Tools & Services
ITS Educational Technologies provides support for the following applications and services. If you need any assistance, please contact the ITS Service Desk 
by chat, phone, or an online help request. Our Educational Technologies Services team offers Personal Consultations for one-on-one help, and the Classroom Hotline provides classroom demos.
Canvas
Important Canvas Announcement: Canvas is now available at UNC! Canvas is replacing Sakai as the University’s centrally-supported learning management system (LMS) by early May 2024. We are gradually rolling out Canvas to campus and it will be up to each academic unit and individual instructor to decide when is the best time for them to move until Sakai is no longer available (Spring 2024 is the last semester Sakai will be available for teaching or other activities). See Canvas for more details.
Canvas is used by more institutions of higher education than any other LMS, including other UNC System schools and UNC-CH’s peer institutions. With its modern, straightforward, and easier-to-use interface, Canvas is a more intuitive system for designing courses and provides access to course templates and shared resources. Users will experience a more accessible platform, have access to Teacher and Student Canvas apps on their mobile devices, and can select custom notifications in their courses. Canvas requires little to no downtime for feature upgrades and system maintenance, and all UNC users have access to 24/7 chat and phone support.
CCI Printing
CCI Printing provides more than 70 print stations across campus (some current limitations due to COVID-19) that are available for use by UNC students, faculty, and staff. Users can print in color or black & white, from any smartphone or mobile device by visiting mobileprint.unc.edu (no special software is needed), or print from a personal laptop. CCI Printing is primarily a service for all current students but is also available to faculty, staff, and University affiliates with an active Onyen. Students who are enrolled in the current semester/session receive a print allocation usable at any CCI Printing location.
Classroom Hotline
The Classroom Hotline provides technical support to all General Purpose Classrooms scheduled by the University Registrar’s Office and gives hands-on training for faculty, staff, and students using these rooms. The Classroom Hotline designs, installs, and maintains all technical and audio-visual equipment found in these classrooms. The Classroom Hotline also provides AV design services and project management for departmental spaces.
Exam Scanning
Important Exam Scanning Announcement: We have decided to retire our services with Digital Desk and fully convert to Gradescope for all bubble sheet exam grading, effective August 1, 2022. We have compiled an FAQ designed to answer what we anticipate will be the most common questions about this change.
Panopto
Panopto is a media-streaming platform that allows instructors and their students to share videos while keeping their content secure. Panopto videos can be embedded in Sakai. The platform allows for capturing, uploading, and managing videos within a media library so that instructors may privately share content with their students and view analytics to gauge user activity.
Panopto replaced Warpwire in Summer 2021.
Poll Everywhere
Poll Everywhere is a web-based polling system that allows students to respond via web browser, mobile app, or a text message, instead of clickers. Instructors create and publish poll questions, which can be embedded in PowerPoint presentations, displayed in a web browser, or embedded in a Sakai course site through the Lessons tool. Once students respond, instructors may view their responses and download reports. Poll Everywhere responses can be imported into the Sakai Gradebook.
Sakai
Important Announcement: Sakai is being replaced by Canvas as the University’s centrally-supported learning management system (LMS) by early May 2024. Spring 2024 is the last semester Sakai will be available for teaching or other activities. Starting Maymester/Summer Session I 2024, Sakai will be available in a read-only state until the start of Summer 2026 when Sakai will be decommissioned. See Canvas and the LMS timeline for more details.
Sakai is an online learning management system, which provides a flexible and feature-rich environment for teaching, learning, research, and other collaboration. Supported uses include UNC courses and academic and administrative projects.
See Sakai Maintenance for upcoming and past maintenance plans.
UNC Check-In App
The UNC Check-In App facilitates the taking of attendance during classes and other events. The app allows instructors to specify brief time intervals during which students can register attendance when in proximity to Bluetooth beacons. The app does not track or store student location. UNC Check-In App attendance can be imported into the Sakai Attendance tool.
See UNC Check-In Maintenance for upcoming and past maintenance plans.
Virtual Lab
Virtual Lab provides students with direct access to applications through a web browser by installing the Citrix receiver software on their devices. Students have on-demand access to applications on or off-campus at no additional cost. Each Virtual Lab session provides access to University-licensed applications using Windows, Microsoft, Linux, Unix, iOS, and Android client platforms, as well as shared files, network and USB printers, and CCI Printing. With this approach, students have the flexibility and independence in how and where they work.
VoiceThread
VoiceThread is a web-based platform used to communicate to one or more people in an interactive collaboration of images, documents, videos, or presentations. Replace your text-only group discussions with images, documents, and videos. Your audience can comment, ask questions, or respond using either text, audio, freehand drawing, or video. VoiceThread can be embedded on your website or exported in .mov format. VoiceThread is also integrated with Sakai, making it even easier for instructors and students to connect.
Zoom
Zoom is an easy-to-use, mobile-friendly, video and audio conferencing service. The ability to host online meetings with up to 300 participants is available at no cost to Carolina faculty, staff, and students. You can share your screen, chat, poll attendees, use breakout rooms, record your meetings, and more. A growing number of campus groups use Zoom for remote conferencing. See Zoom FAQs.