Practical resources to grow your teaching

If you're planning to import a course from a prior term, be sure to use TidyUp first. It's a cleanup tool that can help you find and delete unneeded files and content (and find and correct broken links). As an added bonus, it can help you improve your Ally accessibility score by helping you deal with unused content.

Once you've tidied up, it's time to enrich the soil of your course by tending to accessibility with Ally. Here are a couple articles on how other instructors have gone about it, "Proactively working on accessibility" and "Improving the learning experience for all students."

The Canvas Course Wizard can help you with setting up new courses. Use the Wizard to do any of the following:

• Import content from a previous Canvas course*
• Import the customizable IU course template or another template**
• Add a professionally designed home page you can make your own

* If you're bringing over content from another course, be sure to run TidyUp first (see previous accordion section for details).

** IU Course Template 2.0 offers several exciting features, including a bold new visual design, customizable banner images, a graphic progress bar for modules, and a navigation widget for the syllabus.

Whether you're new to Canvas or looking to deepen your design strategies, these resources offer structured, self-paced, and community-supported learning.

Canvas Basics Level 2 course — this self-study course provides the pedagogical guidance and technical instruction you need to get your course sites ready. Complete the five earning criteria, and you will earn a badge that recognizes your learning.

Online Course Design Series recordings — this workshop series offers best practices for designing Canvas courses that promote student belonging and success. While the focus is online courses, anyone interested in practical tips and strategies to improve Canvas course design will benefit. Series workshops include:

• Designing Learner-Centered Online Courses
• Making Your Online Course Accessible
• Getting the Most Out of Canvas: Tips and Tricks to Save Time and Help Students
• Creating Online Activities: Challenges and Opportunities

IU Pressbooks — Pressbooks provide a great starting place if you're looking for Canvas insights and active learning activities. Check out:

• A Canvas Semester Checklist, a comprehensive guide to readying your Canvas course (sections include getting started with the semester, during the semester, wrapping up the semester, Canvas accessibility for instructors, and working with video)
• Four Weeks to Canvas Kapow, a step-by-step guide to creating a Canvas course site that is more engaging, more organized, easier to navigate, and more reflective of you and your subject area
• ProfBox, a resource full of technology tips meant to inspire new and creative ideas for you to try with your students (think of it as a cookbook with "recipes" for learning activities)

Interested in learning more about AI and Generative AI? Check out webinar recordings from the Digital Gardener AI/Gen AI professional development series.

Each webinar is designed to help further your AI journey — from familiarity with basic practices and considerations, to creative confidence using AI/GenAI for a range of purposes, to conversations about critical issues.

Fall 2024 webinars (follow the series link and expand the webinar topics to access recordings):

• The State of AI / Generative AI & Higher Education
• Pedagogical Approaches & Faculty Success Stories
• Generative AI Projects & Strategies for Assessment
• What Have We Learned & What Might We Do Differently?
• Generative AI in My Professional Work

Spring 2025 webinars (follow the series link and expand the webinar topics to access recordings):

• Pedagogical Approaches & Faculty Success Stories
• Meaningful Assessments in the Age of AI: Policy & Practice
• Career Readiness & Student Success with Generative AI
• Generative AI, Higher Education, & Industry/Community Partners
• Looking forward to Fall 2025: Future Considerations

This year's Digital Gardener Summit explored practical applications of Generative AI in teaching. Sessions covered using AI throughout the teaching process, integrating AI with other visual and audio media like Adobe Firefly and Notebook LM, and creating classroom-specific AI assistants and agents.

The Summit highlighted that with minimal technical expertise, instructors can transform standard AI tools into engaging, course-specific resources that genuinely enhance learning outcomes.

• A systematic approach to problem solving with generative AI from CITL's Maggie Gilchrist
• Non-textual AI representations and creations from DGI's Justin Hodgson
• Example AI Agent from CITL's Eric Brinkman: The TILT Tutor

If you're looking for resources that can help you do more with Canvas or generative AI, be sure to keep the following in mind.

The Canvas Instructor Guide is a comprehensive resource with step-by-step instructions on how to use various features of Canvas. (FYI: There's also a student guide.) While you're there, you can also search the Canvas Community for insights from colleagues.

IU's free, self-paced GenAI in the Classroom and GenAI Essential Skills workshops can help you feel more at ease navigating the use of generative AI (GenAI) in your classes. (Check out this article for insights from IU's Vivian Halloran about this IU-specific professional development.)

Teaching.IU offers a range of evidence-based and pragmatic resources to support your teaching, all designed with inclusion in mind from the start – check out collections on delivering content, engaging students, assessing learning, and using generative AI. Interested in exploring the IU-approved tools available for teaching and learning? Don't forget the IU Tool Finder.

Reach out to your campus teaching center for personalized assistance and support. Consultants can provide guidance on best practices, help troubleshoot issues, and offer other professional development opportunities to enhance your teaching skills.

If you use Top Hat in your courses, you can now copy content and even entire courses. This added functionality lets you reuse and adapt your existing materials, saving time and effort in course preparation.