for students – Ed Tech Chat

March 4, 2021March 2, 2021

Canvas: Immersive Reader Enabled

A new feature that allows the use of Microsoft Immersive Reader when viewing items in the Modules and Pages tool has been enabled in Canvas.

Microsoft Immersive Reader aids English reading comprehension, aids people with reading differences (such as Dyslexia), offers translations of the text, allows for color contrast and font changes, and can read aloud text and equations. A summary of the Immersive Reader implementation for Canvas is available in the Canvas Release Notes.

While we currently benefit from this free-trial, we need your help in understanding the value of this tool. Please share your feedback with canvas@geneseo.edu.

February 11, 2021February 11, 2021

Access Coursera Courses for Free

SUNY recently announced that all SUNY faculty, staff, and students have access to Coursera courses at no cost.

Coursera for Campus provides access to a library of world-class learning experiences aligned with the needs of today’s leading companies. Additionally, professional development courses and course authoring tools are available for SUNY faculty and staff. Complete courses and specializations and add your new credentials to your resume or LinkedIn.

Coursera offers more than 3,800 cutting-edge courses. Until mid-2021, any SUNY student, faculty or staff has free access to these high-quality courses.

Sign up with these simple steps to get started

Click the “Join for Free” link on the program’s home page.
Complete the sign-up process with your SUNY campus email address and join the program.
Browse the catalog and select a course in which to enroll.

If you have any questions about how to get started, please contact the CIT HelpDesk by calling (585) 245-5588 or visiting our online service desk.

January 28, 2021January 26, 2021

Caption This! Workshop Resources

The EdTech team recently partnered with the Center for Digital Learning and the Office off Accessibility Services in a workshop that discussed captioning options for recorded Zoom meetings and lectures.

Uploading recorded videos to YouTube for captioning is the quickest way to automatic captioning and transcripts. This guide walks through the steps. Editing YouTube’s auto-captions will ensure that your students have the best experience when watching your lectures.

The attached presentation outlines the importance of captioning, including why, what, and when we caption. You may also find it helpful to read this article on how to make your virtual meetings and events more accessible.

For questions about captioning or other accessibility issues, email access@geneseo.edu

Caption-This Download

January 23, 2020January 24, 2020

SoS: Start of Semester FYIs for Students

Happy first week of classes, SUNY Geneseo! To help our learners start the fall semester off on the right foot, this blog post walks Geneseo learners through the essential items to address at the start of a semester. This post will be particularly useful for users who are new to Canvas.

Have the Right Tools

Be sure you are accessing Canvas through an up-to-date and supported web browser
- Canvas was optimized for Chrome and is our recommended browser
- Adjust your pop-up blocker to allow pop-ups from Canvas
Install the (Canvas) Student app for iOS or Android on your mobile device
Connect your Canvas and Google Drive accounts
Add a profile picture to your Canvas account
Ensure you have Adobe Flash Player installed and enabled for your browser
If your computer does not have Microsoft Office, download a copy through Geneseo’s campus agreement

November 12, 2019November 12, 2019

Canvas Release Notes Highlights: November 16, 2019

Canvas operates on a three-week release cycle through which features are added or updated; feature releases in the production environment take place on the third Saturday of every month. SUNY Geneseo’s EdTech team posts highlights from Canvas’s production release notes, a link to these notes, and other relevant content to our blog a few days before the production release, which usually occurs on Saturdays. Please contact the Canvas Support Team if you have any questions about an upcoming production release.

September 17, 2019September 17, 2019

Canvas Release Notes Highlights: September 21, 2019

September 9, 2019September 25, 2019

Canvas Release Notes Highlights: Summer 2019

Canvas operates on a three-week release cycle through which features are added or updated; feature releases in the production environment take place on the third Saturday of every month, beginning August 17. SUNY Geneseo’s EdTech team posts highlights from Canvas’s production release notes, a link to these notes, and other relevant content to our blog a few days before the production release, which usually occurs on Saturdays. Please contact the Canvas Support Team if you have any questions about the following changes made to the Canvas environment between May 2019 through August 2019. Click here to go directly to our notes on New Gradebook.

April 18, 2019May 21, 2019

#TechTipThursday: Locating and Interpreting the Similarity Score for a Turnitin assignment

Turnitin is one of many digital tools available to enhance the teaching and learning environment at SUNY Geneseo. Commonly thought of as a plagiarism-detection utility, Turnitin compares a learner’s submission against documents in its database. Settings for comparison are determined by the professor and can be adjusted for each assignment. Faculty are not required to use this tool but those that opt-in have guidelines governing its implementation in a course.

April 11, 2019May 21, 2019

#TechTipThursday: Audacious Audio

As we look for more ways to get our learners engaged with our their own education, we sometimes roam from the beaten track of text and into the realm of media creation. Podcasts, for example, can be an excellent means through which to give learners an opportunity to flex muscles they rarely use in academic pursuits. This can be a challenge that brings them (and us!) to new levels of learning. For some it can also be a source of unnecessary frustration if not guided to easily accessible and reliable tools to successfully complete the project. To help reduce that frustration this post introduces two, free, tools to help our learners craft quality audio.

April 4, 2019May 21, 2019

#TechTipThursday: One Button Studio

Have you ever wanted to create a short video to present a concept to your class but felt like the effort was just too much? Have you ever wanted to assign video projects to your learners, but worried that the complexity of the process might prove too burdensome? Well, we’ve got an answer for you: The One Button Studio (OBS).