Find out how the design of labs, classrooms, and specialized studios can affect student learning at the Ignite! event at UW Seattle's Odegaard Undergraduate Library, room 220, on April 18 from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. A keynote on current research will be followed six fast-paced slide presentations by UW directors and a librarian who will share their insights, stories, and strategies. Get details.

Read how 16 UW faculty are using new tools and techniques to support, challenge, and engage students in a new 13-page report from the UW Office of the Provost. In “Innovators Among Us: How UW Faculty Are Enhancing Teaching With Technology” faculty talk about using the Canvas learning management system, clickers, MOOCs (massive open online courses), and Tegrity lecture capture to flip the classroom. UW resources for faculty are included. This report is part of a series about trends and issues facing higher education.

How does intentional design of "spaces"--labs, classrooms, and specialized studios--affect student learning? Find out at the Ignite! event in Odegaard Undergraduate Library (OUGL) at UW Seattle on April 18 from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. Hear about current research on learning space design, followed by UW staff sharing stories, ideas, lessons, and strategies in just 5 minutes using only 20 auto-advancing slides. Presentations include general-use classrooms, Allen Library Research Commons, active learning spaces as part of the OUGL renovation, Comparative History of Ideas Department Office, residence halls, and specialized studios supported by UW-IT. Get details.

In response to the rising use of Canvas, the full-featured learning management system adopted at the UW autumn quarter, UW-IT now offers after-hours support most evenings, when instructors often work. Get help with Canvas in person (at UW Seattle’s Odegaard Undergraduate Library), via email, or by phone 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Friday, and noon to 10:00 p.m. Sunday. UW-IT also provides 24 X 7 service monitoring and escalation of urgent issues.

Need some ideas about how you can design your course using Canvas, the UW’s learning management system? The new UW Canvas model courses  let you explore, navigate, and get a feel for how to organize content, communicate with students, distribute and collect assignments, and even administer quizzes. Each model illustrates a different take on course design and shows Canvas's inherent flexibility, and new models are continually being added.

UW Seattle instructors who want to record their lectures with Tegrity while delivering them in class can now consult UW-IT’s list of laptop friendly classrooms. It includes rooms in buildings across the UW Seattle campus, the Health Sciences Building, and the School of Social Work, and indicates the hardware available and whether you need to bring your own microphone to capture your lecture. If you know of any rooms that can be added to this list, please send a message to lsthelp@uw.edu.

UW-IT provides free workshops to help UW students, faculty, and staff develop digital skills for applications as diverse as Photoshop, Web development tools, or Excel. This year, an introductory session on “Terminals, Command Lines, and Consoles” will help you become more comfortable learning and working with a variety of technical tools, no matter what your skill level. Workshops on iMovie, InDesign, HTML, the Odegaard Sound Studio, and other topics—all at UW Seattle—continue to focus on the basics. Register today to ensure a seat.

A new medical educational app--RadLinks--brings hundreds of Internet radiology resources to medical students and radiologists. Developed by radiologists at the UW, VA Puget Sound Health Care System, and Seattle Children's Hospital, this hand-curated collection covers radiology educational Web sites, teaching files, online lectures, and more. It is designed specifically for viewing on tablets. Watch the RadLinks video and download this free application for your iPhone, iPad, or Android devices.

A large majority of UW students feel that reviewing Tegrity lecture capture recordings contributes to their learning, according to the findings in UW-IT’s just released report. An assessment, undertaken in Winter and Spring Quarters, aimed to learn how Tegrity was being used in courses on all three campuses, identify best practices, uncover any unmet support needs or obstacles, and find out how instructors and students would like to use Tegrity in the future. Read more.

If you missed the October Ignite! event, where UW faculty shared a wide range of technologies and pedagogical methods they use, you can watch online videos of the presentations. If there is a tool or process in use at the UW that you would like to see presented at the Spring Quarter 2013 Ignite! event, please send your suggestions.

Students can now use SpaceScout to find the perfect place to study at UW Seattle. The new SpaceScout mobile app, released in August for any iOS device, features some 200 study spaces in 26 buildings. Students can use the map, or search by criteria such as capacity, hours, amenities, and more. The Web version was released in mid-October. Learn more.

Working with UW-IT’s free Technology Workshops program, Ableton software is bringing NYC-based digital artist Moldover to UW Seattle. Moldover will teach the inaugural Ableton Workshop in Odegaard 220 on September 25 from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Learn a unique set of music creation, editing, and remixing software skills. Doors open to UW students, faculty, and staff at 3:30 p.m., and to the general public at 3:50 p.m. No registration is necessary.

UW-IT is holding free introductory workshops for UW faculty and instructors who want to know more about using the Canvas Learning Management System. These 90-minute sessions are held in Mary Gates Hall at UW Seattle. Learn more and register for one of the sessions to get an overview of some of the key features of Canvas.

The K-20 Education Network has been bringing high-speed Internet to Washington students since 1996, “removing distance as a barrier to a great education,” reports a recent article in EDTECH. Designed and operated by UW-IT, the K-20 network now reaches more than 1.5 million students, with 99.8 percent of Washington classrooms connected. High school students take online advanced placement courses at the UW and medical practitioners at remote clinics videoconference with UW Medicine specialists, all using the network. A recent bandwidth upgrade addressed the increasing demands of mobile devices.

New functionality for Tegrity, the lecture recording tool, expands its use beyond for-credit courses at the UW. Tegrity Manager provides access to Tegrity to everyone with a UW NetID—students, faculty, and staff—for creating and sharing presentations, projects, training, and more, while controlling access (membership) to these “courses.” Learn more about Tegrity and Tegrity Manager, and sign up for workshops that start August 16.

The UW Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) is inviting UW faculty to change from the “in-class lecture, out-of-class homework” model to one where students “attend” lectures online and spend class time on case studies, group projects, complex problem sets, and other collaborative work. Supported by a CTL-facilitated learning community, faculty in this pilot project will be “flipping the classroom” for a significant portion of their Autumn 2012 or Winter 2013 course. Summer consultation is available. This effort supports the Provost’s Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century Initiative. Get details.

UW students will have a new online tool this fall—called MyPlan—that will enable them to develop multi-quarter academic plans, search for and track courses, assess their progress toward a degree, and have more productive discussions with their advisors. New funding from the Student Technology Fee Committee will allow this new tool to expand over the next year, adding advisor-created ‘sample’ plans, pre-registration planning, and other new features. This effort is part of the UW’s 2y2d Teaching & Learning in the 21st Century Initiative.

DO-IT is celebrating its 20th year of increasing the success of individuals with disabilities in college and careers, using technology as an empowering tool. The DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology) Center, a national program centered at the UW, has involved over 300 high school students with disabilities in its Summer Study sessions, and offers outreach and support to postsecondary faculty and technology staff, including help with Web page accessibility. DO-IT is funded by the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Education, the State of Washington, Microsoft, Boeing, and other sources. Read more in UW Today.

Based on the results of a successful pilot, the Canvas learning management system has been endorsed for adoption at the UW by the Board of Deans and Chancellors and the Teaching & Learning Technology Oversight Committee. Pilot results showed that 79 percent of pilot users would recommend Canvas to other instructors and colleagues, and both students and faculty preferred it to Blackboard and Moodle. Canvas simplifies course management activities like calendaring and grading, and provides ways to collaborate and deliver materials to students. UW-IT will work closely with departments to support them as they transition to Canvas. Units interested in using Canvas for Autumn Quarter 2012 may contact UW-IT. Learn more.

Enjoy a free UW-IT computing workshop this summer and get hands-on experience with Adobe Creative Suite, audio creation tools (Reason, Audacity, others), Web development (HTML, CSS), and more. Designed and taught by student instructors at a beginner or intermediate level, these walk-in classes are for current students, faculty, and staff with a UW NetID and Husky card. See the online curriculum and descriptions and sign up to ensure a seat.

A new short video features UW faculty and students talking about their experiences using Tegrity, a lecture capture tool for recording and publishing lectures for viewing on the Web. Tegrity is made available to all three campuses by UW-IT, and supports the UW’s 2y2d Teaching & Learning in the 21st Century Initiative. Thanks to the UW Provost’s Office and the Center for Teaching and Learning for producing this video.

Alternate computing facilities are available at UW Seattle—in Suzzallo, Allen, and other libraries—while Odegaard Undergraduate Library (OUGL) is closed for renovations, June 9 to September 23. During this time, a new STF-funded laptop checkout service will be located with the Media Center in Suzzallo. Computer Vet services will move to the Allen Library Research Commons. Video editing and graphics workstations are available in the Mary Gates Hall Media Studio. Poster plotting services will be removed permanently after June 15; see Creative Communications for alternatives. These renovations will bring state-of-the-art active learning spaces and classrooms to OUGL for Autumn Quarter 2013.

Learn how to use the photo and video editing software in Creative Suite 6 (CS6) at free workshops with Adobe experts on May 23 at UW Seattle. Three CS6 sessions, hosted by UW-IT's workshop program, are being offered: Premiere and After Effects (9:30–11:30 a.m.), Basic Photoshop (2:30–4:30 p.m.), and Advanced Photoshop (7:00–9:00 p.m.). Current UW students, faculty, and staff can get details and sign up to ensure a place.

The popular UW Computer Science and Engineering Colloquia series is back with all-new shows exclusively on UWTV channel 27 and UWTV.org. Tune in on-air or online to hear talks by leading computer scientists and engineers that include Crowd-Powered Systems, Challenges of Data Efficiency, and Crowd Computations.

UW graduate students now submit their theses and dissertations online rather than by paper, saving money and streamlining administrative steps. After a pilot in the fall, submissions began Spring Quarter 2012 and eliminated the required $25 binding fee, plus additional costs for printing and microfilming. Read the UW Graduate School blog to learn more.

UW instructors can find tools and resources to help them continue teaching when campus is closed, due to snow or other interruptions, with the recently updated Academic Continuity Toolkit (ACT). The ACT provides guidance on putting course materials online, communicating with students, and online methods for students to collaborate. It now includes Tegrity lecture capture, WordPress, and new UW Google Apps, reflecting the most current ways instructors can ensure that teaching and learning continue. See how you can event-proof your courses.

A new gaming policy is being implemented on a test basis at UW Seattle’s Odegaard Learning Commons (OUGL) in response to numerous complaints by students unable to access a computer to complete their academic work. Effective May 1, gaming is prohibited on computers in OUGL from 11:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. daily. Students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to take a brief confidential survey to provide feedback on the policy, which will be reviewed this summer.

UW instructors and students are discovering the advantages of using Tegrity, a lecture capture system. Cheryl Kerfeld in rehabilitation medicine used Tegrity for her online physical therapy course and was excited by its user-friendliness and note-taking features for students. Economics lecturer Haideh Salehi-Esfahani, after a brief orientation by UW-IT, used Tegrity to easily record her lectures and exam review sessions for her 800 student class. Student feedback was positive; they liked seeing both an image of her and a larger image of the document she was working on. Read more and get started with Tegrity.

Get short, easy-to-access, online information security and privacy training from the UW Office of the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). Passwords and Passphrases provides guidelines and best practices on creating strong passwords, geared for audiences at both UW and Seattle Children’s. Best practices for handling UW records that contain Social Security Numbers are detailed in SSN Use at the UW, developed with the UW Office of the Registrar. Access the training.

Students in two courses this quarter are using online textbooks through the UW-IT eText pilot, and more classes can be involved.  Faculty can get more information and sign up to be part of the eText pilot by April 25 for Summer classes and by May 25 for Autumn classes. Usable on any computer or device with a modern browser, eTexts include full text search, highlighting, and note-taking tools for students. This pilot is part of UW’s 2y2d Teaching & Learning in the 21st Century Initiative, and will help in understanding the potential of this technology.

UW staff can brush up on workplace software and other productivity tools through live Webinars offered by UW Professional & Organizational Development (POD). These instructor-led Webinars on Microsoft Office and Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Outlook, and other topics are made possible at significant savings through POD’s partnership with content provider People-OnTheGo. Get details and register online.

Need to make a Web site, edit images and video, or troubleshoot your computer? Get help with free computing workshops from UW-IT, aimed at beginner and intermediate levels. Hands-on experience with professional tools includes Adobe Photoshop and Creative Suite, iMovie and Final Cut, Sound Studio technology, HTML and MySQL, and more. Workshops are held in Mary Gates Hall or Odegaard Undergraduate Library, and run one or two hours. Walk-in with your student, faculty, or staff UW NetID and Husky card, or sign up online to ensure your seat.

MyPlan, an online academic planning tool in development for Fall, will provide UW students with a new option for developing a multi-year academic plan, searching for and tracking courses, assessing their progress toward a degree, and having more productive discussions with their advisers. In addition to conducting usability tests with students, the MyPlan team is seeking feedback from undergraduate and graduate advising staff and have scheduled live MyPlan demos for them on April 6 and April 11, and a Webinar demo for graduate advisers on March 29. Information on the demos and MyPlan is online. This effort is part of the UW’s 2y2d Teaching & Learning in the 21st Century Initiative.

Insight into UW Seattle student and faculty technology use and trends, gleaned from recent surveys, is now available online. The Report on the 2011 Faculty, Teaching Assistant, and Student Surveys illuminates patterns of technology use and identifies unmet needs that help inform future campus technology decisions. The surveys are conducted every three years at UW Seattle. This effort is part of the UW’s 2y2d Teaching & Learning in the 21st Century Initiative. Key takeaways include: student proficiency with and access to technology is high, students use technology to support their learning beyond what instructors require, and students and instructors use educational technologies to make large classes more manageable and to increase collaboration and communication.

UW students can now access all the Adobe Creative Suite software—Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, InDesign, and more—online 24/7 using ViDA (Virtual Desktop Access), right from the comfort of home, dorm, or coffee shop. ViDA works on laptops, iPads, iPhones, Androids—almost any Internet-connected device. More software is coming soon, thanks to UW-IT and the Student Technology Fee Committee partnership. This effort is part of the UW’s 2y2d Teaching & Learning in the 21st Century Initiative.

This academic year, 108 UW faculty on all three campuses have been involved in piloting Canvas, a feature-rich learning management system. They’ve been teaching nearly 6000 students in 88 courses—from chemistry to sociology—using the new tool. Canvas simplifies course management activities like calendaring and grading, while providing ways to collaborate and deliver materials to students. UW-IT and the Office of Educational Assessment are evaluating Canvas as part of a broader effort to improve the student experience. Learn more.

If you missed the January Ignite! event on innovative uses of technology for teaching and learning at the UW, watch the videos online. Get key findings from UW-IT's Surveys on Teaching, Learning, and Research Technologies. See presentations about using Canvas learning management system to hold virtual office hours; SQLShare to analyze extremely large data sets with students; back-channel chat to keep students in large courses focused; and Tegrity lecture capture to simplify review of course material.