BC Law Ed Tech Newsletter Spring Preparation 2026

BC Law Ed Tech Spring Training Workshop Schedule

AI for Meaningful Work: A Hands-On Workshop Series

We’re excited to announce a week of practical, low-stakes AI workshops designed for all comfort levels. If you spend your day thinking, writing, planning, organizing, or supporting others, we’re confident you’ll walk away with something useful from this series.

These workshops focus on AI fluency through doing : how to communicate clearly with AI, iterate quickly, keep human agency, and treat AI as a flexible, collaborative, and intelligent interface that we can adapt to our needs in the moment. We’ll primarily use Google Gemini and NotebookLM (BC-supported), with occasional examples from other tools (e.g., Claude/ChatGPT) as helpful comparisons.

Logistics

• Format : short lesson / Q&A + hands-on lab time + debrief
• Bring : a laptop or mobile device to participate live (feel free to come analog and take notes)
• Recordings & Resources : posted after each session on the Ed Tech Workshops page .
• (Optional) Registration : Please use this form to collect pre-workshop questions

The Lineup:

Canvas Quickstart Guide

For those making final preparations to their Canvas sites, our Canvas Quick-Start Guide on the BC Law Ed Tech Blog provides a great overview. Generally, you will follow these steps to get your course ready for the semester:

• Prepare the new semester’s Canvas site.
• If you’ve taught the course before, you’ll start by importing previous course materials .
• If this is a new course, you can start from scratch or use one of the premade Law School Templates .
• Update the syllabus page to include the current semester’s information.
• Make any necessary updates to other course materials or assignments.
• Publish all content you want your students to see.
• Finally, publish your course to make it available to students.

Communicating With Your Students

You have two primary options for sending messages to your entire class roster.

Emailing Your Entire Class

ITS creates and maintains Campus Group email lists for all courses. This is a straightforward way to send an email to all enrolled students. You can review the documentation on how to use Campus Groups here. You can also find specific instructions for the mailing list naming convention here.

Using Canvas Announcements

As an alternative to email, you can use the Announcements tool in Canvas. The added benefit is that an announcement automatically sends an email to all students and posts a notice at the top of your course’s Canvas homepage.

• Learn how to add an announcement in your course.
• If you plan to post frequently, you may want to limit the number of recent announcements that appear on your homepage to keep it tidy. A good starting point is to limit visible announcements to 2-3 at a time.

Panopto Lecture Capture Reminders

Panopto is our media management platform here at Boston College. It allows you to easily create or upload recordings of lectures or presentations, including audio, video, and screen content, which can then be shared with your students via Canvas.

If your course is scheduled in a room equipped with lecture capture , and you would like to make your lectures available via Panopto, please use the form below to schedule one-off or semester-long recordings for your courses.

• Schedule Recordings: You can submit your requests through the Lecture Capture Request Form .
• One-Off Events: For special events or recordings outside of regularly scheduled courses, please contact Newton MTS, mtsnewt@bc.edu, for assistance.
• Need Help? If you are unsure about the scheduling process or have questions about Panopto, please reach out to ATR, atrinbox@bc.edu, for support.

Key Reminders:

• Opt-In Required: Lecture capture is an opt-in service; recordings are not scheduled automatically.
• Processing Time: Please allow 24-48 hours for your scheduling requests to be processed.
• Publishing Videos: By default, recordings are hidden from students. You must publish them in your Canvas course site for students to view them.

For comprehensive details on scheduling, managing permissions, and publishing your videos, please review our guide to lecture capture at BC Law.

Namecoach Rosters

BC Law uses Namecoach for student profile information, including name recordings, phonetic spelling, preferred names, and pronouns. Faculty can find a link to their course’s Namecoach roster in Canvas. A module titled “Namecoach Spring 2026” will be rolling out by Friday, January 9th containing a direct link.

• Find Your Roster: Look for the Namecoach module in your Canvas courses. You can publish this module to make it available to students.
• Edit Your Profile: To edit your own name pronunciation, please go directly to name-coach.com . You can use your original invite link to log in automatically.
• No Invite Link? If you cannot find your original invite, you can use the password reset option with your BC email (username@bc.edu) to access your account.

For New Users

If you are new to Namecoach, please fill out this form to request an account . You can read more about the roots of the initiative here if you’re interested.

Zoom Reminders

Zoom is one of Boston College’s remote meeting tools that enables you to connect and collaborate with your colleagues, students, and guests. Whether you need to host a class, a meeting, a webinar, or a social event, Zoom can help you create an engaging and interactive experience.

If you plan on using Zoom for the spring semester please review the documentation for the most common Zoom questions and features on the Ed Tech website.

CTE Training Opportunities

Teaching & Tech Fundamentals

Registration is now open for the CTE’s suite of Teaching & Tech Fundamentals workshops , offered via Zoom the first full week of January. Find full descriptions and registration information at the links below, and reach out to centerforteaching@bc.edu with any questions.

• Intro to Canvas | Monday, January 5, 10:30 – 12:00
• Building Your Lesson Planning Toolkit | Monday, January 5, 1:00 – 2:30
• Cultivating Metacognition to Empower Learners | Tuesday, January 6, 10:30 – 12:00
• Tech Tools for Integrity | Tuesday, January 6, 1:00 – 2:30
• Tech Drop In | Wednesday, January 7, 10:30 – 12:00
• Developing GenAI Policies for Your Class | Wednesday, January 7, 1:00 – 2:30
• Transparency for More Fair & Effective Grading | Thursday, January 8, 10:30 – 12:00
• Tech Drop In | Thursday, January 8, 1:00 – 2:30

Course Prep Conversations

Given the tighter timing of the 2026 winter break, the CTE is trying out a “lite” version of our biannual Course Prep Retreat program . Every day during the week of January 5th, we’ll host a late afternoon gathering on Zoom (from 3:00 – 4:30), where you’ll have the chance to get feedback on courses-in-progress from colleagues.

Each conversation will be loosely organized around a different course element, so you can choose the conversation(s) that are most relevant to you:

• Monday, Jan 5: Refining course priorities
• Tuesday, Jan 6: Designing major assessments and projects
• Wednesday, Jan 7: Planning for the AI context
• Thursday, Jan 8: Course structure and scaffolding
• Friday, Jan 9: Syllabus design and course policies

Learn more and register for the Conversations on the CTE’s website. Please register by Wednesday, December 31.