Category: Canvas Course Design

Course design resources for Faculty, Course Directors, Course Directors, and Staff

Categories
Adaptive Release Canvas Course Design

Adaptively Releasing Folders & Files

In the Files section of the course, it is possible to create a folder for each area of content covered in the course to which files can be added. The availability of that content to the students can be set at either the file or folder level.

The images below illustrate content locked at both the folder and file levels until a set availability date.

To set lock/unlock dates within Files:

  1. Click Files in the course menu.
  2. Click on the folder or file in the left hand Files menu.
  3. Click the lock icon that will appear at the top of the display window.
  4. In the resulting window, select the appropriate lock/unlock options.
    • Option 1: Publish (default setting)
    • Option 2: Unpublish (not recommended)
      Note: Not recommended unless you will remember to publish it.
    • Option 3: Restrict Access (contains two options) Only available to students with link. Not visible in student files.
      • Schedule student availability (recommended)
        Note: This option then presents the instructor with the ability to set available from and available to dates.
  5. Click [Update] to apply the settings.
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Categories
Advaced Features Canvas Course Design

View Analytics & Course Statistics

Analytics evaluate individual components of a course and student performance. Course Statistics is less robust than Analytics and provides instructors with a view of which content within a course students are viewing.

Course Analytics has four main sections:

  • Activity – This view allows the instructor to see when students view a page or participate in the course.
  • Assignments – This view allows the instructor to view if students submit the assignment on-time, late, or not at all.
  • Grades – This view presents instructors with a quick view of the distribution of grades in the course.
  • Student Analytics – This view shows page view, participation, assignments, and current score for every student in the course.

To learn more about Analytics and Course Statistics, feel free to view the Course Analytics Video and the Analytics and Statistics Tutorials on this page.

Course Analytics Video

Analytics and Statistics Tutorials

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Categories
Advaced Features Canvas Course Design

Managing Outcomes

Outcomes allow instructors to track student mastery of topics and concepts within a course. Using Outcomes would allow Instructors to align course assignments, quizzes, and other assessments with the Course Objectives stated within the Geisel Curriculum.

Note: It has not yet been determined if the Geisel School of Medicine will take advantage of this feature.

If you would like to learn more about how Outcomes work in Canvas, feel free to watch the videos and review the tutorials on this page.

Outcomes Overview Video

Skip to 1:48 for instructions on how to setup Outcomes.
Note: This video does apply to Instructors even though it is aimed at Admins.

Outcomes Workflow Video

Note: Outcomes can be created at the Admin level or the Instructor level. Thus, this video still applies to Instructors even though it is aimed at Admins.

Outcomes Tutorials

If you would like to talk about implementing Outcomes within a course, please contact the Geisel Instructional Technology Staff.

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Categories
Advaced Features Canvas Course Design

Managing Rubrics

A Rubric is an assessment tool used to communicate performance expectations to students. Rubrics are typically comprised of performance criteria and defined levels of performance organized in rows and columns respectively. Rubrics can also aid in more consistent grading by multiple graders.

Rubrics in Canvas can be aligned with:

To learn more about Canvas Rubrics, feel free to watch the Rubric Video and view the Rubric Tutorials on this page.

Rubric Video

Note: While the Rubric Video is aimed at Administrators, the content within it applies to Instructors as well. To access Rubrics as an Instructor, go to Outcomes then select Manage Rubrics.

Rubric Tutorials

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Categories
Advaced Features Canvas Course Design

Managing Course Settings

There are a variety of tools and settings that an Instructor can access from Settings. When viewing the Settings page, there are two primary areas of action: Center page and Sidebar.

Center Page

In the center of the page are four tabs:

  • Course Details – This tab allows Instructors to set course start and end dates as well as a variety of student permissions within the course.
  • Sections – This tab allows Instructors to create and mange students in Sections. Example: Clerkship 6.1, 6.2, Anatomy SG Section 1, Anatomy SG Section 2, etc
  • Navigation – This tab allows instructors to show, hide, and rearrange navigation links for the course.
  • Apps – This tab allows instructors to add a variety of 3rd party tools, called LTIs or Apps, to a course.

Sidebar

The Sidebar provides instructors with access to:

  • Student View – This feature provides Instructors with a view of the course from the student perspective without needing to login with a separate username/password.
  • Course Statistics – This feature provides instructors with general summaries for recent activity within the course.
  • Course Calendar – This link opens the course calendar. Right click (control + click) on the link to Open in a New Tab.
  • Course Action Options
    • Conclude Course (Not Recommended)
    • Permanently Delete this Course (Avoid at All Costs)
    • Copy this Course
    • Import Content into this Course
    • Export Course Content
    • Reset Course Content (Not Recommended)
  • Current Users Summary

To learn more about Course Settings:

  • view the specific links in Center Page and Sidebar above
  • view Course Settings Overview Video on this page
  • read the Course Settings Tutorials listed on this page

Course Settings Tutorials

Please contact the Geisel Instructional Technology Staff for questions about these tools.

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Categories
Canvas Course Design

Grading with SpeedGrader

Canvas accepts a variety of document formats and even URLs as assignment submissions. The SpeedGrader™ provides instructors with the ability to to view the assignment submission online and then annotate, comment, and grade student assignment submissions.

Per Canvas documentation, Instructors can use SpeedGrader™ to:

  • Sort submissions by student 
  • Hide student names for anonymous grading
  • Evaluate assignments for each student, including resubmitted assignments
  • Use rubrics to assign grades
  • Leave feedback for your students
  • Track your grading progress and hide assignments while grading

To learn more about the SpeedGrader, feel free to watch the SpeedGrader Overview Video and view the SpeedGrader Tutorials.

SpeedGrader Tutorials

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Categories
Canvas Course Design

Managing Grades

Grades allows instructors to easily input grades as well as track the progress of and communicate grades/feedback to students. Grades can also automatically calculate weighted grades based on the Assignment Groups created in the Assignments tool. 

Grades opens to the Canvas Gradebook. Columns are automatically created in the Gradebook when instructors create:

  • Assignments
  • Graded Discussions
  • Graded Quizzes
  • Surveys
  • Graded External Tool Assignments

Canvas also includes a tool called SpeedGrader™ that integrates the feedback and grading process with the gradebook.This is a great feature for grading submitted assignments and quizzes.

To learn more about Grades, feel free to watch the Grades Video and review the Grades Tutorials.

Grades Tutorials

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Categories
Canvas Course Design

Manage Conversations

Similar to email, Conversations is also sometimes called “Messages” or the “Inbox”. Conversations compiles all messages sent throughout Canvas and it is the only communications tool in Canvas that instructors can use to send direct, private messages to users in a course. 

Conversations can be accessed from the Inbox link in the Help Center menu at the top right of the Canvas page.

The default Notifications Setting is for Conversation messages to be sent via email. Messages received via email can be replied to either

  • from Blitz by selecting Reply
  • from within Canvas, by selecting the URL link in the email and logging into Canvas

Important: If the Conversation Message Notification is turned off, it will be necessary to log in to Canvas to view messages sent by students via Conversations as these messages will not be sent via email. 

To learn more about Conversations, feel free to view the Communications Tutorials listed below.

Conversation Tutorials

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Categories
Canvas Course Design

Making Announcements

Announcements are used to communicate course logistics to the class. Once an Announcement is created, Canvas will notify students according to their preferred Notification Preferences.

By default, Announcements in Canvas allow students to reply/comment. If you do not wish students to comment on Announcements, it will be necessary to disable comments within Course settings.

To learn more about Announcements, feel free to view the Announcement Overview Video and the Announcement Tutorials on this page.

Announcement Tutorials

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Categories
Canvas Course Design

Add/View People

In Canvas, the People link is similar to Users and Groups in Blackboard. Within the People link instructors can:

  1. View all the users participating in the course.
  2. Manage users.
  3. Add people to the course.
  4. Manage user groups in the course.
  5. Search for a user.
  6. Filter users by role.

As with Blackboard, most rosters will be loaded into the system prior to the start of the course. It should only be necessary for instructors to add additional instructors or TAs to the course.

To learn more about the People link, feel free to view the People Overview Video and the People Tutorials on this page.

To learn more about customizing the Course Navigation menu, feel free to view the Navigation Tutorials.

People Tutorials

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