Colleagues,

Welcome to another edition of your CITAL newsletter. We hope that the semester is off to a good start and in this issue, we want to highlight ways to help support your students, remind you of Canvas support information, and share exciting news about upcoming professional development opportunities.

We begin with looking at Slate for Student Success, Valpo’s replacement for Starfish, in a blog interview with Laura Sanders. With the semester underway, we are hopeful this will provide valuable information as you support your students.

Next we will highlight a few Canvas items of interest, including support resources.

Finally, we continue to celebrate faculty who have been certified in the Applying the Quality Matters Rubric course and share information on our upcoming workshop. As we continue throughout the semester, we are here to support you. Make sure to check out the new CITAL website and request help with any of your upcoming projects.

Sincerely, 

The CITAL Team (Ed, Cindy, Gina, and Raina)

This fall Valpo is debuting a new student retention system called Slate for Student Success. You can access the system now via this link: https://shine.valpo.edu/portal/faculty-staff.

Slate for Student Success replaces the Starfish system that we have used for the last five years.  I talked to Laura Sanders, Assistant Dean for Student Success, about the new system to see why we have made this change and what new features we should look for from Slate for Student Success.

Now that Canvas is completely official, we wanted to provide you with a few other resources. While we provide links to the Canvas Orientation Course, Instructor Community, and Valpo Knowledge Base below, did you know that Canvas also has a Roadmap available? This interactive page allows you to take a look at recent, upcoming, and possible future Canvas features. You can also explore recent blogs by other instructors. Finally, during InstructureCon, it was announced that AI tools (Ignite AI) were coming to Canvas. Some of these are already available for instructor use. If you every have questions or would just like to know more, reach out to the CITAL Team today for a Canvas Consultation.

Please join CITAL in congratulating seventeen professors (nine of whom are pictured below) for their success in achieving the Applying the QM Rubric (APPQMR) certification during the summer of 2025. Valpo now has nearly fifty faculty who have attended workshops and earned this QM certificate. This workshop is very helpful for those looking to improve their online and hybrid learning.

Will you be next? 

See the details below to register for CITAL's next FREE session on September 26. 

This month, CITAL will be offering a professional development opportunity for Quality Matters (QM).

This is an Applying the Quality Matters Rubric (APPQMR) certification workshop that will benefit faculty interested in learning more about the QM rubric.

The workshop will focus on best practices for online teaching. If you are already teaching hybrid or online courses or would like to do so in the future, this workshop is for you. 

Reserve your seat now for this full-day FREE session:

 Date: Friday, September 26

 Time: 8:30 am – 4:30 pm (breakfast and lunch will be provided)

 Location: Harre Union, Brown & Gold Room

 Important Details:

         √ Faculty must attend the entire day to earn the certificate

         √ A laptop with Internet access is required

The deadline to register is Friday, September 19. 

For detailed information & registration, please click the button below.

1700 Chapel Drive, Valparaiso, IN 46383

valpo.edu/cital