Technology Tools
Delivering quality online and hybrid instruction involves the effective use of learning platforms and technology tools such as Canvas, Zoom, and Proctorio. For faculty teaching hybrid or blended courses, learning how to utilize the technology inside of the classroom is also critical.
New to Zoom?
OIT has you covered with this Zoom Quick Guide. Be sure to review the Best Practices to Avoid Zoom-bombing website and document from OIT.
Prefer a video? Take a tour of the software with this Zoom Tutorial Video.
From OIT: Explore information about Zoom, UTK’s supported synchronous teaching and meeting tool.
For a concise overview of Canvas, watch this 5:47-minute Canvas Instructor Overview.
Explore OIT’s Online@UT (Canvas) Resource Guide to familiarize yourself with using Canvas.
Access these OIT resources to learn how to enable Zoom in your Canvas Course and instructions for students on Joining a Zoom Meeting from a Canvas Course.
OIT’s Training and Support Services
Learn how to access online support, including one-on-one consultations, training, and classroom technology help.
Accessibility Tools
- Contrast Ratio Checkers – helpful to ensure that the contrast ratio between text and background is at least 4.5:1.
° WebAIM Contrast Checker: https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/
° Lea Verou’s visual contrast checker: https://contrast-ratio.com/ - WAVE Web Content Accessibility Evaluation Tool: https://wave.webaim.org/
- How to use the Canvas Accessibility Checker
- Using the Canvas Link Validator
- Microsoft Immersive Reader
- How to use the Microsoft Office Suite Accessibility Checker
- W3C’s List of Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools
- Student Disability Services Faculty Support
Course Development Tools
Open Education Resources (OERs) For Course Development
OERs are any type of educational materials that are in the public domain or introduced with an open license. The nature of these open materials means that anyone can legally and freely copy, use, adapt and re-share them. OERs range from textbooks to curricula, syllabi, lecture notes, assignments, tests, projects, audio, video, and animation.”
Learn how to find, adopt, and modify open educational resources, including open textbooks using this research guide.
A public digital library of open educational resources collection in multiple formats for various academic disciplines, OER Commons also allows users to create and submit their own educational resources for publication.
This nonprofit based at Rice University, openstax™ features open textbooks, resources, and technologies.
Supported by the Open Textbook Network and based at the University of Minnesota, the open textbook library provides a collection of free, peer-reviewed, and openly licensed textbooks.
Begun in 1997, MERLOT provides access to “curated online learning and support materials and content creation tools, led by an international community of educators, learners and researchers.”
Templates
Online & Hybrid Course Syllabus Template
A well-thought-out syllabus can be used to establish instructor presence, facilitate engagement, manage the classroom, foster inclusion, clarify important course details, and much more.
The UT Knoxville Online Course Syllabus template was designed with you and your students in mind. The template includes components that support best practices in online course design and delivery. The template is meant to serve as an example, and it contains navigation links and specific language that you can modify and use when developing your own syllabus. As you utilize the template, you may add, change, or delete portions of the document to meet your needs. If you are teaching a hybrid class, make it very clear in the course schedule which days are for in-class meetings and which days are for online instruction and participation.
The syllabus template has been formatted using the Styles feature in Word to differentiate headings from the normal text (for screen readers and easy editing).
Spring 2023 Syllabus Templates:
Teaching Tip
Give students a syllabus quiz – you’ve taken the time to develop it and it contains important information. This also allows students to practice taking a low-stakes assessment using the Canvas quiz tool.