Workshops

The Center for Teaching & Learning hosts two types of workshops: Canvas workshops and accessibility trainings. Both types of workshops run for 60 minutes.

The accessibility trainings are designed to help WOU faculty and staff align with the Department of Justice’s Digital Accessibility Standards, which will go into effect late April of 2026. These trainings include guidance on text, image, audio, and video accessibility, including the use of different platforms and applications.

Each Canvas workshop covers a specific set of features of functions in Canvas, providing how-to demonstrations and additional resources. Effective teaching practice frames our approach to how these tools are used and modeled, but the primary outcome for these sessions is to improve your comfort using different components of Canvas on a technical level. We hope that by increasing your comfort with Canvas, you will be able to use its features in support of your pedagogical strategies.

Canvas workshops are synchronous, facilitated trainings. Regular Canvas workshops are held on Zoom. Accessibility trainings are held in-person and via Zoom on separate days.

If you would like to request a disability-related accommodation(s) to participate in a WOU activity or event, complete the online request form at least three (3) business days in advance. If you are faculty or staff and have questions, please contact Human Resources at 503-838-8490 or email hr@wou.edu. If you are a student or community member and have questions, please contact Disability Access Services (DAS) at 503-838-8250 or das@wou.edu.

Text Accessibility

This workshop is a hands-on guide for folks creating text-based content so that they produce clear, inclusive, and accessible text for all audiences, including those using assistive technology like screen readers. Topics will include: Accessible Structure, Link Text, Visual Presentation, Readable Fonts, and more, across a variety of applications. Please bring your content items that have text that you want to ensure is accessible.

Audio & Video Accessibility

This workshop is a hands-on guide for folks creating video and audio content so that they produce clear, inclusive, and accessible video and audio for all audiences. Topics will include: Captioning of pre-recorded video in Youtube and ScreenPal, real time captioning with Zoom or Google Meet, and transcripts for audio only content, such as podcasts. Please bring your content items that have audio or video or presentation materials that you want to ensure are accessible.

Image Accessibility

This workshop is a hands-on guide for folks creating content that include images so that they produce clear, inclusive, and accessible alternative text descriptions for all audiences. Topics will include: the general purpose of alternative text; basic images; images with text; and complex images such as graphs, charts, and diagrams. Please bring your content items that have images that you want to ensure are accessible.

Held during Fall Term, this special 90 minute session will cover all of the basics of having a Canvas account, building courses, and answer any questions you have along the way.

DesignPLUS is a Canvas plug-in that helps you build and (more easily) style beautiful, engaging, and accessible online courses. In this teaser session, we’ll introduce you to how to find and add pre-made templates to pages and assignments, how to build out course templates, and how to apply DesignPLUS to pre-existing course content. We’ll also take a look at some of the other fun and useful features DeignPLUS has to offer. Please note that this is an overview of different features in DesignPLUS, not a training session. For more in-depth training on using DesignPLUS, we recommend you take the DesignPLUS Sidebar Training from CidiLabs.

This workshop will show you how to add an external tool or app to Canvas and introduce you to Canvas Commons, an open repository of learning objects and content created by other Canvas users.

Canvas has many tools to help you share course materials and collaborate on designing new learning experiences with your colleagues. This workshop will help you identify the best strategy for your collaborations, whether you’re sharing a single assignment, building a whole course, or hoping to find new content you can add into your course. Features like share-to/copy-to, Canvas Commons groups, and how to optimize your use of development shells will be covered.

Canvas’ gradebook is a powerful tool for tracking your students’ progress and easily calculating your grades each term. This session will introduce you to the gradebook, how to configure it to meet your needs, and tips for using it productively.

This workshop explores how Canvas uses modules to create structure in courses, as well as fundamentals of module organization, content, and settings.

Questions about Quizzes provides an overview of the differences between Classic and New quizzes in Canvas, as well as how to set up and administer both. Facilitators will go through different settings, quiz question types, grading, and setting up exceptions and accommodations.

Digication is an eportfolio and online learning platform centered around active learning and flexibility. It can be used to create anything from scaffolded assignments for new students to job interview-ready eportfolios for graduates. This workshop will cover basic Digication setup, settings options, how assignments look and function for students, as well as some basic assignment design ideas and techniques.

Do your teaching practices support learning which is explicit, measurable, transferable, and empowering for learners? If so, this workshop is for you! In this workshop, you will learn about Canvas’ Outcomes and Learning Mastery Gradebook features.

This workshop will look at all the ways students can use native Canvas features to interact in courses. We will cover how to use peer reviews, groups, discussions, the collaborations tool, and the chat feature, as well as some tips and best practices.