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UWGB Canvas Gallery: A Virtual Exhibition of Teaching

About the Exhibition

Have you developed standout strategies in your Canvas course that could inspire or benefit your colleagues? The “UWGB Canvas Gallery: A Virtual Exhibition of Teaching,” hosted by the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CATL), is the perfect platform to share your innovative teaching and design approaches with fellow instructors. To participate in this showcase, we invite you to submit some of the materials you’ve developed in Canvas. They should be materials you already have, making the workload minimal, and they can be from a Canvas site for any course modality: in-person, online, virtual classroom, and more! Accepted work will be displayed in a virtual Canvas course gallery where others on campus can engage and view your work. This virtual gallery-style exhibition is more than just showcasing your work; it is about building a community where educators across UW-Green Bay can learn from one another by sharing the creative strategies that often only students see.

Call for Submissions

We are looking for submissions that highlight a range of teaching and design strategies that use Canvas effectively. You can submit a single Canvas item, such as an assignment, page, quiz, or discussion, or share an entire module that demonstrates effective teaching practices and supports student success. Examples of what you might share include:

  • A welcoming course introduction Canvas module that sets students up for success
  • Creative Canvas discussion boards that foster deep, meaningful dialogue
  • Innovative assessments that challenge traditional formats, such as project-based learning or peer feedback in Canvas
  • Thoughtfully designed group activities that encourage collaboration and active participation and use Canvas Groups to set up effective teamwork and communication
  • Gamified elements that motivate and reward student achievement such as using mastery paths or badging in Canvas
  • Visual and interactive elements that simplify complex concepts and enhance learning shared in Canvas
  • Effective use of module pre-requisites to scaffold learning
  • Well-written instructions for more complicated tasks in Canvas, such as the use of PlayPosit

In your submission, consider how your materials might:

  • Demonstrate inclusive teaching and digital accessibility
  • Foster student engagement and success
  • Support students in achieving course learning outcomes
  • Promote transparency or reduce invisible curriculum
  • Facilitate students’ ability to succeed in an online learning environment
  • Incorporate evidence-based teaching strategies, such as scaffolded assignments or use of the TiLT framework

The deadline to apply is extended until Monday, November 18, 2024.

How to Apply

To apply, complete the submission form by November 4, 2024. You’ll be asked to provide details about your Canvas course materials, along with a program-ready abstract explaining how your submission demonstrates effective or innovative teaching strategies. Make sure to highlight the benefits your Canvas use and design offers to both your students and your teaching practice.

With your consent, CATL will access the Canvas material you highlight. A CATL committee will review all submissions based on your survey responses, abstract, and any accompanying Canvas materials. Once submissions are reviewed, CATL will follow up with you. Accepted submissions will be featured in a Canvas course which will be available to UWGB instructors to view in January.

We look forward to seeing your contributions and showcasing the excellent work of our UW-Green Bay instructors!

Event Follow-Up: Improving Accessibility in Learning Materials

On Wednesday, Mar. 6, 2024, CATL teamed up with Assistant Professor of Humanities, Kristopher Purzycki, for a workshop on improving the accessibility of educational resources shared in courses and on campus. This session explored common accessibility pitfalls in crafting digital learning materials, covering tasks like creating and sharing PowerPoint presentations, PDFS, and Canvas elements such as media and syllabi. As a continuation of this workshop, we’ve complied practical accessibility tips and demonstrations for instructors to incorporate when creating learning materials.

Prioritizing Accessibility Matters for Student Success

Meeting certain accessibility standards is not just about compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act; it is also crucial for enhancing student success and engagement. Accessibility (specifically digital accessibility) proactively eliminates barriers during the design and creation phase of materials.

In cases where accessibility measures still pose challenges for learners, students can work with Student Accessibility Services (SAS) to seek formal accommodations and instructors will work with SAS to fulfill the accommodation request. Many students may not disclose their disabilities to their university or face other obstacles hindering them from receiving formal accommodation. Consequently, academic success often relies on students’ individual efforts and faculty commitment to accessible learning materials. While not proposing a complete overhaul of course materials, CATL hopes to promote simple steps to enhance the accessibility of educational learning materials, all in the pursuit of student success.

  • Make course changes based on level of seriousness.
  • Learn and adapt based on experiences and student feedback.
  • Use the UWGB library as a resource to help refresh and update your class materials/readings.
  • Use the Accessibility Checkers available to you in Microsoft Office (like Word, PowerPoint, Excel) and Canvas). 

Canvas Accessibility Tools to Help Review Your Course

Expand the titles below to learn how to use the accessibility tools and checks available to you in Canvas.

How to Use the Canvas Accessibility Checker – Video Demo

Validate Links in Your Canvas Course – Video Demo

Note: This video is demonstration is from Arizona State University Learning Experience (LX) and displays their specific instance of Canvas. While UWGB’s Canvas may operate and look different, the validate course link application works the same. Need more? View the Instructor (Canvas) guide on Validating Links in Canvas.

 

Using the Canvas Course Accessibility Checker UDOIT – Video Overview

Learn even more with UWGB's Knowledgebase guide on using the UDOIT Cloud Accessibility tool to check your Canvas course accessibility.

Video Accessibility with Kaltura My Media and Automatic Closed Captions

Expand the titles below to learn how to upload your own course videos or YouTube finds to Kaltura My Media. This allows for automatic closed captioning, caption editing, and transcription addition for videos in your Canvas courses or those shared with students.

How to Upload Videos and Add Captions with Kaltura My Media – Video Demo 

How to Embed Videos and Add Transcripts with Kaltura My Media – Video Demo

Tip: You can adjust the max embed size of your video under the Embed Settings option. Feel free to use this to adjust the size of your video display in your Canvas course. 

PDF Accessibility with Adobe Acrobat – Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Scanning

Expand the title below to learn how to enhance the accessibility of your PDFs by using OCR  scanning. While OCR scanning doesn’t guarantee full accessibility for assistive technologies like screen readers, Adobe Acrobat Pro offers additional tools to improve accessibility before sharing PDFs digitally.

How to Use OCR Scanning with Adobe Acrobat Pro for PDFs – Video Demo

Tip: Before creating your own PDF documents and PDF scans of readings, contact the UWGB library and ask if they already have a digital resource available.  

Image Accessibility and Informative Alt Text

Expand the title below to learn more about writing helpful alt text for images with specific examples, such as when you are creating your syllabus.

How to Add Alt Text in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint – Video Demo

A Note About Your Syllabus

Your syllabus is a great resource for our students and their first look into your class and learning environment. Because of this, your syllabus should include language that makes your desire for student success obvious. This can be done by incorporating course norms that encourage students to reach out to you if materials are not accessible for them. At UWGB instructors must include an “Accommodation Statement” on their syllabus. While not a requirement, instructors can show their commitment to accessibility and student success by including an additional accessibility statement. See an example of this type of Accessibility from Bates College below.

"Bates College is committed to creating a learning environment that meets the needs of its diverse student body. If you anticipate or experience any barriers to learning in this course, please feel welcome to discuss your concerns with me." – Bates College: Sample Syllabus Accessibility Statement

Learn More

If you’d like to learn more about accessibility, we encourage you to sign up for LITE 120, a self-paced training course that covers the basics of accessibility in Canvas, as well as SAS’s training course on creating accessible documents (i.e., with Word, PowerPoint, or PDF). Plus, check out CATL’s top 10 dos and don’ts of digital accessibility for even more resources.

Related Events and Opportunities

Join us as we conclude this semester’s workshop series with a session on “Using Universal Design for Learning (UDL)to Increase Access” led by the director of UW-Green Bay’s Student Accessibility Services, Lynn Niemi, and Art and Design Professor, Alison Gates. Attendees will continue the conversation about neurodiversity and explore how to use UDL to remove barriers in course materials and increase student access. This workshop will be held virtually via Zoom on Apr. 3rd, 2024, from 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. Registration for the April workshop on UDL is already open.

As always, CATL also welcomes you to connect with us if you’d like to learn more about any of these topics. Send us an email or request a consultation to get started!

 

Workshop Wednesday: Using Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to Increase Access (Apr. 3, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.)

Throughout the 2024 spring semester, CATL’s “Workshop Wednesday” series has been centered around understanding neurodiversity and enhancing the accessibility of our courses to better serve our students. Join us as we conclude this semester’s workshop series with a session on using Universal Design for Learning (UDL) led by the Director of UW-Green Bay’s Student Accessibility Services, Lynn Niemi, and Art and Design Professor, Alison Gates. Attendees will continue the conversation about neurodiversity and explore how to use UDL to remove barriers in course materials and increase student access. This workshop will be held virtually via Zoom on Apr. 3rd, 2024, from 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. Register today to receive an Outlook calendar invitation with the Zoom link.

Presentation PowerPoint

CATL Workshop Wednesday 2024 UDL PowerPoint Presentation

Workshop Related Articles

Event Follow-Up: Students’ Experiences at UWGB via Neurodiverse Viewpoints

On Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2024, CATL collaborated with Assistant Vice Chancellor Stacie Christian to host a student panel on neurodiversity. Six student panelists shared their experiences as neurodiverse learners, including common barriers and misconceptions related to neurodiversity. One of the topics the panel discussed was how instructors can support them. A few common themes emerged from students’ responses so we’ve compiled them below, along with resources for ways you might implement these recommendations in your teaching.

Make Assignment Details Transparent

The student panelists shared that they find it extremely helpful when professors explain the purpose of an assignment and provide clear instructions. Their recommendation aligns with the transparency in learning and teaching (TILT) framework, a concept you may be familiar with if you’ve taken LITE 201. The TILT framework is an evidence-based approach to assignment design in which instructors demystify activities by explaining their purpose, detailing the task that students need to complete, and providing concrete grading criteria. Not sure where to start? Check out this checklist for designing transparent assignments from TILT Higher Ed. Or, for a deeper dive into the topic, consider taking a look at this webinar recording on transparent assignment design.

Explicitly Communicate Your Support

One of the “unwritten rules” of college is that students can go to their instructors when they have a question about the course or the need to connect with another institutional resource, such as tutoring or counseling. While this fact may be obvious to some students, it is not to everyone. Whether due to anxiety, trouble picking up on subtext, or unfamiliarity with the norms of higher education, some students may not ask their instructor for help unless they are given explicit permission to do so. Panelists suggested that instructors include a statement in their syllabus to remind students that they can come to the instructor if they have questions or concerns for help and/or referral to the best resource. It’s a small action but adding a statement like this can help reassure students that you care about their success and wellbeing. For more ideas on how to create a welcoming syllabus, check out this post on liquid syllabi and CATL’s liquid syllabus template. If you want to explore other ways of building trust with your students, consider creating a “getting to know you” survey, establishing class norms, or incorporating a name pronunciation activity.

Provide Alternative Formats for Information

Several student panelists emphasized the importance of providing alternate ways of communicating information whenever possible. This recommendation is not only related to “multiple means of representation” from universal design for learning (UDL) theory, but it also aligns with best practices for digital accessibility. Adding alternative means of representation doesn’t have to be complicated. For example, if you include audio or video files in your course, try to pick resources that also provide captions or a transcript. Or, if you use images, make sure you include a caption or alt text when the image is being used to convey information. If you’d like to learn more about accessibility, we encourage you to sign up for LITE 120, a self-paced training course that covers the basics of accessibility in Canvas, as well as SAS’s training course on creating accessible documents (i.e., with Word, PowerPoint, or PDF).

Related Events and Opportunities

Want to learn more about supporting diverse learners? CATL’s “Workshop Wednesday” series this semester has two upcoming sessions that may be of interest to you! First, on Wednesday, Mar. 6, we’ll take a look at how to make course materials more accessible. Then, on Wednesday, Apr. 3, we’ll explore universal design for learning (UDL) and some practical ways to apply UDL concepts in our teaching and learning. Both workshops will be from 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. via Zoom. Registration for the March workshop on accessibility is already open. Stay tuned for details on registration for April’s workshop.

As always, CATL also welcomes you to connect with us if you’d like to learn more about any of these topics. Send us an email or request a consultation to get started!

Workshop Wednesday: Improving Accessibility in Learning Materials (Mar. 6, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.)

Want to make your learning materials more accessible for your students? Meeting certain accessibility standards is not only required for compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act but also a way to boost student success and engagement. Join CATL and Assistant Professor of Humanities, Kristopher Purzycki, on March 6th, 2024, from 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. for a workshop on improving the accessibility of your course materials. Attendees will learn how to avoid common accessibility issues when creating and sharing digital content, such as PowerPoint presentations, PDFS, and Canvas materials. Attendees will also hear from experienced colleagues who will share their insights on how to implement accessibility in your syllabus and course design. Don’t miss this opportunity to improve your students’ learning experience through the benefits of accessible design. This workshop will be held virtually via Zoom. Register today to receive an Outlook calendar invitation with the Zoom link.

Upcoming Workshop Wednesdays

On the first Wednesday of February, March, and April, CATL will host a “Workshop Wednesday” event from 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.

  • Apr. 3 | 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. | Topic: Universal Design for Learning