Canvas platform. Courses are entirely run by Instructure’s Canvas Learning Services team, not by UW System Administration. Each of the courses takes approximately six weeks to complete. The estimated time commitment to complete a course and a reflection activity is 16 – 22 hours per course. One UW System cohort of 37 participants will launch Monday, March 29, 2021. More details about these courses are located in the Call for Participants – Canvas Certified Educator Program (Higher Education Track).

To qualify for the program, applicants must:

  • have reviewed this Call for Participants and understand the program expectations
  • have a full-time faculty or teaching academic staff appointment at a UW System institution (except UW-Madison) during the Spring 2021 semester
  • already have a working knowledge of using Canvas
  • demonstrate a keen interest in taking full advantage of Canvas in teaching your courses

The application process is very simple and requires applicants to submit a completed survey available at https://uwsystemadmin.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3IwuM04nwiiUy7r by Friday, March 5, 2021. Scholarship awards will be announced by Friday, March 12, 2021. We urge applicants to carefully consider their ability to accommodate the time commitment.  

Questions about the program may be directed to Renee Pfeifer-Luckett, Director, Learning Technology Development for the University of Wisconsin System Administration (e: rpfeifer-luckett@uwsa.edu;  t: 608-265-9559).