Category: Tools for Teaching

Introducing Studio: a new kind of video platform within Canvas

Canvas is a video engagement and annotation tool within Canvas that allows instructors and students to actively collaborate through video. WPI now has access to the Studio video platform! The Studio platform allows students and instructors to engage with video content by commenting directly on the video timeline. Students can learn from each other’s insights…Continue Reading Introducing Studio: a new kind of video platform within Canvas

My Top 5 (Free-ish) Cool Tools that Integrate into Canvas

Canvas has this great wealth of tools that are just waiting to be deployed into your course.  These tools are located in Canvas’ EduAppCenter.  There are hundreds of apps in the EduAppCenter, so I thought I’d summarize just a few of the interesting ones available there, and some others that are available on the web.  Many of these tools are free, others cost money…Continue Reading My Top 5 (Free-ish) Cool Tools that Integrate into Canvas

AccessChecker, a new content accessibility tool is now available in Canvas!

You might have noticed a new item in your Canvas course navigation called AccessChecker.  While Canvas itself is accessible to all users, regardless of disability, content posted to Canvas might require additional modifications to conform to best practices. This tool enables faculty to identify accessibility issues in their Canvas course content. AccessChecker will scan a course,…Continue Reading AccessChecker, a new content accessibility tool is now available in Canvas!

Poll Everywhere as Back Channel Space for Questions

Have you ever wanted to capture questions from students during a lecture? Do you just know students have questions about the content, but there is always silence when you ask them? I’d love to share a really cool and interesting way of using Poll Everywhere in your classes to solve this problem. Dirk Albrecht is…Continue Reading Poll Everywhere as Back Channel Space for Questions

myWPI Accessibility Series: Providing Semantic Structure to your Documents

The myWPI platform is accessible to all users by default; however, the individual content items uploaded by faculty and students may not be.  How can the common documents we use day to day be made accessible for users with visual impairments or learning and cognitive disabilities? You’ll be happy to hear that there are just a few…Continue Reading myWPI Accessibility Series: Providing Semantic Structure to your Documents

Custom Ordering Playlists in Ensemble

Ensemble is WPI’s online video platform – like an internal YouTube. WPI community members can request space in the system for creating their own repository of videos which further educational goals. Many instructors are already using Ensemble, from System Dynamics to Fire Protection to Biology. Like YouTube, users can create playlists. Playlists can have neat…Continue Reading Custom Ordering Playlists in Ensemble

Lecture Capture: This Time It’s Personal

There are many reasons to explore contingency planning for your class lectures and anyone who was in Worcester last winter can remember a particularly cold one. But even if you’re not trapped behind a sheet of ice you may still want to find a way to deliver course content to your students remotely. One tool that…Continue Reading Lecture Capture: This Time It’s Personal

The app that we’ve all been waiting for is here! Echo360 for Tablets!!

Over the past few years, the ATC has fielded requests from many instructors concerning how they might record annotated videos using their tablets. And have them publish to their myWPI site using Echo360, our lecture capturing system. For the earlier, we always recommended the iPad app “Explain Everything.” However, for the latter, we never had a great…Continue Reading The app that we’ve all been waiting for is here! Echo360 for Tablets!!

Check out these 3 great features of PDF Annotator!

On the classroom podiums you will find 2 programs that will allow you to mark up PDFs as well as Powerpoint presentations and other files – Smart Notebook and PDF Annotator. Alright! So lets start with why I’m focusing on PDF Annotator and not Smart Notebook. At some point in the near future WPI will…Continue Reading Check out these 3 great features of PDF Annotator!