Staff blog

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Sometimes our best ideas come from individual designers, faculty, multimedia specialists, and academic tech professionals. Our team is the best at what they do and they're bringing some of their insights, discoveries, and latest news direct to you.

Check back often for the latest news on our department and insights to help you teach more effectively, efficiently, and easily.

Faculty spotlights

Anandhi Upendran: BETA training program

Meet Anandhi Upendran, the program director for the Biomedical Entrepreneurship for Aging (BETA) program at the University of Missouri.

Amy Simons: Simulating newsroom meetings using VoiceThread

Missouri School of Journalism Professor Amy Simons shares an award-winning assignment she create called "Hold a Monthly Web Strategy Meeting," in which students analyze data and present strategies for growing...

Carla Allen: Creating a tailor-made textbook for a radiography class with Pressbooks

Carla Allen, Radiography Program Director at MU, creates interactive textbooks for her radiography students using the user-friendly digital publishing platform Pressbooks. In this video, Dr. Allen explains shows how she...

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

How to use AI for better image accessibility

This article gives examples of how to use AI tools to generate alternative text and text descriptions for images, making your course content accessible to all students.

Artificial intelligence (AI) spring webinar series

Join us for an artificial intelligence (AI) webinar series held throughout the spring f rom February through May.

Teaching in the time of AI

Eight months after the introduction of ChatGPT, it is in widespread faculty and student use, has raised cheating concerns, created the need to reframe or revise assignments, and raised numerous...

Presentations & webinars

Webinar: Create your own interactive content with Pressbooks and H5P

This recorded webinar focuses on how to use Open Educational Resources (OER) creation tools provided and supported by the UM System.

Webinar: Effective video strategies for online courses

Explore the powerful role of video in cultivating teacher credibility and effectiveness in your asynchronous online courses.

Webinar: Trailblazing with Articulate Storyline

In this recorded webinar, we took a virtual field trip to learn how a team of MU researchers & instructional designers engaged geology students with an interactive virtual field experience.

Instructional design

The Instructional Design team is made up of 20+ professional Instructional Designers who specialize in helping faculty create quality courses. The Instructional Design team is part of the Program and Course Design Services (PCDS) department of Missouri Online. 

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Podcast: Teaching students with ADHD

Dr. Cathryn Friel, instructional designer at Missouri Online, was featured as a guest on Dr. Derek Bruff's Intentional Teaching podcast series.

Spring instructional design webinars

All faculty and staff are invited to attend our spring instructional design webinar series.

Upcoming instructional design webinars

UM System faculty and staff are invited to attend a webinar series associated with Missouri Online’s Sprint Ahead: Online Faculty Development Program.

Experience Design

The Experience Design team is responsible for creating high-quality, engaging end-user experiences to ensure learner comprehension. Team members do this by using a variety of mediums including video and media production, course / web development (CSS, JS, HTML), course template development, branding, marketing and communications, graphic design, and interactive development. This team’s overall goal is to create superior online learning experiences for all learners. 

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New module organizer templates now available

Missouri Online is pleased to announce the availability of two new multi-week module organizer templates for your Canvas courses.

Student resource templates in Canvas Commons

Our latest templates include topics such as how to prepare for group projects, best practices for participating in discussion boards, and tips for succeeding in your online course.

Crafting authentic learning experiences with the LX Canvas

The LX Canvas is used to create improved learning experiences by breaking each one down into categories, including the people involved, the resources available, and the process used to arrive...

Academic technology

The Academic Technology department is made up of a large group of technology professionals who specialize in academic use of technology. They work directly with faculty and staff to ensure success while using any of our 15+ supported tools, while also sourcing and employing new technology tools. 

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What's new for spring 2024

Several of the applications we use have had updates over the past month. Read further to get the details on these and many other improvements.

Register for our Spring 2024 instructor bootcamp

Join us on Zoom for our academic technology training sessions as you prepare for the Spring 2024 semester.

Fall 2023 Bootcamps

Academic Technologies hosts instructor bootcamps for the same tools in which we provide regular training. These bootcamps are meant to assist new or current instructors in getting up to speed...

Operations

Spring 2024 Meet & Greets

Missouri Online is hosting meet & greet events throughout the month of April.

Annual report for academic year 2022-2023

We are pleased to share highlights of the past year that represent growth and change across the University of Missouri System (UM System) and its online portfolio.

On-campus meet & greet events in October

Missouri Online is hosting meet & greet events on all four campuses throughout the month of October!