Did you know you can put students into Groups in D2L? More importantly, did you know that you can do more with D2L Groups than simply use it as a group roster? You can also use it to create a Group Dropbox!

Using a Group Dropbox makes it easy on you. Only one member of the group need upload a file to the dropbox. Then, when you go to grade it, it will tell you the group that the file is for AND any grade and/or feedback you provide to the file will go to all members of the group!

Check out how to make a Group Dropbox by clicking this link here!

For more tutorials on D2L, check out our Self-paced Training for Faculty and Staff by clicking this link.

We now use the internet for a broad range of tasks and these often use, store, or otherwise include sensitive information. So we take steps to ensure that our accounts, information and web-based resources are secure against unauthorized incursion, identity theft, and other forms of criminal activity. ITS has recently upgraded our security toolset for Canisius College, and we need to take a few steps so that our Canisius accounts are properly protected using these tools.

All Canisius College students, faculty and staff are required to configure and begin using Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) by Wednesday, March 15th, 2023.

Those currently using MFA need to change their password, renew their security questions and answers, and verify that the email and mobile phone settings for MFA are correct.

Setting up or renewing your MFA configuration is quick and easy. Once it is activated, even if someone else somehow obtains your password, they cannot use it to log into your Canisius online resources, if they do not know the answers to your security questions, know or have access to your other email address, or have in hand your mobile phone.

We have a tutorial to show you how to configure MFA:

Here are some additional tips:

• Enable two forms of multi-factor authentication on your account. This means you have multiple options, ensuring that you can always access your Canisius account when you need to.
• Provide answers to questions that you are likely to remember but are not obvious. For example, your answer to “Favorite Sports Team:” shouldn’t be “Bills” or “Sabres,” but instead perhaps a fictional team from a movie, with upper- and lower-case characters, intentional misspellings, and letters changed to similar numbers or symbols, such as “Av*rag* J0*’s Gym”.
• Once it is completed, your password can remain the same for a full year (instead of the previous 180 days.)
• When you complete multi-factor authentication on your Canisius computer, check the box for “Trust this device.” This means you won’t be prompted for more than your password, such as your MFA options, for thirty days on that device, or until you clear your browser cache (or change time zones.)
• Digital Authenticator apps such as Google Authenticator are efficient options and useful across other MFA-required sites, such as banking, shopping or social media. They are not required for Canisius MFA but are worth considering. We use them in COLI.

COLI has several upcoming workshops and development Events!

If you want to try something new or if you want a refresher on various D2L capabilities, these are the workshops for you:

• D2L Essentials: Learn the basics of D2L. In this workshop, we introduce you to D2L and go over the News item, how to add content, create and use Discussions, Dropboxes, and Quizzes, and the D2L Gradebook.
• D2L Updates and Changes: If you are a veteran instructor, you know that D2L changes a lot. This session seeks to provide a demo of any/all changes in D2L in the last 3 to 6 months.
• We also provide several workshops that go more in-depth with different D2L Tools including the D2L Gradebook, Discussions & Dropboes, and Quizzes & Exams.

We also provide a number of workshops on various topics:

• Digital Video for Teaching and Learning: In this workshop, we show you the basics of video editing for instruction.
• Panopto in D2L: This session involves our Video Hosting Platform, Panopto. Specifically, we go through how to access and use it and how you can use it to teach your students.
• Hypothes.is in D2L: Hypothes.is is a Collaborative Annotation (aka, Social Annotation) tool, allowing you and your students to be able to comment on a reading rather than simply using a Discussion post. This can lead to better engagement with and comprehension of the reading.

Finally, we have two upcoming Online Faculty Development Courses. These courses help introduce you to different pedagogy. While the focus is online, you may still walk away with new knowledge that may help you in your in-person courses.

If you are interested in any of these workshops or courses, please RSVP for them here:

https://wiki.canisius.edu/display/AcadAffairs/Faculty+Development+Opportunities

Bookmark this page to help stay up-to-date with upcoming workshops, meetups, courses, and more!

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Submitted by: Tyler Kron-Piatek, Instructional Designer, COLI

We have a brand new installment of COLI Quick Tips!

For those not in the know, the COLI Quick Tips series are short videos that have topics ranging from using the SUM() function in Excel to getting notified when someone submits to a Google Form.

In this newest installment, we show you how to quickly add Regional and Religious Holidays to your Google Calendar and Desktop Outlook Calendars.

Take a look at our newest Quick Tip:

For other Quick Tips, check out our YouTube Playlist here.

If you did know, you might want a refresher on how to add dates to your course activities. We have broken down our video on dates into shorter (and newer!) videos so you can easily and quickly find and use the video that you want:

Adding Dates to Modules, 1:40

Adding Dates to Course Activities/D2L Topics, 1:34

Adding Dates to Dropboxes and Quizzes, 2:00

Adding Dates to Discussions, 2:32

For more tutorials on D2L, check out our D2L Self-Paced Tutorials for Faculty and Staff Wiki Page.