What is the role of Generative AI in...  personalized learning and time-saving approaches?  instructional design and course assistance? academic writing and research?  the ever-evolving relationship between instructors and students? These were some of the questions explored in the Explore Generative AI tools workshop held in mid-October 2023. Guided by an AI critical literacy approach, participants sought to: understand the basic concepts and technologies used by AI evaluate AI platforms/systems and their outputs for accuracy and bias consider the ethical implications of AI on societal impacts such as work, creativity, culture, politics, etc Participants were introduced to AI tools in the following four areas. Each of the areas included use cases and demonstrations of AI platforms. Writing Instruction and Support Bill Rozaitis, Education Program Specialist from the Center for Educational Innovation, discussed uses for generative AI in writing instruction. There is a growi...

Around the world, generative AI is changing how we work, how we teach, how we learn, and how we think. The rapid proliferation of AI technologies and their initial hype suggests that the future of teaching, learning and writing will require some integration and collaboration between humans and AI content generators. In these early days of AI, instructors and researchers are already encountering and exploring ways AI technologies emerge in the context of teaching and learning. On September 29, 2023, Academic Technology Support Services, the Center for Educational Innovation, and the Writing Across the Curriculum program hosted instructors from several disciplines to share their experiences using (or responding to) ChatGPT in their classrooms in Spring 2023.   Jay Coggins - Applied Economics Jay Coggins, Professor of Applied Economics, inaugurated the panel by observing that our students will likely use AI tools throughout their careers, and explained that responsible use would be a ...

Have you ever had a student turn in their assignment by emailing it to you rather than submitting it through Canvas? Maybe legitimate reasons prevented them from submitting it properly, but now it's a pain for you because the submission is not in Speedgrader. Now there's a way to submit an assignment on behalf of a student. A new feature in Canvas allows a third party to submit an assignment on a student's behalf. Not every type of assignment is eligible. Only assignments where the Submission Type is "Online" and one of the Online Entry Options is "File Uploads". How does it work? While you can't do it, people on our Technology Help line can. If you are a teacher or TA in the Canvas course, send an email to canvas@umn.edu with the assignment attached. Provide unambiguous details about the course, assignment, and student. The URL of the assignment is best. For the student, provide their email address. Students Can Request It Too If a stu...

  In June 2023, approximately 130 teaching and learning professionals gathered at the AT SHAREcase . During 2 days of presentations and discussion they explored the conference theme: expanding collaboration across diverse work, school, and social environments: the evolving role of ATs/IDs. Along with colleagues across the UMN system, many staff members in ATSS and AT Tools presented at the conference. This post contains descriptions and resources from their sessions. Make My Course Accessible: A cooperative pilot project In partnership with colleges and departments across the UMN system, Academic Technology Support Services (ATSS) started offering the Make My Course Accessible Initiative. This session highlights many details we learned about the process and showcases Faculty from the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences CFANS), and Psychology department on how the initiative helped to advance accessibility in Canvas course content that benefits students and ...

Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) is celebrated around the world annually on the third Thursday of May. The event aspires to raise awareness of the importance and impact of accessibility, share our progress, and renew our commitment to cultivating inclusion.  “Amplifying Accessibility” was the theme for the University of Minnesota’s second systemwide GAAD event held on May 18, 2023, which had more than 460 registrants from all five system campuses, other higher education institutions, and organizations around the country. The event engaged participants in conversation and sparked thinking and learning about amplifying accessibility with sessions that are relevant to everyone’s work in teaching and learning. Program Recap and Video Recordings This year's event included three separate tracks with nine sessions on a variety of topics, as well as a keynote  by Lydia X. Z. Brown on disability justice action in higher education. Lydia is an activist, writer, and adjunct ...

Co-authored with Mariam Tahir and Jeff Weber This is the first in a series of posts that describe how the Academic Technology Services team is partnering with the Carlson School of Management in order to learn more about student perspectives on learning data and accelerate the adoption of learning analytics. We invite you to follow our journey and find out what happens next! In early 2023, the Academic Technology Services team sponsored a capstone project with the Carlson School of Management for the undergraduate Information and Decision Sciences Department. The capstone project, called “Learning Analytics: The Student Perspective,” offered a unique opportunity to have students engage their peers on the topic of learning analytics and then submit recommendations based on their findings. This post describes the goals of the capstone project and the recommendations offered by the participating student teams. We will also describe some next steps that we are actively exploring. What is ...

Khaled Musa, Academic Technologist, ATSS Co-authored with Rebecca George-Burrs in collaboration with Khaled Musa In this post, Academic Technology Support Services (ATSS) consultant Khaled Musa reflects on his own journey to being an accessibility expert and on efforts at the University of Minnesota to advance access and inclusion in courses. Khaled was an undergrad in New York when he lost his vision suddenly. He spent the next few years adjusting to vision loss, learning to use adaptive technology, and discovering a new career path. How did you come to a career in accessibility?  In 2004 I lost my vision. I learned assistive technology over a period of 3 years so that I could go back and finish my education. When I lost my sight, I was 11 credits away from graduating, but I could not adjust to my vision loss and finish my education. I was going for a bachelor of science in computer science, so technology was easy for me. But it still took me years to adjust to my new life with v...