Spring 2025 Start Dates
- Sixteen-week & first-half courses will be published and made available for students on Monday, January 13th at 12:01 a.m.
- A resource page on copying your Canvas content is available.
Need Help Teaching with Canvas?
View our Canvas for Instructors page and contact COLRS to schedule a quick tutorial to get started.
If you wish to email your class before you publish your Canvas course site, find your official course rosters and download student email addresses in Enterprise Self-Service.
Regular & Substantive Interaction
The U.S. Department of Education requires regular and substantive interactions (RSI) between instructors and students for UIS to maintain eligibility for federal funding for the university and for our students. For a 16 week course, instructors should plan for at least one RSI activity each week. Accelerated courses should have two RSI activities each week.
Examples of instructor-initiated RSI
- Creating discussion questions and actively facilitating the conversation
- Inviting a student to office hours or scheduling a phone call or Zoom meeting
- Posting personalized comments on individual learner's assignments.
Course interactions that do not qualify for RSI
- A learner deciding to drop by regularly scheduled office hours
- Entering numeric grades to the gradebook without further comments and feedback.
- A learner submitting a quiz that is automatically graded.
Learn about activities that qualify as "regular and substantive" interactions to be sure your course plan aligns.
Third-Party Content & Accessibility
Digital accessibility is legally-required for all digital course content, including third-party materials. Third-party course materials provide resources, activities, and course assessments that are developed by companies outside of the University. Whether access to these materials are free or paid, if our courses link to the materials, embed the materials, or require use of the materials, they must be digitally accessible.
Examples of third-party content providers
- eBook platforms and textbook homework software adopted through the bookstore
- Apps integrated into Canvas: Packback, Harmonize Discussions, Kaltura Media, Google Collaborations, Zoom
- YouTube, OER texts, websites, and other technology tools
If you are using any third-party materials and would like them to be assessed, please reach out to the Office of Digital Accessibility or jump into the COLRS/ODA office hours. Research shows that by adopting inclusive design practices, like accessibility, instructors enhance the user experience for all students and foster a culture of diversity and inclusion.
Where is My Online Course Site?
Don’t see your Canvas courses? If you are listed as the instructor on the Course Schedule, then contact COLRS and we will assist you. If not, then contact your department or dean's office to be added to the official course schedule.
Past Canvas courses are go in a read-only archived state after the semester ends to maintain a record of student work. Learn how to view all Canvas courses. Instructors may copy content from past courses using the Canvas import tool.
Copyleaks & Generative AI in Your Course
The Copyleaks AI detector was updated late last semester. COLRS staff did some testing on it and found that it is flagging text as AI much more frequently. Faculty may choose to enable or disable the AI checker. If you do turn it on, we recommend being cautious and trusting your instincts; the results seem to be finicky. We found that a lot of our own writing was being flagged also, and changed depending on how we combined it with other writing (sources from journals or AI generated content).
COLRS staff are testing the Copyleaks AI detector and working with the vendor. A workshop and additional findngs will be shared soon. In the meantime, if you do have any questions or concerns about it, please let us know. It's helpful in our conversations with Copyleaks.
COLRS Support for Instructors
Office Hours
Join the COLRS team -- Carrie, Taylor, and Emily -- for open office hours on Zoom at 10 a.m. on weekdays (central time zone). Scott, our multimedia and video specialist joins office hours on Tuesdays and Fridays each week.
Video Creation and Editing
Our multimedia specialist Scott is here to assist you with all your video needs! Scott's professional background in video recording and editing will help your course to shine with lightboard lectures, green screen work, and on campus shoots. Contact Scott to plan your next digital media project.
One-to-One Support
Please feel free to call, or email us with questions or to set up an appointment.
- Phone: 217-206-7317
- Email: colrs@uis.edu
- Book a one-on-one appointment with COLRS staff!
COLRS Events & Teaching Tips
See the COLRS events on our home page for all workshops and training sessions. Teaching tips will be sent to full- and part-time faculty email lists periodically during the term. Feel free to email us an idea for a workshop or tip!
Center for Online Learning, Research, and Service
217-206-7317