Submitted by: Jennifer Brewer, jbrewer1@uca.edu on 08/20/2026

Top Hat Virtual Sessions: Walkthroughs & Drop-In Office Hours

With the Fall semester beginning, Top Hat is offering a series of virtual sessions to help you make the most out of the platform.

Two types of sessions will be offered:

• 20-minute walkthroughs on specific features (review the topics covered here)
• 90-minute drop-in office hours (open sessions for 1:1 faculty Q&A)

*Please note that these are not introductory webinars. If you are newer to Top Hat and would like information on getting started, visit .

Register below to receive the Zoom details:

Top Hat – Fall 2026 Enterprise Office Hours

Do you have a question about setting up your Top Hat course(s) ahead of the fall? Join a drop-in virtual Office Hour session!

Each session will run for 90 minutes. You can join at any time during the session, and we will admit instructors one by one to ask specific questions.

Office Hours will be offered at the following times and dates:

• August 20 between 3:00 – 4:30 pm ET
• August 25 between 10:00 – 11:30 am ET
• August 26 between 3:00 – 4:30 pm ET
• August 31 between 10:00 – 11:30 am ET
• September 3 between 3:00 – 4:30 pm
• September 9 between 10:00 – 11:30 am ET

Please register here to receive the Zoom link:

Top Hat – Fall 2026 Virtual Feature Walkthroughs

Ready to level up your course? Drop into Top Hat’s virtual feature walkthroughs! Join a targeted, 20-minute session designed to help you get the most out of Top Hat. All sessions take place at 1:00 PM ET.

Please review the topics and register to receive your Zoom link:

• LTI 1.3 Integration (D2L): August 25
• New Pages Editor & Content Enhancer: August 28 & September 10

 

Submitted by: Evan Faidley, efaidley@uca.edu on 08/19/2026

Curious about what internationalization looks like in your own teaching and research? The current era of globalization calls for higher education faculty and staff to connect learning to diverse perspectives and transformative experiences. Drawing on contemporary practices in internationalizing student learning (e.g., collaborative online international learning (COIL), global shared learning experiences, and the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals), our group will meet to discuss and develop opportunities for curriculum planning and collaborative research. Meetings alternate between reading/discussing internationalization of teaching/learning in various contexts and small-group work on research projects. We are happy to invite seasoned and new participants who are curious and excited about global learning!

Fall 2026 Meeting Dates: Tuesdays (9/1, 9/15, 9/29, 10/13, 10/27, 11/10, 12/1)
Time: 2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Location: 302 Torreyson West
Facilitators: Evan Faidley (Department of Leadership Studies) and Allison Freed (Department of Teaching & Learning)

Submitted by: Michael Mills, mmills@uca.edu on 08/14/2026

When we moved from Blackboard to Brightspace, we lost SafeAssign, the plagiarism checker many of you had built into your assignments. ÍøÆØÃÅ has now licensed iThenticate, a text-matching tool from Turnitin, and it is live and available to all faculty as of this month. You can sign in at using the Google single sign-on option with your ÍøÆØÃÅ credentials. There is no separate password to set up.

Before you dive in, a few things to know, because iThenticate does not work the way SafeAssign did:

– It is a separate website. It is not integrated with Brightspace and will not appear inside your courses.

– Nothing runs automatically. You upload a file yourself when you want it checked, so think of it as a tool you reach for rather than a net that catches everything.

– Students have no access and see no results.

– Past submissions from Blackboard did not carry over, so prior ÍøÆØÃÅ student work is not in the database. If you are trying to compare a paper against one from an earlier semester, use the doc-to-doc comparison feature and supply the earlier paper yourself.

– iThenticate will not flag AI-generated writing.

One important reminder: a similarity score tells you how much text matches other sources. It is not a plagiarism finding, and interpreting it is still your call.

Full instructions for signing in, uploading a document, and reading a Similarity Report are here: /researchcompliance/ithenticate/

Live training with Turnitin is set for Monday, September 8 at 12:30 p.m. on Zoom: . No registration needed. You do not have to wait for the training to start using the tool.

/researchcompliance/ithenticate/

Submitted by: Jennifer Brewer, jbrewer1@uca.edu on 08/13/2026

Fall classes are almost here. Is Brightspace still hanging out on your pre-semester to-do list?

Whether you need a guided introduction to Brightspace or just want someone to help you troubleshoot the one thing that isn’t working the way you expected, CETAL has options to help you get ready.

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Want a guided walkthrough? Choose Training.

Brightspace Introduction Training is a hands-on, two-hour workshop for faculty who are new to Brightspace or would like a refresher before the semester begins.

We’ll work through the essentials you need to prepare and manage your course, including:

• Organizing course content
• Creating assignments and quizzes
• Setting up and using the Gradebook
• Communicating with students
• Working with visibility, availability, and due dates

Tuesday, August 18

• 9:00–11:00 a.m.
• 1:00–3:00 p.m.
• 5:00–7:00 p.m.

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Have a question or need a second set of eyes? Choose Office Hours.

No registration. No two-hour commitment. Just bring your Brightspace question and drop in when it works for you.

CETAL Instructional Designers and IT’s Instructional Technology team will be available via Zoom to help with things like course setup, assignments, quizzes, grades, content organization, instructional tools, or those mysterious Brightspace moments when you’re pretty sure you clicked the right thing…but Brightspace disagrees.

Brightspace Virtual Office Hours
August 12–26 | 9:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.

Office hours will not be available Monday, August 17.

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Not sure which option you need?

That’s okay! Training is best for a guided introduction or refresher; Office Hours are best for specific questions or individual help with your course.

Let CETAL help you cross a few things off that pre-semester list before students arrive!

Learn more about Teaching with Brightspace