Spring Instructor Bootcamp
Sign up for the spring Academic Technology Bootcamp, Monday, Jan. 6 – Friday, Jan. 10.
Join any one of our 23 Zoom training sessions to learn how to get started with Canvas, learn about AI, engage your students with communication tools, and more.
Featured sessions:
Proctoring
- Honorlock overview (replaced SmarterProctoring in June 2024).
Zoom
If you’re short on time and need a firmer grasp of classroom technology before the beginning of the spring semester, our Canvas Super Sessions (Jan. 14 – 15) offer a chance to receive a Canvas overview that includes essential information about Canvas assignments, quizzes and grading.
Coming soon:
In February, we will host our Media and Assessment Bootcamps, which will focus on new, intermediate-level courses.
What’s New for Spring
Learn about all the new features in Canvas, new software (TidyUP and Lucid Spark & Chart) and more on our new customer support portal.
In particular, we want to call out our TidyUP pilot, beginning Jan. 6. TidyUP makes it easy to identify unpublished pages, delete outdated content and remove empty folders in Canvas. By cleaning up your Canvas courses, you can help to ensure we are being good stewards of our resources, and more importantly it takes you one step closer to ensuring your course will meet accessibility standards for the April 2026 regulations. We encourage you to try TidyUP in your Spring 2025 courses. Look for more information on our support portal or the TidyUp user guide.
Get Your Courses Ready for the Spring Semester
Make sure your Canvas course is set up and ready to go for the spring. Check out our Start of Semester Checklist and get your course prepared and ready for students.
We Want Your Feedback on teaching.missouri.edu
Missouri Online’s main department website, teaching.missouri.edu, is undergoing a site rebuild, and your feedback will help guide our efforts. If you’d like to share your comments, please complete our brief survey by Friday, Feb. 28.
Academic Technology Help Hours Extended Jan. 13 – 23
Beginning Monday, Jan. 13, the Academic Technology team will expand their email response hours. Staff will answer emails in the evenings and on weekends Jan. 13 – 23. As always, staff members will be available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. to answer your questions via phone, chat and email. BlackBeltHelp will continue to be available via phone and chat outside our standard business hours. Contact us at teachingtools@umsystem.edu, via chat or phone at 855-675-0755. Our team is available to assist all faculty and staff, regardless of course modality. Our support portal is also available 24 hours a day.
Starting Jan. 21: A New Semester-Based Online Teaching Certification Seminar
We’re excited to announce a new semester-based version of the Online Teaching Certification Seminar (OTCS)! Designed with flexibility in mind, this updated format allows participants to complete the seminar over 16 weeks with soft deadlines every two weeks, perfect for instructors balancing busy schedules.
Participants will explore core topics such as designing accessible and engaging courses, fostering collaboration and crafting effective assessments, all while working toward a final project they can immediately apply to their teaching. This semester-based format provides extended time for peer review and project refinement, offering a rich, collaborative learning experience.
To register or learn more about the traditional six-week or new 16-week session, visit the OTCS page or contact us at teachingonline@umsystem.edu.
New “Tech Lab” Mini-Course
You are invited to enroll in the self-paced course Sprint 1.I: Tech Lab: Explore Creative Uses of EdTech. In this new Missouri Online three-hour Sprint, “choose your own adventure” to explore educational technologies that best fit your context, learning goals and students. Choose from multiple modules, each with a tool supported by the University of Missouri System. By completing a module, you will explore tool best practices, test out possible ways to implement the tool, experiment with the tool from a student’s perspective and earn a tool-specific Tech Lab badge. These badges count toward Sprint certifications and the Flexible Online Teaching Recertification program.
Draft Coach Coming Soon
Turnitin’s Draft Coach will be available in the University of Missouri System’s (UM System) Microsoft Office 365 beginning Jan. 6. Draft Coach will help correct any accidental plagiarism, citations and grammar issues before submitting your work. As instructors, you can share this information with your students to help them get started with this tool to help improve their writing. View an overview of additional functionality. Students can learn more and get started by visiting our knowledge base.
Draft Coach is available to users on all UM System campuses who do not have a health- or hospital-related primary email address. This limitation is intended to prevent Turnitin/Draft Coach from inadvertently getting HIPAA-protected information.
Harmonize and Kritik Pilots Extended to May 31
If you are interested in trying Harmonize or Kritik in the spring, the tools will be made available through May 31.
Harmonize is a discussion board tool that weaves rich multimedia, student milestones, reactions and tagging, annotations and an assistive prompt writer incorporating ChatGPT. Kritik facilitates online peer-to-peer assessment of student work, allowing students to learn from their peers, adapt and improve their work and gain a deeper understanding of the topic.
If you are interested in participating in these pilots, please email teachingtools@umsystem.edu.
Teaching Renewal Week
The University of Missouri is hosting Teaching Renewal Week, an additional way to prepare for the coming semester hosted by the MU Teaching for Learning Center. This event is open to all University of Missouri System campuses.
About Us
Missouri Online supports the UM System universities with digital education services, this includes student recruitment for online programs, instructional and experience design, program coordination and academic technology. Our dedicated teams of expert professionals are here to assist you.