September 2026

Before using AI, Ashlie Perry could typically design and run only one, or at most two, role-playing simulations in her Terrorism class because creating them took significant time. Now, with AI assistance, Ashlie can incorporate three in-class simulations and shorter activities.

Ashlie starts with a learning objective and then gives AI detailed parameters for a scenario. AI then helps build the situation, assign roles, and introduce competing perspectives. In one example, she created a terrorism simulation in which students take roles such as FBI, local police, a reporter, and the mayor’s office and decide how to handle information about an unfolding event.

Ashlie used ChatGPT to design the simulation, then used Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM) to create a short “Breaking News” video to make it more dynamic and engaging. Ashlie reported positive student feedback, particularly because the simulations connect weekly course materials to real-life situations.

Ashlie’s main recommendations for other faculty considering using AI to design simulations are to give AI detailed parameters for the desired deliverable and explicitly ask it to "challenge my assumptions." Ashlie has found that this second step can prompt useful critiques about whether an activity should be shorter or longer, be an in-class exercise, be a standalone activity, or be a homework/reflection assignment.

Students can now choose to customize their Dashboard! This new Dashboard View shows recent and upcoming assignments, announcements, grades, and people to message via Inbox. Students can optionally add a To-Do widget to the New Dashboard View. Note that this feature is only available to students.

Instructors can leverage students' Canvas calendars and To-Do lists by assigning due dates to every assignment, quiz, and discussion post. The educator dashboard customization is currently under "active development," so keep a lookout for it.

New Student Customized Dashboard.

Canvas now includes a built-in Notebook feature (enabled by default) that lets students highlight and annotate Canvas Pages as they read. Students can mark content as Unclear or Important and attach custom notes to specific passages. All entries aggregate in the new Notebook link added to students’ course navigation menu.

New Canvas Notebook Feature.

The AI Report is included when Turnitin is selected when creating a Canvas Assignment or when the Turnitin Writing Platform is selected in Assignments. AI scores below 20% are not reported to guard against false positives. Higher scores, up to 100%, indicate the percent of the text that is likely to be AI-generated or modified. The student submission will show blue highlighting for all likely AI content. Note that the AI report no longer distinguishes between AI-generated and AI-modified writing. 

The Turnitin Writing Platform now includes Multipart Assignments, in addition to Clarity and Standard Assignments. This feature is particularly important in courses where students write a sequence of drafts or where scaffolding (feedback and correction) is an important part of the teaching approach.

Turnitin Assignment Selection.

Multipart Assignment Selection.

As you may know, if you record a Zoom meeting, the recording gets saved to YuJa, our media server with unlimited storage. Starting this semester, those recordings will automatically have captions attached. If you have never used YuJa before, you must log in to your YuJa account (at endicott.yuja.com) one time in order for this service to work.

You will now be able to to turn on and off AI settings in Zoom. These features include creating a meeting summary, summarizing the chat room, and creating a smart recording. Read this Fresh Service Solution for more information. Note: Any Zoom AI content will be automatically deleted after 30 calendar days.

Set Your Notifications: Don't get buried in emails. Choose which alerts you get "Right Away" versus a "Daily” or “Weekly” Summary.

Notification Setting Options.

Third-Party Integrations: Many publishers, such as Pearson and McGraw-Hill, provide tools, including e-books and quizzes, that can be integrated into your Canvas course. Although the specifics differ by publisher, the usual process is to create your "course" on the publisher's platform, then integrate that "course" into your Canvas course. Academic Technology can help with Canvas integration, so submit a Fresh Service Support Ticket if you need assistance. Be sure to let your students know how to access third-party material and about any payment arrangements.

Add the Academic Technology Calendar to your Google Calendar. Keep your eyes open for more workshops we’re hosting throughout the Fall term!

Elevate your digital assessment and real-time student engagement strategies using Canvas New Quizzes. You will learn to design question types, manage advanced item banks, and leverage surveys to gauge student understanding.

Learn more about how to make Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets accessible. During this Zoom workshop, you will explore features such as alt text, heading levels, descriptive hyperlinks, and more.

Learn about making PDFs accessible with Gemini and Adobe Acrobat. During the workshop, you will explore how to prepare a PDF for accessibility, add and edit tags, add alt text, and more.

Prerequisite: This workshop requires Gemini (included in Google Workspace) and Adobe Acrobat Pro (included in Adobe Creative Cloud). Submit a service ticket if you have issues downloading and accessing Adobe Creative Cloud.

In Canvas, "Assignments" refers to any scored student work — online submitted assignments, unsubmitted activities, scored discussions, or even quizzes. In this session, you will learn how to create different types of assignments, group assignments to make grade weighting easier, and use the Gradebook and SpeedGrader to quickly score student work.

As we jump into the new semester, we’re updating our campus password policy to keep your account secure and easier to manage!

We aren't forcing an immediate password reset, but if your current login is weak, please take a moment to update it. Our new standard is simple: at least 15 characters, one uppercase letter, one lowercase letter, and one number. That's it! 

We won't ask you to change it every three months, or even every year. Pick one really strong, unique password, and you're done.

Check out our Okta Password Change guide for quick instructions on updating your password today and watch for the Information Security Newsletter in your Inbox!

You can request one-on-one or small group training from Academic Technology by reaching out to Jim Lacey or Jen Classen. We can help you (re)design your course in Canvas as well as answer any questions regarding the various applications and technologies that are available to you.

For more information, news, and support, visit the Academic Technology website

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