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| Spring semester is around the corner, and we have two important recommendations to help your Canvas life run smoothly:
First, we strongly recommend that you download your courses so that you have your own copy. We especially recommend that you download your entire gradebook as a .csv file (see image below). Having a folder with past gradebooks can be helpful in writing recommendation letters, especially in the case of Alumni. |
Tech Tip – TTT
A quick technology tip to help you engage your students whether in the classroom or remotely.
Tech: Optimize Learning Using Library Links Instead of PDF Downloads in Canvas
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| Our library subscribes to a wide range of scholarly article databases, giving you and your students access to thousands of high-quality research articles. While downloading a PDF and posting it directly to Canvas may seem convenient, linking to the article through the library’s website offers important benefits.
Why Link Instead of Uploading? |
Tech: Create Shapes in Google Docs
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While creating shapes in Microsoft Word is fairly straightforward, it is a bit more complicated in a Google Doc. For example, perhaps you want to highlight part of an image or document with a circle or other shape like in the figure above.
Drag your cursor on the drawing matrix to size it. |
Tech: Number Your Slides and Use A Template
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| Have you ever watched a slide presentation and had a question about a particular slide? When you are able to refer to a slide number for your question, the presenter can quickly find it. Referring to a slide number rather than a slide title is also much easier for students as they take notes. Yet, too often we neglect to include slide numbers because we are focused on content. |
Tech Tip from ETS: A new Canvas whiteboard option and more- Lucid Integration
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Were you unhappy when Google ended Jamboard? We now have a built in alternative in Canvas through Lucid. If you would like to create a whiteboard in Canvas, all versions of the “rich content editor” (for example when you create an assignment or a page) include a Lucid tool, as shown below:
To create your whiteboard, create a new assignment or page in the module where you want it. |
Tech Tip from ETS: Merge your courses in Canvas
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| Did you know you can combine class sections in Canvas? Save time from double-posting and merge your classes! This guide will walk you through how to do it!
Important Note: Canvas refers to merging classes (combining sections) as “cross-listing.” |
Tech Tip from ETS: Slow down the information firehose and reap the rewards
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| Do you find the amount of information coming at you via email, text, and social media overwhelming? Consider silencing your emails and notifications to improve your ability to focus. Similarly, you can establish set times to respond to emails so that you are not constantly switching tasks, which decreases attention span and productivity. USA Today reviews nine apps designed to help improve your focus; the apps can block websites, apps, and emails. |
Tech: Crafting Assessments that Matter in an AI World
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| Lisa Blue, Director of Artificial Intelligence Strategies at EKU, has developed this wonderful presentation and this useful set of handouts. It’s time to reconsider our assessment strategies in light of AI advancements like Strawberry. |
Tech: GPT-o1 aka Strawberry
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| Open AI just released a new model, GPT-o1, which some call strawberry. It lets the AI “think through” a problem before solving it. As someone once quipped, today’s AI is the dumbest it will ever be. |
Writing as Thinking vs. AI as Thinking
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| Alexis Hart, English Professor and Director of Writing at Allegheny College, shared this writing activity at the GLCA AI workshop in August:
According to writing professor and author of Why They Can’t Write, John Warner, “Writing is thinking” because “the basic…unit of writing” is the idea (144-145, emphasis added). However, in May 2023, a student at Columbia University, Owen Kichizo Terry, wrote an article in the The Chronicle of Higher Education claiming that when college students are given an essay assignment “it’s very easy to use AI to do the lion’s share of the thinking” and therefore, “writing is no longer much of an exercise in thinking.” |