New Faculty Welcome
Welcome to UIW, we're thrilled you've joined us.
To support your success in educating students, the Office of Teaching, Learning, & Technology (OTLT) invites you to connect with an instructional designer for a 30-minute New Faculty Welcome. In this lightning-fast experience, you'll tour available resources and instructional technologies. We use Bookings to make scheduling convenient:
Canvas Questions, Software Questions, Digital Accessibility, Broadway Design, and HPS Design are additional services you can choose from.
New Faculty FAQs
Is there a new faculty information course?
Yes. You can self-enroll in Faculty Welcome to the UIW Community, a Canvas course that introduces you to UIW history, San Antonio, campus life, faculty resources, and more.
Where does the community access UIW technology?
Cardinal Apps is the epicenter of tech products at UIW for accessing Canvas, Outlook email, and much more.
What education tech is available?
Whether you’re recording videos, conducting research, or collaborating, our technologies support a wide range of teaching and learning needs. OTLT maintains alphabetical indexes of instructional technologies available to the UIW community. While you open most tools through Cardinal Apps, these indexes provide an overview of each tool’s purpose, a helpful video introduction, and links to additional learning resources.
Explore Available Software for Faculty for teaching solutions or Available Software for Students to guide course planning and expectations.
Who handles tech support at UIW?
At least 5 areas offer tech services at UIW:
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Innovation and Technology: IT includes the tech support help desk, Cardinal Apps, password management, software installations, Internet service, phones, printing, enterprise applications, the web team, institutional data, and more.
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OTLT: Our office, within the Academic Affairs division, supports excellence in education with course design, faculty professional development, audiovisual services, instructional tech training, education software, and Canvas administration.
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UIW Libraries: Whether searching for books, articles, or library guides, our librarians offer research expertise, loaner devices, computer labs, study spaces, and more.
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ACCESS Textbook Program: Most Broadway programs participate in a digital and printed textbook program for academic courses. However, health professions faculty are encouraged to discuss textbooks options with their program leadership.
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School Specific Tech: Divisions select unique software and web apps for various positions; connect with your school or department leadership for details on availability and support.
Who works in the OTLT?
Visit the OTLT Directory to learn more about us, including the Center for Teaching & Learning, FLIGHT Mentor Center, Instructional Technology & Design, and Media Services.
What professional development is offered for faculty?
The Center for Teaching and Learning creates exciting learning opportunities each term.
Browse the Event Calendar, accept the Outlook emails you'll receive throughout the year, or explore past session recordings. Additional training sessions may be arranged within your department - all invites and email notifications are sent to your UIW email address.
Note that forwarding your UIW email to another email address is blocked by IT policy.
How can faculty get training for classroom AV equipment?
To familiarize yourself with classroom audio visual equipment, email mediacenter@uiwtx.edu or contact the Help Desk to request a time for a demonstration.
What video conferencing solution does UIW use?
UIW offers Microsoft Teams for video conferencing and online class. Introduction to Microsoft Teams is the best guide to get started and many more MS Teams guides are available to answer common questions.
All Microsoft products, including Outlook for email, OneDrive for cloud storage, and many more products under this license, are accessed through Cardinal Apps. Contact the UIW Help Desk for assistance installing desktop versions.
How do faculty learn about Canvas?
Besides scheduling time with your OTLT instructional designer, check the Help button in Canvas and remember UIW offers many self-service learning resources:
- Everyone is encouraged to visit the IT Service Portal to browse help articles. There you'll find solution guides covering hundreds of topics, from Cardinal Apps to Microsoft Teams and everything in between.
- Among the articles in this database, the Available Software and Canvas folders are managed by the Instructional Technology team.
- Our OTLT Video Libraries houses hundreds of training videos, covering Accessibility, AV, Canvas, CTL, and Software.
- Follow a demonstration on how to Build a Basic UIW Canvas Course.
- Reference our Canvas Checklist each term to simplify the process of managing a Canvas course.
How do students learn about Canvas?
Student orientation introduces learners to the vast tech resources available to them, specifically the Help Desk for all their tech support needs.
Further, most incoming students have access to Learning with Canvas at UIW. Watch a 10-minute overview explaining the topics covered in this Canvas course and encourage your students to take advantage of the opportunity:
The OTLT also provides extensive support resources within Canvas. Everyone can access help through the Help button in the Global Navigation menu and within individual courses on template pages such as Need Help or Tech Support, Accessibility and Privacy Statements, and Lockdown Browser for Canvas Quizzes.
Faculty are advised to edit their course content to include specific instructions for any tools they use, ensuring students have access to the guidance they need.
