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Falling for Academic Technology Open House 2023 October 24, 2023, from 12pm to 2pm

Contents of this page:
  • Accessibility Game with Universal Design Center
  • Screen Readers with Alen
  • Faculty Technology Walk-In Center
  • LinkedIn Learning in Canvas
  • Canvas e-Portfolio
  • New Academic Technology Director: Dr. Mathew Williams
  • Faculty Studio
  • Faculty Development
  • Generative AI in Adobe Express
  • Canvas Insights with Data & Analytics
  • FTC Tech Pantry with Tiru

Academic Technology Open House 2023

Falling for Academic Technology

After the rousing success of the 2022 Spook-TECH-ular Open House, our team decided this year to host another event to greet our faculty, and introduce some new team members.

Join us as we reflect on the fun fall festivities, featuring resources for faculty, technology integrations, best practices, and some exploration of generative artificial intelligence.

Check out some of the guests at our Fall Photo booth!

Accessibility Game with Universal Design Center

Two of many trivia questions created by our Universal Design Center to encourage Accessibility best practices.

Stacy Jones, Van Nguyen, and Kate Tipton hosted faculty with a custom accessibility trivia game. Faculty were given gifts of sweet treats in exchange for answering the questions on the tags. This sparked excellent questions and dozens of faculty came by to experience this fun game.

Our Universal Design Center team was busy answering questions, and facilitating the fun trivia game.

Screen Readers with Alen Davoudian

Alen speaks with faculty about the benefits of Screenreaders.

Screen readers are a form of assistive technology (AT) software that enables access to a computer, and all the things a computer does, by attempting to identify and interpret what is being displayed on the computer screen using text-to-speech. Screen readers can only access and process live text (fully editable or selectable text). Normally used by someone who is visually impaired.

Faculty Technology Walk-in Center

Our student assistants are available on site, over the phones, and via Zoom Monday through Friday from 8:00am to 5:00pm. Every day, our students are able to help faculty resolve technical issues, and alleviate stressors by resolving pain points.

The knowledgable staff of Academic Technology also offer workshops and training opportunities throughout the year, be sure to keep an eye on our training calendar.

LinkedIn Learning now available in Canvas

Instructional Technology lead, Herbert Serrano shows how faculty can now add content from LinkedIn Learning directly into Canvas Courses. This new integration can provide faculty the opportunity to assign LinkedIn Learning content as assignments within Canvas.

Our Faculty Technology Center will be hosting a new workshop Tuesday, November 14th from 11:00am to 12:00pm. Register today!

Canvas e-Portfoilo

Canvas e-Portfolio is CSUN’s electronic portfolio network for students! They can showcase their work, projects and activities -- whether they are just getting started at CSUN, about to graduate, or in between. Fill out the form below to schedule one of our Student Ambassadors or Staff present on ePortfolios in your class.

One of our student assistants introduced faculty to Canvas e-Portfolio at our Open House Event.

Welcome Dr. Mathew Williams

Information Technology is thrilled to announce that Dr. Mathew Williams has joined us as the Director of Instructional Technology in the Academic Technology Department. With over 16 years of experience in technology management, educational development, and digital transformation within higher education, Matt brings a wealth of expertise to our team. In his new role as Director of Instructional Technology, Matt will lead the design and delivery of academic technology services, oversee the Faculty Technology Center, and provide a strategic vision for instructional technology at CSUN.

Please join us in extending a warm welcome to Matt as he embarks on this exciting journey with us!

Faculty Studio

Did you know that faculty at CSUN are welcome, and encouraged, to work with our Academic Technology team to make their video dreams come to life, using the Faculty Studio? We have professional grade cameras, and student assistants to operate them, along with audio recording equipment, green screen capacity, and more! We also have a Lightboard to make your annotations come to life.

To learn more about the capabilities of our Faculty Studio, book an appointment with our Marketing and Media Services lead Tim Aguirre in our Microsoft Bookings Page.

Faculty Development

Faculty Development's mission is to provide relevant and thought-provoking programming to support all faculty in their teaching, scholarship, service, and leadership journeys. Our programming and partnerships are informed by equity-mindedness, technology-enriched best practices, and data-informed inquiry. We seek a supportive culture of shared power that engages with the well-being and success of both faculty and students.

Visit Faculty Development’s website to learn more about our mission, resources, upcoming programs, and funding opportunities.

Our knowledgeable friends at Faculty Development also have a newsletter to keep up-to-date with this fabulous team.

Generative AI with Adobe Express

Instructional and Media Technologist Megan Duncan, shows off the powerful generative artificial intelligence in Adobe Express to a group of faculty visitors.
Many guests at our open house were curious about AI, and appreciated the opportunity to see some in action through Adobe Express.

Instructional and Media Technologist, Megan Duncan, spent the afternoon introducing faculty to the creative abilities of Adobe Express. This web application integrates Adobe Firefly, the AI engine of Adobe, in an easy to use manner. In the Faculty Media Studio, there was an AI Art Gallery on the wall, and some of our guests contributed some new images as well to experience first hand, the power of generative AI.

Tech Pantry with Tiru

Did you know that our Faculty Technology Center offers faculty the opportunity to check-out equipment for the semester? We have microphones, cameras, interactive displays, and more!

Our newest Instructional Technologist, Tiru, demonstrated several pieces of equipment to our open house guests.

Be sure to keep an eye on our Academic Technology Newsletter, as we hope to feature more of our tech pantry in months to come.

Data & Analytics present Canvas Insights

Shree Balu and Sirish Malisetty present Canvas Insights

Canvas Insights is a new Canvas tool custom built by CSUN allowing faculty to easily communicate with individual students in their classes based on an early alert. Alerts are important because they let you provide positive feedback to students who are doing well, and encouragement and support to students who need assistance. Faculty can access Canvas Insights using the link in the Navigation menu.

Thank you to everyone involved, and each of our guests.

Have a happy Fall 2023!