Workshop Descriptions

Current Offerings

Flexible Teaching Workshops:

Content Creation and Structure

Accessibility and Inclusivity

Generative AI

Student Engagement

Assessment and Assignments

You can also request a Custom Workshop.

 

Past Offerings

Current Offerings

Introduction to Canvas

This one-hour workshop will provide an overview of the basic and new features of Canvas. You will learn how to organize course materials using modules, create content pages using the Rich Content Editor, assess learning using engaging assignments and effectively communicate using Canvas.  The workshop will also introduce various teaching tools that work seamlessly with Canvas.

At the end of this session, you will know how to:

  • Navigate your Canvas course.
  • Setup grades using the Assignment Index Page.
  • Organize modules and add course content.
  • Upload your course syllabus.
  • Use the HTML editor to create accessible course content.
  • Set up your course home page.
  • Embed videos as content.

Canvas Site Design for Flexible Teaching

In this one-hour workshop, you will be introduced to the principles of flexible teaching – pedagogy that can be adapted to any modality, whether in-person, remote, or hybrid. Through the use of a sample Canvas course site, you will learn how these principles can be applied to your course sites to maximize their efficiency and pedagogical effectiveness. This workshop is designed to complement Introduction to Canvas (2022); that workshop focuses on the mechanics of getting started in Canvas, while this workshop takes a more theoretical and pedagogically oriented viewpoint.

Panopto for Flexible Teaching

Panopto, the University’s video management system, has many pedagogical uses. In this one-hour workshop, you will discover how Panopto can support your teaching, regardless of the modality in which you are delivering your course. You will be introduced to the basic features of Panopto – recording, uploading, editing, and sharing video content – as well as to more advanced features that can enhance your pedagogy and promote accessibility, such as in-video quizzes, discussions, and closed captions.

 

Effective Asynchronous Lecture Videos

This one-hour workshop will introduce you to effective practices for creating asynchronous lecture videos. You will learn the advantages and limitations of asynchronous lecture videos and when they can be used effectively for learning. We will discuss the guiding principles for creating asynchronous lecture videos and get hands-on practice with the corresponding effective design principles.

Watch Effective Asynchronous Lecture Videos

Accessibility in Teaching: Effective Practices

This 1 hour workshop will introduce you to using the accessibility features in various teaching technologies. We will also review how to effectively incorporate them with different types of course materials. We will cover canvas, PDFs, Zoom and Panopto.

 

Easy Ways to Strengthen Your Course Accessibility

This 1 hour workshop will present advanced ways to integrate accessibility tools and features with various teaching technologies. We will also review 5 ways to strengthen your course with different accessibility strategies.

Inclusive and Accessible Digital Syllabi

This sixty-minute workshop offers an in-depth introduction to digital syllabus design, with an emphasis on inclusive pedagogy and digital accessibility. The session will provide an overview of inclusive and accessible approaches to syllabus design, along with concrete strategies for digital practice. In this workshop, we will consider how the syllabus serves two critical functions: first, as a document that gathers course resources; and second, as a foundation that structures student learning. Throughout, we will pay particular attention to how the syllabus addresses students and invites (or discourages) continued engagement throughout the term. Participants will emerge with three pathways for implementing effective digital syllabi, ranging from the technologically streamlined (e.g. maintaining an accessible PDF copy of the syllabus on Canvas) to the digitally sophisticated (e.g. designing a fully digital syllabus on a freestanding website).

Meet the Generative AI Moment with Authentic Learning

The availability of generative AI tools has created many questions and concerns amongst educators across institutions of higher education. Some of these discussions focus on the low opportunity cost to skip the work of engaging with important learning activities like writing or coding. Meanwhile, others see opportunities to engage students with a new technology that will be a major part of their future. Whatever one’s outlook about these tools is, it is important to engage thoughtfully with the reality that these tools exist, are widely accessible, and can often generate fluent and effective outputs.

This one-hour workshop will both provide a high-level explanation of how these tools work, along with insights from colleagues across disciplines at UChicago about how they’ve been approaching this change in the educational landscape. Attendees will receive context to make an informed decision about how to approach these tools and address the topic with their students. By providing examples of how they might design assignments and communicate their expectations in this new context, we hope to provide attendees with everything they need to feel confident that learning remains authentic even in a time that computer-generated text may approach the quality of human intellectual work.

Generative AI and Academic Integrity: Some Considerations

If you’ve been following the latest developments in generative AI software such as ChatGPT and are concerned that your students may use the tools in a way that compromises their academic integrity, then you are not alone. Many instructors are concerned about the risks associated with generative AI: how students may use it and how instructors may prevent its use.

This one-hour workshop will touch on ways that you can limit dishonest use of these tools, whether in academic writing, computer code assignments, or other fields. We will discuss various digital tools and pedagogical techniques that have been proposed to combat dishonest behavior with AI, and we will evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each. Lastly, you will have an opportunity to discuss with your fellow instructors how best to approach this difficult problem.

If you want more context about generative AI or need more information before you decide what to do, you may want to consider our workshop “Meeting the Generative AI Moment with Genuine Learning,” and if you want to use them in a supervised manner rather than ban them, you may want to consider our workshop “Using AI Tools to Promote Meaningful Learning.”

Using AI Tools to Promote Meaningful Learning

If you’ve been following the latest developments in generative AI tools and decided that your approach to the availability of these tools is going to involve using them in a supervised manner rather than banning them, then this workshop is for you. Whether you’re unreservedly enthusiastic about your students using generative AI in your class or you’ve decided that it is simply a reality to be engaged with, ATS is ready to offer you both useful ideas, room to experiment, and a space to talk through your approach with colleagues. The objectives of this one-hour workshop are to consider the impact AI tools are having or stand to have on teaching and learning in your various fields of study; articulate your vision for AI’s role in your teaching; and explore ways you might integrate AI into meaningful learning activities. We’ll review some best practices and some suggestions for using AI as part of your learning environment that have resulted from the larger pedagogical conversation thus far.

If you’re still on the fence about AI and need more information before you decide what to do, you may want to consider our workshop “Meeting the Generative AI Moment with Genuine Learning,” and if you’d prefer to discuss its implications for academic integrity and how to mitigate its influence, you may want to consider our workshop “AI and Generative Integrity: Some Considerations.” See our workshop schedule to review your options!

Introduction to Zoom for Teaching and Collaboration

This sixty-minute workshop provides an introduction to the Zoom web-conferencing tool, with a particular emphasis on instructional and academic use cases. The session is divided between a technical overview of the platform (Zoom interface; meeting roles; Zoom-Canvas integration), an in-depth look at engagement tools and strategies for effective remote/hybrid meetings, and a discussion of how Zoom can support diverse teaching, research, administrative, and service tasks. Participants will emerge with a practical understanding of Zoom as a tool for teaching and collaboration and with numerous concrete strategies for facilitating effective meetings (from office hours to interviews to conferences).

Effective Use of Discussion Forums

Interested in learning more about how discussion forums can increase student engagement? Then come to this 45-minute workshop. You will learn how to craft effective discussion prompts; how to elicit substantive posts and comments from your students; and how to decide between Canvas Discussions and Ed Discussion to suit your pedagogical goals. This session will also include a short exercise using both teaching tools.

Effective Pedagogical Use of Course Blogs

In this 45-minute session, we will introduce you to course blogs at UChicago and explain how using a course blog can enhance your pedagogy. We will explore pedagogical techniques for making course blogs successful, enumerate the fundamental principles you should consider when constructing your blog, and present some advanced uses of a course blog that involve multimedia and other external tools. To illustrate key points, we will show examples of past blog use by UChicago faculty and instructors.

Getting Started with Ed Discussion

This one-hour workshop will introduce you to the online discussion forum Ed Discussion and how you as the instructor can effectively employ this tool to enhance the academic as well as social engagement of your students in various modes of teaching. You will learn about the basic features of Ed Discussion and have some hands-on experience with this tool during our interactive activities. You will also explore the more advanced features of Ed Discussion so that you can better facilitate student discussion and interaction. In the last part, we will review the effectiveness of this online discussion tool in comparison to other similar tools/platforms so that you can make informed decisions when choosing the right online discussion tool for your students.

Getting Started with Poll Everywhere

This 1-hour workshop will introduce you to using the classroom response system Poll Everywhere with various teaching strategies. Poll Everywhere is a tool for engaging students, gathering responses, reviewing answers, and real-time polling. We will review how to create, activate, and manage poll questions. We will cover various question types.

Student Engagement Through Digital Annotation (Hypothesis)

This forty-five-minute workshop introduces participants to digital annotation, the practice of engaging closely with textual materials through annotations, highlights, and notes rendered by a digital tool. In this session, we will consider two modalities of digital annotation – independent annotation, conducted by individual students, and social annotation, produced collaboratively by students working in groups or as a class – and explore instructional contexts for their use across the disciplines. We will also examine two digital annotation tools – Canvas Annotation Assignments and Hypothes.is – and provide an introduction to their use for independent and social annotation.

Additionally, this session will suggest a workflow and offer resources for making course readings and annotation activities accessible to all learners, and will provide a variety of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) recognition resources.

Digital Tools for Teaching Writing

How can digital tools support student writing at all stages of draft development? How can active learning strategies and digital pedagogical practice intersect in the context of writing instruction? This sixty-minute workshop dives into these and other questions in considering digital pedagogy and writing pedagogy together. Over the course of the session, we will approach writing as a process and explore pedagogical frameworks, incremental activities, and specific digital tools that enable students to realize writing-related goals across diverse disciplines. Participants will emerge with frameworks for approaching writing (and writing instruction) as a process (Writing to Learn [WTL]; Writing to Show Learning [WTSL]); a concrete set of tools that support student writing from research and generative pre-writing to revision and presentation (Hypothes.is; Canvas Discussions and Annotation Assignments; Ed Discussion); and a roadmap to implementing engaging and challenging writing activities that foster independent work, collaborative revision, and academic integrity in their own classrooms.

Introduction to Gamification for Higher Education

This 75-minute interactive workshop will introduce participants to key considerations, frameworks, and workflows for making effective use of gamification in their undergraduate and graduate teaching. Beginning with an introduction to the use of games – and activities and assessments that make use of game elements and mechanics – the workshop will both consider numerous concrete examples of gamification in the higher educational classroom and equip participants with approaches to design, implementation, and assessment they can bring to their own instructional practice. Additionally, we will spend some time exploring and participating in short-form educational games and gamified activities together throughout this highly interactive session.

We will also consider different ways of implementing games and gamified activities into a specific instructional context or modality (developing an original instructional game, integrating a predesigned game, or offering students assignments in game design), and develop an inclusive approach to gamification that aims to make games and gamified activities accessible to all learners. Additionally, we will bring together digital and analog resources and tools for use in the design process.

Watch Introduction to Gamification for Higher Education

 

Getting Started with Zoom Whiteboards

If you’re looking for a way to quickly illustrate a concept to your class, promote student collaboration, and build knowledge using a variety of structures and multimedia, virtual whiteboards can bring your online, in-person, or hybrid teaching to the next level.

This one-hour workshop will both provide an overview of Zoom’s new whiteboard service and demonstrate the different ways that whiteboards in general can complement your teaching and promote more active engagement among your students. As an attendee, you will learn to use the basic features of Zoom Whiteboards (and common to most whiteboard software), compare the features of a few of the most popular whiteboards, and see examples of how other educators have used them to support their teaching. By the end of this workshop, you will have everything you need to set up whiteboard activities for your instructional goals and select the tool that best suits your needs.

Canvas Assignments and Gradebook

Learn to effectively use the advanced features and functions of assignments and grading in Canvas. In this session, you will learn how to create and organize assignments, modify advanced features for assignments, set up the gradebook, change grade calculations, comment on assignments through the gradebook, and hide and share grades. This session is open to all faculty, instructors, teaching assistants, and staff who will be teaching or supporting remote learning. This course is taught online via Zoom.

Watch Canvas Assignments and Gradebook

Canvas Online Quizzes and Surveys

In this 1-hour online session, we will walk you through how to build online exams and surveys and use them effectively for assessments in Canvas. You will learn how to build online quizzes and surveys using Canvas’ interface, create question banks, add questions from a question bank to a quiz or survey, randomize questions, randomize question variables, understand students’ test-taking experience, use Canvas’ built-in analytics, and make changes to published quizzes. 

Watch Canvas Online Quizzes and Surveys

Getting Started with Gradescope

In this 45-minute workshop, we will introduce you to Gradescope, a powerful software tool that uses AI to speed up handwritten grading and allows you to create flexible, customizable grading rubrics. We will lay out common use cases for Gradescope, explain how to set up the tool and use it in conjunction with Canvas, and point you toward further resources that can help you master advanced Gradescope functionality.

 

Effective Video Assignments

In this 75-minute workshop, participants will learn about designing video and audio assignments that make thoughtful scholarly, pedagogical, and social use of digital tools for teaching and learning. Emphasizing constructive alignment of learning objectives with student assignments, this workshop will enable instructors to design and assess both cumulative and short-form assignments and activities focused on meeting course-specific learning objectives and pedagogical goals. Through curated samples and participatory brainstorming activities, we will explore a range of assignments – of differing format, scope, and purpose – to consider how video assignments can help students realize an array of learning objectives and what kinds of formative and summative feedback are helpful in grading these assignments. Some sample formats include: gallery talks, virtual tours, oral histories, dialogues and skits, virtual poster presentations, video discussion boards, social media campaigns, and educational videos targeting a specific public audience.

We will also examine tools and methods for collecting student work (through Canvas and Course Blogs) and rubrics for framing, guiding, and assessing video assignments. Additionally, this workshop will provide an overview of digital utilities supported by Academic Technology Solutions for use in such assignments, including: Panopto, Zoom, Canvas, and Course Blogs (UChicago Voices).

Podcasting for Creative Assignments

Eager to explore creative ways to engage students and enhance their learning experience? Then come to this 1-hour workshop, which will discuss what podcasting is and why we should consider employing it in higher educational teaching contexts. You will learn about the basic design framework and workflow for creating a podcast, how to employ podcasting as creative assignments in your instruction, and discover some useful resources that expand on the materials we’ll visit during the workshop.

Canvas Rubrics

While many educators are familiar with rubrics as a tool to efficiently assess student work, they may not be aware how much rubrics can be used to promote better student work and how simple they are to use in Canvas.

This 45-minute workshop will provide the functional knowledge to easily configure them in your Canvas course. Attendees will learn how to identify the different types of rubrics and the various contexts in which they might be useful. By the end of this workshop, you will have the resources to find the appropriate situations to use rubrics in your class, select the best type of rubric for your needs, and set it up in Canvas.

Canvas Peer Review

This workshop will introduce you to the Peer Review feature in Canvas, breaking down the benefits it offers to your teaching, the basic functions, and the process of configuration. As an attendee, you will learn to set up peer review for an assignment, create reviewer pairings manually or automatically, and enable anonymity if needed. You will also learn how to add a rubric to your peer review process, if desired. Resources to guide students through the peer review process will be provided. This workshop aims to help attendees use peer review to build a class community that promotes meaningful learning and produces better work.

Request a Custom Workshop

To request a custom workshop for your department, please visit uchic.ag/contactATS.

Past Offerings

Introduction to Canvas

Bring your laptop for this 1-hour session for all disciplines. You will learn how to navigate the site, find support documentation, upload and organize course or organization site content, publish your course, set up assignments and gradebook, communicate with students via announcements and emails, add students and TAs and customize your course site.

This session is open to all faculty, instructors, teaching assistants, and staff who manage Canvas courses.

Workshop handout: Intro Workshop Handout (PDF)

Copying Material between Canvas Courses

Bring your laptop for this 45-minute session. We will walk you through the process of copying materials from previous Canvas courses into your new Canvas course site. You will be introduced to Canvas features such as adjusting assignment due dates that can make the course copying process quicker and easier. If you have not yet requested your new Canvas course site, we can guide you through that process as well.

Pre-requisites:

  • Participants are expected to have basic knowledge covered in our Introduction to Canvas workshop, including how to navigate within Canvas, use Modules, set up assignments and gradebook columns, and publish announcements.
  • Participants should also have access to a previous course in Canvas whose content they wish to copy.

This session is open to all faculty, instructors, teaching assistants, and staff who manage Canvas courses.

Workshop handouts: Copying Course Material Between Canvas Sites (PDF)

Canvas for Humanities Courses

Would you like to know how to get the most out of Canvas in your humanities course? Come to our 1-hour Canvas for Humanities workshop for a discipline-specific Canvas overview. You will be introduced to principles of course site organization; how to grade student work effectively in Canvas, including features such as SpeedGrader and audio/video comments; and assignment tools to help your students work collaboratively and creatively. This session is open to all faculty, instructors, teaching assistants, and staff in the humanities who manage Canvas courses.

This session is open to all faculty, instructors, teaching assistants, and staff who manage Canvas courses.

Canvas for STEM Courses

Would you like to know how to get the most out of Canvas in your STEM course? Come to our 1-hour Canvas for STEM workshop for a discipline-specific Canvas overview. You will be introduced to principles of course site organization; how to grade student work effectively in Canvas, including features such as SpeedGrader and audio/video comments; assessment tools such as Canvas Quizzes; multimedia tools, including in-video quizzing; and innovative ways to engage students during lecture, such as Canvas Chat and instant polling. We will also discuss ways to combat academic dishonesty. This session is open to all faculty, instructors, teaching assistants, and staff in STEM disciplines who manage Canvas courses.

This session is open to all faculty, instructors, teaching assistants, and staff who manage Canvas courses.

Creative Assignments in Canvas Using Google Apps, Blogs, & Wiki Pages

Coming up with creative assignments that excite students and help them achieve learning goals can be a challenge. In this workshop we will explore how to use collaborative tools available in Canvas, such as wiki pages, blogs, Google Apps (Docs, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Lucidchart, etc.), to design creative assignments and foster collaborative learning during and between class meetings. We will consider the characteristics of these collaborative technologies, the type of assignments they are appropriate for and how to use them effectively. We will examine a few examples of effective use of these technologies and we will do a small group hands-on exercise to develop an assignment using one of these technologies. Bring your laptop to this 1.5-hour workshop for a taste in using technology for collaborative learning.

Pre-requisite: Participants are expected to have basic knowledge covered in our Introduction to Canvas workshop–how to navigate within Canvas, use Modules, set up assignments and gradebook columns, and publish announcements.

If you have questions about designing a Canvas course site or Canvas in general, attend our Office Hoursor request an individual consultation.

Designing an Effective Course Site

Would you like to know how to design your Canvas course site quickly and efficiently? Then bring your laptop to this 1-hour session. You will learn how to control which parts of your site are visible to students; how to build a course site quickly by duplicating modules and module items; and how to create and organize media content. You will also be introduced to Student View, a powerful Canvas tool that lets you view your course site through your students’ eyes.

This session is open to all faculty, instructors, teaching assistants, and staff who manage Canvas courses.

Discussion Assignments in Canvas

Bring your laptop for this 1-hour session. In this workshop you will learn how to engage students through online discussions in Canvas. Learn how to leverage discussion boards as a graded assignment, student collaboration, and enhance classroom conversations. During the workshop you will have an opportunity to get hands-on experience and share ideas with other instructors about how to use discussion boards.

Pre-requisite: Participants are expected to have basic knowledge covered in our Introduction to Canvas workshop–how to navigate within Canvas, use Modules, set up assignments and gradebook columns, and publish announcements.

If you have questions about designing a Canvas course site or Canvas in general, attend our Office Hoursor request an individual consultation.

New Gradebook Online Workshop

As of Winter Quarter 2020, Canvas has changed to a new version of the Gradebook. In this one-hour online workshop, we will explore the new and enhanced features included in the New Gradebook, including the new Post Grade Policy that replaces the Mute Assignments feature. We will demonstrate how the New Gradebook can streamline your grading workflow and how to maximize its usefulness for your pedagogy.

This online workshop will be conducted via Zoom web conferencing, allowing you to attend from anywhere. You must sign up at least twenty-four hours before the workshop begins.

Prerequisite: Participants should have a basic familiarity with Canvas and the Canvas Gradebook.

If you have questions about designing a Canvas course site or Canvas in general, or if you have never used the Canvas Gradebook before, attend our Office Hours or request an individual consultation.

New and Updated Tools for Autumn 2022

In this 30-minute session, you will learn about new additions and recent changes made to teaching tools supported by Academic Technology Solutions in the past academic year. Topics will include updates and new features in Canvas, Zoom, Panopto, Hypothes.is, and Gradescope, as well as a brief overview of other tools that you may find useful in your teaching.

Providing Effective Assessment and Feedback in Canvas

Bring your laptop and course syllabus to this 1-hour session to learn how to effectively assess student work and provide feedback in Canvas. You will learn how to create and organize assignments, set up and weight assignment groups, and manage the Canvas Gradebook. You will be introduced to Canvas tools that make the grading process more efficient, such as Rubrics, SpeedGrader, and Anonymous and Moderated Grading. You will also receive a preview of the New Gradebook that is now available to instructors.

This session is open to all faculty, instructors, teaching assistants, and staff who manage Canvas courses.

Using Multimedia for Instruction and Creative Assignments

Multimedia can be a powerful medium for creating instructional content and creative assignments. In this workshop we will explore the learning theories behind multimedia learning and its efficacy, different forms of multimedia assignments, what pedagogical purposes they serve, and the conditions for success. We will also learn about University resources available to support multimedia learning. Bring your laptop to this 1.5-hour workshop.

This session is open to all faculty, instructors, teaching assistants, and staff who manage Canvas courses.

Beyond Essays and Exams: Creative and Alternative Assignments

This hands-on workshop is aimed at instructors who are developing an assessment plan and assignments for remote and hybrid teaching. Participants will first discuss principles for effective assessment in remote and hybrid teaching. Then we will explore assignments and activities that can be used in both synchronous and asynchronous contexts and consider how to make pedagogically sound use of digital tools such as collaborative documents and multimedia. We will also look at a few successful examples.

Participants should be ready to engage in collaborative activities such as contributing to a Google Doc and discussing with fellow instructors. This session is designed for faculty, instructors, teaching assistants, and staff who will be teaching or supporting remote or hybrid learning. This course is taught online via Zoom.

 

Live Captioning in Zoom Class Meetings

In this 30-minute workshop, we will focus on how to implement real-time captioning in your Zoom meetings, when you need a captioner, and when to turn on Zoom’s new Automatic Speech Recognition feature. You will learn how to configure essential Zoom settings, what to do when a captioner is assigned to your course, and which techniques to employ for more accurate captions.

Watch Live Captioning in Zoom Class Meetings

 

Introduction to Zoom for Remote and Hybrid Teaching

In this workshop you will be introduced to the web-conferencing tool, Zoom, and learn how you can use it effectively to hold synchronous class sessions and office hours. You will learn how to use the Zoom-Canvas integration to manage your Zoom class meetings and recordings, and recommended Zoom settings for class meetings and office hours. You will also learn about Zoom’s various engagement tools and how they can be used to engage students.