OHIO IT Semester Start Email

Greetings From the Office of Information Technology!

Below, you will find updates to OHIO's teaching and learning technologies for this spring. If you have any questions feel free to email us at ServiceDesk@ohio.edu.

As a reminder, all instructors must follow the guidance put forth from their college or department regarding which LMS to use this semester. The Spring 2025 semester is the last period that courses will automatically appear in Blackboard to support the few remaining programs that still leverage that system according to their college’s plans.  

Continue to only publish your course in the LMS your college decided to leverage. Publishing the same course in both systems (Canvas and Blackboard) will generate confusing messages to students. 

Suggestions and premade materials

Although the vast majority of OHIO courses will be using Canvas this spring and most students are now familiar with Canvas, it’s important to help students find their way to your course at the beginning of the semester.

Consider sending students an email with course information and include a short LMS tutorial on your first day of class. (Here’s an example Canvas slide deck.) You can also add a course description to your Blackboard course that points students to Canvas, without publishing the Blackboard course. This helps if you work with teaching or graduate assistants who may not remember to share LMS information with students at the beginning of the semester.

Need Canvas help?

Ohio University will be hosting several workshops and office hour sessions in January to support instructor’s continuing transition and effective teaching in Canvas. Workshops are being held on several OHIO campuses and participants can attend onsite or remotely. To learn more or add these to your calendar, visit the visit the CTLA’s event registration webpage and search “Canvas.

Take advantage of the accessibility tools within OHIO’s teaching technologies.

• When adding content directly to Canvas using the rich text editor, always leverage the accessibility checker before publishing.
• Review and correct automatically generated captions in all Panopto videos.
• Before publishing a Qualtrics survey, check its accessibility and implement any recommended changes.
• If you use University Libraries resources as reading materials, share a permalink to the item rather than downloading a PDF to share. Sharing this way can increase students’ access options and helps Libraries track  the use of resources.

Monthly learning series

Beginning in 2025, the OHIO Digital Accessibility Network (OHIO-DAN) will start a new series of monthly learning sessions. These sessions will focus on making accessibility manageable and helping everyone build lasting habits that make a difference. More details will be shared on the OHIO-DAN Teams channel so be sure to join to receive more updates! 

Exam security is a priority for many faculty, regardless of teaching modality. Online assessments provide students the opportunity to test from anywhere. As you prepare your assessments for this semester, consider utilizing Top Hat, Canvas or Proctortrack. Explore what each of these tools has to offer. 

• Top Hat Monitored Exams provide a lockdown browser environment for testing that increases exam security but still allows students the freedom to use their own device in a location they choose at no cost. Top Hat monitored exams cannot be scheduled for a specific date and time. The exams will need to be started manually, and an exam passcode will need to be shared with students to gain access.
• Canvas quizzes support student accommodations, and also provide a student activity log during exams. Please note that the student log is a helpful reference, but Canvas advises faculty not to use it as an official academic integrity tool.
• Proctortrack is a fee-based online proctoring tool that uses AI monitoring to observe student behavior throughout an exam. Students or departments are required to pay to use this proctoring service, which is $6-$15 per test depending on the level of proctoring enabled by the instructor.

Over Winter Break Closure, Blue underwent a system upgrade intended to provide a more robust dashboard for users, which highlights response rates and other key metrics for  evaluations. If you have any questions as you access Blue’s new interface, contact the IT Service Desk.

Panopto has undergone updates to increase accessibility. Now, by default, captions will be enabled. Additionally, students can now download transcripts from videos. 

Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) is a secure, web-based application for building and managing online surveys and databases for research applications. REDCap is ideal for projects collecting data in community settings and in multi-site projects such as clinical trials. All OHIO instructors and current students can use REDCap for their research needs. 

The Teaching and Learning Technologies Advisory Community has expanded to include OHIO IT’s Learning Spaces. The advisory community now focuses on the digital tools used to support students and instructors and the physical spaces used for instruction. The advisory community, which meets monthly, allows instructors, staff, and students to provide feedback, ask questions, and learn about current and upcoming classroom initiatives. Join us for the next meeting to learn more.