COLRS Catch Up: 10.28.26

It's hard to believe it's already the end of October! This semester has truly flown by. As we move out of midterms and into the last stretch of the semester, please reach out to us if there is anything we can do to support you. Our staff is available Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with daily online office hours at 2:00 p.m. on Zoom.

We also wish to extend our congratulations to Dr. Noah Reynolds, who was named the 2026 University Scholar. His research and work with students is a true testament to the transformative power of education, especially at UIS.

In case you missed it

Our teaching tip and workshop series this academic year is centered around the new UIS Online Course Quality Rubric.This month, we're focused on ways to utilize multimedia across the domains to both adhere to essential standards and bring engaging and joyful experiences to our online students (which, in turns, makes teaching joyful, too!). If you missed our workshop, you can review the slides or watch the recording.

Instructor Spotlight

In the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines, CAST asks us to consider how we can illustrate course concepts and materials through multimedia. The use of images, videos, and interactions alongside text can make content "more relatable and comprehensible" (CAST, 2024).

Charlyn Fargo Ware, an adjunct instructor for the School of Health Sciences, exemplifies this concept through a series of videos for her Nutrition class, teaching students how to create healthy snacks using basic ingredients and supplies found commonly in dorm rooms. In the video below, she shares how these videos have reinforced students' knowledge of important course concepts while teaching them practical skills.

Call to action

Canvas catch up

Things change quickly in Canvas! Here are some highlights of new features that might be of interest:

• As a reminder, Turnitin is our new plagiarism and AI detection tool at UIS. If you are viewing a student submission that was not processed due to the EULA not being accepted, there are a couple of reasons why this may have occurred:
  • The student submitted their work from the mobile app, and the EULA did not appear to them. You can ask the student to submit their work again from a web browser, and they should be able to accept the EULA.
  • The student closed out of the EULA without realizing what it was. You can ask the student to submit their work again, ensuring that they accept the EULA the second time around.
  • The student has objections to the EULA and did not accept it. If this occurs, you can ask the student to clarify what their objections are, and we are happy to work with you and the student to alleviate as many of those concerns as possible. Please feel free to share those concerns with our team when they arise.
• In SpeedGrader, both students who have not submitted an assignment and students whose assignments have not been graded have the same symbol next to their name (a reddish-orange circle). You will only be able to tell the difference between them by referring to the text under the student's name. This is an aesthetic change and does not impact the way SpeedGrader operates.

Looking ahead

We will continue to share more information about our new UIS Online Course Quality Rubric as the academic year progresses, but we'd also love to have your feedback on it. What do you like about it? What is confusing or worrisome? Is there anything missing? Please reach out to us with any thoughts you have!

We hope you'll be able to join us in the coming weeks for our workshops and events.

As always, thank you for your incredible work with our students! We'll catch up with you again soon!

-Emily, Carrie, Scott, & Taylor