News

Baylor University will join City of Waco and McLennan County partners to conduct a regular test of its Outdoor Warning System (tornado sirens) at 10 a.m. Friday, June 5, 2026.

Anyone who has written their own assessment questions knows the process is more challenging than it seems. IgniteAI's Question Authoring was designed to serve as a collaborative co-pilot to help with this process.

Microsoft has announced upcoming changes to how Copilot Chat is accessed across its Microsoft 365 productivity suite. These changes will take effect on Wednesday, April 15, 2026, and will impact how Copilot Chat appears within certain Office applications.

Combine existing videos into a longer video with Kaltura's new Media Stitching feature.

Baylor has enabled Instructure’s new Accessibility Checker in Canvas. 

Data Privacy Week, an annual cybersecurity awareness campaign coordinated by the National Cybersecurity Alliance, encourages individuals to manage their privacy settings, measure the tradeoff between privacy and convenience when using apps, and remain aware of data exposure through online platforms. The initiative also educates businesses on data collection best practices that respect data privacy and promote transparency.

Canvas now provides two portfolio options designed to meet different needs: Evaluation Portfolios for instructor-directed assessments and Showcase Portfolios for learner-led expressions. Together, these portfolio tools support reflective storytelling, competency demonstration, and meaningful assessment.

Instructors can plan exactly when students see their rubric scores and comments, whether that’s to start a dialogue before grades are finalized, or to hold feedback until a review session or moderation is complete.

Instructure has introduced Surveys as a new quiz type for New Quizzes in Canvas.  Surveys are designed to help educators more easily gather feedback, gauge understanding, or foster open reflection from their students.

MATLAB has released a new Canvas integration that is now available for use in our Canvas environment. The old integration will be removed following the Spring 2026 semester.

With a number of mobile carriers retiring their "email to text" service, the functionality of our text a call number feature has been severely reduced, so the decision has been made to retire the service.

In its place, please use OneSearch's built-in email function to send yourself the item records you are interested in.

Two new apps developed by Zoom—Music and Badges—are now available for all Baylor users. These features make meetings and classes more engaging by adding background music and real-time recognition tools.

Respondus Monitor now supports switching to MS Word during an online exam when enabled by the instructor.

Canvas introduces new AI translation features for Discussions and Inbox, making course content more accessible for multilingual users.

The multi-tiered Baylor Alert emergency notification system is in place to ensure members of the Baylor community have multiple ways to access up-to-date information about any campus emergency. 

Users taking their first steps into Canvas and veteran users alike can find tips, tricks, and essentials in an expanded Getting Started guide.

New Kaltura updates for the Fall 2025 semester, including the new Recycle Bin, reporting an issue directly from the player, and an update on YouTube videos and captions.

Microsoft is sunsetting the existing Teams Meetings and Teams Classes LTI tools.  Baylor will be replacing it with the new unified Microsoft 365 LTI tool on or around August 19, 2025.

Canvas has released a powerful new tool for instructors: Differentiation Tags. This feature makes it easier to manage and assign content to specific students, groups, or sections within a course.

Dr. Charley Ramsey, University Chaplain & Dean of Spiritual Life, addresses the Baylor Family regarding the recent flooding in central Texas. In times of tragedy, our community comes together in prayer, comfort, and practical assistance. 

Respondus Monitor now supports the option of allowing students to switch to Microsoft Excel during an online exam.

Turnitin will launch the next generation of Turnitin Feedback Studio on July 15, 2025 with a focus on innovation and accessible design needed by the dynamic demands of 21st-century teaching and learning.

The Baylor University Libraries support Leganto, a resource management tool that enables instructors to build reading lists directly in their Canvas courses.

BaylorITS is pleased to add HelpDesk+ Chat to its technical support options. Visit HelpDesk+ online, click the HelpDesk+ Chat icon, log in using your Bear ID and password, and then click the blue "Chat with Support" button to visit with one of our helpful HelpDesk+ representatives during our regular HelpDesk+ hours.

Baylor will install the new Bongo Canvas integration and will run both versions concurrently during the summer.

We will be upgrading the Turnitin LTI to the latest version on or around May 15, 2025.  This will come with some workflow changes for professors that use the LTI

Starting May 19th, the Hypothesis collaborative annotation tool will be added to Canvas.

Beginning in Summer 2025, there will be a slight change to the default configuration of Box links.

Back by popular demand! BaylorITS and Box present another session of Box Essentials Training along with a new Advanced Box Skills course!

The National Weather Service is issuing an Extreme Cold Warning and a Cold Weather Advisory beginning tonight (Tuesday, Feb. 18) and continuing through Thursday morning (Feb. 20) for Waco, McLennan County and the Central Texas area.

BaylorITS Research Technology encourages researchers, educators, and students to leverage the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem: Services & Support (ACCESS) program. NSF ACCESS coordinates access to advanced computing systems and services ranging from supercomputers, data storage, scientific applications, expert training, and workshops at no cost.

There have been a number of small changes to Kaltura in recent weeks, including the ability to download secondary video streams, enabling ad blocker detection on Video Quizzes, and the removal of YouTube entries.

Exciting updates to UDOIT are coming soon, making it easier to create accessible and inclusive Canvas courses!

Data Privacy Week is an annual expanded effort from Data Privacy Day -- taking place from January 27 - 31, 2025. The goal of Data Privacy Week is to spread awareness about online privacy among individuals and organizations. 

Turnitin has been notified by Educational Testing Services (ETS) that they will no longer be supporting their e-rater grammar service in 2025. As a result, Turnitin will be removing e-rater from all of its products as of December 31, 2024.  

The BaylorITS Research Technology team proudly announces the launch of a new area of the BaylorITS website dedicated to guiding researchers to technology resources essential to research, especially grant-funded research. Research Technology connects researchers to consultants, software, services, guides, and additional resources designed to empower R1-level research across the university.

On December 10, 2024, Baylor’s Kaltura video platform will transition our Automated Speech Recognition (ASR) services, which power captioning in videos, from a third-party vendor to Kaltura’s own services.

Baylor will update the default Cidilabs sidebar in Canvas to the new DesignPlus Sidebar. This change is part of our commitment to enhancing course design for instructors while fostering student engagement and accessibility.

Zoom AI Companion has been updated to add or improve functionality.

Bongo has introduced advanced AI features to enhance both student and teacher support, fostering efficiency and enabling feedback for a more impactful learning experience.

While Baylor’s technology systems are designed to be reliable, there’s always a chance that unexpected outages could disrupt your course plans. Being proactive and having backups ready will minimize the impact on your teaching and your students. 

Baylor faculty can now integrate Top Hat and other major publisher tools directly into Canvas for a seamless course material experience.

Apple representatives invite you to an iPad workshop on Thursday, October 24, 2024, in the Schumacher Flex Commons on the main floor of Moody Memorial Library at 11:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. Bring your iPad to follow along and ask questions!

The Office of the Provost and the School of Engineering and Computer Science at Baylor University proudly present AI Week from October 14-16, 2024.

During October’s National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, Baylor Information Technology Services reminds students, faculty, and staff to stay BearAware by following cybersecurity best practices. This year’s pop princess-powered BearAware campaign includes encouragements to “really, really, really wanna” use two-factor authentication, “please, please, please” keep software up to date, and more. Cybersecurity training will be required for Baylor faculty and staff, BaylorITS will enhance password security, and the School of Engineering and Computer Science will host several cybersecurity events.

Certain Rich Content Editor (RCE) features are now available when commenting in SpeedGrader.

Enhance your Canvas courses with Lucid, a powerful visual tool for collaborative learning and creativity.

On Monday afternoon, the Baylor network experienced a disruption focused on Microsoft and Google-based resources. As of 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, August 20, all network services were restored.

Canvas has released two new features utilizing generative AI: Smart Search and Discussion Summary.

A security update deployed to client systems by the cybersecurity company Crowdstrike has not significantly affected Baylor University operations or systems, but some of the university's third-party vendors have been impacted.

PlayPosit is a new Canvas tool that allows you to add interactivity to existing videos.

Canvas has released a new Name Pronunciation feature, allowing users to add phonetic pronunciation to their profiles. This addition aims to foster better communication and inclusivity within the platform. 

Canvas has introduced a new feature in their Rich Content Editor (RCE) that allows users to find and replace text within the page.

The flagging system in Respondus Monitor now supports three sensitivity levels: Strict, Standard, and Relaxed. The relaxed setting might be preferred with open-book exams since students often turn away from the webcam to look at notes or books. Strict sensitivity might be appropriate for tests where students aren’t using outside resources like books, calculators, or scratch paper.

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education is no longer a distant prospect – it's our present reality. Instructure believes that this technology offers immense potential to revolutionize teaching and learning.

In the Canvas Gradebook, the Message Students Who feature is enhanced to allow instructors to message students who have submitted an assignment and exclude excused students.

On April 15, Zoom introduced its latest update, featuring a significant addition: multi-speaker view. This feature, part of the Zoom Workspace release, combines the best elements of gallery and speaker views to offer users an enhanced meeting experience.

A key goal for Respondus Monitor is to reduce false positive flags, which we accomplish in two ways: improving the quality of the videos, and improving their analysis.

Baylor has joined the REDCap Consortium to enhance access to research technology tools available to Baylor University researchers. REDCap, which is short for Research Electronic Data Capture, is a secure web application for building and managing advanced online surveys and databases that supports online and offline data capture for research studies and operations. Baylor researchers can access REDCap on a fee-for-service usage basis.

LinkedIn Learning is now available within Canvas. Advantages of using the LinkedIn Learning integration are seamless access to LinkedIn Learning for students and gradable content within Canvas.

On January 7, BaylorITS and the Baylor Department of Public Safety launched the new Baylor Digital ID that enables students living in Baylor’s on-campus residential halls to unlock their rooms, enter dining halls, make retail dining purchases, check out library materials, and access other campus services with the tap of a personal mobile device.

Introducing the new DesignPlus Sidebar by CidiLabs! This course design tool is a time-saving addition that helps course teachers and designers rapidly build and style eye-popping Canvas courses that make learning and engaging accessible for all students.

After consultation with the Faculty Senate, the Teaching and Learning with Technology Committee, and the Honor Council, the University has decided to allow the AI detection feature within Turnitin.com to expire at the end of December 2023.

Baylor University Information Technology Services invites all faculty and staff to explore the new Bing Chat Enterprise service, which is powered by Microsoft and most easily accessible using Microsoft’s Edge web browser.

Zoom AI Companion, your generative-AI digital assistant, delivers powerful, real-time capabilities to help users improve productivity and work together more effectively. Zoom customers can expect to see AI Companion throughout the Zoom platform, with features currently available for Zoom Meetings.

New Quizzes adds efficient design, robust reporting, and engaging, technology-enhanced item types to your assessment efforts. As Canvas moves toward New Quizzes becoming the native quizzing engine, we want to build awareness of the world-class quizzing features that New Quizzes provides.

This October marks the 20th year of Cybersecurity Awareness Month and Baylor University proudly reaffirms its commitment as a champion for this national initiative. As part of the celebration, Baylor Information Technology Services is launching an awareness campaign that encourages everyone to "be real" about cybersecurity.

Beginning Tuesday, September 26, 2023, Microsoft 365 users will experience a very minor change when using Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Microsoft apps in a web-browser environment.

Check out the new easy to navigate CampusPress menu that makes locating all your resources needs a breeze.

OLC is here to support you with resources to help with your online teaching and learning goals and objectives.  You already have a membership through Baylor - all you need to do is explore the possibilities.

Kaltura Media Gallery Playlists can now be embedded into Canvas pages using the Kaltura button in the Rich Content Editor.

Unlock the future of classroom interaction: Microsoft Forms' groundbreaking “Present” feature, redefining engagement and transforming the way you connect with your students.

Respondus Monitor now supports screen recording! Instructors can now enable the Screen Recording option on a per exam basis from the LockDown Browser & Respondus Monitor Dashboard within Canvas.

The Canvas 24/7 support number for faculty is changing. Previously, students called one toll-free phone number while faculty could call a separate toll-free phone number. The new phone number for all users is now [REDACTED].

As you use Canvas, you may notice our new contextual help pop ups, and the new Support button in the bottom right of each page. These will link you to how-tos and articles that will help you navigate Canvas.

Since the beginning of 2023, Instructure has delivered new and exciting features that improve the teaching and learning experience in Canvas. Learn how these updates save educators time, provide more robust analytics capabilities, improve accessibility, and more.

Cybersecurity experts warn that an exploit discovered in Microsoft Teams allows external users to send files and join Teams Chat conversations, creating the possibility for phishing style cyberattacks. BaylorITS encourages everyone in the Baylor community to be #BearAware by applying the same scrutiny to Teams messages as to "phishy" email or text messages.

Learning Systems will be making updates to Kaltura over the summer.  Find out what we are doing.

Respondus has introduced a new screen recording feature in a recent update to their Respondus Monitor product.

As part of a move to the new LTI 1.3 standard, several publisher tools in use at Baylor will be changing. 

In concert with Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), Baylor LATS and OALA are hosting a Canvas Content Fix-a-thon to highlight the need for more inclusive digital content and improve accessibility with at Baylor’s new UDOIT accessibility checker.

Zoom is introducing a new streamlined flow for joining meetings.

Canvas has recently introduced a new feature that allows instructors to submit assignments on behalf of their students. This feature can be useful in situations where students have technical difficulties, accessibility issues, or other special circumstances that prevent them from submitting their work online.

Turnitin has announced the launch of its AI writing detection capabilities. This feature will help instructors identify when AI writing tools such as ChatGPT may have been used to write any part of the content submitted in a student’s assignment.

If you are a user of Respondus LockDown Browser or Respondus Monitor, you will want to take note of these new support resources.

Baylor University is proud to announce that it has partnered with Cidi Labs to offer UDOIT Advantage to our faculty. UDOIT Advantage is a powerful tool that helps instructors create accessible and inclusive online courses in Canvas.

The University Libraries and the Academy for Teaching and Learning (ATL) invite the Baylor community to participate in the 2023 Educational Technology Showcase. Our theme this year is Re: Connected - The Future of University Culture and Technology.

Students who use Microsoft products may encounter challenges or difficulties with accessibility features, compatibility with assistive technology, or compliance with accessibility standards. To help students overcome these challenges, Microsoft offers a free service called Disability Answer Desk.

Instructure is excited to release the latest updates and features for the Rich Content Editor (RCE) in Canvas. To find out more about the RCE feature and updates, click on this article. 

Watch how Instructure's 2022 product updates for Canvas deliver a better student experience, more efficient educator tools, greater accessibility, tighter product integration, more accessible analytics, and more.  Also learn about the 2023 product roadmap.

In a blog post and short video, Turnitin's team shows you around their AI Innovation Lab and walks you through their upcoming AI writing detection capability to give you a glimpse of what their technology can do. 

On Tuesday, November 15, Duo is getting a new look and some new functionality. The new look is streamlined and provides a simplified user experience. As part of the update, we are adding Verified Duo Push when accessing Baylor's Microsoft 365, Ignite, and BearWeb services. With Verified Duo Push, after you Accept a push notification from these systems, you will receive a 6-digit code that must then be entered to verify that the person requesting access is actually logging into the system. To learn more about these changes, visit baylor.edu/helpdesk/duo

The Smart Recording feature allows you to organize your cloud recording into sections called smart chapters, get the key takeaways in a quick and digestible format through recording highlights, and identify action items to take after the meeting or webinar with next steps.

The HelpDesk+ online experience made the move to Baylor’s new Drupal environment. HelpDesk+ looks the same with a few small user interface differences, enhanced accessibility, and a better experience for mobile users. We hope that you enjoy this refreshed HelpDesk+ experience.

Jon Allen, chief information officer and chief information security officer at Baylor University, has been honored by the inaugural EdScoop 50 Awards as one of select higher education executives named IT Executive of the Year. The award honors "the most influential people in the higher education technology community, along with the most innovative projects that make a positive impact across universities."

LATS has recently updated the Zoom/Canvas Integration as well as added a new integration for Microsoft OneDrive.

The "Show Your Work" feature allows students to upload hi-resolution images of worksheets they've prepared during their exam. If this setting is enabled by the instructor, the student will be given the opportunity to upload photos of their work immediately after they submit their exam.

WordPress 6.0.2 is now available on both of Baylor's CampusPress networks. This upgrade contains several key advancements aimed at making your WordPress content-creating and site-building experience more feature-rich and intuitive.

Turnitin Draft Coach is an add-on to Microsoft Word Online that allows students to perform grammar review, citation checks, and a preliminary originality review.

Courses in Canvas will now have course dates configured rather than section dates to help determine when students have participation access to courses.