Advanced Creative & Instructional Design
Academic Affairs’ Advanced Creative & Instructional Design (ACID) collective is a new service unit dedicated to empowering faculty, Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), and staff through an integrated portfolio of instructional design and teaching support, educational technology (EdTech) guidance, and course and content development services.
Instructional design support
Whether you’re exploring a new idea, creating or refining a course, addressing a teaching challenge, in need of custom static or dynamic digital content, integrating educational technology, pursuing a larger redesign, embarking on a new course build, or designing a new program from the ground up, ACID offers timely, free ($0) to NAU, live collaborative support designed to help you achieve your goals. Submit a request to connect with an experienced instructional designer and explore solutions tailored to your goals, your modality, and your timeline.
Educator Open Labs
ACID Open Labs afford NAU faculty, SMEs, and staff dedicated in-person and remote/online drop-in times to receive live support with course design, Canvas (LMS), instructional technology, AI tools, teaching strategies, online course delivery, and other teaching and learning questions.
ACID Open Labs will be offered twice-daily, Monday through Friday, through August 28th, 2026
- AM Drop-in Open Labs: 10:00 to 11:30 am Daily
- PM Drop-in Open Labs: 1:30 to 3:00 pm Daily
In-Person: NAU Building 98D (Mountain Campus – Extended Campus Operations Center) in Room 110
Online: [Click Here] to Drop-in Remotely
On August 31st, ACID Open Labs will resume their normal schedule.
- AM Drop-in Open Labs: Every Monday & Tuesday from 10:00 – 11:30 am
- PM Drop-in Open Labs: Every Wednesday & Thursday from 1:30 – 3:00 pm
Graphic and media support
Our designers collaborate with instructors in conjunction with the instructional design team to plan and create graphics, infographics, custom illustrations, animations, and enhanced video concepts to complement course content. Request graphic design assistance
Learning management support
Experiencing a Canvas outage, system error, or technical problem? Contact NAU Information Technology Services (ITS) at LMS-Faculty-Help@nau.edu or 928-523-3335. ITS provides support for Canvas and other university-supported instructional technologies, addressing technical issues, outages, account access, and system functionality issues.
For guidance on using Canvas and other instructional technologies to support teaching and learning, course design, assessment, accessibility, student engagement, and educational best practices, please employ the Request Instructional Design Support button, near the top of this page. ACID’s instructional and creative design team is here to help you achieve your goals.