What’s New With Top Hat: Elevating Engagement and Efficiency with AI
Top Hat will be hosting several sessions for VCU faculty to help start off the Fall semester! Details below. What’s New With Top Hat: Elevating Engagement and Efficiency with AIThursday, August 13th at 3pm Eastern Time In today’s diverse educational landscape, the challenge for educators isn’t just delivering content—it’s sparking genuine engagement, saving valuable time, […]
Central Classroom Aspect Ratio Update
On July 14, 2026 the Media Support Services Classroom Support team will begin updating our standard projection format for the Podium PC from 16:10 to 16:9 in the central classrooms across VCU. We will be completing these updates in time for the Fall 2026 semester. Why the change?When originally adopted, the 16:10 format provided a little extra vertical space on classroom screens, […]
Sign-In with Email! (and don’t forget to sign-out)
This summer the VCU Instructional Computing Services team will be transitioning ALL centrally-managed classroom computers to a new endpoint management platform called Microsoft Intune. While this change involves the team reinstalling the Windows 11 operating system on every computer, it also means some changes to the way you will need to sign-in. For more information […]
Top Hat Summer Camp: The Curiosity-Driven Classroom
In the age of AI, the real challenge isn’t getting answers from students. It’s getting them to engage and think. Join us for the 2026 edition of Top Hat Summer Camp, a two-part webinar series focused on designing learning experiences that drive curiosity, participation, and deeper thinking. Grounded in three core pillars—mattering, participating, and thinking—you’ll […]
Have an Excellent Summer!
Greetings Faculty, I know you’re all looking forward to some well deserved summertime rest and relaxation. Before you completely unplug for the summer, we wanted to quickly remind you to take a moment to respond to our Central Classroom Technology Survey and let us know how our systems worked for you this semester. Most responders complete […]
Canvas Cyber Security Incident
Instructure confirmed that Canvas is back up and running. VCU Technology Services is continuing to check the VCU Canvas instance for integrity issues. While Canvas is currently available, users are advised to exercise caution and avoid clicking unknown links or downloading unrecognized files. Please contact [email protected] if you discover any suspicious files, messages, and/or links […]
Spring Classroom Technology Faculty Survey
If you taught in one of our Central Classrooms this semester, we need to hear from you! Please take a few minutes to fill out our survey linked below. Spring 2026 Central Classroom Technology Faculty Survey
Top Hat Training – January 2026
Do you have a question about setting up your Top Hat course(s) for Spring? Join one of Top Hat’s drop-in virtual Office Hour sessions! Each session will run for 90 minutes – feel free to join anytime! Participants will be admitted one-by-one to ask questions individually. The dates are: Please register here to receive the […]
Fall 2025 Central Classroom Faculty Survey
If you teach in one of our central classrooms, we would love to get your thoughts on how the technology is working for you. Please take a few moment to respond to our survey in the link below. Fall 2025 Central Classroom Faculty Survey
Canvas Training for Students
VCU Academic Technologies will host three live, online 30-minute overviews of Canvas for students during Weeks of Welcome. Students will learn how to login and navigate Canvas to complete class assignments, projects, and more. Join us on August 20, 27, or September 3. For more information and to register, visit https://vcu.campusgroups.com/Tech/CanvasTraining in VCU RamsConnect. Also, […]