Dear Faculty,
As you head into spring break, we wanted to offer a newsletter focused on the importance of reflection, engagement, and creating equitable content for all students. The resources curated this week have been designed to illustrate a reflective journey, and therefore, we suggest viewing, listening, and reading them in order.
Here are a few guiding questions as you begin:
- Why are my experiences and those of my students important in learning?
- As you generate content, ask yourself, “Is this topic important for the assignment? “
- What does it mean to be a reflective partitioner in our teaching and learning?
We hope you have a restful and restorative break.
-The ID Team
CITS | Instructional Development
Who is John Dewey and What is the Role of Experience in Learning?
What Does it Mean to be a Reflective Practioner?
Did you know…
… ADA-compliant online course design involves consistent layouts, clear text, and alternative formats to ensure all students can access course materials?
- Use consistent styles and organization schemes.
- Minimize scrolling.
- Use clear headings.
- Use tables to organize data, but provide alternative text if used for lists.
- Use clear, readable text.
- Use descriptive text for links and alt text for images.
- Ensure proper contrast between text and background.
- Use plain English, spell out acronyms, and define terms.
Read How to Design an ADA-compliant Online Course in 2025 by accessiBe.
- Add captions and audio descriptions to videos.
- Ensure videos and other interactive elements can be operated with a keyboard.
- Provide multiple ways to learn, such as a combination of text, video, audio, and images.
Read Why Accessibility Matters in Course Design by Instructure | Community
Canvas Course Sites and Access:
Faculty should have access to 1 Sandbox site and 5 Development sites in Canvas! The Sandbox site should be used to practice training activities, and the Development sites should be used to develop any upcoming courses you will teach. Faculty should also have access to the Growing with Canvas and Vendor-led Vault self-paced training sites. PLEASE STRIVE TO COMPLETE THESE TRAINING COURSES. Doing so will be instrumental in ensuring a successful start-up in Canvas.
- Learn how to give your Canvas Development sites a nickname to stay organized!
- Canvas course sites missing? Can’t access Canvas yet? Please let us know.
- Thu, 3/6/25 at 2:00 pm – Getting Started with YuJa Panorama
- Tue, 3/11/25 at 12:00 pm – Content Creation in Canvas
- Wed, 3/12/25 at 12:00 pm – EchoVideo Refresh
- Wed, 3/19 at 9:00 am – Fully online asynchronous, spanning four weeks
View a full list of Blackboard and Canvas workshops and self-paced offerings!
Instructional Development works with faculty to…
- Explore, design, and experiment with different teaching and learning modes.
- Research and integrate technologies that can enhance teaching and learning.
- Design and develop online courses and programs.
- Write learning outcomes, design assessments, craft activities, and develop content.
- Utilize best practices for using instructional technologies.
Feel free to contact us online to book an appointment!