Category: CTL

With the new academic year now underway, we would like to remind instructors of the campus subscription to the Teaching Professor sponsored by the William G. Jackson Center for Teaching and Learning. The Teaching Professor is a highly informative newsletter with a singular purpose: to provide ideas and insight to educators who are passionate about teaching. It’s a source of cutting-edge information and inspiration for more than 10,000 educators at universities and colleges worldwide.

To access the Teaching Professor visit teachingprofessor.com:

• On campus you can obtain full access to all Teaching Professor content (including their extensive archive) if your computer/device is connected to the campus network (except the MichiganTechGuest network). It is not necessary to create an account or log in to access the subscription on-campus.
• Off campus access is also available but does require you to create an account.

Take advantage of this resource and contact the CTL (ctl@mtu.edu) if you have any questions.

CTL Services
Ever wonder how the Center for Teaching and Learning can support your instructional needs? We are here with support for any questions you may have about Canvas, Huskycast, Gradescope, Turnitin, Zoom, or iClicker. Already familiar with these but would like to take a deeper dive into some of these technologies or maybe you have never used these and would like to give them a try in your classroom, we would be happy to provide some one-to-one training! Feel free to drop by during our walk-in hours from 10-noon and 1-4pm Monday through Friday. We can also provide in-person consultations in classrooms for classroom teaching technologies. No time to stop by the CTL? Be sure to check out our online resources that can be found on our site in our Teaching and Learning Knowledge Base, Canvas Instructor Guides, and the Getting Started With Canvas sections. Our CTL Blog is another great place to get information, especially for upcoming events and workshops!

We also have a wide range of devices for short-term instructional loan such as Surface Pros and iPads. If you’re in need of a microphone or portable document camera to hold a phone or iPad for recording, those are available as well!

iNSwan document camera
IPEVO Uplift Multi-Angle Arm for Smartphones
IPEVO VZ-R HDMI/USB Dual Mode Document Camera
IPEVO V4K Ultra High Definition USB Document Camera
Snowball Ice Plug and Play USB Microphone
Swivl Robot camera with tracking

Are you interested in taking a deeper dive into a specific instructional topic? We also have a periodical library available for checkout covering a wide range of topics! Feel free to stop in anytime and review the collection.

Feel free to contact us at 7-3000 or email us at elearning@mtu.edu.

As we begin a new fall semester I’m pleased to share an update on classroom renovations that were completed during the summer.

EERC 2nd. floor

The entire second floor of the Electrical Energy Resources Center (EERC) was renovated and all existing classrooms were impacted. The renovation included new wall and ceiling work, new light fixtures and new flooring. Furniture was replaced in all rooms with the exception of EERC 218 which received new active learning furniture as part of a pilot last spring semester. If you are teaching in this area now, we’d love to hear your comments about these updates.

Rekhi G006

Rekhi G006 is a new 54 seat active learning classroom. It features 6-person tables with stacked monitors that can display both instructor content as well as local student group work. Both wall-mounted and personal size whiteboards are also available. The room technology includes a document camera and room cameras for recording presentations or for Zoom sessions.

ChemSci 104

Room 104 in the Chemical Sciences and Engineering building was renovated, combining what was previously two separate smaller classrooms (104A/B). The new 60-seat classroom features multi-level seating options for groups of six students with plenty of whiteboard space. The room technology includes a classroom camera and ceiling microphones for Zoom or recording applications.

The large classroom in Dow 641 also received much needed new furniture this summer. It features larger tabletop works surfaces with available power to better support students who use laptops/tablets and better supports active learning activities.

Contact the CTL (elearning@mtu.edu) if you’d like more information about these classroom updates or to arrange for a room orientation.

Is your Early Term Survey ready for your students? The fourth and fifth week of the term is right around the corner and it’s your opportunity to gather valuable and constructive anonymous feedback from your students about your instructional processes; the survey results provide a roadmap for pedagogical adjustments early in the term. Both the Provost and the University Senate (Policy 505.1) advocate for distributing an Early Term Survey.

In each Canvas course shell, an Early Term Survey resides within the Quizzes section. Three default questions are provided; however, instructors have the ability to add, delete, or modify the survey questions based upon the type of feedback they are seeking. Creating a survey question is the same as creating a Quiz or Assignment.

Once an instructor is satisfied with their questions, the quiz can be published and accessed by the students during the allotted time frame. 

After the surveys are complete, instructors are able to see the results through Moderate This Survey.

For more information and general guidelines about the Early Term Survey, please refer to the Faculty Handbook.

If you have further questions about administering the Early Term Survey or would like to discuss ways that you can successfully apply the feedback to your course, feel free to reach out to the Jackson Center for Teaching and Learning at 487-3000 or email us at elearning@mtu.edu.

Canvas provides multiple ways to add equations to pages. In this blog post, you will learn a method that will create accessible equations in Canvas, which means that these equations will be automatically accessible by a Screen Reader and no additional effort is required. 

Now you can add LaTex code directly into the Rich Content editor. For those who do not know, LaTeX code is a powerful markup language for mathematical typesetting. If you are familiar with LaTex or you just need to create simple equations, please follow the instructions in Displaying equations in Canvas to create accessible equations in Canvas; if you do not know LaTex, please check out Tools to create equations in Latex format and then follow the instructions in Displaying equations in Canvas to create accessible equations in Canvas. 

Displaying Equations in Canvas

So now how to display equations in Canvas? First, please login your canvas course and located a Canvas page you want the equations to display, and then follow these steps: 

1. Click Edit button and Locate a Text Field where you would like to put an equation.
2. Type the appropriate Delimiter to signal that the equation should be rendered in LaTeX.
   • \( and \) should be used for equations that are meant to be displayed inline with text.
   • $$ should be used for equations that are meant to be displayed in separate blocks.
3. Type the Equation between the delimiters.
   • Ex: \(x^2+3x+4=7\) for inline text or $$ x^3+2x+4=9$$ for block text
4. Click Save for whatever text field you are working in.
5. Check that the Equation is being displayed correctly. It should look similar to the screenshot below.

You can create more complicated equations, like the one displayed below using $$\frac{\sigma_y}{\partial{y}}+\frac{\tau_{xy}}{\partial{x}}+Y_b=0$$.

Tools to Create Equations in LaTex format

If you do not know LaTeX code, don’t worry. You can write equations in MS Word or EquatIO and covert equations easily as LaTex.  

Please check the Write an equation or formula in MS Word page for how to convert an equation to the Linear (LaTex) formats. 

For EquatIO, after you finish creating the equation, you can click the LaTex editor (see screenshot below) to find the LaTex format. 

If you have any questions or need any assistance in creating accessible equations in Canvas, please contact elearning@mtu.edu.