Academic Technology Solutions (ATS) Blog
The latest news on teaching with technology
Promote AI-Discerning Students in the New Academic Year, Pt 6: Making the Transaction More Conscious
"Eventually, surveillance capitalists discovered that the most-predictive behavioral data come from intervening in the state of play in order to nudge, coax, tune, and herd behavior toward profitable outcomes. Competitive pressures produced this shift, in which...
Building Classroom Trust with Technology: Create an Honor Contract to Support Academic Honesty
Introduction: Two Approaches to Academic Honesty At the University of Chicago, each incoming first-year student receives a copy of Charles Lipson’s book Doing Honest Work in College. Much more than a symbolic gift, this is a reminder that academic honesty is vital if...
Level Up Your Assessments: A Guide to Migrating from Canvas Classic Quizzes to New Quizzes at UChicago
The academic landscape is constantly evolving, and so too are the tools we use to support teaching and learning. Here at the University of Chicago, our Canvas Learning Management System is a cornerstone of our educational experience. You may have noticed a new option...
Accessibility Features and Updates in Canvas
Canvas has introduced new accessibility features designed to make the platform more inclusive, user-friendly, and equitable for everyone—especially those using assistive technologies. These updates include a new dyslexia-friendly font option as well as improvements to...
Promote AI-Discerning Students in the New Academic Year, Pt 5: Understand Tool Adoption to Prioritize Learning
“Empirical evidence supplied by several researchers indicates that a decision to adopt or reject a new idea is often not the terminal stage in the innovation-decision process. …At the confirmation stage the individual (or other decision-making unit) seeks...
AI in Canvas: Giving You the Facts
The recent decision by Instructure, the parent company of Canvas, to partner with OpenAI and integrate AI into Canvas has sparked confusion and uncertainty among Canvas users, including faculty and instructors who are unsure what this change means for their teaching....
Promote AI-Discerning Students in the New Academic Year, Pt 4: Demystifying Experiences to Mitigate AI
"...AI mirrors amplify and normalize our biases, reinforce our most polarizing opinions and most aggressive stances, and boost the visibility of our most uninformed "hot takes:' In doing so they reflect back to us images of human civic agency so distorted in their...
Ed Discussion Now Supports an AI Chatbot
With the new optional Bots++ feature, you can now add an AI-powered chatbot to your course in Ed Discussion. This bot can be customized to your specific course materials and approach, helping streamline communication and assistance to your students. The bot currently...
Building Classroom Trust with Technology: Set Clear Expectations with an Evolving Syllabus
In building an atmosphere of trust between instructors and students, it is vital to set clear expectations. Research bears this out: a 2025 survey of students carried out by Inside Higher Ed found that 34% of respondents considered “clear, consistent expectations” to...
Track Attendance in Your Courses with Poll Everywhere!
If you're looking for a seamless way to track class attendance while enhancing student engagement, Poll Everywhere offers robust features specifically designed for higher education environments. We have outlined several strategies you can use with Poll Everywhere to...
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