Updates & Announcements

Decorative icon.

This page has been developed to keep you informed of important software security updates, changes to educational tools and technologies, upcoming webinars, workshops and events, and any other important information as it relates to Teaching & Learning Technologies at the University of Guelph.

Please check back often for updates or subscribe to the OpenEd eNewsletter to stay informed about our updates and announcements, and other important things happening at OpenEd, University of Guelph.

 

Web Conferencing Classroom Orientations Available!

If you are assigned to a teach in a Lecture Web Conferencing or Seminar Web Conferencing Classroom, you may register for an orientation session in our demo room in Day Hall.

These 30-minute, in-person orientation sessions, facilitated by an instructional technology specialist (ITS), include a walkthrough of the classroom technology, a chance to try out your laptop in the room, and an opportunity to better understand the in-person and remote student experience.

You will be asked to provide three potential availability windows when requesting an orientation. Our team will make every effort to accommodate your availability.

Book Now button.

Monday, March 11, 2024 – New Instructor Perspectives on iClicker Cloud Sessions Available for March

During the month of March, the ITS team is highlighting instructor perspectives on using iClicker Cloud as a student response system in courses and related iClicker Cloud resources. To further support instructors in implementing iClicker into their courses, the ITS team is offering dedicated appointment-free drop-in hours.

Visit the March sessions section of the Winter 2024 Programming page for details.

Wednesday, April 19, 2023 – Fresh Set of Instructional Technology Programming Planned for Summer 2023

The ITS team’s Summer 2023 Programming includes sessions on effective facilitation of distance education courses, assessment and engagement tools in CourseLink, and opportunities to connect with the OpenEd team about Gradescope.

Please join the ITS team for any of the following May sessions:

In addition, our partners at Gradescope are also hosting a session that showcases unique and creative ways instructors are leveraging Gradescope at various institutions. Interested in learning more? Don’t miss Gradescope - Stories from the Classroom on May 8.

The following ongoing offerings are also available during S23:

Be sure to check out additional programming scheduled for June and July, with more sessions in the works for August as well!

Wednesday, December 14, 2022 – OpenEd Offering a New Round of Instructional Technology Programming in Winter '23

The Winter 2023 programming slate includes sessions focused on web conferencing classrooms, CourseLink tools, and Gradescope!  

Please join our team for any of the following January sessions: 

The following ongoing offerings are also available during W23: 

Be sure to check out more great sessions scheduled for February, March, and April as well! 

Friday, August 19, 2022 – OpenEd Offering a Full Roster of Training Opportunities for Instructors this Fall

This Fall, we are offering extensive programming featuring a variety of sessions focusing on CourseLink, Zoom, and U of G’s latest educational technology, Gradescope!

Please join us for any of the following September sessions:

The following ongoing offerings are also available during F22:

Be sure to check out what sessions are coming up in October, November, and December as well!

Tuesday, April 12, 2022 – Summer is on its Way and so is More OpenEd Ed Tech Programming

Our full Summer 2022 Programming schedule is now online!

This latest slate of programming includes a series dedicated to several popular CourseLink tools, more great information and demonstration of the new Gradescope platform, getting started with peer review using the PEAR tool, a Zoom tool refresher, as well as introductions to several recently developed productivity tools from OpenEd.

Please join our team this summer to learn more about these edtech tools and how to incorporate them into your courses.

Also don’t miss out on our ongoing sessions including a new series of Gradescope Drop-in sessions and our by-request Web Conferencing classroom orientation sessions.

Wednesday, March 23, 2022 – New End of Semester Ed Tech Tips Session Open for Registration

Join us on Friday, April 1st for our End of Semester Ed Tech Tips webinar session—featuring a series of tech tips related to effectively wrapping up your course at semester’s end.

Topics include:

  • Preparing final grades in CourseLink
  • Backing up CourseLink grade item data
  • Collecting student feedback
  • Getting a head start on building your next course site

Thursday, February 24, 2022 – 'Get to Know Gradescope Series' Begins Soon

This March, OpenEd’s Instructional Technology Specialist (ITS) team is facilitating a series of introductory webinars dedicated to Gradescope, the latest educational technology adopted by U of G.

Sessions include:

Thursday, February 10, 2022 – New Voice Over PowerPoint and Other Asynchronous Recording Options Session Open

Join us on Wednesday, February 16 to learn about Voice Over PowerPoint and Other Asynchronous Recording Options. In this session, you will be introduced to some of the simplest options for creating asynchronous lectures and content.

Monday, February 7, 2022 – Winter 2022 Reading Week EdTech Programs Starting Soon

This Reading Week, join OpenEd’s Instructional Technology Specialist (ITS) team for a series of workshops dedicated to CourseLink tools used for assessment.

Sessions include:

Visit our Winter 2022 Programming events page for a list of all available Winter 2022 sessions, and stayed tuned for our March offerings.

Friday, January 14, 2022 – New Winter 2022 Instructional Technology Programming Now Open for Registration

This winter, the Instructional Technology Specialist (ITS) team at OpenEd is offering a variety of new programming between January and March.

During the month of January, the Return to Campus series is being offered with a focus on teaching and learning in the Web Conferencing Classrooms and remote environments. This series includes the following sessions: 

For a full list of all available Winter 2022 sessions, visit our Winter 2022 Programming page.

New workshops for March 2022 will be added shortly. Stay tuned! 

Tuesday, November 16, 2021 – Web Conferencing Classroom Series: W22 Sessions and Orientations are Open for Registration

OpenEd’s Instructional Technology Specialist (ITS) team has posted additional programming intended for instructors who will be teaching in Web Conferencing Classrooms in W22.

Instructors teaching in these rooms who are looking to familiarize themselves with the technology, the setup process, or to try it out for themselves ahead of the semester are encouraged to register and join our ITS team for any of the following offerings:

Wednesday, May 19, 2021 – OpenEd's Instructional Technology Summer Programming is Open for Registration

OpenEd's Instructional Technology Specialist (ITS) team is offering the following slate of programming between June and August. Please use the links below for more information and to register!

Web Conferencing Classroom Series: Hybrid & Flipped Classroom Orientations (June 7, June 15, July 19, and additional dates in August)

The University of Guelph is refitting several classrooms on campus to provide increased access and flexibility to teach face-to-face, remotely, or a combination of both. To help transition instructors who may be using these rooms, OpenEd’s ITS team, with the assistance of the Classroom Technical Support (CTS) team, offer this series dedicated to the two classroom types: hybrid and flipped.

Instructional Technology Webinar Series (June 24, July 5, and July 13)

This is a three topic-focused series on assessments, student engagement, and collaboration. Each series features three distinct and informative sessions dedicated to the implementation of educational technologies to support pedagogically sound teaching practices across a variety of delivery formats. 

Joint OpenEd and OTL Instructional Technology Digital Tools Series (June 17, June 29, and July 7)

This series contains three sessions intentionally designed to coincide with OTL’s summer programming. Each session features a brief introduction to some available digital tools related to the session’s topic, and ideas on how to implement the tools successfully. Sessions will be co-hosted by OpenEd's instructional technology specialists and OTL's educational developers.

Monday, April 12, 2021 – Summer '21 Distance Education (DE) Course Facilitation Workshops Open for Registration

The Distance Education (DE) Course Facilitation workshops have been scheduled for April 28 and May 11, 2021.

Monday, February 8, 2021 – New Live Proctoring Feature for Respondus Lockdown Browser in CourseLink Quizzes

A new live proctoring feature for Respondus Lockdown Browser is now available in the CourseLink Quizzes tool. This feature leverages a video conferencing system (Zoom, MS Teams, etc.) and allows instructors to proctor students in real-time during online exams, tests, and quizzes.

This feature is intended for small classes where an instructor can view all students on the screen at once.

For more information on this new feature as well as instructions on how to enable it, please see the Live Remote Invigilation of CourseLink Quizzes with Respondus LockDown Browser section of the Tips for Live Remote Invigilation with Zoom or Teams page.

Wednesday, February 3, 2021 – New Zoom Live Transcription Service Available

In time for the Winter 2021 semester, Zoom has released an automated Live Transcription (closed captioning) service to Educational/Pro account holders. This service automatically captions speakers in Zoom meetings, adding their text to the bottom of the meeting window, as well as making a live transcript available in its own panel.

Visit the Zoom: Live Transcription Service page for details on configuration and setup options.

Friday, January 22, 2021 – New OpenEd Remote Teaching Event this February

In the latest addition to the Here Comes W21 series, our team of instructional technology specialists will facilitate conversation around common remote teaching topics and questions that arise as the semester progresses.

This session, available to all instructional team members, will run on Wednesday, February 3rd at 1:00 p.m. Please join us by registering for Just in Time 2 - Support for W21 Courses.

Wednesday, December 15, 2020 – Upcoming Changes to Institutional Zoom Account Default Security Settings [updated]

Effective January 1, 2021, changes will be made to the Zoom institutional account settings to increase the security of our online learning environments. These changes will apply to all newly created meetings and include:

  • A passcode enabled by default
  • A waiting room enabled by default. This waiting room is bypassed when students join the meeting while signed into Zoom with a Zoom account attached to a University of Guelph or Guelph Humber email address
  • Only authenticated users can join Meetings enabled by default, with the U of G/GH domains set as the default setting

These new security setting defaults will not be applied automatically to any scheduled Zoom meetings created before January 1, 2021. To apply these security settings to those meetings they must be updated to enable:

  • A passcode
  • A waiting room
  • Only authenticated users can join, with U of G/GH domains set

Please see these resources for step-by-step instructions to update the above security settings:

These updates will require all students who are enrolled in classes using Zoom as the web conferencing platform to register for a free Zoom account using their University of Guelph or Guelph Humber email address. Students will be receiving a similar communication and instructions to complete this process. If you require less stringent settings for your Zoom meetings, please visit the Using Zoom: Account Setting Options page.

Wednesday, December 2, 2020 – New OpenEd Remote Teaching Event Series this December

In this series of informative online sessions, our team of instructional technology specialists will focus on some of the most requested remote teaching topics and tools to help both new and experienced instructors prepare for another semester of remote course delivery.

Whether you are looking for more information on all the latest features of popular web conferencing tools, such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams, or are seeking advice on how to combat some of the more common challenges that remote teaching presents, we encourage you to join us by registering for any or all of the sessions.

Sessions will be offered on December 10-11 and 15-16, 2020.

Please visit our Here Comes W21: Preparing for Another Remote Semester event page for registration and session details.

Thursday, November 12, 2020 – Upcoming Changes to Institutional Zoom Account Default Security Settings

Effective January 1, 2021, changes will be made to the Zoom institutional account settings to increase the security of our online learning environments. These changes will apply to all newly created meetings and include:

  • A passcode enabled by default
  • A waiting room enabled by default. This waiting room is bypassed when students join the meeting while signed into Zoom with a Zoom account attached to a University of Guelph or Guelph Humber email address
  • Only authenticated users can join Meetings enabled by default, with the U of G/GH domains set as the default setting

These new security setting defaults will not be applied automatically to any scheduled Zoom meetings created before January 1, 2021. To apply these security settings to those meetings they must be updated to enable:

  • A passcode
  • A waiting room
  • Only authenticated users can join, with U of G/GH domains set

Please see these resources for step-by-step instructions to update the above security settings:

These updates will require all students who are enrolled in classes using Zoom as the web conferencing platform to register for a free Zoom account using their University of Guelph or Guelph Humber email address. Students will be receiving a similar communication and instructions to complete this process. If you require less stringent settings for your Zoom meetings, please visit the Using Zoom: Account Setting Options page.

Friday, October 30, 2020 – New Remote Teaching Event Series Scheduled for November

  • Explore creative and authentic assessment options with familiar educational technology tools. Learn innovative ways to use the advanced features of a variety of CourseLink tools to create assessments for remote teaching and learning environments.
  • The event series—comprised of six brief online sessions—takes place November 19-20 and 26-27, 2020.
  • Visit the Rethink Your Assessments for Remote Environments with Ed Tech page for registration and session details.

Monday, October 19, 2020 – CourseLink Support for Students Writing Mid-Terms or Exams

  • Please write down CourseLink Support’s information BEFORE you start an exam. You will not be able to access the support website if you experience technical difficulty while using LockDown Browser. Even if you are only using the CourseLink Quiz tool, having the contact info handy will expedite your support in the event of technical difficulties.
  • CourseLink Support: 519-824-4120 ext. 56939; toll-free (Canada & US) 1-866-275-1478.

Friday, September 25, 2020 – Zoom Resources Updated