Congratulations on reaching the end of the Spring ‘23 term! CCAPS Academic Technology and Design has a few updates to help ensure your online, blended, and face-to-face instructional success as you prepare to wrap Spring courses and launch into Summer ‘23. 

Important Reminders

As a reminder, ATD opens courses for online/blended instructors one week before the start of the semester to allow students to acclimate to the online environment.

  • Summer Courses Open to Students: ATD Team members opened Fully Online and Blended courses on May 8, 2023 to start to provide time to acclimate to the online environment. Don’t forget to send a welcome message this week! Consult OneStop Dates and Deadlines for a list of all important dates for the Twin Cities campuses.

  • May 15, 2023: full-term UMN Courses officially begin. Face-to-face and Internship instructors should publish their courses by this date. Opening Your Canvas Online provides directions if it’s your first time opening your course to students. 

  • Communicating with your students: It is a best practice to contact your students for the first time via MyU → Key Links → Faculty Center → Class Roster. Provide them with a link to the Canvas course site. Encourage students to update Canvas notification preferences to receive your Announcements throughout the semester.

Teaching Tips

  • Utilizing the Summer for Course Improvements - Requesting an ATD Consultation: Need to adjust a class before it’s offered again? Instructors or Program Directors who wish to request an ATD Consultation on a course prior to the Fall ‘23 semester should submit requests no later than Aug 8, 2023 through the CCAPS-ATD Service Request form. Remember the earlier you make a request in the Summer, the better.

  • UMN Training Hub: Summer is a great time to catch up on training! Make sure you check your UMN Training Hub for any required courses. You may also wish to sign up for additional training sessions on topics that may interest you such as Inclusive Teaching for the Multilingual Classroom: Content Delivery.

ATD Highlight

As part of our Digital Accessibility series, in this Highlight we are showcasing PDFs and Accessibility! PDFs are a common file extension for documents, but did you know that your PDFs may be inaccessible? This article talks about what makes PDFs generally accessible as well as resources for remediating your PDFs for your course.