Blog from August, 2016

As you know, the Academy’s new online discussion interface launched last semester. Lots of resources are available to help you and your students get up to speed.

• Online Teaching Lounge
  Get some hands-on practice and ask questions of Online Education staff. If you are not enrolled in the Lounge but would like to be, please send an email with your LMS username to Jenny Michael.

• Online Teaching Library
  Tutorials, cheat sheets, and much more! Check them out here: Discussion Navigation.

• Online Workshops
  We are offering two online workshops: (1) a general overview and Q&A, and a workshop on (2) grading & critiquing online. Check out the schedule: Teacher Training Workshops.

A new tool called "Notes" lets you annotate students’ images by adding callouts, along with text, audio, or video commentary. And you can do all this from your smartphone or tablet! (Or your computer, of course.)

This new tool is a first step toward replacing the existing Flash-based whiteboard, which will continue to be available in the meantime.

Our free app enables faster, easier access to your online classes on your iPhone or iPad. The Classes app is currently only available for iOS (9.0 or above). An Android version is coming soon.

Note that there are several other Academy of Art University apps available in the App Store. The Classes app does not replace these.

A new notifications tool lets students know when their online instructor has taken an action that affects them directly. This includes:

• Making a new post
• Posting a comment the student's post
• Marking up an image the student has posted
• Grading an assignment
• Posting progress, midterm or final grades
• Adding an Instructor Update to an assignment

Notifications can be viewed by clicking the bell icon on the main toolbar at the top of any page in the LMS.