TEACHING TIPS

Good morning! Hopefully everyone's semesters are off to a fantastic start.  This week, we urge you to consider accessibility in your classroom, which is helpful to all students (and us as faculty as well). New accessibility requirements for online materials provided by state and local governments will be effective April 2026. However, accessibility is also vital to keep in mind for non-online materials.

• If you are in a room with microphones, please use the microphones. Hearing challenges and auditory processing issues are often invisible and even when a person is using hearing aids or other assistive devices, you often cannot see them (especially in a sea of students in a large room.) Even if someone doesn't have hearing challenges, hearing in a large lecture hall with bad acoustics can be very difficult. Using amplification feels awkward the first few times you're using the microphone. This blog post offers a personal perspective, saying "When I use a microphone, it feels artificial. It feels too formal. I feel like a ... a TED Talk speaker (not in a good way) lecturing at my students." But with practice, it will become as natural as your "teacher voice" and everyone in the room will thank you.
• Whether you're online, face to face, or a little bit of both - how do your class materials appear to someone with colorblindness? Texas Christian University has tips for colorblind friendly presentations, as does the Student Disability Resource Center at the University of California, Riverside.
• Deliver important information in multiple modalities. For example, if you make a verbal announcement about a change in test dates, also put up a slide and send out an announcement on Canvas. This ensures that everyone has a chance at the information - even students who may have been sick that day or folks in the corners of large rooms.

Accessibility is good for all of our students, and us too. We have extensive online resources about making online resources more accessible, and are more than happy to consult or build a workshop about how to enhance accessibility in your physical classroom as well.

ITS RESOURCES

Information Technology Services is happy to share its Fall 2025 Canvas & Learning Technology Updates. In addition, the September training schedule has been set, with topics including Accessible Canvas Content and Building Community Online.

NEW RESOURCES FOR YOU

The UTLC has new online resources available for you, including self-paced training options, resources for Generative AI, and teaching guides. We also have new syllabus resources up, including an updated syllabus template.

TEACHING EVALUATION PILOT

UNCG is pleased to be administering a pilot of a new teaching evaluation system, Anthology Evaluate. The pilot and the current system (Class Climate) are running in parallel; when the Class Climate contract expires, administration will make a decision about which (or neither) system to retain. Much of our feedback during the 2024/25 academic year was favorable, with users finding the system easy to use and the reporting to be accessible. 

Anthology uses research validated common questions, along with offering units the chance to add custom questions.  It’s mobile friendly and can be deployed in the classrooms, which raised response rates for instructors who opted to do so this past year. Instructors and their heads have access to reporting one to two days after the close of the administration and can access their reports anytime they like online.

We are recruiting more pilot participants for this academic year! If you are interested in participating in the Fall 2025 or Spring 2026 Cohorts, please click the button below to fill out the interest form. If you have already indicated interest, we will be in touch with details soon.

If you have questions, please email the UTLC at utlc@uncg.edu.

FACULTY ENGAGEMENT & DEVELOPMENT

Check out these upcoming opportunities from the UTLC and other partners on campus. Additional training opportunities are available at workshops.uncg.edu.

Ongoing Opportunities

• Self-Paced Training Options| Online, research-based workshops cover a range of essential topics.
• UNCG Libraries Webinars | Research and Application Webinar Series (Spring 2024 recordings) | Zotero Webinar Series (recordings)
• New to Teaching | Access this Canvas site to learn about how students learn, preparing for class, grading, office hours, engagement, active learning, and more.
• Safe and Trans Zone Training on Canvas | Enroll in this self-paced online course to complete Safe Zone 1.0, 2.0, and Trans Zone if you cannot attend an in-person workshop.
• Web Accessibility 101 | This asynchronous, self-paced course focuses on the fundamentals of making online content accessible.

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