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UNC System Resource for Instructors: Foundational Generative AI Literacy and Responsible Use Course

by | Jul 29, 2026 | AI, Blog, Teaching with Technology

The UNC System has created a Foundational Generative AI Literacy and Responsible Use Course. The purpose of this course is to assist students in developing critical understanding, evaluation, and use of generative AI. The course is intended as an optional and flexible resource that faculty may adopt, adapt, and customize to meet their needs. 

The University of North Carolina System logo

The UNC System has created a Foundational Generative AI Literacy and Responsible Use Course. The purpose of this course is to assist students in developing critical understanding, evaluation, and use of generative AI. The course is intended as an optional and flexible resource that faculty may adopt, adapt, and customize to meet their needs. Outcomes include: 

  1. Learners will explain what generative AI (Gen AI) tools are and how they work.
  2. Learners will identify the benefits and challenges of using Gen AI in various academic, professional, and creative settings.
  3. Learners will critically evaluate Gen AI outputs for errors and biases. 
  4. Learners will demonstrate Gen AI literacy skills responsibly in a range of academic, professional, and creative settings. 

If you are interested in reviewing the course’s modules and/or incorporating all or parts of the resource in your course, please reach out to the CFC via email cfc@wcu.edu. 

Click.Craft.Connect

by | Mar 12, 2026 | Blog, Faculty Development Workshop, Learning Community, Online Learning, Teaching with Technology

Online Teaching Cohort Starts April 6

What if sharpening your online teaching skills also meant connecting with some of the most thoughtful instructors on campus? This April, the Coulter Faculty Commons is facilitating another cohort in its Excellence in Online Teaching Basics — a 4-week Canvas course that’s as much about community as it is about content.

Cat in a virtual meeting with other cats

Through 5 self-paced modules on Canvas, you’ll explore everything from the fundamentals of online learning to course design, student engagement, and beyond.

Each module takes just 1–2 hours to complete and the course includes 4 facilitated discussions where you can share your ideas with fellow instructors. 

Whether you’re brand new to teaching online or have a few semesters under your belt, this is your space to learn, reflect, and share what works.

Not sure if the EOT cohort is for you? Contact Scott Seagle at seaglej@wcu.edu to help you get started.

Register for the April 2026 EoT Cohort

Lightboard Workshop

by | Feb 11, 2026 | Blog, Educational Technology, Teaching with Technology

Woman writing on a light board.

Lightboards let you face your students while you teach—writing, drawing, and explaining in real time. They function like transparent whiteboards, allowing you to stay visually connected to students in both live, in-person and pre-recorded settings. In this workshop, faculty will learn how to use lightboards to create clear, engaging instructional content for problem-solving, demonstrations, and concept walkthroughs. No prior video experience required. The workshop will be held Thursday, Feb 19, 12:30-1:30 PM, in-person in Hunter Library 166. Please register below.

Click Here to Register

Canvas Training: New Course Accessibility Tools in Canvas

by | Sep 23, 2025 | Accessibility, Blog, Canvas, Faculty Development Workshop, Teaching with Technology

Would you like to make your course more available and accessible to your students?  

The Division of IT, in partnership with the Office of Accessibility Resources and the Office of the Provost, has made a new set of tools available in Canvas to help guide you to make your courses more accessible. This Accessibility Suite is already active in your Canvas courses, but if you’d like more training about how to get the best out of these tools, we urge you to register for this professional development opportunity.

Register even if you can’t attend, and we will make the recording available to you!

Register:

Friday, October 17, 10:30 am – WCU Online Accessibility Tools Update 2025 

Or

Thursday, November 6, 3:00 pm – WCU Online Accessibility Tools Update

Increasing Student Engagement With Regular and Substantive Interaction

by | Nov 17, 2023 | Active Learning, Blog, Canvas, Educational Development, Help Your Students, Learn, Online Learning, Student Engagement, Teaching and Learning, Teaching with Technology

How many days do you log into Canvas and interact with the students? How quickly do you give helpful feedback on activities and assessments? Do you set your students’ expectations by including an email/discussion response statement in your syllabus?

Why do we pose these questions? Frequent interaction and purposeful engagement with students are a hallmark of excellence in teaching and learning. It looks different depending on whether you are teaching in-person, hybrid/blended, or online.  We ask students in our in-person courses to log into Canvas every day to see announcements, their grades and feedback, and content. This provides opportunities to increase engagement with students outside of the scheduled classroom time. For hybrid and online faculty, we can use best practices to increase engagement with students who may be residential or remote.

decorative image of regular and substantive interaction

Faculty who teach online regularly or occasionally should be aware of Regular & Substantive Interaction (RSI), a regulation from the Department of Education that went into effect July 2021. RSI is a determination of whether an online course is a correspondence course (which doesn’t qualify for Federal financial aid) or a distance education course. These recommendations also apply to in-person teaching.

Fortunately, we have resources like the Quality Scorecard from the Online Learning Consortium to help us identify how we are meeting RSI and areas where we may need to improve our efforts. Over the next few months, we will share the criteria with suggestions on how to put them into practice.

The scorecard is divided into 6 sections: Course Overview and Information, Course Technology and Tools, Design and Layout, Content and Activities, Interaction, and Assessment and Feedback.

Let’s look at the first two sections.

Course Overview and Information:

  • The course includes a welcome and how to get started, as well as an overall orientation. Content is organized in Modules.
  • Module overviews make content, activities, assignments, due dates, interactions, and assessments transparent, predictable and easy to find. *A suggested best practice is to include an overview page as the first page of each module.
  • Course outcomes are observable and measurable, and congruent with the assessments and assignments.
  • Include the online learner success resources and contact information for the department and program, in addition to instructor information.

Course Technology and Tools:

  • It is extremely important to use Canvas, WCU’s approved and supported LMS.
  • Include information on how to contact the IT HelpDesk in a prominent place so students can find it when they need it.

Remember, these RSI standards are useful in increasing student engagement in any modality!

Next up in this series: 

Designing for Student Engagement using RSI

The CFC would love to partner with you to design, redesign, or make improvements to your Canvas course.  Let us know what you need through our Consultations Scheduling Page.

 

Source: Regular and Substantive Interaction, SUNYOnline – https://www.sunyempire.edu/dlis/design-your-course/regular-and-substantive-interaction/

Getting the Most out of the Gradebook and SpeedGrader in Canvas

by | Jan 5, 2022 | Blog, Canvas, Teaching with Technology

What’s Different about the Canvas Gradebook? 

The Gradebook in Canvas and the Grade Center in Blackboard are similar in many respects. The Grades link is how you and your students access the course gradebook – just like the Grade Center in Blackboard.  The gradebook is where you will view and grade student submissions and assign weights to assignment groups for Total grade calculation.  Unlike Blackboard, you can’t weight a column without putting it an assignment group. Also, you can’t manually create a column in the gradebook like you could in Blackboard, so you must create an assignment for a column to be created in the gradebook, even if that is activity is not submitted through Canvas.   

Enhancements to Gradebook include the options to automatically assign a zero score to missing assignments or deduct points for late submissions.   

Activities can be graded by simply entering a grade, using a rubric, or using SpeedGrader in Canvas, which is similar to Blackboard’s in-line grading function.   

With SpeedGrader you can:

  • View student submissions (text entries, website URLs, media recordings, and/or file uploads); preview supported file types in Canvas 
  • Make annotations on supported files 
  • Assign a grade based on your preferred assessment method (points or percentage) 
  • View Rubric to assist with grading (if one is added to the assignment) 
  • View comments created by you or the student about the assignment 
  • Create text, video, and/or audio commentary for the student 

How does this align to Canvas training materials?

Canvas logoPriming the Canvas: Module 1: Getting Started “Assignment, Grading and Quizzes”

 

Additional Resources:

Our next article will highlight Mobile Apps – Student & Instructor; visit Canvas Blog to see all our Canvas articles.