EMC Initiatives, Events, and Workshops

Name: Canva PLC
Start: 2025-05-14
End: 2026-03-12
Location: Online

The Educational Media Center (EMC) is involved in campus initiatives and offers professional development opportunities to employees for using educational technologies and media.

Upcoming Events and Workshops

14 May 2025 - 12 March 2026

Canva PLC

Online

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18 February 2026 - 27 March 2026

Leeward Lamakū: Course Starter PLC

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No event found!

Current Initiatives

Some of the current initiatives the EMC is working on include:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) – The EMC is exploring generative AI tools and how they can be leveraged to improve teaching, learning, and work. Register for our upcoming workshops.
Distance Education (DE) for Instructors – The EMC supports DE by partnering with instructors to create online courses aligned to quality standards, create media for online courses, and recommend appropriate technologies to support teaching and learning. Request a consultation with an Instructional Designer.
Lamakū – Lamakū is UH’s official learning management system (LMS). The EMC Instructional Design (ID) Unit supports instructors using Lamakū to create courses that meet quality standards. Visit our Leeward Lamakū website for professional development opportunities and resources.
The Reading Room – “The Reading Room” is an ongoing Open Educational Resource (OER) video series, a collaborative project between host Ann Inoshita and the EMC Video Production Unit. It offers valuable insights into the writing process through conversations with various local authors and poets.
Technology Enhanced Classrooms (TECs) – The EMC AV Services Unit manages the TECs, the campus’ standard technology classroom, and maintenance cycle for upkeep.

Recurring Events and Workshops

The EMC offers a few recurring events and workshops, most of which happen at the beginning of the semester for new hires or anyone needing a refresher.

Lamakū Challenge – Lamakū is the University of Hawaii’s online learning management system (LMS). You can use Lamakū to organize class materials, streamline communication with your students (including feedback on assignments and grades), reduce paper use, and increase student engagement for your classes. In this interactive challenge, you will learn how to use Laulima’s basic tools so you can set up your courses for the upcoming semester. This workshop is offered at the beginning of each semester.
Leeward Lamakū: Course Starter PLC – This six-week Professional Learning Community (PLC) is designed to support your transition to—or improvement of—a course in the new Lamakū Learning Management System (LMS). You’ll explore how to: build course components from scratch using the Course Starter Template (CST) and Leeward Templates, revise migrated content, and combine these approaches to meet the unique needs of your course. This workshop is currently being offered every semester.
Tech It Out Day – Join us for Tech It Out Day and explore how technology can enhance teaching and learning. “Test drive” a variety of technology tools, network with your peers, and celebrate the start of a new semester! This event is offered at the beginning of every Fall semester.
Technology Enhanced Classroom (TEC) Orientation – A Technology Enhanced Classroom (TEC) is the campus’ standard for a technology classroom. The TEC model features a modular design that can be adapted as needs change, offering bright projection, enhanced room audio, centralized control, a standardized user-friendly control panel, the ability to connect your laptop, and more. The TEC Orientation introduces you to its technology and how to use it and explores new opportunities for enhancing your teaching in a TEC. This orientation is offered at the beginning of each semester.

Previously Offered Initiatives, Events, and Workshops

Although no longer actively offered, these initiatives, events, and workshops were previously offered by the EMC and serve as great resources.

INACTIVE

Course Design

Leeward DE Course R&R: Re(design) & Review – The ID Unit piloted a course design program with three cohorts over three semesters in 2022-2023. Instructors were guided through the course design and development process to create a high-quality DE course that was “RFD” or “Reviewed for Delivery”—meaning, a course that aligned with our Leeward CC DE Guidelines and passed a “Course Review.”

Syllabus

Standard Syllabus Makeover Challenge, Part 1 – Creating a course syllabus and making it available to students is an essential instructional responsibility. Often, the syllabus gives students the first impression about what to expect from a course. In this workshop, you will create a standard (accessible) syllabus or update your current one so it is accessible and incorporates UDL principles.
Video • Slides
Visual Syllabus Makeover Challenge, Part 2 – Creating an interactive syllabus activity paired with a visual syllabus can help your students learn about the course requirements and get them excited about what they will learn. In this workshop, you will create a syllabus activity and give your syllabus a “makeover” into a visual syllabus.
Video • Slides

UDL and Accessibility

Universal Design for Learning: Inclusivity for All – Information and resources to learn why and how to create accessible documents, media, and websites.
Captioning Online Videos with YouTube – A workshop that provides the basics on captioning videos in YouTube.
Workshop recording • Presentation
Making Online Documents Accessible – A workshop that provides a foundational overview of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and how Web Accessibility fits into the overall UDL framework. It also provides some basic web accessibility practices for text and images. This workshop is now available as a resource you can review on your own.
Workshop recording (Transcript and Transcript with images) • Slides

INACTIVE

LMS / Lamakū

Mission: Lamakū Transition – In 2024-2025, the ID Unit facilitated a year-long initiative to support instructors migrating from Laulima to UH’s new LMS, Lamakū (D2L by Brightspace), and using Lamakū to design and deliver their courses in Spring 2025.

OER

Open Educational Resources (OER) – In a collaborative effort led by the EMC and Library in 2015, Leeward continues to lead in OER adoption systemwide. During its peak in 2018-2019, the ID Unit collaborated with the Library and instructors to develop OER course materials and online courses. We continue to partner with interested instructors in OER.