We’re facilitating two pilots and are seeking instructors who may be interested in participating. Instructors’ insights are invaluable in shaping the success of new technologies in the classroom and ensuring that instructional technology enhances student learning outcomes.

Microsoft Teams and Canvas integration pilot

Microsoft Teams is a meeting platform that allows for video meetings, asynchronous discussions, document sharing, and other tasks that are geared toward group work. The integration with ICON allows instructors to connect an ICON course to a Teams site, so the class can more easily use these features.

The Teams pilot will begin in summer 2024 and continue into fall 2024 as the University of Iowa prepares to make Teams available to all courses. Instructors interested in participating can email tier3-icon-support@uiowa.edu to sign up or learn more.

Discussion tool redesign

The redesign of the ICON discussion tool will be implemented into all ICON courses on July 20, 2024. Instructors interested in previewing the tool can email tier3-icon-support@uiowa.edu. As part of the redesign, there will be updated and new features, such as anonymous posting, edit history for instructors, and checkpoints, which allow instructors to set two due dates for discussions. No features of the current discussion tool will be removed during the redesign process.

The pilot is available through summer 2024 as the University of Iowa prepares for the redesigned tool to be available in all courses.