Digital Pedagogy Tools and Resources

Canvas

In the winter 2022 term, PSU moved to Instructure’s Canvas learning management system.

Kaltura Media Space

Media Space is where you can upload, create, and edit video and audio resources. Your Zoom recordings are also backed up there. A Kaltura desktop application is available for webcam or screen recordings. Multimedia production support is available by request from OAI.

Every PSU instructor and student has a Media Space account. Once you’ve logged in at media.pdx.edu, all your Zoom Cloud recordings will be backed up in your My Media list. The Kaltura Capture application is available in the “Add New” menu. You can use Media Space to share videos as allowed by copyright law. This usually does not include uploading full-length commercial media to share in online classes. For information on how to stream commercial media, contact the Library. Consider using Kaltura Media Space rather than Vimeo or YouTube, because KMS lets you:

  • Create and edit machine-generated captioning
  • Have more privacy and focus (YouTube’s encourages sharing and distraction)
  • Create built in video quizzes
  • Create full-featured screencasts
  • Create multiple channels for collaboration and external projects. (YouTube allows one channel per account)

Kaltura Media Space Captioning

There are two ways to caption videos for accessibility. The tutorial on this site covers the KMS machine-generated captioning, which you can then edit and enable. You may also request service-generated captions by filling out the OAI media captioning request form. This can take several weeks depending on demand, and should be used for videos you expect to teach with more than once. A separate form must be filled out for each video due to the service-billing workflow.

Kaltura Media Capture

After activating your Media Space account you can download the Kaltura screen recording app, which allows you to capture and record audio, video from your webcam, and/or your desktop. You can upload your recordings directly to Media Space from the Kaltura Capture Library.
Kaltura MediaSpace (PSU Media Space) overview

Zoom

Zoom is PSUs videoconferencing platform. All PSU faculty, staff, and students have an account. It’s important to download and use the Zoom desktop “client,” since browser access offers limited features.

To begin, download the Zoom Meetings desktop “client” application and sign in with your PSU Odin account. The desktop client should be updated bimonthly, since Zoom continues to add features. In addition to the tutorials on this site, Zoom has numerous video tutorials and support articles on their Help Center site. Be aware that Zoom Cloud recordings are stored only for 120 days. If you will need them after that, make sure you’ve logged into your Kaltura Media Space account at least once to activate it. Zoom Cloud recordings will then automatically be backed up in your My Media area.

PSU Gmail

PSU uses Google G Suite for Education, which includes Gmail, Docs, Drive, Calendar, and more. Your PSU Gmail is a primary communication tool for instructors, staff and students so please check it regularly.

You can easily communicate with all the students in your courses by using an automatically-generated Google Group email address. Consider contacting students as early as possible before each term starts with a syllabus and brief introduction.
Send an email to your classlist using Google Groups

Google G Suite for Education

All PSU faculty, students, and staff have access to the full suite of Google applications using their PSU Gmail address and Odin login credentials. This includes Google Groups, Drive, Docs, Sheets and Slides. It’s advisable to use your PSU Google account for teaching-related Google materials since these are easily shared with students and colleagues. You can always share or transfer ownership with a personal Google account as needed. The Office of Information Technology (OIT) provides PSU G Suite application workshops.

Google Meet (Hangouts)

Hangouts are available for staff and student meetings. We encourage teaching with Zoom, because it’s integrated with Canvas and easily accessed by students.
Google Meet information (PSU)
Google Hangouts Meet Learning Center (Google Support)

Google Forms

These can be used to survey your students, gather feedback on learning, let students peer- or self-review, and evaluate their course experience. Most users find Google forms easier to use than Canvas surveys, but they lack the sophistication and reporting options of Qualtrics. How to Create Google Forms (Google Support)

Google Classroom

Google Classroom is a virtual classroom that utilizes Google Groups, Drive, Docs, Sheets and Slides. This is not directly supported by OAI but there are myriad online resources since it’s used widely by K-12 teachers. To access Classroom, go to classroom.google.com and sign in with your Odin account credentials.
Google Classroom overview information (PSU)
Classroom Help (Google Support)

PebblePad

PebblePad is an online portfolio platform that lets students document skills, learning, and creativity. PSU students, staff, and faculty have automatic access to PebblePad as through their Odin account.

You can use customizable templates to create portfolio pages and workbooks. Instructors can add PebblePad to Canvas courses, assign projects and provide feedback. PebblePad is also a popular option for faculty developing promotion and tenure files. In addtion to the tutorials on this site you can learn more at PebblePad Help.

Qualtrics

Qualtrics is a survey application with many ways to capture, analyze, and share survey data. You can sign in to use it here: portlandstate.qualtrics.com.

Tutorials: Create surveys with Google Forms or Qualtrics (PSU)

Microsoft Office

All PSU faculty, staff and students have access to Microsoft Office applications (including Word, PowerPoint, and Excel). Access them by following the directions on the Microsoft Office at PSU page.

After leaving PSU, students have a grace period of one year, and employees have a grace period of 24 hours, until their Microsoft account and the Microsoft Office suite is disabled.

Using non-supported applications for teaching

As stewards of PSU’s digital learning environment, OAI is always exploring new teaching and learning platforms and apps. We take a risk-minimization approach to accessibility, with the goal of full inclusivity. You’re welcome to use additional digital tools you feel are effective for teaching, but should make sure to check with your Department and the Disability Resource Center. Software that has not been piloted and adopted campus-wide is not supported by help-desk staff, so you’ll need to troubleshoot on your own.

Hypothes.is is a social annotation platform that allows users to annotate web content. Annotations can be saved as private, shared to a group, or shared publicly. Faculty can use hypothes.is to drive critical annotation and discussion of digital content and encourage collaborative critical reading practices. You may contact OAI to install it for use within Canvas, but help desk staff are not trained to support it.

Flipgrid is a video-based discussion platform. It allows students to create short (up to five minutes) video posts and share them in a threaded discussion forum. Video discussions can help online students feel connected to their classmates.

Pressbooks is e-book production software. It enables the presentation, sharing, discovery, and manipulation of longer form texts.  It also has a database of collected works to let readers discover other publications by the same author. Contact OAI to get an account, but remember that help desk staff are not trained to support it.

Voicethread lets students record audio, share images, videos, and other content as an alternative to text-only discussion. Students can add annotations and comments for multimedia interactivity. Teachers can enhance lessons with media and/or audio for language-related or UDL needs. Voicethread requires a license to use, and individual instructor licenses are available for purchase.

Know of a platform we should explore? Contact OAI with suggestions!

OIT Links and Resources

Free software available for PSU-owned computers

A range of software can be installed on PSU-owned computers using the Self-service software page. You can find a list of available software at Free software for PSU-owned computers. Self-service software cannot be accessed from PSU lab or personally owned computers.

Additional free software is available via PSU’s RemoteApp for Enterprise Applications. There are also research computing resources available through OIT. Visit the Research Computing website for comprehensive information about the systems, software, and services available.

OIT also provides a handy A-Z list of Services, including links to platform and software documentation, and an Employee Guide to Working Remotely.

Library Resources and Equipment

The PSU Library offers a wide range of teaching resources, including subject-area research guides, electronic reserves creation, audiovisual media streaming databases, and equipment borrowing. Below is a list of links from their Faculty Services page.

Teaching and Classroom Support

Publishing and Research Support

Requesting and Borrowing Materials

by sberry

Use the Google Class Time Calendar

Back to Google Tutorials

You can now view the dates, times, and room locations of classes you’re currently teaching through Google Calendar: cal.pdx.edu.
A tutorial for instructors and students is in the OIT Knowledge Base, which you can access here: PSU Class Time in Google Calendar.

For additional support for this tool, please contact the OIT Help Desk rather than OAI Support.

This article was last updated on Aug 9, 2021 @ 9:30 am.

by sberry

Change Your Zoom Display Name and Add Pronouns

Back to Zoom Tutorials

You can change your preferred name and add accurate pronouns to your Zoom display name manually in your Zoom profile settings.

To do this,

  1. Log in to your PSU Zoom account at https://pdx.zoom.us/
  2. Select Profile in the left navigation panel
  3. In the upper right corner, click the small blue Edit link to update your profile data
  4. In the First Name and Last Name fields, update your name(s). In the Display Name field, make the same adjustments and add your preferred pronouns.
  5. Click Save Changes.

In addition, it’s possible to change other PSU system display names, but this is inconsistent across platforms. See the Registrar’s First Name Override option information to get started.

 

This article was last updated on Apr 28, 2023 @ 3:14 pm.

by sberry

Schedule a Meeting in Canvas

Back to Zoom Tutorials

If you teach in Canvas we recommend scheduling your course Zoom Meetings from Canvas. Doing so automatically creates course meeting and recording links for your students. The Canvas scheduler has abbreviated settings, however. To access security preferences and other advanced functions, log into pdx.zoom.us. Only Canvas users with the Teaccher or TA roles may schedule Zoom meetings in Canvas.

If you record a meeting, the Zoom Cloud recording link will appear shortly after the meeting ends. These are hosted by Zoom and expire after 90 days. Zoom recordings in your account will also be saved to your My Media account in Media Space (if you have activated it by logging in at least once).

  1. In Canvas, select Zoom from the navigation menu. Authorize Canvas to access your Zoom account if you have not already done so.
  2. Select the blue Schedule a New Meeting button in the upper-right corner
  3. Enter meeting details:
    • Topic: enter a descriptive title. This is helpful for finding recorded meetings in your MediaSpace My Media list.
    • Description (optional): Enter an optional meeting description.
    • When: select a date and time for the meeting to start.
    • Duration: enter your planned duration. This will not cut off the meeting if you run over.
    • Time Zone: confirm or select the correct timezone.
    • Recurring Meeting: select this option to create a recurring meeting. Once selected, you’ll have the option to choose how often the meeting recurs, and when to stop repeating. Each occurrence will be listed in Canvas, but they will use the same meeting URL. You can edit a specific session of a recurring meeting if needed.
    • Registration: select if you need detailed attendee information from external guests.
    • Security: options are Passcode, Waiting room, and Only authenticated users can join meetings. Passcodes are easily shared, so we recommend activating a waiting room and/or requiring PSU authentication.
      For non-PSU attendees, you can select Sign in to Zoom and Add Authentication Exception. This registers your guest's email address. They must sign in to the meeting with the Zoom account associated with the email address entered. This can be a free, noncommercial account.
    • Video: choose whether you, the meeting host, and participants will join the meeting with video enabled or disabled.
    • Audio: to accommodate students with limited internet access select Telephone and Computer Audio.
  4. Meeting Options: Recommended settings for class sessions:
    • Do not enable Join before host.
    • For large classes, select Mute participants on entry.
    • For easier name recognition, you may want to Allow host to save video order.
    • If you have set up assigned breakout rooms in your Zoom settings, select Breakout Room pre-assign.
    • Do not select Use Personal Meeting ID unless you want guests to have ongoing access to your personal meeting link.
    • Select Record the meeting automatically in the cloud to share a recording link with students.
Zoom navigation button and interface showing Schecule a Meeting button.

This article was last updated on Apr 7, 2023 @ 8:45 am.

by sberry

Allow Non-PSU Guest Access to Your Zoom Meeting

Back to Zoom Tutorials

The global setting for your PSU Zoom account should always be set to require PSU authentication. This ensures that meeting guests will have full access to Zoom features like breakout room pre-assignment. When students are able to join with any Zoom account, they can unintentionally log in with a personal account and be excluded from necessary Zoom features. Instructions on allowing a non-PSU guest into a meeting are below.

Limit meetings to authenticated users

  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal at zoom.pdx.us
  2. Schedule a meeting.
  3. In Settings, select the Meetings tab and scroll down to Require authentication to join. Select the toggle button so it is on (blue).
    Authentication setting
  4. Below this toggle button, check to see if Signed in with a Portland State account (Odin) is your current default setting. If it is not, select Edit.
    Require PSU authentication dialog box
  5. Select the checkbox to Set as default authentication option.
  6. Select Save.

In the past, allowing a non-PSU guest into your meeting required you to temporarily change your settings to allow anyone with a Zoom account to join. This creates a security risk. The new security standard is to create an authentication exception for a specific non-PSU guest. You can add authentication exceptions to a single meeting, all instances of a recurring meeting, or a single instance of a recurring meeting.
Note: You can’t add authentication exceptions to meetings that use your personal meeting ID. You must select “generate a meeting ID automatically.”

Add a non-PSU guest to a new meeting

  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
  2. Schedule a meeting.
  3. Under Meeting ID, select Generate Automatically.
  4. Under Security, select the check box next to Require authentication to join.
  5. Next to Authentication Exception, click Add.
    Add exceptin link.
  6. Enter the guest participant’s name and email address.
    (Optional) Click Add Participant to add more exceptions.
    Add exception name and email.
  7. Click Save.
  8. Choose your other meeting settings, then click Save to schedule the meeting.

Add to an existing meeting

  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
  2. In the navigation menu, click Meetings.
  3. Locate the meeting you want to add an authentication exception to, then click Edit.
  4. In the Edit Recurring Meeting dialog, click either Edit This Occurrence or Edit All Occurrences.
  5. Next to Authentication Exception, click Add.
  6. Click Add Participant.
  7. Enter the guest participant’s name and email address.
    (Optional) Click Add Participant to add more exceptions.
  8. Click Save.
  9. Modify any other meeting settings as needed, then click Save.

by sberry