In case you missed it

In September, our focus was "AI-proofing" assignments. We provided a list of strategies in this month's teaching tip, and we went into more detail during the AI-proofing assignments workshop. Thank you so much to all who attended!

As employees of UIS, you have access to OLC resources and member benefits. Feel free to look over OLC's Institutional Membership Overview to learn more about what is available to you.

Instructor spotlight

The widespread use of AI tools--and in particular, generative AI--has changed the teaching landscape. It can be difficult to find a way to ensure students aren't relying on generative AI tools for their assignments. However, instructors at UIS are implementing strategies in their courses to promote student learning and critical thinking.

In the video below, Sarah Collins, the Writing Coordinator for the Learning Hub and an English instructor here at UIS, discusses how positive reinforcement and clear expectations keep students from turning to AI tools in her classes.

Call to action

Next month, we're focusing on journaling! Do you use journaling in your courses? How are journals being implemented, and what have you learned from this kind of assessment? If you'd like to share how journaling works for you and your students, emails COLRS at colrs@uis.edu. We'd love to showcase your work.

We'd also love to have instructors share at our Teaching Conversations event in November! This is an opportunity for instructors to come together, share something they've implemented in their courses, and collaborate with others on improving teaching practices. If you'd like to participate in this semester's Teaching Conversations, please send us an email!

Canvas catch up

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

• Over the summer, we updated the Kaltura video player with support from ITS. In response to these updates, we'd like to share the following:
  • We've been updating the Kaltura resources on our website to reflect these changes. This includes updating our video content so that users know how to record a video in Kaltura, find the share link for a video, and embed the video in a discussion post.
  • We've also worked with ITS to change the default size of the videos when they're embedded in Canvas so that users can make the most of the transcript feature. When a user clicks on the "See Transcript" button, a searchable transcript will appear to the right of the video. This is an important accessibility feature, and we hope you and your students find it valuable.
• We updated the Microsoft Office 365 Integration in Canvas. In your course navigation, this will now appear as Microsoft Education and contains a number of additional features. If you were using the previous integration and would like assistance using this new integration, please reach out to us. We're happy to help anytime!

Looking ahead

We've already started visiting departments during their regular meetings to discuss the Canvas course accessibility process and introduce instructors to a new course clean-up tool, TidyUP. Whether we have visited your department yet or not, we invite you to fill out the intake form if you'd like one-on-one support from COLRS staff for making your courses accessible.

We'd also love to see you at our upcoming events.

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

-Emily, Carrie, Scott, Taylor, & Lyba