Educational Technologies for Fall 2023

Posted in News

Dear Faculty,

Welcome back! As we start a new semester, we invite you to take a look at new developments in educational technologies at Georgetown.

Technology Updates

  • Digital Learning Days! The Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship (CNDLS) is hosting a series of discussions and forums on pedagogy and technology, especially on artificial intelligence (AI) in the classroom. In-person and Zoom registration is available.
  • Zoom recordings no longer automatically copy into Panopto. As we shared in a previous message, as of July 31, 2023, Zoom Cloud recordings are no longer automatically copied into Panopto. We do not believe this will impact the majority of faculty. However, if your workflow involves sharing recordings from Panopto, you will need to configure Panopto to automatically import your Zoom recordings.
  • Join the pilot to use Gradescope! If you are teaching large courses with more than 40 students, you can leverage Gradescope to help sort through large numbers of handwritten exams. Gradescope uses AI to read graphs, diagrams, math proofs, econ equations, and lab summaries. The tool, integrated into Canvas, has features that allow a team of teaching assistants and professors to divide up work, practice horizontal grading, and help develop grading rubrics and policies while you are grading, automatically and instantly regrading all previously graded exams.
  • Check out the list of tools installed in Canvas. Do you want to use a tool that’s not on the list or in the Canvas App Center? Submit this Google form and we’ll work with you to make it available.
  • It’s now easier to enable automated captions in Zoom. We have updated Georgetown’s default setting for Zoom to allow community members to more easily enable automated captions. The Zoom automated captions page includes instruction and more information.
  • Check for security updates. Your computer may need to apply the latest security updates.  Allow some time for your machine to update before you start your daily activities. 

Multimedia and Polling Technologies

Are you interested in adding multimedia resources to your courses? Here’s how instructors can present media resources and task students with creating or annotating many forms of media:

  • Panopto – Can be used to upload and annotate video clips, as well as add dynamic quizzes to course recordings. Panopto, which is integrated with Canvas, has superior privacy settings compared to Zoom.
  • ShareStream – Can be used to stream most audio and video assets owned by the University libraries and from other sources. Consult the library electronic reserves page for more info. ShareStream is integrated with Canvas.
  • VoiceThread – This online platform for conversations can be used by instructors and students to create and annotate multimedia presentations. VoiceThread is integrated with Canvas.
  • Hypothes.is (New feature!) – You can now annotate Youtube videos with this Canvas-integrated annotation tool. 
  • Mentimeter – This tool offers multiple choice/open-ended questions, word clouds, and clickable images. It also provides instant live visualizations of anonymous student responses. Consider using Mentimeter to gauge student mood, create icebreaker activities, check knowledge (e.g., identifying an element on an image, collecting data points on graph), facilitate group discussions, visualize concepts, and host Q&A sessions.

Classroom Technology Contacts

Georgetown schools and campuses have the following separate points of contact for classroom technology needs:

Consultations on Teaching, Technology, and Teaching With Technology

Faculty and staff can reach out to CNDLS for help with effective and practical teaching techniques ranging from pedagogical choices to implementing technology tools. For quick help, “Ring our Doorbell” by filling out this form, and a CNDLS staff member will reach out to schedule a consultation within the hour. More information is available at cndls.georgetown.edu. 

If you have questions or require support:

Best wishes for the upcoming semester.

The Canvas Support Team:
Ken Mayer
Director of Educational Technologies, University Information Services (UIS)

Molly Chehak
Director of Digital Learning Pedagogy, The Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship (CNDLS)