Essentials of Accessibility for Faculty and Staff

Are you ready to learn how to make your digital images, videos, documents, and course files accessible? Essentials of Accessibility for Faculty and Staff is a free, self-paced, online course that will teach you the basics of digital accessibility and accessibility best practices for several key applications that UW-Green Bay employees may use in their daily work.

The training covers:

  • Compliance with accepted standards for digital accessibility in higher education.
  • Common accessibility issues in digital or web-based content and how to address them.
  • Technical steps and processes for creating accessible images, videos, documents (Microsoft Word and PDF), slides (Microsoft PowerPoint), spreadsheets (Microsoft Excel), and Canvas courses.
  • Practical approaches for remediating digital accessibility issues in a variety of use cases.

Prerequisites: None

When: The course is open to all UWGB employees for self-enrollment. The course will remain open indefinitely, and there is no deadline for completion.

Course Format

Essentials of Accessibility for Faculty and Staff is an online, self-paced training course administered through Canvas. The course structure is flexible, permitting you to choose your own learning path. Once you finish the intro module, you can complete any of the application-specific modules or just use the course as an ongoing resource. Participants will not be obligated to complete all modules and may participate at whichever level fits their interest and capacity.

Badges

an array of eight badges pointing to a badge that says "Essentials of Accessibility"

Participants will earn a digital badge for completing each of the eight main modules, and a special additional badge if they choose to complete the whole course! You can include digital badges in your email signature or embed them in online portfolios or resumes as evidence of your commitment to professional development.

Questions?

If you have any questions about this course, please contact CATL (CATL@uwgb.edu).

Teaching with Technology Certificate and Course Enrollments (2024-25 AY)

CATL is continuing the “Teaching with Technology Certificate” program this year! Instructors interested in learning more about how to leverage Canvas and other tools for effective teaching, regardless of modality, are encouraged to participate and complete the full certificate.

The Teaching with Technology Certificate consists of three “Learning and Integrating Technology for Education” (LITE) courses that act as progressive steps in a sequence. Instructors will earn a digital badge after completing the first and second courses in the series, and the Teaching with Technology Certificate after completing the third course. Full-time instructors for the 2024-25 academic year will also earn stipends after completing the second and third courses in the sequence.*

Note: If you have already completed the Distance Education Certificate, this is not a new credential; it has simply been re-titled, so there is no need to re-enroll.

Course Availability, Deadlines, & Compensation

LITE 101: Course Modalities & Technologies

  • All full-time instructors are automatically enrolled in LITE 101: Course Modalities & Technologies. The course will remain open indefinitely, and there is no deadline for completion.
  • LITE 101 is not tied to a stipend.
  • All instructors working toward the Teaching with Technology Certificate who complete LITE 101: Course Modalities & Technologies will be able to enroll in LITE 201: Course Design the following semester.

If you are not a full-time instructor but would like to be added to the course, please email CATL@uwgb.edu.

LITE 201: Course Design

  • Registration for the Spring 2025 cohort of LITE 201 is now closed. Stay tuned for registration info next fall.
  • Full-time instructors who complete LITE 201 within the 2024-25 academic year will qualify for a $250 stipend.*
  • All instructors working toward the Teaching with Technology Certificate who complete LITE 201 will be able to enroll in LITE 301 the following semester/year.

LITE 301: Course Revisions

  • Registration for the Spring 2025 cohort of LITE 301 is now closed. Stay tuned for registration info next year.
  • Full-time instructors who complete LITE 301 within the 2024-25 academic year will qualify for a $250 stipend.*
  • All instructors who complete LITE 301 will receive the Teaching with Technology Certificate.

*Only full-time instructors for the 2024-25 AY are eligible for compensation. To receive compensation, participants must receive approval from their unit chair. Instructors that have already met their maximum overload payment for the contract period do not qualify for compensation.

If you have questions about these courses, please contact CATL at catl@uwgb.edu. If you have questions about compensation or the payment process, please contact Human Resources at hr@uwgb.edu.

Course Descriptions

The first course in the series is called LITE 101: Course Modalities & Technologies. This self-paced course includes information about the different course modalities offered at UW-Green Bay, as well as the technologies you might use for teaching in each one, including in-person teaching. This course also serves as the foundation of the Teaching with Technology Certificate series because it provides an overview of our specific distance education modalities and the technologies that will help you to be successful in them.

LITE 201: Course Design (formerly called Trail Guides) picks up where the first course leaves off. LITE 201 course centers on developing learning pathways for students. This self-paced course is for you if you would like to explore how to develop courses more systematically using evidence-based practices. Through LITE 201, you will develop two modules for a course in Canvas. LITE 201 is self-paced but offered on a semester basis.

In LITE 301: Course Revisions (formerly called Retreats), you will be encouraged to reflect on your own teaching practices. LITE 301 focuses on the process of using feedback, reflection, and scholarly teaching practices to refine classes. You will, for example, explore scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) literature relevant to issues in your course or to revisions or teaching innovations you are considering. You will also engage with several of your colleagues through synchronous and asynchronous activities designed to support your efforts in reflecting on and refining your teaching practices. LITE 301 is offered as a cohort-based, semester-long community of practice.

LITE 115 Course: Enhancing Course Videos with PlayPosit

Is there a teaching technology that you’ve heard CATL talk about but haven’t gotten the chance to try out yet? Want to learn a new tool alongside fellow instructors so you can swap ideas and tips? In addition to the three courses in the Teaching with Technology Certificate, CATL is offering supplemental professional development training courses that explore certain teaching tools and techniques in more depth!

Learning and Integrating Technology for Education (LITE) 115: Enhancing Course Videos with PlayPosit will equip you with the guidance you need to start building interactive videos, called “bulbs,” for your own courses. Work through each module at your own pace as you discover the basics of PlayPosit, build your first bulb, and finally implement PlayPosit bulbs in one of your courses. Participants will also learn how to monitor bulbs and use PlayPosit’s analytics to reveal data on student engagement and achievement that may be informative for planning future iterations of a course.

Prerequisites: None (though completion of LITE 101 is recommended)

When: Registration for the 2025 J-Term section of LITE 115 is now closed. Stay tuned for future opportunities to register.

Badges

Participants will earn a digital badge for completing each of the three modules in LITE 115 that you can include in your email signature or embed in online portfolios or resumes as evidence of your commitment to professional development! Participants will not be obligated to complete all three modules and may participate at whichever level fits their interest and capacity.

Questions?

If you have any questions about LITE 115 or PlayPosit in general, please contact CATL (CATL@uwgb.edu). You can also check out our blog resources on PlayPosit as well as a selection of step-by-step guides in the UWGB IT Knowledgebase.

Teaching with Technology Certificate and Course Enrollments (2023-24 AY)

CATL is continuing the Distance Education Certificate program under a new title this year, the “Teaching with Technology Certificate.” Instructors interested in learning more about how to leverage Canvas and other tools for effective teaching, regardless of modality, are encouraged to participate and complete the full certificate.

The Teaching with Technology Certificate consists of three courses which act as progressive steps in a sequence. Instructors will earn a digital badge after completing the first and second courses in the series, and the Teaching with Technology Certificate after completing the third course. Full-time instructors for the 2023-24 academic year will also earn stipends after completing the second and third courses in the sequence.*

Note: If you have already completed the Distance Education Certificate, this is not a new credential; it has simply been re-titled, so there is no need to re-enroll.

Course Availability, Deadlines, & Compensation

Course 1: Learning and Integrating Technology for Education (LITE) 101

  • All full-time instructors are automatically enrolled in LITE 101: Modalities & Technologies. The course will remain open indefinitely, and there is no deadline for completion.
    • If you are not a full-time instructor but would like to be added to the course, please email CATL@uwgb.edu.
  • LITE 101 is not tied to a stipend.
  • All instructors working toward the Teaching with Technology Certificate who complete LITE 101: Modalities & Technologies will be able to enroll in LITE 201: Course Design the following semester.

Course 2: LITE 201

  • The Spring 2024 cohort of LITE 201: Course Design will begin on Monday, Feb. 5, 2024, and run until the end of the spring semester.
  • Registration for the Spring 2024 cohort of LITE 201 is open through Friday, Feb. 2, 2024. Register today!
  • Full-time instructors who complete LITE 201 within the 2023-24 academic year will qualify for a $750 stipend.*
  • All instructors working toward the Teaching with Technology Certificate who complete LITE 201 will be able to enroll in LITE 301 the following semester.

Course 3: LITE 301

  • The Spring 2024 cohort of LITE 301: Course Revisions will begin on Monday, Feb. 5, 2024 and run until the end of the spring semester.
  • Registration for the Spring 2024 cohort of LITE 201 will remain open through Friday, Feb. 2, 2024. Register today!
  • Full-time instructors who complete LITE 301 within the 2023-24 academic year will qualify for a $750 stipend.*
  • All instructors who complete LITE 301 will receive the Teaching with Technology Certificate.

*Only full-time instructors for the 2023-24 AY are eligible for compensation. To receive compensation, participants must receive approval from their unit chair. Instructors that have already met their maximum overload payment for the contract period do not qualify for compensation.

If you have questions about these courses, please contact CATL at catl@uwgb.edu. If you have questions about compensation or the payment process, please contact Human Resources at hr@uwgb.edu.

Course Descriptions

The first course in the series is called Learning and Integrating Technology for Education (LITE) 101: Modalities & Technologies. This self-paced course includes information about the different course modalities offered at UW-Green Bay, as well as the technologies you might use for teaching in each one, including in-person teaching. This course also serves as the foundation of the Teaching with Technology Certificate series because it provides an overview of our specific distance education modalities and the technologies that will help you to be successful in them.

LITE 201: Course Design (formerly called Trail Guides) picks up where the first course leaves off. LITE 201 course centers on developing learning pathways for students. This self-paced course is for you if you would like to explore how to develop distance education courses more systematically. Through LITE 201, you will develop a module for a distance education course. LITE 201 is self-paced but offered on a semester basis.

In LITE 301: Course Revisions (formerly called Retreats), you will be encouraged to reflect on your own teaching practices. LITE 301 focuses on the process of using feedback, reflection, and scholarly teaching practices to refine classes. You will, for example, explore scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) literature relevant to issues in your course or to revisions or teaching innovations you are considering. You will also engage with several of your colleagues through synchronous and asynchronous activities designed to support your efforts in reflecting on and refining your teaching practices. LITE 301 is offered as a cohort-based, semester-long community of practice.

Follow-Up: PlayPosit “Replicate and Repeat” Training

On Nov. 15, 2022, PlayPosit held a training that focused on how to replicate and repeat content in PlayPosit. These features can help create a more streamlined workflow for users that would like to reuse bulb content or share bulbs with other instructors. Some of the content covered in this training includes:

  • How to duplicate/copy a bulb
  • How to reuse an interaction (question, discussion, pause point, etc.) from a previous bulb
  • How to use PlayPosit interaction templates
  • How to save an interaction or a group of interactions as a template
  • How to share a bulb with a collaborator
  • How to send a copy of a bulb to another instructor

A recording of this training is embedded below.

Questions?

As you explore PlayPosit, we encourage you to consult PlayPosit’s extensive knowledgebase of instructor guides, including this guide on building graded bulbs in Canvas. You can contact PlayPosit support directly by clicking the “Contact” link on their support site and filling out their web form. Guides on how to build a bulb, share a bulb with your students, use PlayPosit for peer review, and more, can also be found on the UWGB IT knowledgebase. 

As always, we also welcome you to request a CATL consultation if you’d like to see a demo of PlayPosit or talk through how you might use it in your course!