Teaching, Learning and Working Remotely
Ursinus College has a wide range of tools and services available to faculty, staff and students for teaching, learning, working and collaborating while off campus.
Teaching
Canvas is the College’s Learning Management System for use by faculty and students for coursework. It can be leveraged to teach online, with the capacity to present lectures, share materials, post to discussion boards, submit assignments, administer/take tests and quizzes, chat with students, and more.
Faculty and staff can consult the Designing an Online or Blended course for course design training resources and recommendations. They can use that space to discuss strategies and post questions to other faculty and staff. The Canvas Instructor Orientation course is available as well for Canvas instructions.
Faculty and staff can use Zoom or Teams to host and record synchronous sessions and Panopto to pre-record lectures and host their videos.
There are many instructional technology tools available to the Ursinus community. This tutorial can help you determine which instructional technology to integrate in your courses. For other helpful resources, see the Instructional Technology page.
For more information on how Research, Teaching & Learning Services in LIT can help, check out our Connections to Teaching & Learning page.
Canvas not enough?
Please contact Diane Skorina, Christine Iannicelli or Tech Support and we will help to find a solution!
Note that all Staff on campus have access to Canvas as well.
Student Learning
In addition to the tutorials listed above, there are a variety of resources available to students who are learning remotely.
- Consult the Canvas Student Orientation course for information on how to use Canvas to complete coursework.
- Consult the Zoom Conference Solution website for information on how to host and participate in Zoom meetings.
- Consult the Panopto website for information on how to view and create Panopto videos in Canvas.
- Consult the Office 365 website for information on how to access Microsoft applications online.
- To record presentations, you can use PowerPoint’s built-in recording feature or use a screencast/webcam recording program like Loom.
- Students who need access to statistical software can contact Tech Support for installation instructions or access this on Apporto, a virtual desktop environment.
- For information on additional tools that can be used for digital classroom projects, see the Instructional Technology page.
Students who are experiencing any issues or have questions about accessing technology and learning remotely should contact Tech Support. Students who are unsure what is expected of them in terms of coursework should contact their professors directly.
If you would like to meet virtually with a DLA Fellow to learn how to use academic technology such as video recording and editing tools, digital storytelling tools, web publishing, etc., use this form to sign up for an appointment: https://go.ursinus.edu/DLAFellow.
Collaboration
Teams, also known as Microsoft Teams, is increasingly used across the campus and provides collaboration tools such as chat, team chat, file sharing, phone calls, video calls, and screen sharing. Teams is most commonly used by staff and can also be used by faculty and students to collaborate and meet virtually. Zoom is also a secondary option available for phone conference meetings and/or webinar type situations.
E-mail and Calendar
Ursinus College e-mail and personal calendars are accessible via the Microsoft Outlook web e-mail client from any device.
Office 365
Use Office 365 to work remotely, collaborate on files with coworkers and students, and communicate with other members of the Ursinus community. Office 365 allows you to access familiar Microsoft applications like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint along with powerful cloud-based tools like OneDrive, Teams, and Stream (video hosting).
Library Resources
The Library Catalog (OneSearch) is available from off-campus, anywhere with an internet connection, and allows you to search not only our entire print collection, but most of our thousands of electronic resources. We provide access to 31,000 journals and newspapers, 450,000 e-books, and 70,000+ streaming videos. Our complete list of databases and e-resource collections is found on Databases A-Z.
You can login to your library account to view and renew items you’ve checked out. You can also create interlibrary loan requests for electronic articles that will be delivered virtually.
Students and Faculty members can reach a librarian for help from off-campus. Someone will get back to you within 24-hours during Monday-Friday.
Visit our guide on Library Resources & COVID-19 to learn about open access resources, subscription resources with expanded coverage, news and information regarding the pandemic, and information about copyright and fair use.
Phone Services
To forward your Ursinus College office phone to a cell phone, please follow the instructions on the remote phone extension assignment page.
Additional information is also available on managing your Ursinus phone number.
Okta
Okta is an application hub for many Ursinus College web applications. After logging into Okta, you have quick access to Office 365, E-mail, Canvas, Colleague Self-Service and several other applications.
Shared Drives (S-Drive)
If you are using an Ursinus owned laptop, you can access the S-Drive once you successfully connect to the Ursinus College VPN.
The Web Version of S-Drive is available from any off-campus computer when connected to the Ursinus College VPN.
VPN - Accessing On Campus Resources
A small number of on campus resources require connecting to the Ursinus College VPN for them to be accessible. The Remote Connections and VPN page provides more information on connecting and using the VPN.