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Educational Technology for Students: Home

Welcome!

Educational Technology at Columbia College banner with purple accents

Hello from your Educational Technology Librarian!

I am here to support you in using technology to be successful here at Columbia College! This includes using Canvas for your classes, creating digital media, and more.

On this page, check out some tools and resources we have at Columbia College.

Canvas

Getting Ready for Class

You can access Canvas and log in here. If you can't log in, be sure to contact the IT Help Desk! Once you're in, check out the following guides to make sure you're ready to start class strong.

  • Downloading the Canvas app
    The Canvas app lets you see your classes on the go. You can get push notifications on your phone or tablet, post on discussions, check grades, and more. For information on iOS, click here. For Android, click here.
  • Changing your profile picture
    Especially if you're in an online class, it's nice to have a face to put to the name.
  • Setting up notifications
    Notifications can help you keep track of all the pieces of your course—announcements, grades, due dates, and more. You can adjust how often you get notifications and what you see from the Notifications settings. The app is highly encouraged for phone updates!
  • Viewing your classes
    You'll see all your active courses on your Dashboard, which is the first page that opens when you log into Canvas. You can also see your past and future courses from the Courses page.

Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes

All three of these may be graded, depending on how your professor has set up their course. You may also have what are called "third-party" tools in your class, which link out to sites like those from textbook publishers. For those, be sure to ask your professor if you're having issues.

  • Submitting an assignment
    This guide will show you how to submit a file to an online assignment. Sometimes, there may be additional steps; for example, your professor may want you to submit multiple files, or to annotate a document. As always, please confirm with your professor what they'd like for you to do, and if you have issues, ask for help.
  • Replying to a discussion
    When replying to discussions, be sure to confirm how long replies should be. You can see a word counter at the bottom of the text box when posting.
  • Taking a quiz
    Some quizzes may require additional steps if they use a tool called LockDown Browser. If you're having trouble, contact the IT Help Desk for troubleshooting.

Grades and Gradebook

  • Checking grades
    Depending on your notification settings, you will also get notified when your assignments have been graded.

Supported Tools

Most everyone at Columbia College has access to several downloads of Microsoft 365. This includes Word, PowerPoint, and Excel! This makes it so you don't have to be online to use the cloud versions.

To download your copies, you'll need to login to your Office 365 account. Login with your CC e-mail address and password.

After logging in, click on the circle at the top-right with your profile link. This will usually have your initials, though it might be in last initial-first initial order.

From the menu that appears, select "View account."

Find the button that reads "Office apps." Below will read, "Install and manage Office applications." Click "Manage."

Office apps, Install and manage Office applications, Manage

On that page, you'll see an "Office apps & devices" option. Click the "Install Office" button.

Office apps & devices, You can install Office on up to 5 PCs or Macs, 5 tablets, and 5 smartphones.

Finally, you'll see a page with an option to install Office 365. It should register whether you are on a Windows or Mac and provide you with the appropriate download file.

Installation bar for Office 365, with a button reading "Install Office"

If you want to install a Microsoft 365 app, all you'll need to do is go to your App Store or Play Store, install the app you want (such as Word), then log in with your CC e-mail and password.

Some professors may have you use something called LockDown Browser to take a quiz or test. LockDown Browser may or may not use your webcam. The quiz instructions will say which version your professor has enabled.

You'll need to download a new program or app to run LockDown Browser, just like Chrome or Firefox are web browsers that you need to download if you don't want to use Edge or Safari. Depending on the way your assignment is set up, you may need to go the quiz, click "Take the Quiz," and get a download link from there.

Once you install the program, you'll either launch the quiz from the new browser or have it open after you click the quiz in Chrome. If one way doesn't work, try the other!


Still having trouble? Here's a checklist of how to troubleshoot:

  • Are you downloading from the correct site? Be sure that you’re getting to the download link from the assignment (by clicking “Take The Quiz,” which will open up a download link if you’re in another browser).
  • Is there an error opening the download? Be sure that you’re not on a firewall or that you don’t have anything blocking the download.
  • Is it saying that you don’t have permission to download? Be sure that you’re on a device that you own or that you have admin control over, as you won’t be able to download the browser otherwise. For example, campus or school computers will not let you download the program, as they require permissions to install the program.
  • Are you trying to download on an iPad? Confirm with your professor that the setting to allow iPad use is selected, as you won’t be able to download the app otherwise.
  • Are you seeing another error when installing the browser? There are a few errors that can pop up; what I recommend is writing down the error exactly as written, then going to Google and search for the error in quotes: (“like this”). So, you might search for “error” lockdown browser. This might bring up a help guide if you have, say, a screencasting tool on your computer that needs to be shut down before the browser can be used.

YuJa is a video tool that some professors may have to use to caption your videos. If this is the case, you should see a link to YuJa on your course menu:

YuJa link

Clicking on the link will bring you to a dashboard that looks like this:

YuJa screenshot, with a folder and part of the dashboard visible

This is the main YuJa page, accessed by clicking "YuJa" from the course menu. You will see all your media, which can be organized into folders and edited after uploading.

To use YuJa, here are some guides that can help with uploading, finalizing, and more.

Once you've enabled auto-captions from the Accessibility menu, you should this edit them to make sure they are accurate. You can do so by going to your video, then clicking "Edit" to go to the video editor. On the editor, turn on your captions with the Captioning button (captions button). Your captions will appear on a menu that looks like this:

YuJa caption editing screen, with example captions shown in screenshot

You can now edit your captions for typos and other inconsistencies!

Lastly, you can embed in Canvas by clicking here from the text editor screen:

Canvas Rich Text Editor with YuJa button outlined in red

Some professors may have you use Padlet. You can share songs from Spotify, YouTube videos, audio recordings, images, and text, and more!

Here is a guide on how to use Padlet as a student. You'll likely receive a link to go to another site to post, but it may also be embedded.

Educational Technology Librarian

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Jesika Brooks
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Contact:
Edens 214-B

Student Workshops

Click here to view a recording of the "Spot the Phish" workshop. 🐟🐟🐟

IT Help/Troubleshooting

If you need help with IT (such as fixing your e-mail login or troubleshooting ePrint), you can reach out to the IT Help Desk at (803) 786-3878 or visit directly in the library.