Over the past several months, faculty and staff across the college have invested significant time and effort into making course materials more accessible and inclusive for students. From revising content and learning new tools to collaborating on course improvements, your work has made a meaningful difference. Thank you for your partnership, flexibility, and commitment to supporting student success.
Now that much of the training and course revision work has been completed, we’d love to hear about your experience. What worked well? What challenges did you encounter? What types of support would be most helpful moving forward? Please consider taking a few minutes to complete our feedback survey. Your input will help the Office of Teaching & Learning continue improving accessibility resources, training, and support for faculty.
Thank You for Advancing Accessibility at MTECH!!
Summertime can feel like a bait and switch as it tends to promise rest, relaxation, and maybe even some vacation time, but we all know that once things settle down, there is plenty of work to do. With fewer students and fewer classes running, most of MTECH is taking advantage of this time to review the past year, update course materials, and get ready for the next. Well, don’t look now, but it’s already June.
If time seems to be slipping away, and your list of updates that need to be made keeps growing, please check with OTL and see if we can help. Most of you likely already know, but all our designers are now in one place in room 203 in Lehi Building B. Stop by if you are in the area!
Also, we have a new team member! Join us in welcoming Camille Lindow to the OTL team. We are excited to have her move over from Career Services, as much as they are probably sad to see her go. She will be working with Technology and Services programs.
Canvas Update
Canvas is working on a few updates of their own this summer. The first should be implemented by July 18. This update brings a few interface changes to the speedgrader in Canvas, but focuses mainly on improving load times and the overall grading experience.
The second update you may not notice, but should be aware of. The login screen for Canvas is receiving an update as well. If you are logged in with your MTECH email account, the single sign on (SSO) will continue to log you in directly, bypassing the login screen. However, students will likely notice the change when logging in at the testing center.
Finally, as you are all likely aware by now, we will be moving from Simple Syllabus to CourseDog. You should already see the CourseDog Syllabus link in your Canvas navigation. Your Director and Program Coordinator/Lead will manage this transition, so questions should be directed to them. Once your program has made the transition, the Simple Syllabus link can be removed from your course.
Upcoming OTL Webinars
Learning and development opportunities will continue to be offered over the summer as well. Brent Gregson, our Faculty Development Specialist, currently has three webinars planned. You should receive an email invite from Brent to sign up. If you have not seen any emails from Brent please reach out to make sure he can add you to his mailing list.