CIDI Newsletter, August 2025
August 2025 Newsletter
Welcome back to the 2025–2026 school year! Here are some updates on tools and services you may find useful.
Classroom Polling with Wooclap
The university is finalizing an institutional license with Wooclap, a tool for classroom polling and in-class quizzing that integrates with Canvas. This tool can replace iClicker, PollEverywhere, and similar tools that students have had to pay for. This Fall, Wooclap is available to all instructors and students to pilot free of charge. Plans are to continue providing it at no cost in the future, but we are approaching this term as a pilot because we are still finalizing the license and integrations, so there may be unexpected challenges.
Wooclap has many exciting features, including QR-code event joining, competitive mode, multiple question types (e.g., word clouds, open-ended, matching), AI question generation, Canvas integration, and a self-paced questionnaire mode.
To get started, go to https://wooclap.com, select Login, and then choose Sign In with SSO. Enter your A#@usu.edu email address and then click Continue with SSO. After you have completed the login process, you will be asked a few questions and your account will be created. For tutorials and templates, go to https://www.usu.edu/teach/help-topics/teaching-softwares/wooclap/.
We're offering two Wooclap workshops on August 28 at 10 am and 1 pm. Sign-up on the CIDI Teachnology Workshops page. More workshops will be added throughout the semester, so check back later if these dates don't work for you.
Notable Canvas Updates:
Discussion Checkpoints
Canvas discussions now include an option to set separate due dates and point values for initial discussion responses and follow-up posts. Enable this by checking Assign Graded Checkpoints when opting to make a discussion graded. Learn more about grading discussions with checkpoints. 
Files Page Redesign:
Canvas has released an improved Files page experience with better accessibility options, course folders that appear at the top of the list, and new sorting options (name, date created, last modified, modified by, and file size).
Engagement Tool Highlight: Delphinium
Delphinium is a Canvas plugin designed to increase student engagement in multiple ways, including:
- Customized layouts and reporting tools to support different course design methods and gamification.
- Powerful student tracking and messaging tools that allow instructors to pre-schedule outreach messages, reminders, and nudges.
You don't need to use the entire feature set to benefit from Delphinum. For example, you can use it just for the messaging and reporting tools or as a way of providing dashboards for students to see their progress.
Learn more about Delphinium and how it can help you at an upcoming Delphinium workshop, August 27 at 3 pm.
CIDI Partner Program: Aggie Ventures Initiative
This summer, CIDI announced its partnership with The Aggie Ventures Initiative (TAVI), a service that facilitates collaboration on real-world projects across courses, programs, and disciplines. We have found that faculty often have ideas for student projects that may require expertise from another program; however, reaching across program lines to create a collaborative effort can be daunting. TAVI focuses on network building and project-design support. Sign up to become a collaborator.
Fall CIDI Workshop Schedule
Fall workshops focus on AI in teaching, student engagement, using Canvas and other tools effectively, and more. Workshops are offered on Zoom at a variety of times. See the full workshop schedule for details and registration. We look forward to seeing you!
Contact CIDI
For on-demand support with teaching technologies, contact CIDI at cidi@usu.edu, via chat, or at 435.797.9506. Schedule an appointment with an instructional designer to get help making your courses more engaging, usable, and accessible. Also see CIDI's full list of workshops.