Welcome back, UW–Madison!
Before you get back into the swing of things, we want to make sure you’re aware of exciting new teaching tools that are available to you–like Gradescope–as well as some impressive updates to your favorite tools, like Canvas and Top Hat. Get up to date on what’s new and notable in the Learn@UW suite.
And once the semester’s underway, stay updated with our Learn@UW news page! It’s your one-stop shop for the latest features, updates and other news.
Have a great semester!
—The Learn@UW Team
Tool news
Gradescope
Gradescope is now officially available to all instructors as part of the suite of tools supported by Learn@UW. This powerful assessment and feedback tool will help instructors more quickly and efficiently perform their grading tasks in Canvas. Learn@UW is hosting introductory Gradescope training sessions on:
To sign up for other Learn@UW trainings, visit the Events calendar. Or, you can always request a consultation with a Learn@UW consultant through the DoIT Help Desk.
Canvas
New Quizzes: All instructors now have access to Canvas New Quizzes. It’s available as an “opt in” feature on a course-by-course basis. For more information and to get started with New Quizzes, visit this recent news posting. We recommend taking some time to play around with New Quizzes to understand how it works because of the differences between New Quizzes and the original Quiz tool.
Top Hat
Guest Mode: Instructors at UW–Madison now have access to Top Hat Guest Mode. This convenient new feature allows anyone to join a Top Hat classroom without registering or logging in. For more information, check out this recent news posting.
Expanded support for video content: There’s now more flexibility in Top Hat to incorporate recorded lectures and other videos into courses. Integrate video content from Kaltura, alongside existing YouTube and Vimeo options.
Course Copy: From the Top Hat course lobby, instructors can click a button to make a copy of the entire course.
UDOIT
UDOIT Advantage upgrade: We’ve upgraded our UDOIT Canvas course accessibility checker to an enhanced version known as UDOIT Advantage. In this new version you can scan your Canvas course pages for accessibility barriers as well as your course files. And just like before it provides guidance on how to improve your course’s accessibility. For more information on designing an accessible course, see the university’s Make it Accessible guide.
Honorlock
Streamlined Exam Review & Setup: In the past year, Honorlock has enhanced its automated proctoring tools to reduce the number of flagged incidents requiring faculty attention. Updates include smarter AI filtering to minimize false positives (e.g., “face not detected” when students glance down at notes), faster access to HD recordings, and improved Canvas integration.
Student course evaluations
Moving from HelioCampus AC to Blue: The university will be transitioning to a new digital course evaluation tool called Blue. This transition will occur in phases, starting in fall 2025 and concluding summer 2026. The Course Evaluation Tool Transition Team is working closely with school/college leadership to ensure a smooth rollout. The Course Evaluation Tool Transition Project page provides updates, timelines and resources. No action is required from instructors at this time.
Reminders
- Course syllabi are required for UW–Madison courses and offer instructors the opportunity to communicate with students about course details. Learn more about adding your syllabus to your Canvas course.
- Interested in using a free, supported generative AI tool? Check out the university’s licensed and secure generative AI services.
- Teaching and learning data use: Student learning is a top priority for UW–Madison and we are committed to the ethical and responsible use of data to support and advance it. Learn more about our teaching and learning data transparency statement.
Resources, Training & Support
Learn@UW manages UW–Madison’s central learning technologies and offers these support services:
- Training – Whether you’re a pro or a new face on campus, we offer many training options to facilitate the use of our tools, including live, virtual sessions via Zoom this month! Registration prior to the event is recommended; you can register in each event from the Today events calendar.
- Consultation – We are available via the DoIT Help Desk to support you in selecting and using the right learning technology to improve instructor and student success.
- Technical support – The DoIT Help Desk also provides technical support and troubleshooting help for Canvas, Kaltura MediaSpace, Gradescope, HelioCampus AC, Engage, Pressbooks, Atomic Assessments, LinkedIn Learning, NameCoach, UDOIT, and Turnitin. For Honorlock help, contact the vendor via email, phone, or Honorlock’s chat feature within Canvas. For Top Hat, contact the vendor at support@tophat.com. For Piazza, visit support.piazza.com.
- Help yourself – Visit our KnowledgeBase for immediate access to hundreds of documents about the tools in the Learn@UW suite.
Other resources:
- The Center for Teaching, Learning and Mentoring offers exceptional teaching resources, including a handy pre-semester checklist, a new syllabus guide and template, and even generative AI resources for instructors.
- Student Tech Modules give students training on our tools, from within Canvas. Instructors may choose which ones to download from Canvas Commons and add to their course as a starting point for communication with their students. Modules are available for Kaltura, Honorlock and more.
- As a UW–Madison employee, you have access to thousands of courses and personalized learning recommendations on LinkedIn Learning, on your schedule, from any device.
- The McBurney Disability Resource Center can support you in providing student accommodations. Information on available accommodation options including professional captioning and steps for coordinating Canvas access. (Instructors without media captioning accommodations in their course who would still like to add captioning can implement machine captioning via Kaltura MediaSpace or contract captioning vendors.)