Many of these updates were originally featured in the ATSS Teaching with Technology Newsletter and the ATSS Extra Points blog.
Canvas Updates
New Canvas Enhancements
- Combat grading fatigue by randomizing the order students appear in Speedgrader.
- Set availability dates for Announcements.
- See which students have dropped the course so you can remove them from manually-created sections.
- Add auto-responses and a signature to your Inbox.
- Find and replace in the Rich Content Editor.
- Visit the Message Students Who feature in the Gradebook—there are several more ways to provide targeted messages to specific sets of students.
Spotlight on Canvas Discussions Redesign
Similar to social media apps, you can now tag people in a discussion reply. Just type the @ symbol and a list of taggable users displays in a pop-up. Instructors can also set up discussions so that students can report a reply as inappropriate. This feature does not automatically remove the reported post, but it does alert the instructor with a notification for them to take action to remove the reply. Update your Canvas Notifications so you're alerted about these new Discussion features.
TurnItIn Update
From the April 2024 Teaching with Technology: The Turnitin (TII) integration will be updated to the most recent version on Tuesday, May 21, 2024. Turnitin's engineers have designed the new integration to automatically convert existing integrated assignments to the new standard. Clicking the existing link in Canvas will open the activity in TII’s upgraded integration.
This migration does change a few things that instructors should note:
- TII assignment submissions will no longer be displayed in Canvas's Speedgrader. Instructors will need to grade and provide feedback on submissions in TII.
- Instructors will no longer be able to use Canvas assignment rubrics or be able to provide feedback on submissions in SpeedGrader with TII assignments.
- Although a TII submission indicator will still be displayed in the Canvas gradebook, the report score icon will no longer be displayed.
Turning Point No Longer Available in Canvas
On 05/21/2024, the TurningPoint LTI v1.1 integration was deprecated and removed from the University of Minnesota's Canvas instance. TurningPoint users can continue to use the tool in their classrooms, but it will no longer automatically populate grades in Canvas.
FLIP (FlipGrid) no longer available
Flip was abruptly shut down at UMN due to its integration into Microsft Teams. There is no direct replacement, but we have gathered suggestions for how instructors could use different UMN learning technologies as replacements. Refer to Extra Points blog post for Flip Alternatives.
Google Assignments Updated to LTI 1.3
On August 1, the LTI 1.1 version of Google Assignments was removed from Canvas and replaced with LTI 1.3.
- If you use Google Cloud assignments, you will need to recreate them to prepare for Fall Semester 2024.
- Also, if you have used the Rich Content Editor to embed or link documents into your pages, assignments, or discussions, you will have to re-embed them.
- And if you link course materials into your Modules using the +Add tool, you will have to re-select them using Google Drive (LTI 1.3). Note that student assignments submitted using the decommissioned tools will still be viewable in SpeedGrader.
For more information about this update refer to Canvas Google Assignments LTI 1.3
Jamboard Obsolescence
Google Jamboard will be view-only beginning October 1, 2024, and discontinued on December 31, 2024. Read the Jamboard help page for more information.
Kaltura Player Upgraded
The various Kaltura players used for thousands of videos and other media in Canvas and MediaSpace upgraded to version 7 on August 1, 2024. Read more about the benefits
Important: Embed codes that were previously created in Kaltura MediaSpace and posted elsewhere are now broken. Viewers will instead see a spinning rainbow-colored progress circle. Some broken embed codes exist in Canvas courses. If you do come across media not working properly in your course site, refer to steps to replace old MediaSpace embed codes.
Zoom AI Companion Features Available
Zoom's AI Companion is a suite of AI tools that enhance the in-meeting and post-meeting experience. The University is currently leveraging the following AI Companion tools:
Read Zoom AI Companion -- Guidance for Instructors before using these tools for instruction.
It is important to note that Zoom does not use any of the data captured by the AI tools to train the Large Language Model. However, data may be passed to third-party AI model providers for processing. Find more information about how Zoom's AI Companion handles data.
Test Drive a Tool this Fall
UMD educators use a variety of Canvas learning tools that enhance engagement and interaction for a wide variety of disciplines. Here are some ideas to get you started this fall:
Chimein (response tool)
ChimeIn is a UMN built, fast, flexible response tracking tool and very popular at UMD! Think of it as a web-based "clicker" tool, but with advanced features that aren't possible with traditional clickers. Instructors use this easy to setup tool to check comprehension, or take attendance, or engage the audience. It also features a large number of questions types like multiple choice, images, sliders, and heatmaps.
Hypothesis (social annotation)
Students and instructors can use Hypothesis to comment and converse directly on syllabi, blogs, journal articles, VitalSource ebooks, and, now, YouTube videos accompanied by transcripts. Step-by-step instructions and Hypothesis workshops links can be found on the UMD ITSS Hypothesis web page.
Feedback Fruits (peer learning)
The University is currently licensing FeedbackFruits, a tool that streamlines feedback and workflows for peer review, group member evaluation, and self-assessment.
Kaltura Video Quizzes
UMN’s video platform Kaltura has a functionality that can add quizzes! You can add reflection time, multiple choice, true/false, and free response questions to your lecture or introduction videos. This tool works best as a low-stakes engagement tool.
Voicethread (social annotation)
VoiceThread is a widely used tool at the UMN that allows instructors and students to create, share, and comment on images, Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, videos, audio files, documents, and PDFs, using a microphone, webcam, text, phone, and audio-file upload.