UC Davis Information and Educational Technology (IET) put together a list of services and updates intended to support you this academic year. Check the Service Catalog for an exhaustive list of technology services.
New faculty members can get up to speed on standard campus technology, such as email, Wi-Fi, and Duo multi-factor authentication in the Technology Onboarding Checklist for New Staff and Faculty Knowledge Base article.
Enhance Your Courses with Ally in UC Davis Canvas
Ally is an accessibility tool integrated into UC Davis Canvas to enhance the accessibility of online course content. Instructors receive private accessibility scores and actionable guidance for their course materials. Students can download course files in alternative formats (e.g., audio) that best support their individual learning preferences.
Ally guidance is aligned with current accessibility standards and downloadable alternative formats for course materials support Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Read New Accessibility Tool for Instructors: Ally in UC Davis Canvas Launches 9/2, for more information.
Your Digital Accessibility Checklists
Before you share content with students and others, there are six essential steps to improve digital accessibility. From using built-in heading styles and sufficient color contrast, the course materials accessibility checklist is a great place to start.
Visit the Digital Accessibility website for more step-by-step instructions to make campus websites, videos and recordings more inclusive.
Reserve the eLearning Studio
The eLearning Studio is a place for instructors to record lessons, lectures and other video course materials with high-quality lighting, sound and green-screen technology. Located centrally on campus in Surge II, the studio is open to instructors with varying technical skill levels. Learn more about eLearning Studio and how to book a session from Elevating Instruction with the Improved eLearning Studio.
Play YouTube videos through AggieVideo
Need to show a YouTube video to your students, but don’t want to deal with ads? You can now play YouTube videos through AggieVideo, UC Davis' video content management platform, and go ad-free. When you add a YouTube video to AggieVideo, free machine captions are automatically created and can be edited within the AggieVideo Caption Editor. Find instructions in the How do I add a YouTube video to AggieVideo? Knowledge Base article.
UC Davis Digital Lab for Students
Share this information with your students: the UC Davis Digital Lab allows students to access course-required software from anywhere at any time, leveraging their own device(s) at no additional cost. This virtual computer lab saves students time—allowing them to work or study from any location. Students can choose between the General or Enhanced Digital Labs, depending on their computing needs. Find available software, FAQs and login via the UC Davis Digital Lab webpage.
Phishing Scams
As phishing scams target higher education institutions, remember the signs of phishing and take the following steps to protect yourself and our community. Phishing is a form of cyber fraud where attackers impersonate trusted sources to trick you into disclosing personal and/or financial information.
- Log in to UCPath (https://ucpath.ucdavis.edu/) and confirm your direct deposit information. It's best to type in the correct URL instead of depending on search results as they can be hijacked.
- Keep your password/passphrase, login information and authentication codes private. Do not share them via phone, text or email with anyone.
- Deny Duo (multi-factor authentication) requests you did not initiate or are not expecting.
- Use your UC Davis email only for university matters. Use a separate email for personal matters.
- Report suspicious messages to [email protected] (UC Davis campus) or [email protected] (UC Davis Health).
- If you believe your information has been compromised, contact:
- IT Express for UC Davis campus at 530-754-HELP (4357), Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. - 6 pm. PST.
- Technology Operations Center for UC Davis Health at 916-734-HELP (4357), 24 hours 7 days a week.
Learn more from Don’t Take the Bait: Aggies’ Guide to Phishing.
Try Campus Approved AI Tools Through Aggie AI
Aggie AI is UC Davis’ growing ecosystem of artificial intelligence (AI) tools and services, designed and curated especially for students, faculty and staff. This AI service hub enables the UC Davis community to explore, learn, use, and even develop AI tools securely and responsibly. Explore the Aggie AI tools and review the campus AI guidance and learning resources.
Rocky AI Chat
Rocky AI Chat is designed to be an expert on all things UC Davis. It’s available to UC Davis and UC Davis Health students, faculty and staff at no cost. Just log in with your university credentials. Explore use cases and find FAQs on the Rocky AI Chat webpage.
Rocky AI in UC Davis Canvas
Rocky is also available in UC Davis Canvas. Instructors decide if, what, and when Rocky can reference content in their UC Davis Canvas courses. By centering faculty control, Rocky remains an optional supplement to instruction that prioritizes instructors’ learning goals and the student experience. Learn more in the article, Introducing Rocky AI in UC Davis Canvas: 24-7 Instructor and Student Support.
New Tiered Subscriptions for ChatGPT Edu
ChatGPT Edu is a version of ChatGPT designed specifically for higher education, featuring Deep Research, Codex, and image generation. UC Davis campus faculty and staff can request ChatGPT Edu subscriptions through the Service Catalog. Review our new license tiers to determine what best meets your needs. A departmental Aggie Enterprise Chart String must be used to purchase an annual subscription. Find features, options, FAQ, and learning resources on the ChatGPT Edu webpage.
Know What’s on the Horizon
The AI Steering Committee submitted its Implementation Plan, Governance Framework, and Recommendations to Chancellor May earlier this summer. Led jointly by Academic Senate Chair Katheryn Russ and Chief Information and Digital Strategy Executive Aisha Jackson, the report proposes:
- A new Artificial Intelligence Oversight Committee (AIOC) to serve as the standing governance body for AI tool evaluation, approval and ongoing oversight.
- An AI Risk Classification Framework: Lower-risk tools (Tier 1) can be self-attested by a unit head, while tools touching more sensitive data or higher-impact decisions (Tier 2) require full AIOC review.
- A public campus AI inventory of approved tools, and a proposed AI Use Policy setting baseline expectations for anyone using AI in academic, research, administrative or clinical work.
The Tier 1 Attestation Form and Tier 2 Intake Form are expected to launch soon. Once published, this will be the process for requesting a review of new AI tools.
Complete Mandatory Trainings
Are you up-to-date on your UC Davis mandatory training requirements in the UC Learning Center? UC Davis employees (academics, faculty, staff, and student employees) must complete training modules assigned to them by their due date. For campus employees, completion is required for the UC Cyber Security Awareness Fundamentals to retain access to core digital services.
Review Your Email Lists
This fall, to remain compliant with the updated policy on mailing lists or listservs:
- Know the email lists that you own. Go to https://lists.ucdavis.edu. For lists that you own, you will see ADMIN next to the list name.
- Keep only the lists that you need and actively use. Delete the lists you no longer need.
- Reassign ownership of the lists for which you are not responsible. Learn how to change list owners.
- If a list has remained inactive for more than one year but is still useful, begin using it in accordance with university policy.
New Wi-Fi Experience for Campus Guests
Beginning earlier this summer, campus guests, such as prospective students and their families, parents or conference attendees have a new, streamlined and secure way to connect to campus Wi-Fi. The new UCD-Guest Wi-Fi experience was upgraded, allowing guests to simply accept our terms of service to access the internet on campus.
Service Status
View current service outages and maintenance for major campus IT services on the Service Status page. Check the service status first if something's not working: it'll help you decide whether to open a ticket or just wait it out. You can also subscribe to email alerts.
Find My IT Contact
IT support is provided by your primary department. You can find a listing of most IT Departments on campus in the Knowledge Base article, Who is my IT contact? Please note: emailing your unit's specific email address is the most effective way to reach the correct Service Desk.
Tech Support Services
- IT Express: Your go-to for tech questions and issues. Search the knowledge base, start a chat, submit a ticket, or call: pick the channel that works best for you.
- UC Davis Knowledge Base: Search this repository of self-service, how-to articles on campus tools and services, written by 70+ contributors across UC Davis. Login required for some departmental resources.
- Campus Service Catalog: Browse and request IT and campus services by category — teaching, research, admin work, and more.
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