Instructional Technologies Blog

If you've been using Canvas for a while, you know your way around. You know how to create an assignment, build a module, post an announcement, and enter grades. But Canvas has many features that are easy to overlook. Some are tucked away in menus. Others are things that you may have heard us talk about, tried once, and then completely forgotten about. Every now and then, you also can find one that makes you wonder why you’ve been doing something the hard way for so long. We wanted to share five

We've all been there. You know Canvas can do the thing you need…but you just can't remember how. Maybe you saw it in a training months ago. Maybe a colleague showed you once, and you've since lost the trail. Maybe you've got a nagging feeling there's a better way to do something in your course, but you haven't had a spare minute to track it down. Before you start clicking around hoping to stumble onto the right setting, the Instructional Technologies team has a collection of resources and

Ever hit a snag while working on your course in Canvas and thought, "there's got to be an easier way to do this"? Or wondered how other instructors handle something in their online courses that you're still figuring out? That's exactly what Canvas Café is for. It's a new monthly, in-person get-together where instructors can talk shop about online teaching, swap ideas, ask questions, troubleshoot Canvas issues, whatever. There's no agenda and no pressure to show up with anything figured out

Instructional Technologies is excited to announce the return of Fundamentals of Digital Accessibility for Instructors, or FunDAI (pronounced “ Fun Day”)! FunDAI has been updated for Canvas, with refreshed content and new resources, including information about Microsoft Accessibility Assistant, accessibility checkers in Canvas, and how you can use your Durham Tech CoPilot access to assist with digital accessibility. We’re pleased to welcome this workshop back, and registration is now open through

Remember the last time you walked into a theme park? From the second you're through the gates, someone has clearly thought this through. The paths lead you where you need to go. The signs keep you from wandering off. You catch a glimpse of the big rides in the distance and your excitement builds a little. Nothing about it is an accident. It's all there to make your day easy and fun, so you can focus on the rides (and honestly, the food). You're not building a roller coaster, but you are building

Please make a note that starting Sunday, July 26th, the way you log in to Canvas will be a little bit different. To help ensure your Durham Tech account remains secure, all employees and students will use multifactor authentication (MFA) to access Canvas. What is MFA? In a nutshell, MFA requires users to provide two methods of identity verification when logging in. In this case, you will enter your Durham Tech Microsoft 365 credentials (your email address and password), and then you’ll use the

Now that the school year is finally behind us and there is a little bit of breathing room before everything starts back up in August, we are getting something that is often in short supply during the academic year: time to reflect. Throughout the semester, it's easy to notice areas of a course that could be improved. Maybe students repeatedly asked the same questions about an assignment. Perhaps a discussion activity didn't engage your students like you hoped for, or a module felt more confusing

The next time you visit one of your classes in Canvas, you might notice there’s a new feature available to you. On the righthand side of your course Home page, you’ll see a new Check Accessibility button, and in your course menu, a new navigation link labeled Accessibility will appear. Both of these will take you to the new Course Accessibility Checker. What is the Course Accessibility Checker? You may already be familiar with the Accessibility Checker built into the Rich Content Editor (RCE)

As we look ahead to 2026, we, in Instructional Technologies, are getting ready to roll out some great new features in Canvas that will make your teaching life easier and give you some new ways to approach your classroom. If you've ever felt frustrated with rubric limitations, wished that Turnitin could do just a little more, or wanted to get a better overall sense of conversations on discussion forums quickly get ready for some exciting news! Enhanced Rubrics: The Upgrade We've Been Waiting For

Canvas offers plenty of built-in tools to help you teach, communicate, and stay organized, and everyone seems to use them in their own way. Maybe you’re setting up Modules to guide students through your course materials, using Rubrics to clarify expectations, or creating quick Quizzes for practice and feedback. No matter how you teach, there are lots of ways to make Canvas work for you and create an even better learning experience for you students. A few tools we see faculty using often include