Hope you’ve all had a wonderful summer! We’ve been keeping busy as usual, and with A-Term nearly upon us, want to remind you that the ATC team is here to help you with all your Academic Technology needs. As you begin your course preparations, please reach out to us to schedule a consultation with one of our Academic Technology experts.
Quick Links to Our Helpful Forms:
Summary
What’s New?
Academic Technology Tools: Requests & Support
– Canvas LMS
– Zoom Meetings & Zoom Phone
– Echo360 Lecture Capture
– Video Storage, Publishing, & Sharing
– Classroom Engagement & Research Survey Tools
Consultations & ATC-TTL Office Hours
Contact Us & Hours
What’s New?
Course Site & Video Content Retention Policy
Per the LMS Policies approved by Faculty Governance in 2016 and revised in 2022, Canvas course & Echo360 lecture capture content is retained at WPI for 6 years. Over winter break, ATC will begin to remove content created in 2016 from our servers.
This Fall, the ATC will contact by email any faculty who taught in 2016 and used Canvas or Echo360. We will provide instructions on how to export and save this content to OneDrive or personal storage.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact atc-ttl@wpi.edu.
Canvas Updates
Waitlisted and Unenrolled Students
Need to give a student access to your Canvas site before they are officially added to your Workday roster? Please follow these instructions to use the “Manually Added Student” option in Canvas.
New Feature Announcement! Canvas Quiz Tool
Canvas has revamped its entire Quiz tool! Get a first look at the new tool in this video. WPI will be doing a formal rollout next year (2024) as Canvas develops advanced functionality for this new tool. The existing Quiz tool will continue to be available in your course site and there is no planned phase-out date at this time.
Want to try it out now? Check out this site to learn how to begin using it in your course site.
Announcements and Discussions Redesign
Canvas is working to redesign the Announcements and Discussions interface. Want to preview it in your Canvas site? You can enable it under Settings > Feature Options. More information on the redesign.
Want a demo on using the new Quizzes or Discussions tools? Book a Coffee & Canvas session with Lindsey Van Gieson or email her at lftapper@wpi.edu.
New TTL Member Introduction
Please welcome our new team member, Caleb Bergen, as our new LMS Applications Developer. His role will be developing customizations and applications for Canvas and our suite of academic technology tools.
Caleb recently graduated from UMass Lowell with his B.S. in Computer Science. While at UMass Lowell, Caleb was involved in projects related to their learning management system and he served as an Information Technology Intern to support classroom A/V. He also worked as an instructor for CodeWizardsHQ, a platform that teaches kids online coding.
We’re so excited to have Caleb as part of our team!
Academic Technology Tools: Requests & Support
Canvas LMS
Canvas is WPI’s official course website system to deploy learning materials, assessments, discussions, and grades. If you have a course that exists in Workday, a site will be generated automatically for you within Canvas.
To request changes to your Canvas site such as copying content from other courses, merging multiple sections into a single course site, or adding TAs or Graders, please use this form: https://www.wpi.edu/+canvasrequest
We can also create blank sandbox/training sites and non-academic WPI related course sites. Request one here!
Canvas Tech Support
Got a Canvas question or need to report an issue?
Weekdays 8-5, you can reach us at canvashelp@wpi.edu
Working off hours? We subscribe to 24/7 tech support for Faculty and TAs, just click on “Help” in the left-hand menu of Canvas to call, chat, or email Canvas.
Zoom Meetings and Zoom Phone
Zoom is WPI’s web conferencing tool accessible from https://wpi.zoom.us. WPI is also in the process of switching phone carriers from Avaya to Zoom Phone. Learn more about the Zoom Phone Unified Communications project.
In addition to screen sharing, video, and audio, Zoom Meetings have a robust suite of collaboration tools to allow you to engage with your class in-person and online simultaneously.
Echo360 and Canvas allow automatic deployment of classroom lecture videos and Zoom Meeting recordings into your Canvas site!
To learn more about using Zoom Meetings to engage with your students, check out the workshops above, or contact Jolene Cotnoir at jcotnoir@wpi.edu.
Echo360 Lecture Capture
Echo360 is WPI’s lecture capturing tool available in every classroom or from accessing https://www.echo360.org from any computer with your WPI login credentials.
How does Echo360 differ from Zoom? Start here with our Recording Lectures FAQ post and this comparison chart to learn more about each tool.
Request Echo360 Lecture Capture
To request Echo360 lecture capture, please fill out the opt-in/request form. Lecture Capture recordings and live streams are not automatically enabled for your class.
Request a Microphone
Each classroom is equipped with a gooseneck microphone on the podium. To request a wireless lavaliere microphone, please fill out this request form and the ATC will prepare one for you and follow-up via email when it is ready to be picked up.
Video Storage Options
Are you maxing out your Canvas file storage? We can help!
Learn more about options for streaming your lectures and uploading videos or other media that connect into Canvas for a seamless experience for you and your students.
Store your Zoom recordings in Echo360
If you record using Zoom in a classroom, you can store your recordings in Echo360 automatically by setting up a connection between Echo360 and Zoom.
Please Note: Recordings stored in Zoom are deleted after 100 days, so we strongly recommend enabling this feature if you will be using Zoom for your classes.
To enable this connection, please use the following instructions: Echo360-Zoom Connection
For more information or to request training on Echo360 or about storing video and media email echocapture@wpi.edu
Classroom Engagement & Research Survey Tools
Poll Everywhere is a web-based polling solution where students use their phone, tablets, and laptops to answer questions used for lecture engagement. You can even use it in Zoom!
Poll Everywhere is now accessible for faculty and students to login using WPI credentials. Simply go to https://www.polleverywhere.com and log in with your WPI email address and password to get started.
- Connecting Poll Everywhere and Canvas – new instructions this year, connect your course directly from Canvas to Poll Everywhere.
Will your students be creating surveys and collecting data?
WPI has a site license for the fully featured Qualtrics suite. No need to use “free” online services for your surveys!
Looking for another way to efficiently assess and grade STEM work?
WPI now has a license for Gradescope. Gradescope is a browser-based tool that supports online, paper-based, and blended assignments, and cuts down grading time for science, math, and programming assessments. You can find more information in this FAQ Guide.
If you don’t have a Gradescope account, you can create one on their homepage. We recommend using these short videos and the searchable Help Center to get started. The Gradescope team also hosts regular online workshops.
Join our WPI Learning Community for Gradescope to learn more and to access documentation in our Team notebook.
Interested in enhancing your online class discussions?
WPI has a free license to use Flip (formerly Flipgrid), which allows for video discussion boards that can be enabled directly within Canvas. Log in with your WPI account. Learn more about Flip.
Engagement through social annotation with Perusall
Perusall is a tool integrated into Canvas that facilitates student engagement with reading assignments through social annotation and reflection. Interested in learning more? Check out this overview of Perusall. Have you tried Perusall in your class? Let us know what you think!
Consultations & ATC-TTL Office Hours
If you’re looking to brush up on an old topic, or learn something new, the ATC-TTL team is here to help! Check out our consultation and training options below.
Canvas
Book a Coffee & Canvas session with Lindsey Van Gieson (lftapper@wpi.edu) to learn how to better utilize Canvas and other edtech tools for a variety of teaching approaches.
For self-service Canvas training, check out the ATC’s video repository.
Zoom
Zoom-compatible hardware is available in all classrooms on campus, so you can reach your students remotely from any computer.
If you’d like to learn more about Zoom or have any questions, e-mail Jolene Cotnoir (jcotnoir@wpi.edu) to schedule a one-on-one training session that fits your schedule.
For basic Zoom training and other topics, check out our videos on Zoom.
Learn more about the Zoom Phone Unified Communications project.
Echo360
E-mail us at echocapture@wpi.edu to schedule a one-on-one training to learn more about using Echo360.
For basic Echo360 training, check out our online resources (requires WPI login).
Poll Everywhere, Qualtrics, and Gradescope
If you would like to meet for 30 minutes with Mike Hamilton (mjham@wpi.edu) via Zoom for a consult or training on Poll Everywhere, Gradescope, or Qualtrics you can book online or email Mike.
Pre-Recorded Workshops & Micro-Trainings
Want to work at your own pace? We have pre-recorded workshops available, as well as micro-training sessions where you can learn something new about Canvas, Echo360, or Zoom in 10 minutes or less!
On Demand Trainings – Full 45-minute training session recordings
Micro-Trainings – individual Canvas, Echo360, Zoom topics, learn in 10 minutes or less
Contact Us
E-mail atc-ttl@wpi.edu for any questions and we can help point you in the right direction. The Technology for Teaching and Learning (TTL) team is available M-F, 8am-5pm.
Please check out the resources we have available online:
Canvas Blog - Get important Canvas updates, new features, and help resources.
TTL Blog -All academic technology resources, workshops, and new tech tools.
Course Development in Canvas – Need a refresher? Looking for best practices? This site reviews how to build your course site whether you’re teaching face-to-face, online, and everything in-between.
Accessibility & UDL in Canvas – Learn ways to make your course site & videos accessible for all users.