Faculty and Staff Training and Workshops

Adobe Express is a free web-based tool that you can use on multiple platforms and devices.  You can create professional-looking presentations with images and embedded videos. Share them on social media sites, through email links, or even embed them on a website. Try using Adobe Express instead of PowerPoint for a stunning presentation experience.

Instructor, Eileen Lai

Adobe Express is a free web-based tool that you can use on multiple platforms and devices. All projects are stored online, and copyright-free assets are used to help you with your production.  You will learn to easily create video projects with still images, text, voiceover, video clips, icons, and background music. Download a copy of your finished video in mp4 format and share it through email or on social media.

Instructor, Eileen Lai

Piazza Discussion board provides many features for instructors to create more dynamic engagement in students’ online learning experience.
Learn more about advanced features such as different types of posts, Live Q&A, Reading List, Runnable Code Snippet, Statistics, and more.

Instructor: Insun Cho

Offered in two sessions, this class provides you an introductory, step-by-step instructions to create an augmented reality prototype using Reality Composer.
The participants must have the required device available to them. Please see the specifications and platforms below:
Option 1: Design using a Computer
A Mac computer with MacOS10 Catalina
Xcode 11 (Download free from App Store)
iPhone (iOS13.4 or later) - can be optional

Option 2: Design using an iPad
As an alternative, you can use a qualified iPad device to use Reality Composer. Please make sure your iPad is compatible by reviewing here.

Instructor, Insun Cho

(Prerequisites: No prior Canvas knowledge needed)
In this introductory,  hands-on class, we will create the outline of a basic Canvas course from scratch. Topics covered include:

• Configuring a few basic course Settings
• Uploading Files to our Course Files Repository
• Linking a Syllabus to your Canvas course site
• Configuring Your Course Homepage
• Creating an Assignment, grading it & giving feedback
• Organizing our Course with Modules
• Sending Announcements  and Emails to students
• Discussion Boards

Instructor: Greg Crum

(Prerequisites: Setting up Your Canvas Course/Canvas Essentials or basic knowledge of Canvas)
This class covers creating and configuring online assessments with the Canvas quiz tool. Topics include:

• Viewing the quiz from the student's point of view
• Allow extra time and extra attempts for students with SDS accommodations
• Techniques and tools to avoid student cheating
• Moderating quiz sessions and examining student result stats.

Instructor, Greg Crum

(Prerequisites: Setting up Your Canvas Course/Canvas Essentials or basic knowledge of Canvas)
In this class, we will briefly review creating a Canvas assignment. We will cover managing the Canvas gradebook as well as cover these grading-related topics:

• Speedgrader
• Rubrics
• Creating a Turnitin Assignment
• Peer Review assignments and Group assignments

Instructor, Greg Crum

Canvas now gives instructors and students an enhanced quizzing experience. The New Quizzes interface gives instructors additional question options such as hotspot and categorization. It also streamlines the management of quiz question banks and quizzes for sharing and reuse. Beginning in July of 2022, New Quizzes will be the only way to create Quizzes in Canvas, but for now, instructors have the option to use both Classic Quizzes and New Quizzes in their Canvas course. In these sessions, we will examine how to enable the option in your existing course, convert existing quizzes to the new format, and create new quizzes from scratch.

Instructor: Greg Crum

(Prerequisites: No prior Canvas knowledge needed)
Are you tasked with creating or maintaining a Canvas page as a department collaboration site or student resource page? This class is for you! We will cover creating a custom front page and examine techniques to structure and organize your content. We will also explore how to add participants and manage participant communication and interaction.

Instructor, Greg Crum

Join us for an informative session on ChatGPT. Learn how to use the tool to support teaching and learning along with an introduction to emerging platforms for those wanting to have the ability to help identify AI in student work.

Instructors: John Bansavich, Ken Yoshioka, Eileen Lai, Poonam Kakodkar

This class covers the strategies and tools to set up digital storytelling assignments for your class.  Learn how to develop the steps for implementing both audio and video projects in your course and of course, the software and hardware tools to capture, edit and publish the final products.

Instructor, Ken Yoshioka

This class covers features that extend beyond the introductory Panopto class. We will cover the video editor tools that go beyond basic trimmings such as inserting additional content, Caption editing, and embedding quizzes in the video. We will also cover video Smart Chapters, and using Panopto in Canvas assignments. Please take the Panopto Introductory Training class before registering for this class.

Instructor, Ken Yoshioka

Attend this workshop to learn about a tool that will support student engagement in the classroom. Poll Everywhere is a software-based product that will allow you to create polls that students can respond to on their smartphones or on their computer web browsers.  Learn how to embed polls in PowerPoint, Google Slides and how to create a variety of questions to break up the lecture time and increase participation.

Instructor, Ken Yoshioka

Learn about the tools and strategies to manage your classroom in Zoom including using chat, managing participants, working with breakout rooms, and more.

Instructor, Ken Yoshioka

This class explores the basics of recording your screen and voice to capture content for lectures as well as instructional videos. We'll cover the preparation of the content, scripting, and the actual recording process. We'll also cover voiceover tips and the options for screencasting at USF.

Instructor:  Ken Yoshioka

Learn how to use digital badges to recognize learning achievements. Use Canvas to organize your program then grant badges to share on a resume, ePortfolio, or LinkedIn social media.

Instructor, Insun Cho

Collaborative annotation can increase student engagement, expand reading comprehension, and build critical thinking and community in classes. Hypothesis.is makes reading active, visible, and social, enabling students to engage with their texts, teachers, ideas, and each other in deeper, more meaningful ways.

Instructor, Eileen Lai

Learn the craft of audio recording for podcasts, and voiceovers in video.  We’ll cover the strategies and the preparation for recording your voice including microphone work and scripting.  This class also introduces methods for recording from digital recorders, your computer, or a mobile device.  Learn to edit and produce the recordings with the free open-source audio editor Audacity and then finally export the final product to share the podcasts through podcast hosting solutions.

Instructor: Ken Yoshioka

In this training, you will learn how to apply and use the Dons Template for Canvas. The Dons Template is an easy-to-use, research-informed Canvas course template that helps faculty reduce time spent designing Canvas course components while providing a more consistent experience for students using Canvas across USF.

Instructor: Angie Portacio,  Jill Ballard, ID Staff

This class covers the basics of using our new lecture capture and video platform, Panopto.  We will cover the Panopto interface, downloading the capture software, and recording.  We will also cover video management, editing, and sharing of videos.

Instructor: Ken Yoshioka.

Piazza is a robust, Wiki-style discussion platform that can be installed right in your Canvas course The rich text editor allows LaTeX equations as well as code typing, making it easy to teach or discuss any subjects in an online format. Participation in Piazza can be made public or anonymous and the discussion posts can be set to be public or private as needed.

Instructor, Insun Cho

This class covers an introduction to Zoom web conferencing,  including setting up your account, installing the software, scheduling meetings, as well as meeting tools.

Instructor, Ken Yoshioka

Badgr Pathways is an additional feature that can help you enhance your existing badge programs by extending their scope with a series of badges. You can also leverage external badge credentials available via the Badgr platform or contribute to sharing your badge program.

Instructor: Insun Cho

Folio is an ePortfolio tool inside Canvas that will help students easily create digital portfolios to showcase their best work. Students can share their projects, skills, and connections with prospective employers.

Instructor, Eileen Lai

LockDown Browser is a custom browser that locks down the testing environment within Canvas. LockDown Browser is the “gold standard” for securing online exams in classrooms or proctored environments. Monitor allows for secure testing from a remote location using a webcam and LockDown Browser software.  Learn how to use Respondus Lockdown Browser/Monitor to conduct secure and proctored online quizzes and exams.

Instructor, John Bansavich

Simple Syllabus is the online platform that enables instructors to create easy-to-manage, interactive syllabi for their courses at USF.

After the pilot testing phase during the 2019-2020 academic year, ETS will promote the adoption of Simple Syllabus for the Fall 2021 semester and provide instructor-led training beginning July 1st

Instructor: Insun Cho

This training is designed as an introduction for faculty who are delivering a HyFlex course but are NOT scheduled in a HyFlex classroom.

In this workshop, we will review planning for, setup, and use of equipment needed to facilitate a HyFlex class in a classroom where portable Zoom equipment is needed to allow for remote student participation. In addition, we will discuss strategies and considerations for optimizing the student experience for in-person and remote students in the HyFlex environment.

Instructor: Ken Yoshioka

Turnitin is the USF anti-plagiarism and citation-checking tool. It is integrated into Canvas and is easily configurable in Canvas assignments through a couple of menu clicks. In this course, we will demonstrate how the Turnitin similarity report is configured and generated and how Turnitin checks student submissions for similarity with other sources such as the web and works submitted to the Turntin database and journals. We will also look at how Turnitin can alert instructors to submission tricks like hidden characters and images and suspicious content. In addition, we will demonstrate Turnitin’s AI detection tool.

Instructor: Greg Crum

This session covers new and present tools that faculty, staff, and students can use with the USF Zoom and Panopto accounts for research purposes and accessibility..  Topics for Zoom include the  AI Companion, captioning and transcripts for both research interviews and accessibility.  We will also cover how to use Panopto to retain and share recorded events, Zoom and audio research interviews, and transcript generation and editing.

Instructor:  Ken Yoshioka

Learn how to set your availability for meetings on your Google Calendar and have your students sign up for the time.

Instructor, Insun Cho.

Learn how to use the administrative system, Banner 9. This online learning module provides a general overview of the banner as part of the onboarding process for new employees/change of roles at USF.

This is not an overview of the Self-Service Banner for faculty members.

Master the convenience of Google Shared Drive when working with your co-workers at USF. In addition to learning how to use Google Drive efficiently, this class will offer you specific insights on how to share and manage everything that the team has contributed together in Team Drive. 

Instructor, Insun Cho.

Learn how to quickly create professional banners for your myUSF department website, Emma email, or other communication using Adobe Express. Use Adobe's free templates, stock images, and presets. All you need is a free Adobe account to get started.

Instructor, Eileen Lai.

Learn the essentials of creating movie presentations using images, video, and audio. Develop your storytelling skills whether it be for a class project, department presentation, or personal story. Finally, we will show how to package the presentation for viewing whether it be on the web or on your computer. iMovie is available on Mac OS X only. 

Instructor, Ken Yoshioka.

This training will show you how to recommend the best content for your learners in LinkedIn Learning through Learning Paths, which allows you to customize content like LinkedIn courses, videos, and documents that learners can take in sequence to achieve their learning goals.

Instructor, Eileen Lai.

This class covers features that extend beyond the introductory Panopto class. We will cover the video editor tools that go beyond basic trimmings such as inserting additional content, Caption editing, and embedding quizzes in the video. We will also cover video Smart Chapters, and using Panopto in Canvas assignments. Please take the Panopto Introductory Training class before registering for this class.

Instructor, Ken Yoshioka

Learn the basics of using the DTEN Zoom displays that are installed in many of the university's conference rooms.  From joining and hosting Zoom meetings and meeting functionality to connecting to the DTEN as a wireless display for an in-person meeting.  This is an in-person training provided at the Instructional Technology and Training conference located in Gleeson Library, lower level, Room G14.

Instructor:  Ken Yoshioka

Whether it is a class setting or business meeting, Zoom offers many tools to keep people engaged and to help yourself to be more productive. This class covers Polls, Breakout Rooms, Whiteboards, Zoom Notes and more.

Instructor, Ken Yoshioka.

The University Emma email system is a user-friendly email tool that will streamline email design for our campus communicators. Emma offers an intuitive drag-and-drop email editor; advanced analytics and reporting functionality; subject line split testing; and A/B content testing. This is the system to use for all university emails to 40 or more recipients (excluding emails to prospective students).  This class is required to gain access to the system.

Instructor, Eileen Lai.

This class explores the basics of recording your screen and voice to capture content for lectures as well as instructional videos. We'll cover the preparation of the content, scripting, and the actual recording process. We'll also cover voiceover tips and the options for screencasting at USF.

Instructor:  Ken Yoshioka

Information gathering is made so easy through online Google Forms.  Want to find out which date is good for your club to meet,  or get feedback for your last event?  Learn how to create secure online forms for polls and surveys.  You can create simple questions and answers, multiple-choice, checkboxes, and more.  Send your form through email to targeted audiences, and collect data displayed in various formats. 

Instructor, Eileen Lai.

This class is to learn to create professionally-looking websites without any prior knowledge of HTML. We will be building multiple pages with text, images, videos, documents and forms, collapsible menus, and slideshows. Use your creativity and explore the different ways you can make use of a Google site! It's quick to build and to collaborate.

Instructor, Eileen Lai.

Learn the craft of audio recording for podcasts, and voiceovers in video.  We’ll cover the strategies and the preparation for recording your voice including microphone work and scripting.  This class also introduces methods for recording from digital recorders, your computer, or a mobile device.  Learn to edit and produce the recordings with the free open-source audio editor Audacity and then finally export the final product to share the podcasts through a podcast hosting solution.

Instructor, Ken Yoshioka.

This class provides a general overview of the technologies and services that are available to faculty and staff and where to access them. We'll also help you to navigate the myUSF dashboard page and locate resources for the technologies you use for everyday work. This is geared towards new faculty and staff as well as those who are looking to better navigate the site and technologies.

Instructor, Ken Yoshioka.

This is an overview of Adobe InDesign covering the interface, preference settings, grids, and rulers, handling of text flow and image fitting, columns, and color swatches on a single-page layout.

Prerequisite: You need to have a licensed or a trial copy of InDesign installed on your computer to take this class.

Instructor, Eileen Lai.

This class covers the basics of using our new lecture capture and video platform, Panopto.  We will cover the Panopto interface, downloading the capture software, and recording.  We will also cover video management, editing, and sharing of videos.

Instructor: Ken Yoshioka.

This class covers an introduction to Zoom web conferencing,  including setting up your account, installing the software, scheduling meetings, as well as meeting tools.

Instructor, Ken Yoshioka.

For any user of Laserfiche that wants to learn how to do an advanced search of documents saved in Laserfiche, and managers with access to the Monitor Tab in Laserfiche Forms. This course will start with a simple search of active and completed Laserfiche Forms Business Processes, and then the more advanced Search Tools for finding documents in the Laserfiche Document Repository. This will include a lesson on how to download a spreadsheet of lists of completed forms saved in the repository.

Complexity: Intermediate, knowing how to use advanced search in Google Drive will help in understanding the material.

Presenter: Glen Murie, Information Technology Services

For any department heads or managers who want to run reports on activity for their team in Laserfiche. This course will show how to quickly and easily pull information about submitted forms, create simple visual reports, download CSV or Excel reports, schedule automatic mailing of a saved report, and get an overview of activity in Laserfiche.

Complexity: Low, requires basic skills in Excel or Google Sheets to understand the material.

Presenter: Glen Murie, Information Technology Services

Web Content Editing is designed to give you all the training needed to create and edit content on the myUSF site. myUSF is the primary web resource for all students, faculty, and staff.  Attendance in this class is required to gain access to the system.

Instructor, Eileen Lai.

It's not just for faculty to record lectures! This session covers the features of the USF Panopto account which is available to all students, including recording content, and tools to leverage the account when your instructor uses Panopto to embed recorded material into Canvas.

Instructor: Ken Yoshioka.

This training focuses on the skills Slack Workspace Admins need to perform their role. As the representative for your department/group, you will learn to be better equipped to support and effectively manage user requests and execute key processes based on USF's overall operating model, policies, and settings.

Anybody interested in being a Workspace Admin can take this class.

Instructor:  Eileen Lai.

This is an introductory class for new Slack users. Slack is a messaging, communication, and collaboration platform, that brings together information and people in one centralized place. We will cover the basic features of using Slack.

Instructor:  Eileen Lai.

PowerPoint makes it easy to create, collaborate, and present your ideas in dynamic, visually compelling ways. Learn the fundamentals of PowerPoint to create a presentation that will surely leave your audience wanting more.

Instructor, Poonam Kakodkar.

PowerPoint makes it easy to create, collaborate, and present your ideas in dynamic, visually compelling ways. Take your PowerPoint skills to the next level with advanced features such as sounds, videos, paths, Animations, layers, and much more!

Instructor, Ken Yoshioka.

Find out how to use the website's content management system to add description and categorization to events on the USF calendar. This course will give you the information you need for working with events in both myUSF and the marketing website as well as adding events to the university email. Attendance in this class is required to receive a user account for working on events in the calendar. 

Instructor, Eileen Lai.

USF Blogs is a free platform for all USF faculty, staff, and students to create beautiful and responsive websites or blogs.  You do not need to know any HTML or programming language to begin. There are a variety of branded USF templates as well as WordPress templates to help users create their first sites quickly. Faculty can also use this environment as a class blog where students can park to the course and collaborate together. Join a class and see how easy it is.  

Instructor, Eileen Lai.

This class covers the features that are a part of your USF Zoom account focusing on the tools to help you to collaborate with classmates such as Notes, Whiteboard, AI Companion and more.

Instructor, Ken Yoshioka.

Looking to host a public event in either the regular meeting or webinar format in Zoom?  This class covers the strategies for planning your event including schedule, registration, and meeting management as well as technical criteria like internet connectivity and app version requirements.

Instructor, Ken Yoshioka.

Learn how to create a Zoom Webinar to host an event with up to 3000 attendees. Include a Q&A feature, panelists, and a registration form.

Instructor, John Bansavich.

Click here to submit a request to host a Zoom Webinar

Unlock insights and tell the story in your data. Review the fundamentals of Excel and create a worksheet that solidifies the information. We will get familiar with Excel User Interface, How to enter and format data, calculate totals, keyboard shortcuts, and other productivity tricks! 

Instructor, Poonam Kakodkar.

Unlock insights and tell the story in your data. Ensure that the data in the target cell reflects any changes in the original cell by creating a link between the two cells. Learn this, create charts, and move it all to Microsoft Word without losing any information. 

Instructor, Poonam Kakodkar.

Unlock insights and tell the story in your data. Learn to use Pivot Tables to summarize, analyze, explore, and present your data, and you can create them with just a few clicks. We will also cover Macros to help save you time and headaches by automating common, repetitive tasks.

Instructor, Poonam Kakodkar.

Learn the tools and features necessary to create effective online surveys. Qualtrics software enables users to collect and analyze data online for different purposes including market research, customer satisfaction and loyalty, product and concept testing, employee evaluations and website feedback.

Instructor, Poonam Kakodkar.

Learn some intermediate-level features to enhance your online surveys. This training will enable participants to build a consent form or insert media files into their existing surveys. It also guides users how to create contact lists for email distributions as well as Reminder or Thank You emails to follow-up responses.

Instructor, Poonam Kakodkar.

Qualtrics Advanced

This session will explore tools to help produce more impactful online surveys with Qualtrics. Topics include customizing the appearance of existing surveys, setting up quotas to control your expected number of responses from a certain group, creating efficient workflows, and implementing email triggers to send email notifications under specified conditions. Join us to delve into this powerful survey platform and tailor your surveys!

Instructor, Poonam Kakodkar.

In this class you will learn how to effectively navigate USF's Tableau Server platform to access, view and interact with USF institutional reports. Use Tableau Server to view, analyze, and download reports and data from the various dashboards and visualizations available. Review the different reporting options, prior to registering for the training, from the CIPE website.

Instructor, John Bansavich

Learn how to create accessible documents in Word, and apply the same concepts in PowerPoint and Google Docs. We will cover topics including treatment for headings, lists, hyperlinks, alt text, metadata, table properties and color contrast. We will also talk about PDF conversion, Word’s accessibility checker and reading order in PowerPoint.

Instructor, Eileen Lai.

The Equatio training session will enable you to easily create equations, formulas, and much more, in applications that run in Chrome – such as Google Docs, Microsoft Word Online, or even Gmail. Digital math is often difficult to create, so Equatio helps to make math and STEM classes more accessible and engaging for every learner. Join us to explore Equatio and learn how to use it effectively.

Instructor, John Bansavich.

Texthelp training will introduce two digital tools; Read&Write and Orbit Note. Both tools are designed to offer convenience when you are reading and editing digital documents such as webpages (including Canvas), online forms/articles and PDFs. Operating as a Google Chrome extension, Read&Write and Orbit Note empowers the users to easily access the contents on screen. The result includes reading text out loud, converting PDFs and images to a readable format, creating voice notes in mp3 files and many more.

Instructor, Insun Cho

The purpose of this course is to educate and train all digital content contributors to ensure that all web content meets USF's accessibility requirements. There are 9 lessons. Each lesson includes a video presentation of the material, supplementary text material, and a short quiz. A score of 100% in all quizzes required for completion. (This course is also used as a requirement for those staff who needs to get access for myUSF website editing and USF calendar). Any staff and faculty, who do not need to get access to the systems, can register for this class for self-enrichment.

Self-paced Canvas Course

Making Sense of GenAI for Learning & Teaching
(30 min)

(Required for certificate)

• reiterate the need for AI literacy in education and professional spheres
• provide an introduction to a range of GenAI applications and integrations
• direct participants to the ITS GenAI Hub website for continuing updates
• outline overarching concerns and benefits of GenAI in the higher ed context
• help participants consider equity & ethics across GenAI use & decisioning
• provide a lens to take in coming topics in the certificate series. 

Using AI Safely and Securely
(30 min)

(Required for certificate)

Discussion of the Guidelines for Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) at USF along with best practices for using AI safely and securely. An introduction to reviewing ChatGPT's settings to ensure appropriate use.

• What Is Personally Identifiable Information (PII)?
• USF Information Classification

Instructor, Insun Cho.

GenAI Tools: Explore ChatGPT and Perplexity
(1 hour)

(Required for certificate)

Join us for an informative session on ChatGPT and Perplexity! In this class, you will learn how to use these tools to support teaching and learning, explore their pros and cons, and gain a foundational understanding of their capabilities. Perfect for those new to these GenAI tools, this session will enhance your knowledge and confidence in utilizing AI for educational purposes.

• Introduction to ChatGPT and Perplexity as selected LLM tools.
• Why these LLM tools?
• Introduce ChatGPT 4.o features and discuss the pros and cons.
• Introduce Perplexity features and discuss the pros and cons.
• Use of voice to speak into the application and mimicing of voices

Instructor, Eileen Lai, Ken Yoshioka, Poonam Kakodkar.

GenAI and Assessment
(45 min)

(Required for certificate)

Overview of the issues and opportunities GenAI presents to traditional assessment in higher-ed. Provide five pedagogical approaches for assessment adaptation Including:

• grade the journey—process & product
• re-prioritize critical thinking in GenAI use context
• interweave GenAI tools for development purposes
• expanded assessment components
• reach outside LLM GenAI tools’ training data

Instructor, Jill Ballard.

GenAI Syllabus Statement and Considerations
(45 min)

(Required for certificate)

Introduce the three syllabus statement templates and considerations.

• Provide a student perspective for GenAI usage and the importance of course-level communication to address GenAI
• Provide the three syllabus statements AND their inclusion in Simple Syllabus (and available outside SS) in FA24
• Outline faculty considerations for choosing and customizing a syllabus statement
• Present ways to customize and account for syllabus statement expectations across the course and within coursework.

Instructor, Jill Ballard.

Discover how to write effective prompts to be more successful in your use of ChatGPT and other GenAI chatbots. Learn about two prompt frameworks to guide your process for writing more contextualized and persona-focused prompts.

• Apply best practices for prompting to leverage GenAI capabilities for specific tasks and contexts.
• Understand how prompt frameworks can help approach and organize effective prompt writing and review.
• Critically write and revise prompts that incorporate context, persona, and clear instructions

Instructors, John Bansavich, Susan Zolezzi, Claire Sharifi & Annie Pho (Gleeson Library)

Turnitin is USF's anti-plagiarism and citation-checking tool and is integrated into Canvas. In this class, we will cover the following:

• Turnitin’s AI detection tool will be discussed and demonstrated.
• Discussion of the pros and cons of using an AI detection tool and how to communicate the use of the tool to students.
• Concerns over bias and false positives will be discussed.
• Mention of Gradescope as an AI grading tool.

Instructor, Greg Crum.

Learn about the AI tools USF has enabled in Zoom accounts-Meeting Summary and Smart Recording which creates, using AI summaries and smart chaptering of the conversation and shared content in meetings.

Instructor, Ken Yoshioka.

Leverage GenAI to create imagery and discover how to write descriptive prompts to quickly and easily generate extraordinary images using Adobe Firefly's features integrated into Adobe Express. No experience is needed.

•  GenAI text to image creation
• Imagery prompting
•  Adobe Express Overview and demo
•  Text-to-image
•  Generative fill
•  Text effects
• ChatGPT image interpretation

Instructor, Eileen Lai.

Gain insights on Gen AI's Impact on the workforce and discuss strategies for preparing your students.

Instructor, ID staff.