Teaching Resources

As a system-wide office, Academic Technology Support Services supports the UMN teaching mission in three areas: 

• Using technology to engage learners 
• Creating multimedia resources (examples of work) 
• Exploring new technologies (current focus is FeedbackFruits)

Contact Academic Technology Support Services to: 

• Schedule a consultation 
• Plan your future course re/design project 
• Make your course accessible 

Academic Technology Support Services publishes the Teaching with Technology monthly newsletter and the Extra Points blog.

The Bakken Center enriches health and wellbeing by providing interprofessional education, delivering innovative engagement programs, and advancing innovative models of care. 

Offerings include:

• A public-facing Wellbeing Series 
• Webinars
• A variety of mindfulness and other programs

Learn about good practices for creating course sites that are both usable and accessible to the widest range of students, including organizing content with:

• A landing page 
• Module layouts 
• A limited menu

CEI offers a variety of opportunities to deepen your learning and expand your practices on this topic and others. They include: 

• CEI list of Faculty and Instructor Programs
• CEI Teaching Resources 
• CEI Events Calendar (a schedule of upcoming professional development opportunities) 
• CEI newsletter (distributed monthly to subscribers)

The Digital Accessibility Badging Program teaches you how to create emails, slide decks, documents, and more in an accessible way, without using code. 

In each self-paced online workshop delivered via Training Nub and Canvas, you will learn skills and apply them to your everyday work.

The DRCs work with students, faculty/instructors, staff, and guests with disabilities to facilitate access and arrange reasonable accommodations. 

The centers also support University faculty, instructors and administrators to create more accessible and inclusive systems, processes, and learning environments.

ECHO is a program of 10 workshops. 

Participation in each workshop entails engagement in three learning activities: 

• Reading materials 
• Watching ​or listening to ​video​/audio​ clips
• Group ​Discussion participation via Canvas and Zoom 

These activities represent and reflect three ways to learn and grow in equity and diversity work:

• Intellectual learning
• Emotional processing
• Practicing skill 

The following professional development modules are required of faculty and instructors system-wide. Each module takes 20-25 minutes to complete via the Training Hub.

• Module 1: Understanding Disability and Reasonable Accommodations
• Module 2: Providing Reasonable Accommodations for Disability 
• Module 3: Inclusive Course Design

Comprising eight, 20-minute learning modules that are available to all UMN employees, the Mental Health Training provides essential skills for supporting the needs of today’s students. The series includes the following modules, which can be completed individually or in sequence. Module 1 is a prerequisite for the others. Visit the Training Hub to register for each module.

1. Student mental health on your campus - prerequisite module
2. Making effective referrals
3. Listening effectively to student mental health concerns
4. Responding appropriately to student mental health concerns
5. Situations of student suicidality
6. The impact of identity and oppression on student mental health
7. Beyond the individual: Promoting mental health for groups of students
8. Taking action to promote student mental health: Applied project

At the University of Minnesota, equity and diversity are advanced as “everyone’s everyday work” through both system-wide and campus-specific opportunities. 

Sign up for system-wide mailing lists to be notified of upcoming opportunities, and explore parallel resources and opportunities on your home campus:

• Crookston Office of Multicultural Education
• Duluth Office of Diversity and Inclusion
• Morris Office of Equity, Diversity, and Intercultural Programs
• Rochester Office of Diversity and Inclusion
• Twin Cities / Systemwide Office of Equity and Diversity

OTDP is a program of nine asynchronous online modules delivered via Training Hub and Canvas. Each module enables learners to develop appropriate online strategies and technology tools and apply them to their own courses. 

The modules are most fruitful when they relate to an online or blended course the learner can develop or revise using skills learned.

Learn about  effective practices that can reduce stress, improve mental health, and reduce the need for accommodations in this online document, the result of a collaboration between the Center for Educational Innovation and the President’s Initiative for Student Mental Health. 

It is organized into relevant policies, quick wins, and longer-term holistic approaches and includes recommendations for department/unit heads. 

Find lists resources, programs, and webinars, including resources that introduce skills to:

• Design Effective Learning Experiences
• Create Inclusive Learning Environments
• Assess Student Learning
• Reflect on, Evaluate, and Improve Teaching

The programs and webinars provide research-based and practical instructional support for developing accessible and inclusive courses and class sessions in face-to-face, online, and blended modalities.

Teaching Support resources and offerings are coordinated by four teaching and learning partners: 

• Academic Technology Support Services
• Center for Educational Innovation
• Disability Resource Center
• University Libraries

Through the Teaching Support website, faculty can request assistance through college and system campus support and find a monthly events calendar offering webinars, workshops, and self-paced courses. 

Many of the Teaching Support resources and offerings address current University priorities, including creating accessible and inclusive materials and learning environments.

The WEL Model identifies key goals toward enhancing student wellbeing across six dimensions and supplies a descriptive list of practices that contribute to each goal: 

• Health
• Relationships
• Security
• Purpose
• Community
• Environment 

Each practice is accompanied by three suggested strategies and examples that can be adapted to a particular course. The WEL Model toolkit is a guide to implementing the model.