News

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.

Several recent changes have been made to Baylor’s WordPress networks including a new default theme, an updated editor, and many new plugins.

The Learning Design team, in collaboration with faculty from across campus, is excited to launch a six week program for faculty interested in learning the theory and practice of designing and teaching high quality online and hybrid courses.

Instructure is offering a self-paced training course for faculty to help you learn the fundamentals of using Canvas.

Instructure loves connecting 1:1 online to help you get ready to go back to school this fall. Schedule a Panda Pro session today for answers to any of your questions about Canvas by Instructure.

With Online Learning Consortium (OLC) Institutional Membership, all faculty at Baylor have access to and full use of the many great benefits of the membership.

Flipgrid is a video discussion tool from Microsoft that opens up the classroom to make teaching and learning more personal, fun, and engaging. Enable Flipgrid in your course with Flipgrid’s Canvas integration.

On July 21, Zoom will host its inaugural Global Education Summit, a virtual experience focusing on the future of education with an international audience of education leaders, administrators, instructors, and IT professionals.

Zoom Whiteboard is a new visual collaboration solution built right into the Zoom platform that gives educators a virtual whiteboard to share ideas and allow students to work together to solve problems.

Instructors are now able to search for ProQuest documents from within Canvas, select them, and embed them directly for viewing within Canvas courses and assignments.

Instructure is making changes to Canvas on April 16, 2022. Although minor, there are a few important updates to note for teachers and students.

Avatars enable you to replace your appearance with a 3D virtual avatar that mirrors your head movements and facial expressions.

Access to Webex and BigBlueButton within Canvas will end at the end of the spring term. Microsoft Teams and Zoom will serve as Baylor's videoconferencing solutions moving forward.

The global non-profit Anti-Phishing Working Group released its Q4 report in late February, finding that phishing, spearing, and ransomware attacks have reached record levels.

Instructure has extended the migration deadline for using Classic Quizzes in Canvas until June 30, 2024.

The February 2022 release of Bongo Learn includes user interface updates for Individual and Group Assignments making it easier for students to record video feedback assignments.

This past weekend the Baylor community experienced a series of email phishing attacks. DUO two-factor authentication provides a barrier of protection for the university against phishing attacks and other outside access to Baylor information systems. Only approve DUO pushes, phone calls, and use tokens that you know you have requested, and report emails that appear "phishy"

While some faculty members said they have experienced difficulties following the transition from traditional landlines to the Microsoft Teams Call platform last semester, Jon Allen, chief information officer and chief information security officer, said via email the vast majority of feedback he has received has been positive.

Baylor has contracted with StatusHub to provide 24/7 real-time information about the status of its technology systems. Everyone in the Baylor community and beyond can visit systemstatus.baylor.edu today to see the current status of AirBear, Canvas, Ignite, BearWeb, Duo, Microsoft 365, and much more.

Zoom provides numerous security options available to meeting hosts to help secure the Zoom environment.

Download KMS Go - take your videos with you! Kaltura has expanded support for offline viewing in the KMS Go app for iOS and Android.

Turnitin is thrilled to announce that template exclusion within Turnitin Feedback Studio is now available for turnitin.com and Canvas users!

This week Microsoft released a series of system patches as part of its regular "Update Tuesday." One of these patches addresses a very serious vulnerability (CVE-2022-21907) that allows attackers to target networked computers and execute code on the system without requiring any permissions.

The Zoom Learning Center is a free platform that educates and empowers Zoom users to confidently use Zoom through a series of short, on-demand online courses and videos.

Instructure is making several minor changes to Canvas on January 15 before the start of the spring semester. Although minor, there are several important updates to note for teachers and students.

On December 7, 2021, and again this morning, issues within the Amazon Web Services (AWS) server eco-system disrupted some of Baylor's technology resources.

Two powerful Teams functions - Meetings and Classes - will be integrated into Canvas in December, providing new ways to connect with course participants.

A change to the Quizzes function in Canvas is scheduled to take place by July 2022, with "New Quizzes" taking its place for all instructors by this summer.

The Support menu on the Canvas website has been enhanced to provide easy access to the most critical support and training resources for Canvas and related products.

"Mother of the Internet" Radia Perlman will speak on the campus of Baylor University on Wednesday, December 8, at 9 a.m. on the fifth floor of the Cashion Academic Center (Room 506). The lecture is presented by the School of Computer Science and Engineering and Baylor Information Technology Services, and is open to all Baylor faculty and students. 

Baylor Information Technology Services launched a new website today, built on the university's new Drupal framework. The new online experience, available at its.web.baylor.edu, highlights the people and collaborative partnerships that drive technologies to empower the university in its mission.

A new System Status hub provides real-time updates about errors, outages, or upcoming maintenance for most academic and administrative systems at Baylor.

Baylor is making an ambitious move to Microsoft Teams Calls between now and the end of December.

Even though National Cybersecurity Awareness Month is over, we should all continue to be #BearAware. Since 2007, Baylor ITS has been a champion for this nationwide effort. This year's public awareness campaign focuses on eight best practices that are encouraged within the Baylor community and among all technology users.

Microsoft Immersive Reader is now available on Canvas assignment pages.

On October 5, Microsoft officially released Windows 11 for download and installation. Baylor ITS is currently testing this next-generation Windows operating system to ensure that it is compatible with university systems and software.

Beginning November 1, 2021, users will be required to update their Zoom software to ensure it is no more than nine months behind the current version, at any given time.

A new Online Attendance dashboard has been added to courses that have New Analytics enabled.

The Mentimeter app for Zoom is designed to make your online meetings, conferences, training sessions, and lessons even more interactive and engaging.

The New Quizzes engine will be available this fall, and will be the only option available by July 2022

A new feature is now available in Baylor's Zoom account: automatic live transcription!

On August 2, Instructure will release the redesigned Canvas Discussions which boasts an improved user interface and has integrated many years of feedback from faculty.

Webex recently unveiled their new brand logos. You'll see the new logo on downloads from baylor.webex.com and also see the new logo on the Webex meeting site web page. The new logos are also on the app updates of the Webex Meetings mobile apps.

The Canvas Help Menu now displays an indicator when Canvas Release Notes have been published for a user’s role. Notes display a summary of new features available to the user and provides a link where the user can view more details.

Embedding Kaltura Media is now available directly from the RCE toolbar in Canvas. Kaltura now also supports playlists in Media Gallery.

A new “Instructor Live Proctoring” option uses LockDown Browser to deter cheating on the computer itself, while the instructor monitors students via video conferencing.

Beginning May 17, all logins to Zoom accounts associated with Baylor email addresses will require DUO authentication.

Videos detailing newly released Canvas features are an easy way to view and learn about the latest changes to Canvas software.

Faculty and staff may now check out Mentimeter pro licenses through HelpDesk+ thanks to an agreement through the University Libraries. Pro licenses expand the capabilities of a free Mentimeter account to include more robust features such as the ability to export and analyze poll results.

Members of the Learning Spaces group of Library and Academic Technology Services (LATS) team began a series of upgrades to classrooms located across the Baylor campus. These are new features and upgrades to the recording process essential for capturing in-classroom lectures and presentations.