Designing assignments for the GenAI era cannot be done in isolation. To tackle this challenge, Academic Technology Support Services (ATSS), the Center for Educational Innovation (CEI), and Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) recently hosted a full-day, in-person Assignment (re)Design Lab. The event brought together 24 attendees from three UMN campuses, sparking lively, cross-disciplinary strategy sessions among instructors, student guests, and table facilitators. The lab provided instructors with the structured time needed to design new assignments or overhaul existing ones with GenAI in mind. Since teaching goals vary, the workshop supported a full spectrum of approaches, from intentionally integrating GenAI into coursework to limiting its use to safeguard foundational learning. What Made the Lab Value-Driven? Post-event feedback highlighted exactly what made the experience so impactful for faculty: Dedicated Time & Collaboration: Instructors rarely get an uninterrupted day to foc...

Designing meaningful learning experiences in Canvas goes beyond simply delivering content and assigning work. If you are looking for ways to help students think about their learning, demonstrate and organize their growth throughout their academic career, and make connections across their work, Canvas Portfolio is a new solution that brings those goals into everyday teaching and learning.  While the original Canvas ePortfolio tool provided a way to showcase student work, Canvas Portfolio now shifts that experience into an ongoing, interactive process that develops collaboratively alongside a student’s academic path, rather than only at the end. What Is Canvas Portfolio? Canvas Portfolio is a built-in tool that enables students to create a digital collection of their work. It allows students to compile, organize, and reflect on their learning as they progress through their studies. Instead of assembling content after the fact, students can pull in assignments directly from their cour...

Providing meaningful feedback is a cornerstone of student success, and rubrics are essential tools for maintaining transparency and consistency in grading. On May 16, 2026, Canvas Enhanced Rubrics will be turned on in Canvas. This updated feature is designed to streamline how you build, manage, and use rubrics in your courses. In preparation for rolling out this updated feature, I (Rebecca George-Burrs, Academic Technologist in Academic Technology Support Services) spent some time building some new rubrics and managing my existing rubrics in the Enhanced Rubrics space. This blog post is my review of Enhanced Rubrics.  New Streamlining Features for Building Rubrics Building rubrics in Canvas has been known for being time-consuming and requiring persistence. Enhanced Rubrics brings a more intuitive user interface to build and revise rubrics along with flexible viewing and scoring options that make the grading process more efficient. Here is a list of updates that I was most pleased...

When creating video content for your course, accessibility should remain a central consideration. Accurate captioning and appropriate audio description not only promote equitable access to course materials, but will also be required for compliance with the University’s updated digital accessibility policy beginning in April 2026. Proactively addressing caption quality now will help guarantee that your content remains accessible and meets policy guidelines. It is essential to order or edit captions for any video you require students to watch in your course. If you are linking to videos you do not own, take the time to carefully review the existing captions for accuracy, completeness, and timing. Auto-generated captions are often a starting point, not a finished product. If the captions are inaccurate and you are unable to contact the owner to correct them, the video should not be used in your course. Providing content that is inaccessible to some students creates unnecessary barriers ...

Extra Points contributors are interviewing University of Minnesota instructors working to comply with the updated digital accessibility policy effective April 2026. These blog posts highlight the approach they take as they lean into the challenge of revising their course content to be digitally accessible. This post highlights Dr. Vanessa Lee, Professor of Psychology in the College of College of Liberal Arts, Twin Cities Campus. Interviewer: When did you first start hearing about digital accessibility?   Vanessa Lee (VL): I think I first started hearing about digital accessibility in the spring of 2024. However, it wasn't until the summer of 2024 that the emails started coming in, urging me to really begin this work. Interviewer: What were your initial thoughts, feelings and concerns about the need to make your course materials accessible? VL: My first reaction was that this is a good and important thing to do for my students. I was already having to make various accommodatio...

Designing a personalized learning experience in Canvas often requires a careful balance between providing specialized support and maintaining a well-organized, manageable course structure. While Canvas Groups and Sections have their function for student organization, Differentiation Tags is a new tool to help you deliver targeted instruction with even greater precision and privacy. What Are Differentiation Tags? Differentiation Tags allow you to create custom labels and assign them to specific students or groups of students. Unlike Sections or Groups, these tags are completely invisible to students. This "behind-the-scenes" layer of organization allows you to categorize students based on specific needs, progress, required accommodations, or any needed way to sort students without creating public-facing labels. Once a student is tagged via the People page, the tags become a selectable option in the "Assign To" field. This means that you can deliver specific assignm...