News

The field "Inventory Stock Request Line" has been added to the output of the "Find Requisition Details - OSU" report. This change allows end users to identify the specific inventory stock request number to which the requisition was sourced.

During the week of January 27, a new interface will be released for Payroll Accounting Adjustments (PAA) for retroactive payroll posted on a paycheck. Once this change is made, if there is a retro pay period associated with the earnings needing to be moved, PAA Specialists will now need to select the correct retro period.

Prior to this change, budget date was the main driver of associating payroll with the pay period for which the earnings were intended. Moving forward, the Retro Period Date will associate the PAA with a pay period. The budget date will default to the budget date of the retro period.

This update will now tie Effort and PAAs for retroactive time in a more efficient way and allow for cleaner effort reporting. OSP is going to delay running September - December effort to allow for these changes.

In addition, quick tips and help text will be added to the PAA business process in Workday to better assist PAA Specialists with completing PAAs. The Payroll Accounting Adjustments (PAA) job aid (login required) will link to other Administrative Resource Center (ARC) job aids to help you through the process including Get Ready to Submit a PAA and Initiate and Submit a PAA as well as job aids to assist with approvals and additional information for PAAs involving Grants.

A new Payroll Accounting Adjustment (PAA): Tips and Tricks page has been created to assist in the PAA process along with a new BuckeyeLearn module, Payroll Accounting Adjustments (PAAs) for Retro Earnings. This 12-minute course is an introduction to using Payroll Accounting Adjustments, or PAAs, for Retro Earnings. Note that you should complete the Payroll Accounting Adjustments in Workday course before completing this course. In this module, we will cover how to enter a PAA when the employee has a retroactive payroll entry associated with their earnings for a given pay period.

It’s a new year and the Office of Technology and Digital Innovation (OTDI) is bringing you new features and improvements to the Learning Systems toolset. Explore new AI-powered features in CarmenCanvas and CarmenZoom; meet the new and improved Mediasite; peruse sample syllabus statements on GenAI; and so much more!

While you are launching your courses this spring, remember that Ohio State offers several supported and vetted tools to enhance the teaching and learning experience. You can explore these options in the Teaching and Learning Resource Center and visit the Learning Systems page on the it.osu.edu site to find the most recent updates to teaching and learning tools.

CarmenCanvas

AI-powered Smart Search and Discussion Summaries

Canvas recently released new AI-powered features that instructors can enable in their courses. Smart Search uses AI to provide accurate and relevant results to search queries by scanning content pages, announcements, discussion prompts and more. You can enable this feature just for yourself or for your students, depending on where you place it in your course navigation. Discussion Summaries use generative AI to provide you with key points and ideas from a discussion thread, which can be particularly useful in larger classes. Those with instructor, TA or grader roles can either get an overarching summary or provide a specific question or topic on which they’d like the summary to focus. Learn more about Discussion Summaries in the Teaching and Learning Resource Center.

New Features Available Mid-January

Canvas is planning to release a few improvements later this month. Discussion Checkpoints will allow you to set separate due dates in Discussions for initial posts and replies, as well as assign point values to these activities. Improvements are also slated for SpeedGrader, including new rubrics functionality, better filtering by section and improved navigation. OTDI is hosting an upcoming workshop to showcase these new features and more.

CarmenBooks Access

CarmenBooks, the program that offers digital textbooks and access to publisher homework systems, is now powered by RedShelf. Students will be able to access all their current CarmenBooks titles by selecting the CarmenBooks icon from the global navigation in Canvas or from the CarmenBooks link within a course. Students can search for courses that are taking advantage of the CarmenBooks program through the University Libraries website.

Manage Participants

Be sure to check out new Manage Participants functionality for instructors. When selecting this option for your course, you can access a variety of helpful features, including the ability to add, bulk add, remove and reactivate students; edit roles for individuals in your course; and export your class roster. OTDI will soon add the ability to change the section for individuals in your course. These features live in Aegis, a platform with tools built by OTDI to help manage and support the teaching and learning toolset. Explore Manage Participants often—new features are added each semester!

Top Hat

Top Hat, the university’s learner response system, can now support LaTeX expressions as well as Greek and miscellaneous symbols. Top Hat support walks you through including math equations and more in your questions and discussions.

CarmenZoom

Keep Zoom Updated

Be sure you are running the most recent version of Zoom across all your devices. It is always best practice to keep your apps updated for security reasons, and with Zoom it ensures you can take advantage of the latest features. Zoom also requires you to have a recent version of their app installed to join a Zoom call. University-managed devices receive routine updates to Zoom, but you should ensure your personal devices are up to date. Learn more about updating Zoom to the latest version.

AI Features to Explore

An advantage to running the latest version of Zoom, you can take advantage of the newest features! In autumn, OTDI enabled two AI-powered features, Meeting Summary and Smart Recordings. The Meeting Summary feature will email the meeting host (and participants if the host allows) a prose summary of the meeting. The Smart Recordings feature inserts chapter markers and provides summaries, key takeaways, and action items for your recorded meetings. Learn more about Meeting Summary and Smart Recordings from Zoom Support.

Mediasite

Major Functionality Update

Last month, OTDI enabled the latest version of Mediasite, which greatly improved the functionality of the tool within CarmenCanvas. You can now upload and embed videos directly in your course from within Canvas, rather than having to navigate to MyMediasite. This includes taking advantage of the browser-based recording feature, which allows you to record audio, video and screen content conveniently from a web browser, with no need for hardware or additional software. Also, in case you missed it, automated captioning is also enabled by default for all recordings. Keep in mind, AI captioning still needs to be reviewed to ensure full accessibility. Viewers of your content will see a disclaimer that the captions were auto-generated; you can remove this disclaimer after editing your captions.

If you haven’t checked out Mediasite in a while, now is the time! The latest updates have improved and streamlined the user experience, making it even easier to share media with your students. You can also catch an upcoming workshop to explore these new features.

Quizzes and Assignments in Mediasite

Did you know you could add quiz questions to your Mediasite videos? If you choose to assign a point value to your quiz questions, those grades will transfer to your CarmenCanvas Gradebook. Mediasite Quizzes are a great way to keep your students engaged with your video content.  

Your students can now also record and upload videos to submit to an assignment. Mediasite Assignment will be available any time you turn on the File Upload submission type in a Canvas Assignment. Students can create and upload work right from their browser, and the submissions show up in SpeedGrader for you to review.

Recording and Proctoring Waiver for Minors

Students under the age of 18 must have a waiver on file signed by a parent or guardian to allow them to interact with instructional tools that use a student’s web camera and microphone, as well as tools that require consent to download and install on a student’s device. In addition, minors without this waiver on file have Zoom accounts with limited functionality—mainly, they are unable to host meetings of their own without parental consent. If you are teaching a course with at least one student under the age of 18 who does NOT have this waiver on file, you will receive an email from the Registrar’s office with further instructions and considerations. Learn more about this waiver for minor students in the Teaching and Learning Resource Center.

Generative AI Syllabus Statements

As the use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools proliferates, it's increasingly important to clarify expectations around their uses for learning. Have you reflected on whether you will encourage or limit AI use in your Spring 2025 courses? How will you make your course policies and guidelines clear to students?  

A team of educational developers from around the university has developed sample syllabus statements to help you communicate transparent expectations for GenAI use in your courses. The statements can be customized for your specific needs and course activities.

Learning Opportunities from the Drake Institute

As of Autumn 2024, the Drake Institute for Teaching and Learning has expanded its services to help educators enhance their teaching with university-supported technology tools. This includes offering revamped self-paced courses and on-demand programming, collaborating with the Office of Technology and Digital Innovation to plan its Spring 2025 workshop lineup, and coordinating administrative updates of the Teaching and Learning Resource Center.
 
To stay tuned in to university news and programming around teaching with technology, subscribe to the Drake Institute Digest, a monthly newsletter for all who teach and support instruction at Ohio State.

Adobe Express and Creative Cloud Access

Adobe Express is available for free to all Ohio State students, faculty and staff. Adobe Express is an all-in-one web app for photos, videos, documents and graphic design. In addition, Adobe Creative Cloud is available for free in Digital Unions, public computer labs, and computer lab classrooms. Ohio State students, faculty, and staff can also purchase an annual license at a discounted rate. Learn more about the capabilities of Adobe tools and find out if they may enhance your students’ learning experience.

Needs-Based Technology Loan Program

The Student Technology Loan Program (STLP) has been serving students at Ohio State by offering short- and long-term loans of Surface Go and iPad Air technology kits. To better serve students with the greatest need, STLP now reserves loan eligibility for students who have limited technology access and identified financial needs. Going forward, only students who have filled out FAFSA and received financial aid will be eligible to request a loaner device. Students can request a loaner device through ScholarshipUniverse, where students can apply for financial aid.

Experience a cohesive and streamlined process for uploading and embedding videos within your CarmenCanvas course. No more jumping between mediasite.osu.edu and your course page to get things done. From within your course, simply click the Mediasite icon in the Rich Content Editor for:

• One-Click Uploads: Upload and embed videos effortlessly with just a few clicks.
• One-Click Recording: Launch your preferred Mediasite personal recording tool (Mosaic or Capture) to quickly begin recording without leaving the screen.
• Real-time Updates: Track your video's upload and processing status.
• Find and Share: Easily locate and embed existing presentations.
• Organize with Channel: Add videos to your Course Channel for easy access.

Effective January 1, 2025, the mileage reimbursement rate will increase from 67 cents per mile to 70 cents per mile for all business miles driven from January 1, 2025, through December 31, 2025.

Contact the Travel Office with questions at travel@osu.edu or 614-292-9290.