What’s New With Top Hat?

As you gear up for a new term, we’re excited to share some of Top Hat’s latest features—along with practical resources to help you engage students, streamline your teaching and set your course up for success.

Affordable Learning Just Got Active 

Interactive OpenStax Textbooks

We’ve brought a curated selection of OpenStax textbooks into the Top Hat platform—at no extra cost to you or your students. These peer-reviewed, open-license texts are enriched with embedded assessments, accessibility upgrades and seamless integration into your course. It’s a powerful way to meet affordability goals while offering interactive, customizable materials that improve learning. Browse the OpenStax catalog.

Making Teaching Easier and More Engaging

Guest Mode for Presentations

Engage any audience! Guest Mode makes it easy to use Top Hat outside the classroom, such as during conference talks, public lectures, or internal training sessions. Participants can join via QR code or session link—no login or student account needed. The perfect solution for one-time or public-facing presentations where simplicity and speed matter most. Learn more.

Ace: AI-Powered Example Generator

Help students see the ‘why’ behind what they’re learning. With a single highlight, you can ask Ace to generate a career-relevant or real-life scenario to bring a course concept to life. Whether you’re teaching accounting, anatomy, or sociology, Ace can tailor examples to match your students’ goals—helping them better connect with and retain the material.

Preview New Builder Questions (Expected July)

A new “preview” button in questions created with the new question builder allows instructors to view and interact with question content as it appears to students. You can interact with and submit responses to questions in preview mode to test things out before going live. Just note that these responses will not be saved.

Live reactions (Expected August)

Enable students to send real-time emoji reactions to presentation content throughout the lecture, providing even more opportunities for interactivity in class. This feature will be released first for guest mode sessions and then for regular classroom use.

New Join Screen for Classroom Sessions (Expected July)

We’re reducing friction even further by allowing students to join classroom sessions simply by scanning a QR code on the join screen.

Easier In-Course Content Search

Quickly find the materials you need, when you need them. Need to locate a quiz question, a specific slide, or an assignment from earlier in the term? Our upgraded content search lets you filter by type and keyword within your course, saving time and reducing prep friction. Learn more.

Helpful Resources to Start the Term

Student Engagement Toolkit

This toolkit offers ready-to-use activities, templates, and low-stakes assessment ideas grounded in learning science to energize the classroom experience. View the Toolkit!

Teaching with Top Hat Toolkit

Everything you need to become a Top Hat pro. Whether you’re new to the platform or looking to level up, this toolkit walks you through the essentials—from setup and grading to extending learning outside class. Includes step-by-step tutorials, sample activities and instructional design tips. Access the Toolkit!

Interested in learning more about Top Hat? Click here to book a platform overview.