City Tech welcomes new students and faculty and staff members every year–so welcome to everyone new, and welcome back to everyone returning!
The OpenLab team is excited to work with you this semester as you do great things on the OpenLab–and to help you learn more about using the OpenLab and working in an open community.
Getting Started
Everyone in the City Tech community can create an OpenLab account. Once you create an account, you can start creating, whether it’s a course, project, club, or portfolio. This past summer, we detailed steps you can take to sign up and start creating–read our Summer Series for helpful details.
As you develop sites on the OpenLab, please do so with reading ease and accessibility in mind. The OpenLab has materials to help you make your work accessible.
As you include readings, images, and other media, please make sure to read our copyright guidelines and help on how to find reusable images online.
As you share readings, videos, or other course materials large files, we recommend storing large files in an external hosting service such as those provided by CUNY, including Dropbox and Office 365.
Support
As the new semester begins, check out the OpenLab’s synchronous support:
- Open Hours: students, faculty, and staff can sign up for open hours, one-on-one appointments to ask specific questions or ask to learn more about topics ranging from getting started to using a tool to implementing pedagogical approach. This semester, Open Hours are on Thursdays at 10am and 10:30am, starting this Thursday, 1/29/26.
- Workshops: All are welcome for our calendar of workshops, plus any group can request a workshop on a topic or technique! Check the schedule for the full list of workshops and registration links. The next workshops are on Tuesday, 2/3/26:
- OpenLab Q&A: 1:00-2:00pm
- No registration needed. Join at any point in the hour with your questions!
- Co-working sessions: for quiet working time with others, with the option to move to a breakout room for conversation or questions. The next co-working session is on Monday, 2/2/26:
There are also great asynchronous options for support:
- The Help materials on the OpenLab guide members through creating and working in Courses, Projects, Clubs, and Portfolios, as do the the Teaching with the OpenLab and OpenLab for Students modules.
- Remember that even when you work in the open, there are privacy settings that can make you and everyone in your community comfortable. Look for “More visibility options” in a post’s or page’s settings to pinpoint who can see the published work–read more about this in the publishing section of the Help on Writing a Post. These newer settings allow members to choose who sees what in their member profile.
- One super useful bit of help for the start of every semester: step-by-step instructions for how to add students in bulk to your course by using a list of student emails. Being able to add students to courses this way is so convenient, we even spotlighted it!
- Everyone can get inspired by what this community has done on the OpenLab by looking through our past In the Spotlight posts.
- Every winter and summer, there are updates to the OpenLab. Read more about this update and others in This Month on the OpenLab: January 2026 Release.
- As always, reach out with questions and comments: via email at openlab@citytech.cuny.edu or our contact form.
Wishing everyone an inspiring Spring 2026 semester. See you and your brilliance shining on the OpenLab!
Photo Credit: Free to use photo by Belle Co from Pexels.