Volunteers Needed for the Graduate Academy for College Teaching

The Grad Academy is the campus-wide pre-semester teacher training for new TAs, and we can use your help. We still need several people to facilitate Microteaching sessions, which is a fun and easy way to help even if you have limited teaching experience. We can also use a few more concurrent sessions for the program, and would be particularly interested in hosting sessions on work-life balance for TAs, general TA wellness, or growth mindset. This year's academy is scheduled to run August 16th - 19th. Please check out the call for presenters for more information and to volunteer.

eText@Illinois Development Grants

Beginning September 8, 2021, The Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning (CITL) will award a limited number of $8,000 grants to University of Illinois faculty and instructors toward developing locally produced course materials as required reading for classes on the Urbana campus. Grant recipients will receive support in transforming assigned textbooks, workbooks, or readings for Spring 2022 courses into the award-winning eText@Illinois platform created at, and for, the University of Illinois. While all instructor-authors are eligible, those interested in creating required resources for large undergraduate enrollment classes (greater than 300 seats annually) are particularly encouraged to apply.  

Grants may be awarded, by arrangement with Department chair and business office, as service-in-excess appointments, or as stipends. This grant is being offered in recognition of the amount of work involved in developing course content.  Deadline for proposal submissions is August 23, 2021. Please review RFP for more details.

Requesting a Canvas Space

The first step to getting started in Canvas is to request your own development space. Whether you're planning to build from scratch, or clean up a migrated course, you'll need a space to begin your Canvas explorations. You can also request your registrar-affiliated course in Canvas for use this Fall. Follow these step-by-step instructions when requesting a space to be certain your course is created in the appropriate LMS.

Canvas Introductory Workshops

Campus consultants have developed the following training resources to help you get started with Canvas. You can join one of many Zoom-based workshops, or learn on your own with our self-paced, online courses. We have four regularly scheduled workshops covering the basics of getting started with Canvas, additional topics are offered as interests arise.

• Building Courses in Canvas - 90 minutes
  
• Managing Courses in Canvas - 90 minutes
  
• Migrating from Compass2g to Canvas - 60 minutes
  
• Migrating from Moodle to Canvas - 90 minutes
  

Want to learn more about using Discussion Boards in Canvas, check out tomorrow's workshop An Introduction to Canvas Discussion Boards with Eden Haycraft and Erin Creuz. In this one-hour session, they will walk you through Discussion Board basics, settings, and preferences. This Workshop will also cover Canvas best practices, and tips and tricks for student success.

Visit the Canvas Workshop Calendar to register and check out the full listing of upcoming topics. In addition, we have three online, video-based courses that walk you through the steps of building and running your first course in Canvas. 

• Canvas 101 - Building Courses in Canvas
• Canvas 102 - Managing Courses in Canvas
• Migrating from Compass2g to Canvas

Use this form to enroll in any of these online offerings.

Additional Training and Support Opportunities

Subscribe to the Canvas transition mailing list to stay in touch about future Canvas updates and find an archive of all previous monthly updates.

CITL is offering weekly, one-hour open Canvas sessions  throughout the summer. Drop in during these open hours for quick answers and expert guidance.

Our Canvas contract includes access to free training directly from Instructure. Click on the Help icon within any Canvas course and look for the Training Portal link to access asynchronous materials as well as hour-long, hands-on workshops covering the most commonly used tools in Canvas.