Looking to refresh your assessments in Canvas? New Quizzes is the platform’s next-generation tool, designed to make building and delivering quizzes more flexible, interactive, and insightful—and it’s a feature option you can enable right within your course. With new question types like categorization and stimulus-based prompts, plus cleaner workflows and improved analytics, it opens up new possibilities for engaging students and understanding their learning.
If you’re used to Classic Quizzes, you’ll find New Quizzes feels familiar—but with more room to experiment. Classic Quizzes is still a solid, straightforward option, and contains features like anonymous surveys that are still missing in New Quizzes, but New Quizzes is where Canvas is investing for the future. If you’re curious about new ways to design assessments or want deeper insight into student performance, it’s definitely worth turning it on and giving it a try. Contact Brandon Bucy or Helen MacDermott with your New Quizzes questions (or really any of your Canvas questions!).
Attention faculty: are you looking for a way to manage attendance in your classes? The Roll Call Attendance tool in Canvas provides instructors with a simple way to track student attendance directly within your course site. With just a few clicks, faculty can mark students as present, absent, or late for each class meeting. The tool automatically records attendance and can calculate a running attendance score that appears in the course gradebook if you choose to use it. Because it is built directly into Canvas, Roll Call Attendance helps streamline record-keeping and makes it easy for you to monitor participation and identify patterns in student attendance throughout the term.
Want to learn more? Need assistance activating Roll Call Attendance in your course? Contact Brandon Bucy today!
High-quality audio is one of the most important elements of professional-looking video production. Whether you are recording a lecture, creating instructional content, producing interviews, or assigning video projects for your classes, clear and consistent sound makes a significant difference in how your and your students’ work is perceived and understood.
To support high quality academic video production across the Washington and Lee University community, the Harte Center offers a selection of professional audio equipment that faculty, staff, and students can request for use in their projects. These tools are well-suited for a wide range of recording environments and experience levels, helping elevate the production quality of your videos without requiring specialized audio expertise.
Available Audio Equipment
We currently maintain the following audio gear, all available for request:
Sennheiser Shotgun Microphones (8 available)
Shotgun microphones are ideal for capturing focused, high-quality dialogue while minimizing background noise. They are commonly used for interviews, lectures, and narrative-style video recordings where clean, directional audio is essential.
RODE Wireless GO II Microphone Sets (8 available)
These wireless systems provide a compact, wireless solution for recording clear audio without restricting movement. These are especially useful for presenters who need hands free, or for interviews or film scenes requiring audio capture from two speakers at the same time. They are well-suited for both indoor and outdoor recording scenarios.
Sennheiser Boom Pole Sets (8 available)
Our boom pole sets allow microphones to be positioned just out of frame, providing professional-quality sound capture while keeping the focus on the subject. Boom poles are commonly used in interviews, demonstrations, and film scenes.
Boom Pole Stands (8 available)
For situations where holding a boom pole is not practical, boom pole stands offer stable, hands-free microphone placement. These stands are particularly helpful for longer recordings, panel discussions, or static interview setups.
Audio-Technica Studio Monitor Headsets (8 available)
Monitoring audio during recording is critical to ensuring clean sound. Our studio monitor headsets allow you to listen in real time, catch issues early, and ensure consistent audio quality throughout your project.
Supporting Professional Academic Video Production
All of this equipment is available to support professional-looking video production projects for academics and students across the W&L community. To request audio equipment or learn more about availability and usage guidelines, please contact Senior Academic Technologist Brandon Bucy via email at bucyb@wlu.edu. We are happy to help you determine which tools best fit your project and ensure you have what you need for a successful recording.
Join Senior Academic Technologists Brandon Bucy and Helen MacDermott for bite-sized training sessions designed to boost your tech confidence and efficiency.
Each week, we’ll spotlight one tool, tip, or feature from platforms you use every day—like: Canvas, Qualtrics, Word, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Express …and more!
💡 What to Expect:
A single, focused tip or feature
Live demo and walkthrough
Time for questions and discussion
Whether you’re streamlining workflows or discovering hidden features, these short sessions are designed to fit your schedule and elevate your tech game.
