Top Hat retiring January 2027: Supported alternatives for attendance, engagement

Ohio University will retire the Top Hat system when the current contract concludes in January 2027.

Utilization of Top Hat has been low, and the technology wasn’t leveraged to its full potential. With the implementation of Canvas, centrally supported alternative tools are available for the most common use cases, such as attendance tracking and polling; as a result, maintaining the tool is not a good value for the institution

Top Hat will remain available through Fall Semester 2026, and instructors are encouraged to begin exploring alternative approaches.

Explore supported alternatives

The Office of Information Technology (OIT) supports a variety of instructional tools that can be used individually or in combination to support attendance and student engagement. Specific details are outlined in the new Top Hat Retirement help article in the OIT Knowledge base. Many of these tools are already available through Canvas and Microsoft 365 and are used successfully across all course modalities.

OIT Instructional Technologists are available for consultations to support instructors through this process. Schedule a consultation to discuss your instructional needs and get help exploring supported tools that best support your course goals.

Additional resources

Instructors who are considering a free or paid tool not currently supported by OIT should submit a Technology Review. This process helps ensure that new tools meet University requirements for accessibility, security and student data privacy.

To learn more about Top Hat Retirement and other instructional technology updates, members of the OHIO community are invited to join the Teaching and Learning Technologies Advisory Community. The Advisory Community meets monthly and provides space for students, faculty and staff to share feedback, ask questions and learn about upcoming OIT and technology transitions.