Pitt Information Technology — in conjunction with the University Center for Teaching and Learning — is pleased to introduce two new technologies that offer opportunities to increase communication, collaboration and feedback inside the classroom and online.

Blackboard Collaborate is an enhancement to CourseWeb (Blackboard Learn). Blackboard Collaborate provides accessible, mobile-friendly web conferencing directly through CourseWeb to help instructors engage and collaborate with their students. These web-conferencing capabilities let instructors:

• Share files, applications, whiteboards and video with easy-to-use tools.
• Use the hand-raising feature to track the order in which students ask questions.
• Create and record sessions in a mobile-friendly format.

Top Hat is a powerful class polling and student engagement tool that is now available to all University faculty and students at no cost. With Top Hat, instructors can quickly take attendance and engage students throughout lectures by asking them to respond to questions and discussion prompts using their own device.

Faculty who would like to learn more can view the Top Hat Quick Start Guide or contact the University Center for Teaching and Learning to discuss questions or schedule a one-on one consultation.