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September 2025 Newsletter

“All of the months are crude experiments, out of which the perfect September is made.” – Virginia Woolf
We hope you’ve had a perfect September and are now preparing for the harvest season to yield an abundance of good things, just like this Newsletter 😊

Product Updates

New and Improved Columns Tool in DesignPLUS

The newly updated Columns tool now delivers a cleaner, more powerful way to create responsive, side-by-side layouts for your course content. With the new Columns tool, you can easily:

  • Set up layouts faster with a redesigned, more intuitive interface.
  • Adjust borders, corner radius, and colors across all columns with full row styling controls.
  • Align and space content more precisely with grid-based design options.
  • Customize column layouts for desktops, tablets, or mobile devices with screen-size targeting.


    For more information, check out the updated Columns Tool page in the User Guide.

⚠️ Are You Still Using the Legacy DesignPLUS Sidebar?

As a reminder, the Legacy Sidebar sunset date is December 31st, 2025. To learn more about what this means, please read this important KnowledgeBase article: What can we expect after the DesignPLUS Legacy Sidebar sunset date?

New Reports in UDOIT: Student Alternate Format Activity

Two new reports in UDOIT – available at both the course and admin levels – display the number and type of alternate files that students are generating and downloading by using the Student Access feature. Read more about these reports in the UDOIT User Guide.

UDOIT Admin report showing a bar chart with the number and type of files students have generated

Recent Releases

For details on September’s product releases, please refer to the respective Release Notes:
  • DesignPLUS Release Notes – New and improved Columns tool
  • UDOIT Release Notes – Enhanced Kaltura integration, new summary file information, Student Access reports, and column management for UDOIT Admins
  • Cidiscape Release Notes – Improved display of instructor information Also, joining our Customer Community on Slack is a great way to get notified as soon as product updates are released!

Webinars You Don't Want to Miss

Big Wins In 30 Mins:
Mission Control for Course Quality
October 14th at 12pm MT

You’ve got big goals for course quality–but how do you best align all the people, information, and work involved to do it at scale? In this efficient 30-minute session, we’ll walk through a real-world scenario of how instructional designers, faculty, and academic leadership can collaborate seamlessly to scale course quality and track progress with ease, all from within Canvas.

You’ll see how ReadyGO from Cidi Labs acts as your mission control—giving you the data, communication tools, and task management needed to support quality initiatives across your institution. Whether you’re planning a quality refresh, launching a new template, or wrangling course updates, this session will show you how to coordinate, communicate, and confidently deliver results. Talk about a big win!

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Mythbusting…Accessible Courses Need Not Be Boring! October 21st at 12pm MT

Think you need to limit or avoid interactivity, multimedia, and other engaging design elements in order to make your courses accessible? Then join us, along with our friends from the Online Learning Consortium, as we tackle that myth head-on and flip the script on accessibility, showcasing how inclusive design can enhance course design, not limit it. In this exciting webinar, the Cidi Labs and OLC teams will debunk common myths about accessible course design and explore how thoughtful accessibility strategies can actually lead to clearer, more effective, and more engaging learning experiences for everyone. You’ll see how Cidi Labs tools help you create dazzling and accessible Canvas courses, with practical design ideas that are not only inclusive but also interactive, visually appealing, and fun to build!
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In Case You Missed It: Finding Your ‘Why’ to Motivate Action

Instructors’ plates are often full just delivering course content and monitoring student progress. Adding accessibility work to an already overflowing plate can leave educators wondering whether the effort is worth it. Join us for an immersive experience designed to demonstrate why accessibility matters for learners. Once equipped with deeper understanding, you’ll see how Cidi Labs tools help turn that knowledge into action, making it easy for anyone to remediate issues and impact Canvas course accessibility without specialized expertise. Whether you’re an administrator or designer hoping to empower instructors or an educator looking for your ‘why,’ this session will provide a memorable experience and practical strategies for moving the needle on course accessibility.
Watch Recording

Cidi Labs on the Road: Where Will We See You?

The Cidi Labs team will be attending several in-person events in October. If you’re going to be there, please stop by our booth to say hello and get some cool swag!

  • Virtual Learning Leadership Alliance (VLLA): Sept 29th-Oct 1st in Charlotte, NC
  • ATXpo: Oct 6th in San Jose, CA
  • ITEC: Oct 13-14the in Des Moines, IA
  • ALCUG 2025: Oct 17th in Shelby, AL
  • California Community Colleges Chief Instructional Officers (CCCCIO) Fall: Oct 20-24th in Irvine, CA

May October bring you a harvest of great course designs.

~ The Cidi Labs Team

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