Tier One - Canvas Nov 2020
Just for a minute, let's pretend I am a new student who just got access to your Canvas course. When I log in to your course here are the things I would ask myself.
- What am I supposed to do?
- When is it due?
- How do I do it?
- Can you help me?
- When is the Zoom?
- What more can I do? (really... I would have never asked that as a student but I'm sure some student might)
Pull up your course, would I be able to find these things without much effort or help from you?
Before the pandemic, we created a leveled checklist for Canvas courses. The purpose was to help address the needs of our students who were face to face and make sure onboarding new students was smooth.
With blended/concurrent/virtual learning happening the homepage has become like Park Place in Monopoly, the most valuable property you can control.
It is nice to have a colorful page, even the dreaded bitmoji classroom, but if the homepage cannot answer the most basic questions listed above then it might need some adjustment.
One place to start is the Leveling Up with Canvas course. The course works in conjunction with the checklist above to provide a guided how-to.
Personal Professional LearningThere are a bunch of ways to stay up to date with what is going on in the Canvas world. I love a good passive way to learn, a way I can scroll lazily through a feed and have things jump out at me.
Facebook - I do think the official Canvas LMS page is a great place to start. This is one way to have information come to you, no real effort.
YouTube - Check out the official Canvas LMS channel. All the live videos they do on Facebook end up here. Easy to search the Videos or Playlists tab for a ton of great info.
CanvasCon - This was a virtual event a few weeks ago. Many good videos to check out. Most sessions were created and delivered by teachers.
InstructureCon - Scroll down a bit on the page to find all the videos from the 2019 conference. I went and it was amaz. Best conference I have ever been to.
Video Feedback
Be honest, did you ever read the feedback a teacher wrote on your paper? I never did. I have seen a ton of papers in recycling bins that looks like kids took a peek at the grade and then discarded them. What if there was a way to leave feedback and get kids to soak in every word?
Check out our Video Feedback page in the Leveling Up course.
Don't believe me? Try it with some of your kids and see.
Quizzes
There are 13 different types of questions you can ask in the new quizzes. 12 are pretty common, questions you have seen most of your life. There is 1 question type that is pretty cool, stimulus. It is like the swiss army knife of questions, it can do so much.
Check out the very last question type in this new module in the Leveling Up course.
Hacks
I'm not a super fan of the word hack but it draws a lot of attention so here are a few hacks that might save you some time and some are pretty cool.
undelete
Sometimes you might accidentally delete something. Did you know that Canvas holds the last 25 things you deleted from your course?
emoji
Your Canvas modules can look pretty bland but they don't have to. Visit emojipedia and find something to add to the titles. All you need is to copy/paste.
It might be a good idea to always use the same symbols to identify things like study guides, etc. Emojis do not work well for things you sync to SIS. They will sync just fine except in the title of the assignment there will be a few extra question marks, not really a big deal.
Verbs
I saw this on some post, use verbs in your page/assignment titles. It helps key the kids into what they need to do.
Accessibility Checker
This is pretty important, is your page accessible to all users?
Click the little circle with a person in it. On the far right side will pop up the tools to fix your page to make it accessible to all.
New Assignment View
1. Open your course and click Settings.
2. Click Feature Options.
3. Toggle on Assignment Enhancements - Student
Gradebook - message students who...
There are some hidden features in the gradebook that will allow you to message a lot of kids at one time.
Open your grade book and click the ice cream cone on an assignment.
Then click Message Students Who
You will have four different options on how to message a lot of students at one time.
Reorder Modules
It is really important to make it as easy as possible for the kids to find what they need quickly.
Grab the waffle and drag down. While this may seem simple it does have a huge, long-term impact.
Notes in Gradebook
Open your course.
1. Open the gradebook and click View.
2. Click Notes.
Click in the field and type a note. Students don't see this, just you.
Filter in the Gradebook
To hide the unpublished assignments, just open your gradebook.
1. Click View.
2. Deselect Unpublished Assignments.
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