Back to School: Faculty & Staff Resources

OU will see a total of 40 classrooms with updated technology this fall. This comes after a two-fold need for additional classrooms and a continued effort to standardize technology across all classrooms.

“Each year, we update the audio-video (AV) technology in numerous Central classrooms across campus,” James Taylor, OU IT Lead Audio Visual Specialist, said. “This can include TVs, document cameras, projectors, projector screens, speakers, wiring, touch panels and lecterns. It also involves programming and installing processing hardware that makes it all work and controllable from a touchscreen.”

In Norman, with the increase in enrollment, the campus found itself short of equipped classrooms for the incoming freshman class. 14 new classrooms have been opened up and outfitted by OU IT.

For classroom help and additional details on classroom technology please visit the link.ou.edu/classroomhelp.

Faculty and students will see new features applied to Canvas. These upgrades happened over the summer.

“The development team at Canvas has been working to enhance users’ teaching and learning experiences,” Michelle Meazell, Instruction Technology Manager for OU IT’s Learning Spaces said.

“The Discussions redesign includes an updated UI and new features including course role labels, flexible viewing options for discussion replies (inline or split view), the ability to mention other users in a post, and the ability for individuals to quote other replies as a part of their discussion reply,” Meazell said.

Instructors can visit the Discussion Redesign as an Instructor Canvas article for additional details. Students can visit the Discussion Redesign as a Student Canvas article for additional details.

“The Announcement redesign enhances the experience of course announcements,” Meazell said.

The interface has been expanded for maximum space and responsive views for individual announcement topics. Like Discussions, course role labels are visible in Announcements to help students easily identify users with Teacher or TA-based roles in the course.

Instructors, for more information, please visit the Announcements Redesign Canvas article.  Students can review the Announcements Redesign as a Student Canvas article for more information. 

“New Analytics is the updated version of the legacy course-level analytics feature,” Meazell said. “This will be enabled for all courses and gives instructors functionality, such as the ability to view student engagement weekly and message students that fall within various criteria (including grade or assignment status.)

Instructors, please visit the What is New Analytics Canvas article for more information.  Students can review the How do I view New Analytics in a course Canvas article.

Top Hat, OU’s centrally supported student response system, leverages active learning technology to help professors engage students before, during and after class with interactive slides, graded questions, customized content, videos, discussions, and polls.

Are you an instructor who is new to Top Hat? Have you been interested in leveraging Top Hat in your course and want to know more?

You're in luck!

Top Hat will be hosting events on the Norman and HSC campuses in August and September; in these sessions, faculty can get information about how they can effectively utilize Top Hat features in their course design from the first day of class.

• Event: Open Hybrid Office Hours
• Location: Learning Lab Classroom, Bizzell Library LL1, Norman Campus

• Meeting Registration for Virtual Office Hours Attendees:
  https://tophat.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0uf-qtpjIqHNPKy07c1i6hNo7AMvr4S4vw

• Info: Drop into office hours to meet with a Top Hat representative in-person or virtually (through Zoom) that can answer questions and help you get the most out of this technology! Whether you're a seasoned Top Hat user or just getting started, all levels of expertise are welcome. This hybrid session is a great opportunity to bring your questions and ideas or to seek clarification on any Top Hat topic.

• Event: In-person Top Hat Multisession Workshop

• Location: Jim Thorpe Multicultural Center, Rooms A, B & C, Norman Campus

• Event Page and Registration Link: https://tophat.com/events/top-hat-on-campus-oklahoma

• Info: In this one-day multi-session workshop, users will explore how they can use intentional course design to build connection and excitement—and get students invested in learning. Hear perspectives from Oklahoma students and faculty on what’s working, and what isn’t. Plus, roll up your sleeves and learn how to use Top Hat.