Faculty Instructional Technology Support

Due to the growing number of support items related to the Canvas LMS, OIT's Instructional Design and Technology (IDT) team maintains separate Canvas Faculty Support page and Canvas Student Support page.

As a reminder to all faculty and staff users, you have access to 24/7/365 access to vendor-hosted technical support via telephone and live chat. Faculty and staff can access those resources from within the Help area in UHCL's Canvas system.

• Downloading and Installing Respondus Exam 4.0 (PDF)
• End of Semester Housekeeping (PDF)
• Start of Semester Housekeeping (PDF)
• Technical Suggestions for Online Learning and Teaching (PDF)
• Checklist for Successful Web-Based Learning (PDF)

• [Interactive Lesson] Benefits of Active Learning for Students
• [Interactive Lesson] Promoting Active Learning in Online Courses
• [Interactive Lesson] The Active Learning Classroom (ALC) Model: Lecture Halls to Learning Hub

OIT's Insructional Design and Technology (IDT) team continues to offer training sessions and individualized faculty support on matters relating to the effective instructional use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education. Below are some of our existing resources, but check this page regularly for updates and additions!

IDT Interactive Lessons

• A Simple Side-by-side Comparison of Two AI Tools (Izaak D.)
• ChatGPT: What's New in ChatGPT 4 (Izaak D.)
• How Are Other Institutions Reacting to the Use of AI Tools? (Izaak D.)
• How Other Institutions Are Approaching and Embracing Artificial Intelligence (Izaak D.)
• Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence and its Effect on Higher Education (Izaak D.)
• The Advantages of AI for Instructors and Students (Nadin N.)
• Using AI in New Course Development (Izaak D.)
• Using AI Prompt Engineering Techniques to Create Active Learning Experiences (Izaak D.)
• Webinar Discussion: Artificial Intelligence and Academic Integrity (Izaak D.)

EDUCAUSE Resources

• EDUCAUSE Showcase Series: AI…Friend or Foe?
• EDUCAUSE Review: Augmented Course Design: Using AI to Boost Efficiency and Expand Capacity

OIT's Instructional Design and Technology (IDT) team has Articulate licenses for our staff. If you have an interest in creating short, dynamic, and interactive instructional content (lessons) to add to your Canvas course(s), contact us at IDT@tanxiqiao.net to request an appointment with your designated instructional designer. Your ID can help you design your lesson and they will then create it for you in either Articulate Rise or Storyline. To learn more, feel free to review the resources provided below.

• [Interactive Lesson] Creating Interactive Lessons in Articulate Rise 360
• [Interactive Lesson] Using Articulate 360 in Canvas
• [Video] Crash Course - Articulate and Canvas: Better Together! [7:26]

• Getting Started with Echo360: Venfor Support Site
• Video: Getting Started with EchoVideo [43:19]
• EchoVideo Universal Capture Resources
• Uploading Media Resources
• -- EchoVideo: Uploading Media
• -- EchoVideo: Supported Content Formats
• EchoVideo Interactive Media Resources
• Student Perspective - Echo360 at UHCL
• EchoVideo Feature: Set Video Thumbnail (PDF)
• Editing in EchoVideo
• -- Selecting the Thumbnail and Preview Image from the Media
• -- Trimming the Ends of the Video
• -- Splitting Videos into Multiple Video Files
• -- Cutting Segments From a Video
• -- Inserting Media into Other Media

• PTZ (Rally) Classroom Cameras Overview (DOCX)
• Video: PTZ Classroom Cameras Overview [4:26]
• PTZ (Rally) Classroom Cameras and Zoom (PDF)
• Video: PTZ Cameras and Zoom: A Brief Tutorial [2:24]
• Video: Zoom Meetings for Education Training [45:00]
• Guide to Zoom Webinars at UHCL (PDF)
• Video: Zoom Webinars, Part 1 - Planning Your Webinar [54:37]
• Video: Zoom Webinars, Part 2 - Hosting Your Webinar [40:23]
• Important Information About Zoom Cloud Storage (PDF)

Faculty who use Scantron for tests/exams and quizzes process those on the Scantron system located in the Neumann Library's Printer Room. OIT staff are no longer able to process Scantron jobs for instructors. Scantron users are invited to schedule a short (10-15 minute) in-person orientation/training appointment with their designated instructional designer (ID) by sending an email to the OIT Support Center at supportcenter@tanxiqiao.net. The following DIY resources offer a step-by-step overview of processing Scantron exams and printing the results.

• Scantron Basics (PDF)
• Scantron Basics w/ Images (PDF)

Vendor (Anthology Ally) Resources

• Video: Introducing Anthology Ally [3:06]
• Video: Overview for Instructors [1:26]
• Video: Ally for Instructure Canvas [1:59]
• Video: Ally WYSIWYG in Canvas [2:43]
• Webpage: Course Accessibility Report
• Webpage: Improve Content Accessibility
• Document: Add Alternative Description for Image Files
• Document: Scanned PDFs: An Enemy to Accessibility
• Document: Add a Library Reference
• Document: View All File Accessibility Issues
• Document: Add Alt Descriptions to Power Point Images
• Document: Add Headings to a Word Document
• Document: Add Headers to Your Data Tables in Word
• Document: Export a Word Doc as a Tagged PDF

Vendor (Instructor Canvas) Resources

• Canvas Course Accessibility Checklist
• Using the Accessibility Checker in the Rich Content Editor
• Giving Extra Time on Classic Quizzes
• Giving Extra Attempts on Classic Quizzes
• Giving Extra Time on New Quizzes
• Giving Extra Attempts on New Quizzes

UHCL-Specific Resources

• Video: Crash Course – Accessing the Ally Course Accessibility Report [2:06]
• Recorded Training - Improving Accessibility in Online Courses: Using the Ally Tool in Canvas, Part 2 [29:54]
• Interactive Lesson: Using the Ally Tool to Make Your Canvas Course Accessible

Miscellaneous Resources

• Video: Creating Accessible PDFs with Adome Acrobat Pro DC [57:06] - YouTube video produced and shared by the University of Alabama

Through training, documentation, and consultation, the Instructional Design and Technology (IDT) Team supports faculty in identifying, evaluating, and implementing instructionally appropriate software tools to deliver and support face-to-face, hybrid, and fully online learning. We also provide ongoing technical support for university-approved applications and tools for web-based teaching and learning, thereby facilitating the creation and maintenance of easily navigable, well developed, accessible, high-quality web-based instructional environments for our users – the faculty, staff, and students of the University of Houston-Clear Lake.