best practices

May 19, 2023

Accessibility Tip: Grackle Docs

Grackle is an add-on that works within the Google Suite (Docs, Sheets and Slides). It provides an automated accessibility report and guides you through fixing many accessibility errors. Grackle also provides the ability to do things the Google Docs cannot do on its own, like save a Google Doc as a tagged PDF and define… 

Apr 19, 2023

Brickfield: A New Moodle Accessibility Toolkit

Want to provide class material to accommodate the needs of all students? Accessibility issues can be identified and fixed on your Moodle site with Brickfield Accessibility+ Toolkit. Be proactive by future-proofing your course content to address areas needing adjustment to meet accessibility guidelines. 

Apr 19, 2023

We’re Digging Yellowdig: New Discussion Platform!

Fostering student conversations is imperative to success in online courses. NC State offers a new tool modeled after popular social media platforms that is based on the concept that students want to talk to each other. 

Mar 28, 2023

DELTA Grants: From Challenge to Solution

Assistant Teaching Professor Nicola Singletary and Associate Teaching Professor and Program Coordinator of Counselor Education Angela Smith share their experiences with DELTA Grants. This spring, DELTA is offering the following types of grants: Faculty Fellows, Course Improvement, Critical Path, Course Design and Exploratory Grants. 

Mar 26, 2023

Accessibility Tip: Course File Alternative Formats

NEW! Easily Access Alternative Formats for Course Files To help ensure equal access to files for all members of our diverse student population, NC State has acquired a license to SensusAccess, a “one-stop self-service, alternate media and document remediation service for educational institutions.” With this tool, students, faculty and staff can convert documents to a range… 

Mar 23, 2023

Tools to Think Through the Complexities of AI Text Generators in the Classroom

Interested in learning about how to incorporate new Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools into your classroom teaching strategies in a responsible manner? DELTA Faculty Fellow Sarah Egan Warren shares appropriate tools to help instructors and administrators navigate the complexities of utilizing AI technologies in course content. 

Mar 21, 2023

What’s New in Moodle?

Want to learn tips and tricks to use in Moodle? Features such as “jump-to-top” and “gradebook user report” are featured in this article by Instructional Technologist Kerri Brown Parker. There are no major updates this year, and you can now request Moodle courses for the 2023 summer and fall semesters. 

Feb 24, 2023

Teaching Tech Tip: Using the Panopto Table of Contents to Reduce Cognitive Load

Help students focus on your content and achieve learning goals by reducing their cognitive load! For example, if you use lecture videos in your instruction, try creating them in Panopto or uploading them to Panopto. Then, use linked time stamps in the Table of Contents feature to help students focus on smaller chunks of information.… 

Feb 24, 2023

DELTA Instructional Consultation: What’s it Like?

If you need guidance on course design, teaching strategies or instructional tools, DELTA can help. These brainstorming sessions are designed to discover the optimal approach for your course content creation, organization and delivery. DELTA experts can help you at any point in the process! 

Feb 24, 2023

Accessibility Tip: Formatting Headings

Headings provide information about the organizational structure for screen readers and sighted users alike. Sighted users and screen readers both skim through a document looking for the relevant sections and properly formatted headings are what makes this possible. Making text bolder and larger is not the same thing as creating headers. Use the built-in headers,…