In This Email

• Quick Tip - The New Analytics Tool
• What's New with Webcourses@UCF
• Old PowerPoint Presentations
• Video Tip – Adaptive Learning
• Zoom Tip – Accessibility
  
• Design with Quality in Mind – Provide Academic Integrity Information
• Synchronous Platform Faculty Demos
• AIM High 2022 Impact Awards - Call for Nominations
• Kelvin's Corner – Maintaining Your Instructor Presence
  

With the withdrawal deadline of Friday, October 29, quickly approaching, now is a great time to reach out and communicate with students who might need additional reassurance or guidance. New Analytics is a tool in Webcourses@UCF that allows instructors to track average course grades for student submissions using an interactive chart graph or table. 

New Analytics also provides an easy way to message students who meet specific criteria such as missing or late assignments, or grades within a certain range. New Analytics can be accessed from the New Analytics button in the Course Home Page.  

Watch this New Analytics video for more information on how to use this very useful tool.  If you have questions or need assistance with New Analytics, please contact Webcourses@UCF Support. 

Navigation – Sticky Navigation Menus: The Account, Course, and User Navigation Menus remain sticky and are always visible on their respective pages.

• When a long page is scrolled, the respective menu is retained in the sidebar. If the navigation menu is longer than the height of the screen, the menu can also be scrolled to view all menu links. 

SpeedGrader – Submission Status Label Edits: Submission status labels can be edited in SpeedGrader. 

• This change allows graders to change the submission status for a student’s assignment directly in SpeedGrader. 

Notifications – Course-Specific Notification Customization: Course notification preferences can be customized in a user’s Notifications page. 

• This change allows course notifications to be adjusted on a course-by-course basis without having to change the course-level Notifications page for each course. 

View the October 16, 2021 Canvas Release Notes for more information.

If you have been reusing your PowerPoint presentations for the last few years, the software version may be out-of-date and incompatible with the newer versions of Microsoft Office, thus preventing students from being able to view the presentation.

You can update your presentations by going to Files in your course, type .ppt in the Search bar, and then click the magnifier icon. A list of all PowerPoint files in your course will be displayed. If a file has the .ppt file extension, download the file, open it in PowerPoint, and Save As the same file name but use the .pptx updated file version. After you upload the file, you will need to update the link in your course to the new file. If you already have copies of your PowerPoints saved locally, it is even easier.  Directions for updating your PowerPoint presentation are also available from Microsoft Support.  

If you have a large number of files affected, or need any help, please contact Webcourses@UCF Support at 407-823-0407 or webcourses@ucf.edu for assistance. 

Realizeit is a personalized learning or adaptive learning software application. This software allows students to progress at their own pace through a learning path that is created and adapted for each student throughout the course progression.  If you would like to learn more about personalized adaptive learning (PAL), please visit the PAL site.

When you are ready to start presenting to your class, remember to setup Zoom’s “Spotlight Video” feature so students will always see you as the presenter. This feature allows students to watch your body language and facial expressions and can assist with comprehension. It also prevents other participants from taking center stage when they make noise or comments. Note: you must have more than three people in the meeting to activate the feature. 

Go to the UCF Zoom Guides for other useful tips and information. 

The Center for Distributed Learning will be hosting faculty demos for two synchronous platforms: Engageli and Class. Currently, several UCF faculty are participating in a mini pilot with these two platforms. The purpose of the demos is to gather faculty feedback on those platforms to determine their possible future involvement with UCF’s online learning. There will be three available time slots for each of these platforms. These demos will be recorded for future viewings.

Save the date for the annual AIM High 2022 event! While details are still to come about the event, the UCF Affordable Instructional Materials (AIM) Initiative has opened a Call for Nominations for the AIM High Impact Awards. These two Impact Awards recognize an individual teaching faculty member and a department who have made significant impacts and commendable efforts toward providing affordable instructional materials for students. The Call for Nominations welcomes both self-nominations and nominations submitted by a fellow colleague.

Kelvin Thompson is the Executive Director for the Center for Distributed Learning. He is always finding, sharing, recommending interesting and insightful resources about teaching and learning.