Quarterly Newsletter - October 2023

Hello and Happy Halloween from the team at Cidi Labs! There’s nothing spooky about this edition of the newsletter, so read on for loads of treats including upcoming events and new resources that will help you get the most from your Cidi Labs tools!

Events

Cidi Labs Joint Webinar with the Online Learning Consortium:
Designing an Exemplary Learning Experience

November 28th at 12pm MT / 2pm ET

OLC logo

Did you know that OLC uses DesignPLUS and UDOIT to design the exemplary courses that are part of their Center for Professional Learning? Join this webinar to learn more about OLC’s process for designing these exemplary online learning experiences and catch a glimpse of the course template they have designed to maximize engagement in their workshops.

In Case You Missed It: Design Matters Webinar

In our best-attended webinar to date, Cidi Labs brought together research and action to focus on the why behind design decisions made when building a Canvas course. Now you can access the recording to see how we used Universal Design for Learning principles, and research on cognitive load, student engagement, retention, and persistence to share what design decisions can make a positive impact on your students’ success, and how to use tools from Cidi Labs to implement these research-based practices.

Congratulations to our Theme Contest Winners!

In September, we held a DesignPLUS Creative Theme Contest, which resulted in a number of entries that we are excited to add to the new DesignPLUS Sidebar over time for all to enjoy. Check out the winning themes and entries that we will draw inspiration from here.
Do you have page templates, content blocks, snippets, themes, or other amazing things you’ve styled with DesignPLUS that you’d like to share with the Cidi Labs customer community? We’re currently gathering contributions for a new offering that we’ll be launching soon (tentatively called the DesignPLUS Lab!) to allow you to share and download elements created in DesignPLUS that you can bring into your own courses! Stay tuned for more info coming soon, and in the meantime you can submit your contributions here.

Upcoming In-Person Events

Here are the events we’ll be participating in through the end of the year, we hope to see you there!

November 2023

December 2023

  • ASCILITE: 3-6 at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand
  • DET/CHE: 6-8 in Anaheim, California

Product Updates & New Resources

October Product Releases

Throughout this month, we announced maintenance releases for each of our products. For more details, check out the Release Notes:

DesignPLUS Release Notes (🌟Pro tip: you can also view the release notes within the new Sidebar in the Help / Tutorials area!)
Cidiscape Release Notes
UDOIT Release Notes
TidyUP Release Notes
ReadyGO Release Notes

Customizations with New DesignPLUS Sidebar

During our Customer Day earlier this month, we provided an overview of the DesignPLUS Customizations Course that allows you to create templates and styles at the account level that can be easily inserted into or applied to course content. Watch this segment of the session recording to learn more about how you can put these powerful capabilities to use at your institution!

In addition to customizations at the account level, did you know that you can create course-level customizations? The DesignPLUS User Guide now provides instructions for accessing Customization Pages in the Canvas Commons that you can pull into your course to create any of the following customizations:

List of elements that can be created using Customizations in a course
Do you have Legacy Customizations (created in the Legacy Design Tools Primary Customizations Course) that you want to use with the new Sidebar? Check out our new Knowledge Base article and videos that show you how, step by step.

DesignPLUS Version Switching Overview

Did you know that once you install the new DesignPLUS Sidebar, you have a number of options to enable designated users to switch between the legacy version and the new version? In this video, Kenneth walks you through the different options for version switching, which can be configured to best support your approach to the transition.

Cidiscape Install Video

The Cidiscape Installation Guide (US) has been updated with a step-by-step video of the installation process, making it easier than ever to get started with Cidiscape – our FREE add-on reporting tool.

Connect With Us Online

Don’t forget to connect with Cidi Labs through one of our many social channels to stay up to date with events, news, and our community.
Follow us online!
Wishing you more treats than tricks, – The Team at Cidi Labs
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