ReadSpeaker & TextAid: Making Learning More Accessible
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Education is about creating pathways to success for all students, and accessibility tools play a key role in making that possible. By offering inclusive learning support, we reduce barriers, embrace diverse learning styles, and promote a greater sense of belonging. As part of this commitment, we’re highlighting two valuable tools: ReadSpeaker and TextAid.
ReadSpeaker is a text-to-speech tool that allows students to listen to course content, including documents, pages, and quizzes – directly within Brightspace. It’s especially helpful for students with visual impairments, learning differences like dyslexia, or those who prefer auditory learning.
For expanded support beyond Brightspace, TextAid—a companion tool from ReadSpeaker—provides additional features such as writing assistance, translation, and annotation. Its browser extension also enables students to listen to web pages and personal documents, making it a flexible and valuable tool for both academic and everyday learning.
How to Access ReadSpeaker
ReadSpeaker in Brightspace – ReadSpeaker’s “Listen” button and options show up automatically throughout your Brightspace course pages or uploaded text documents.
TextAid Application – For more advanced learning support, students can use TextAid, a companion tool from ReadSpeaker. It extends accessibility support beyond Brightspace to personal study materials and even websites. TextAid requires a personal license. Contact the Office of Disability, Access, and Inclusion (DAI) for a license.
What ReadSpeaker Does for Instructors
Supports inclusive teaching & UDL
Helps meet accessibility compliance
No setup required — built into Brightspace
Automatically works on most course content
Reduces the need to create separate audio files
Encourages self-paced, flexible learning
Promotes student independence and engagement
Enhances comprehension and accessibility in courses
What ReadSpeaker Does for Students
Listen to course content in Brightspace
Customize voice, speed, and text display
Read and listen at the same time
Use masking and highlighting to stay focused
Great for diverse learning needs (dyslexia, ADHD, ESL)
By integrating tools like ReadSpeaker and TextAid into our learning environment, we take meaningful steps toward making education more accessible, flexible, and supportive for all students. Whether you’re an instructor looking to enhance inclusivity in your course or a student exploring new ways to engage with content, these tools are here to help you succeed. If you have questions or need help getting started, don’t hesitate to reach out to the IT Teaching and Learning Services— we’re here to support you every step of the way.
New for 2025, the Course Merchant storefront provides a professional and user-friendly experience for the Brightspace Engage platform. Available to all URI departments and colleges, the combination of Course Merchant and Engage will allow students to easily search for available classes and submit payment. At the same time, these students’ Engage accounts will be created automatically, and they will be enrolled directly in their course, reducing administrative burdens on URI staff.
Engage is specifically designed for professional development, training, and non-credit bearing classes offered to the general public. To learn more, and discover what Engage can offer you, please reach out to the the IT Teaching and Learning Services team for a consult.
A Days Journey through the AI @ URI 2.0 Summit
Come with me on a journey exploring AI in teaching learning @ URI. It began as the URI Academic Summit welcomed faculty back to campus in January to discuss AI @ URI 2.0. Opening the event, a URI panel of staff, administration and faculty discussed where URI has come since the last Academic Summit in 2024 on AI and the future based on recommendations from the AI task force report. It is important to clarify that AI includes machine learning, neural networks, and robotics (around for decades), most of the topics for today’s summit address the narrower field of AI: generative AI which became rapidly widespread through open source products (such as ChatGPT).
Innovative AI Integration in Teaching and Learning Breakout Session
This session explored the innovative ways faculty are incorporating AI into their classrooms. We heard from URI faculty, who are listed below, who have used AI for activities such as group work, individual projects, and programming assignments. Discussion included understanding the impact of AI on student learning and engagement and best practices for motivating students to use these tools effectively.
AI in Business Assignment for Game Creation
Christy Ashley, Marketing/Business Christy Ashley discussed how students in her business courses made choices about AI tools for game creation. A guest speaker from Hasbro shared insights into how games are developed, and then she showed an example of the differences in game development using AI. Students often approached AI by simplistically replicating her work, not developing their own game creation.
Additionally, there were realtime considerations that impacted the use of the AI such as loading issues. Ashley highlighted the value of experimenting with new approaches in the classroom, experiencing mistakes, and thoughtfully reflecting on how to improve them for future use.
AI in Classroom Discussions and Assignments
Steven Atlas, Marketing/Business Steven Atlas explored AI’s integration into classroom discussions, embedding learning about AI through discussion forums. He expressed the importance of determining clear parameters for the students. He also introduced optional AI supplements to assignments, allowing students to experiment with AI-generated content and refine their understanding.
For final projects, Steven encouraged students to use AI to develop research questions and benchmark AI behavior against human decision-making. This approach, particularly in marketing research, allowed students to explore how AI processes information differently from humans.
AI in Biology Education
Nic Fisk, Cell & Molecular Biology Computational biologist and education researcher Nic Fisk emphasized designing assignments suiting the desired learning outcome, which may include how AI is used in research. They contrasted Google and ChatGPT in long-term retention, generalizability, and transfer of skills developed using these tools. They also noted that students’ frustration when they encounter AI-generated errors provides opportunities for learning. For example, prompting a generative AI and identifying missing nuances or important details can help students focus on the interesting elements of their writing or research.
AI’s Analytical Power in Research: Will and Christy
Will and Christy Will and Christy discussed examining AI’s capabilities in deep analytics, contrasting human limitations with AI’s ability to process vast amounts of data. They highlighted how AI can significantly enhance research methodologies, but also raised concerns about over-reliance on AI-generated insights.
AI in Philosophy and Writing
Will Krieger Will Krieger explored AI’s role in philosophical writing, emphasizing structured approaches to AI-assisted writing. Writing has always been the way we thought we need to assess philosophy. He has been exploring the outcomes of assignments and courses to consider integrating AI into the process. He implemented a three-submission assignment:
1 – A written detailed prompt asking for a detailed outline specifying sources, material, and objectives. 2 – Use AI to generate a structured essay based on the outline. 3 – Refine the AI-generated material into a final human-authored submission.
This three-submission assignment increases the instructor workload for assessing. Will found that this method worked well for half of the students, reinforcing the idea that specificity in AI prompting leads to better outputs.
AI’s Analytical Power in Research: Will and Christy
Vanessa Harwood Vanessa Harwood, from the Communication Disorders field, discussed AI’s impact on speech-language pathology as it relates to the arduous chore of phonetic transcription. She noted that while AI can transcribe adult speech accurately, it often struggles with pediatric speech, and more so speech sound disorders.
However, AI tools can significantly reduce documentation time by encoding phonetic transcriptions that are arduous. She advocated for a three-step AI-assisted process that improves efficiency without sacrificing accuracy, where there is a cross check of AI output, ultimately reducing the time spent on transcribing and increasing the time spent with patients.
Session Wrap Up: AI as a Tool for Thoughtful Integration
The panel concluded with a call for thoughtful AI integration in education. Faculty recognized AI’s ability to create efficiencies, but have also emphasized that it should not replace critical thinking. By understanding AI’s strengths and limitations, faculty can design courses that leverage AI’s benefits while maintaining academic rigor.
Keynote: Courage, AI Systems, and Troubles We Cannot Avoid
Dr. Vance Ricks
Dr. Ricks delved into AI ethics, discussing values in AI design, issue-spotting, and professional responsibilities. He introduced concepts of moral and techno-moral courage, drawing on Shannon Valor’s philosophy of ethical AI use. Key themes included:
The importance of intelligent hope and intelligent fear in AI adoption.
Recognizing AI as a socio-technological system embedded in broader social contexts.
Ethical considerations surrounding AI-driven decisions, especially in teaching and evaluation.
Broader Implications for Teaching Practices
Faculty acknowledged that both students and professors could misuse AI, raising concerns about academic integrity. The conversation emphasized:
The historical parallels between AI and past technological fears in advancements like Y2K, calculators, and Wikipedia.
The need for well-structured assignments that encourage critical engagement with AI.
Institutional approaches to shaping AI adoption in education, balancing efficiency with depth of learning.
Ultimately, AI’s role in education will continue to evolve, and educators should remain adaptive, ensuring that AI serves as an enhancer to rather than a replacement for meaningful learning.
– Dr. Amanda Jensen
On the third floor of the Memorial Union, a formerly quiet office has become a bustling hub of activity. Thanks to the collaboration of departments across the University, and an enthusiastic and dedicated group of students, Room 317 is now home to the Rhody eLab.
The space features 5 high performance gaming gaming stations, a growing catalog of games to play, and is URI’s first dedicated esports space. It it open to all students following the completion of a Code of Conduct, and more information can be found at our website: https://web.uri.edu/rhody-esports/elab/.
In today’s digital education landscape, creating engaging and interactive learning materials is no longer optional—it’s essential. Lumi Education, a platform dedicated to simplifying the creation of interactive content, is helping educators, trainers, and content creators transform their teaching approaches.
Lumi Education is one of the H5P, or HTML5 Package, editors available to create activities that allow faculty to develop a variety of interactive content for their Brightspace courses. This includes matching games, branching scenarios, and more.
Among Lumi’s many options, the Hotspot content type stands out as an innovative way to make visual content interactive and dynamic.
Here’s a closer look at Lumi Education’s Hotspot content type and how it can enhance your teaching or training materials.
Lumi Platforms
Lumi offers two main platforms for creating and managing interactive content: the Lumi Desktop application and Lumi Cloud. Both have their advantages and understanding the difference can help you choose the best option for your needs.
Lumi Desktop refers to their free downloadable app that allows users to create, edit content, and save files to their computer, while the Lumi Cloud refers to an online version of the editor that is accessed through a web browser with options of a free or paid plan.
What Is the Hotspot Content Type?
The Hotspot content type allows you to take any image and make it an interactive learning experience just by adding clickable spots that will expand and provide more information. It’s an excellent tool for creating visually engaging content that keeps learners actively involved.
Why Use Hotspot Activities?
Enhance Visual Learning Visual aids are powerful tools in education, and the Hotspot content type makes them even more impactful. By adding interactivity, static images become rich educational experiences. Learners are encouraged to explore details, leading to deeper understanding and retention of information.
Foster Engagement In traditional learning, students often passively consume information. With hotspots, they actively participate by exploring and interacting with the content. This approach helps keep learners engaged and motivated to dive deeper into the material.
Versatile Applications Whether you’re teaching geography, anatomy, or art history, the hotspot feature can adapt to any subject. Highlight key landmarks on a map, label body parts, or analyze famous artworks—all with a single tool.
Learn About Berries – Sample Hotspot Content from H5P.com
Key Features
Customizable Hotspots: Place hotspots anywhere on your image, linking them to explanations, videos, external resources, or quiz questions.
Interactive Feedback: Build hotspots into activities that provide instant feedback. Whether it’s identifying landmarks on a map or labeling parts of a diagram, learners get real-time validation or correction.
Responsive Design: Hotspot activities are optimized for all devices, ensuring a seamless experience for learners on desktops, tablets, or smartphones.
Versatile Media Options:Incorporate text, images, videos, and links within hotspots, offering diverse ways to communicate information and appeal to different learning styles.
Creating Hotspots Activities with Lumi
Lumi makes it simple to create your own hotspot content using their free H5P Desktop Editor or the Lumi Cloud platform. Here’s a quick overview:
Choose an Image: Select a high-quality image relevant to your lesson or topic.
Add Hotspots: Use the intuitive editor to place hotspots on specific areas of the image.
Insert Content: Link each hotspot to rich media such as text explanations, videos, or quizzes.
Test and Share: Preview your activity to ensure it’s functioning as intended, then share it with learners via a web link or embed it in your LMS.
Need help exporting Lumi content as a SCORM package?
The Hotspot content type is a game-changer for educators who want to move beyond traditional teaching methods. Lumi Education makes it easy to create, customize, and share these engaging activities, helping learners stay interested and retain knowledge more effectively.
In today’s classrooms, the availability of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is impacting learning—it is a time of raising questions as AI provides a variety of options and insights. AI tools can now assist students in writing, problem-solving, and research; offering new levels of convenience and access. But, while these tools can be helpful, they also bring challenges. As educators, it’s crucial to not just introduce AI, but to cultivate an environment of critical thinking that balances both caution and curiosity, all the while empowering students to ask: What might be missing? Can I trust this output? and What does it mean to use AI responsibly?
Critical thinking has long been a cornerstone of higher education and intellectual development. In an AI-enabled world, students need to learn to go beyond using these tools; they need to understand how to generate insights through verifying information, as well as understanding the possibilities and limits of technology.
When students engage in critical thinking with AI, they’re better prepared to:
Think creatively and independently: Critical thinking encourages students to consider multiple perspectives and solutions, rather than simply relying on AI-generated answers. This independence nurtures innovation and personal insight.
Distinguish fact from fabrication: While AI can generate vast amounts of text, not everything it produces is accurate. Encouraging students to fact-check and cross-reference helps cultivate a healthy skepticism.
Challenge assumptions: AI often reflects only its training data. By guiding students to analyze the sources (including question potential biases) and recognize how assumptions shape information, it can help foster critical thinking.
Key areas to explore in AI’s limitations include:
Accuracy and Misinformation: AI produces results based on patterns in data rather than true understanding. Students may mistake plausible-sounding, yet incorrect information, for fact, undermining their knowledge and learning integrity.
Data-Driven Biases: AI systems inherit biases from the data used to train them, potentially perpetuating skewed perspectives. Encouraging students to question these biases nurtures an awareness of how assumptions shape content, fostering a more discerning, balanced view of information.
Risks to Independent Thought: Over-relying on AI can hinder a student’s own critical thinking skills. While AI might offer shortcuts, true learning often comes from grappling with complexity, not from accepting easy answers.
Ultimately, while AI may seem to provide quick solutions, it cannot replace critical thinking. Many AI-generated responses appear confident and well-formatted, however although outputs may: miss nuance, need detailed fact checking, or reflect underlying biases from source materials. Approaching AI materials with critical thinking can help students in recognizing these pitfalls and develop habits of inquiry that can prevent them from adopting AI’s suggestions without expert review.
As an institution of higher education, we have the ability to foster a mindset of inquiry. Consider the following strategies to help students and ourselves engage thoughtfully and critically with AI:
Encourage Source Verification: Just as we ask students to cite sources in their own work, we can guide them to question AI sources and verify AI-generated content. This practice reinforces the importance of credible information and builds a habit of checking facts.
Examine AI’s Limitations Together: Bring AI-generated outputs into class discussions; exploring where they succeed and where they fall short. This exercise helps students recognize that AI’s “knowledge” is limited, often lacking the context, depth, and human judgment necessary for complex analysis.
Practice “Spot the Error” Activities: Regularly review AI outputs in class to identify inaccuracies, ethical concerns, or biases. This approach not only develops a critical eye, but reinforces the idea that AI should be questioned and evaluated, and not just passively accepted.
Engage in Ethical Dialogues: The ethics of AI use extend beyond academic integrity, it also includes privacy issues and potential societal impacts. Encouraging students to reflect on these implications fosters a responsible mindset, helping them consider the broader impact of their technology use.
While AI tools can provide new educational possibilities, there’s value in asking when to use AI. Asking the question of whether AI truly serves the learning objectives of the course and assignment. Some lessons may be better learned by working through challenges without automated assistance, promoting creativity, resilience, and deep, independent analysis. However, by selectively incorporating AI, educators can help students appreciate it as a tool that, while powerful, doesn’t replace the need for human insight and critical judgment.
Encouraging thoughtful reflection with a little skeptism toward AI helps students maintain their intellectual independence. Rather than seeing AI as a replacement for their own reasoning, they’ll learn to use it as a complement to their critical thinking. This balanced approach supports a learning environment where technology is seen as a helpful aid but not an unquestionable authority.
In an AI-enhanced world, it’s more important than ever to cultivate critical thinking and intellectual independence in students. Through a balanced approach—one that blends curiosity with caution —we can empower students to use AI responsibly and thoughtfully. Let’s encourage our students to ask questions, challenge outputs, and think critically so that, no matter where technology advances, they are equipped with critical thinking, curiosity, and insight.
Information Technology Services (ITS) is excited to announce an updated process for Brightspace integrations that aims to:
Reduce the technical burden on faculty
Save time
Starting in August 2024, ITS will handle the addition of all LTI integrations to Brightspace. Throughout the Fall semester, we will upgrade older LTI 1.1 integrations to the current LTI 1.3 standard. These steps are designed to ensure the security of faculty intellectual property and student private information. ITS will support you throughout the integration configuration and migration process.
We encourage the submission of integration requests during July or early August to ensure the review process is completed before the upcoming semester. ITS will be sending out further communication in the coming days, along with opportunities to connect with our team, answer questions, and address concerns. Please do not hesitate to reach out. In the meantime, you may submit a support desk ticket here, attend an ITS Zoom drop-in, or visit us in the Carothers Library, Room 227, during business hours.
About LTI
Integrating third-party applications into URI’s learning management system (LMS), Brightspace, provides faculty and students with new and exciting ways to engage with their learning. These integrations are often accomplished using the Learning Tools Interoperability, commonly known as LTI, standard.
LTI integrations offer enhanced security, streamlined administration, and valuable data sharing between Brightspace and third-party applications. For a number of years, LTI has used the 1.1 standard, which provided basic functions such as streamlined student logins, links to content, grade pass-back… and a baseline level of security. The newest LTI standard, 1.3, builds upon these strengths and offers a significantly more modern security framework, ensuring better protection of student and faculty data as it passes between systems.
On top of LTI 1.3 is a set of tools called LTI Advantage. LTI Advantage leverages all the security capabilities of LTI 1.3 and adds functional improvements such as:
Automated Roster Creation: See which students are in your class and who has registered with the third-party tool.
Enhanced Assignments and Grades: View the status of an assignment instead of just passing a single numeric grade back to Brightspace.
Deep Linking: Set up links to specific parts of a third-party tool (e.g., a chapter in a book), whereas LTI 1.1 only allowed links to the tool as a whole.
It’s important to note that not every third-party application supports all the functions described here. Some only offer LTI 1.1 connections, others LTI 1.3, and some offer a combination of LTI Advantage enhancements. After a requested integration is approved, the IT Teaching and Learning Services (TLS) team will collaborate with the vendor to configure the integration and leverage all available tools.
Please connect with the TLS team via a Service Desk ticket to start enhancing your courses with LTI integrations.
Sources:
Clark, J. (2023, September 1). What is LTI advantage? – edlink. Edlink Community. https://ed.link/community/lti-advantage/#:~:text=LTI%20Advantage%20is%20a%20set,Deep%20Linking.
Clark, J. (2023a, March 8). LTI advantage explained – Edlink. Edlink Community. https://ed.link/community/eli5-lti-advantage/
As a Land and Sea Grant University, URI has a responsibility to disseminate research and knowledge to Rhode Islanders and beyond. This task is about to become much easier with the implementation of Course Merchant on the Brightspace Engage platform.
Course Merchant
Course Merchant is a professional and user-friendly storefront that integrates seamlessly with Engage. Members of the public who wish to engage with URI by taking a professional development class, training, or other non-credit bearing course will be able to:
Easily search for available classes
Submit payment
Automatically create an Engage user account
Automatically enroll in the Engage class
This will create an inviting digital front door for community members and streamline administrative workflows for staff.
The Teaching and Learning Services (TLS) team is currently beginning the implementation process and is eager to connect with faculty, staff, and departments interested in leveraging this tool. For more information, please contact Kevin Gray, IT Project Leader, at kevingray@uri.edu.
Each application is reviewed by a committee of faculty and staff. Some of the factors in that review are (though not limited to these):
Copyright protection of faculty and student content
Student/faculty privacy
Protection of private data
ADA compliance and accessibility
System usability, constraints, and limitations
Similarity to existing integrations or Brightspace functionality
Upon approval, IT will implement and integrate the tool into the LMS for faculty and student use. This won’t affect current tools which will continue to function as normal. Note that depending on the queue of tools already approved and the complexity of each tool, the implementation time of a new tool can take anywhere from 6-weeks to 6 months.
All questions, inquiries and requests for help can be submitted as a service desk ticket, and someone will reach out to speak with you: https://uriprod.service-now.com/sp
About LTIs
Integrating third party applications into URI’s learning management system (LMS), Brightspace, provides faculty and students with new and exciting ways to engage with their learning. These integrations are often accomplished using the Learning Tools Interoperability, more commonly called LTI, standard.
LTI integrations offer enhanced security, streamlined administration, and valuable data sharing between Brightspace and a third party application. For a number of years, LTI has used a standard called 1.1. This standard allowed for a basic set of functions…streamlined student logins, links to content, grade pass-back…and a baseline level of security. LTI’s newest standard is called 1.3. This upgraded standard builds upon the strengths of LTI 1.1, but offers a significantly more modern security framework, protecting student and faculty data as it passes between systems. On top of LTI 1.3 are a set of tools called LTI Advantage. LTI Advantage leverages all of the security capabilities of LTI 1.3 but adds functional improvements such as:
Automated roster creation. Not only will you be able to see which students are in your class, but you’ll be able to see who has registered with the third party tool.
Enhanced assignments and grades. Instead of passing a single numeric grade back to Brightspace, LTI Advantage lets faculty see the status of an assignment.
Deep Linking. This allows faculty to set up links to specific parts of a third party tool (a chapter in a book for example), where LTI 1.1 only allowed links to the tool as a whole.
It’s important to note that not every third party application supports every function described here. Some only offer LTI 1.1 connections, others LTI 1.3, and some offer a combination of LTI Advantage enhancements. After a requested integration is approved, the IT Teaching and Learning Services (TLS) team will collaborate with the vendor and configure the integration to leverage all available tools.
Please connect with the TLS team via a Service Desk ticket to begin your conversation about enhancing your courses with LTI integrations.
Brightspace Integrations
TLS manages the integration of 3rd party tools, plugins, LTIs and software integrations into Brightspace. In order to protect students, faculty, and our institution and to ensure the integrity of the learning management system and compliance with federal regulations, URI thus performs a standard review of all third party tools prior to integration.
Create and submit a Brightspace integration application
Clark, J. (2023, September 1). What is LTI advantage? – edlink. Edlink Community. https://ed.link/community/lti-advantage/#:~:text=LTI%20Advantage%20is%20a%20set,Deep%20Linking.
Clark, J. (2023a, March 8). LTI advantage explained – Edlink. Edlink Community. https://ed.link/community/eli5-lti-advantage/
