Category: Canvas

Secondary: Observers Added to Canvas

Starting September 3, parents and guardians of students in grades 6-12 will automatically be granted observer status in their child’s Canvas courses. This means they can view their child’s assignments, grades, and announcements without needing to locate a pairing code. This change aims to make it easier for families to support their children’s education. There will be a slight adjustment to the login process for parents and guardians. If families reach out, you can send them this link to the directions. They are also located below.

Once logged it, you can also direct students and families to the P-CCS Student & Family Canvas Orientation. They can also find it in Canvas when they click the Help icon on the global navigation menu, see below for more details.

This will not affect parents of elementary students at this time, but we are exploring the possibility of adding them as well.

Canvas

Prepping Your Canvas Courses for the New School Year

We’re excited to let you know that your Canvas courses will soon be visible and ready for action. Canvas is designed to simplify your teaching journey and provide you with a user-friendly platform to engage with your students, organize course materials, and foster a dynamic learning environment.

Course Template

To assist you in creating an engaging and effective online learning space, we’ve prepared comprehensive resources for the course template. These resources include step-by-step guides, video tutorials, and best practices for setting up your Canvas courses. Whether you’re a seasoned Canvas user or a first-timer, these tools will ensure that you’re making the most of Canvas’s features. Using the Canvas template ensure students and families have a more consistent experience in Canvas. We have also updated the template to reflect the move to Google Meet rather than Zoom, reduced the Course Navigation Menu options, and included an assignment template for easy duplication.

Locating Courses from Past Years

Looking for courses from previous years? Rest assured, they may not be on your dashboard, but they are still there. If you navigate to https://pccsk12.instructure.com/courses and scroll to the bottom of the page, you’ll see such courses under “Past Enrollments.” Past enrollments (such courses) are in read-only format. If you would like to make some edits and updates to your course(s) for current or future usage do the following. Click on the course under Past Enrollments, go to Settings on the Course Navigation Menu and click the “Copy this Course” button.

Import Previous Content

You can easily copy previous Canvas courses into your 25-25 course shell. However, if you have been keeping the same content from year to year, some unused content might be slowing you down. Last spring, we invited you to reflect on and revise your course instead of copying the whole thing over (linked post). Below, you will find steps to import Canvas content into your new course shell (once generated automatically through the MiStar integration).

Getting Started with Canvas

Just getting started with Canvas or wanting to start anew? Check out this new Canvas Quick Start Guide. It might be helpful even if you plan to import previous content! It has links to crosslisting directions, template homepage information, button templates, and more!

Crosslisting Guide

When you have taken time to update the homepage and import previous content, you might not want to repeat those steps for multiple sections on the same course. If that is the case, take a look at the crosslisting guide. This will allow you to only update one course and the changes will be reflected in all sections.

Publish Your Course(s)

You must publish your course in order for it to be visible for students and families. Rest assured, students cannot view course content until the term starts (check this under the course settings). Avoid unnecessary emails from students and families and set yourself a reminder to publish!

If you need assistance with any of these steps, please submit a tech ticket.

Canvas

Canvas Update: Assign Module to Specific Students or Groups

In Canvas, instructors now have the flexibility to assign modules to individual students or specific sections (this could be specific hours in a cross-listed course).

Sections are created automatically in a cross-listed course (P2, P3, etc) but you can also manually-create sections of students.

This feature allows for personalized learning experiences and targeted instruction. Here’s how you can assign modules to individual students or sections:

Access the Module Settings:

– Navigate to the desired course in Canvas.

– Click on the “Modules” tab in the course navigation menu.

– Select the module you want to assign.

Choose the Assign To Option:

– In module, click the Options icon (Tim Bits). Click “Assign to”

modules: assign to

Assign to Individual or Sections

-By default, modules are assigned and visible to everyone in the course.

-Click the Individual or Section field to select a section or an individual student name.

-You can add multiple students and sections.

-Click Save

By utilizing the “Assign To” feature in Canvas, instructors can tailor their instructional materials to meet the unique needs of individual students or specific sections. This level of customization promotes targeted learning and enhances student engagement. See the Canvas guide for more information.

Canvas

Year-End Canvas Information

The good news is, there isn’t much to worry about with Canvas at the end of the year. It will automatically convert your course to read-only for students and roll your course into Past Enrollments. When next year’s course shell appears you will be able to import last year’s course content with a few clicks.

There are a few things you can do if you’d like to make adjustments to your course over the summer or if you like to have a just-in-case copy. Peruse the items below for more information and/or save it at this link.

Canvas end of year

Things I Wish I Would Have Known- Canvas Edition: Make Modules, not Pages

If you have been using Canvas for awhile (since 2021), you may have worked to build Pages in Canvas that had the plan for your day/week/month. They may also include links to other Canvas Assignments and resources. It may look something like this:

While this page made a lot of sense as you rushed to put together content for virtual days, you might consider making the shift to Modules. Over time, these pages have probably proved cumbersome to update and it can result in a clunky workflow for students. It may also feel like a double load of work if you also update some daily slide for the classroom. We’d suggest letting go of these Agenda pages in favor Modules organized by week or topic. Check out some examples below:

This set up may prove easier to update and blends nicely with the face-to-face learning environment, pointing students and families to exactly what they need to know.

Why Use Modules

Content Organization: Modules act like a table of contents, allowing instructors to organize various course elements such as Pages, Files, Discussion Boards, Quizzes, and Assignments. By grouping related content together, Modules create a coherent flow for students.
Interaction Requirements: Modules allow instructors to require student interaction with specific content before proceeding to assignments. For example, students might need to review a reading or watch a video before attempting a quiz.
Centralized Management: Instructors can manage all course materials within a single Module. This streamlines the course-building process and keeps everything organized in one place.
Flexible Structure: Instructors can structure Modules based on their natural course organization. Whether by unit, day, week, topic, or outcome, Modules adapt to the instructor’s preferred format.
Visual Flow: Using indentation, emojis, and text headers in Modules enhances visual flow, especially when dealing with a large amount of content. Headers help delineate different sections, and instructors can even use emojis for quick scanning.
Student Experience: By simplifying navigation (e.g., hiding unnecessary links), Modules create a better experience for students. Chunking content into digestible bits prevents overwhelming learners.

Canvas

Things I Wish I Would Have Known-Canvas Edition: Use the Calendar

Using Canvas can feel overwhelming if you are new to it or haven’t done much with it since the 20-21 school year. Want an easy place to start? Go to the calendar.

Once there you can add assignments, course events (including recurring events), personal events, and appointment groups. When you open the Calendar, think about upcoming tests, due dates, and reminders. Click on the associated day and add it to the calendar. If you need to change a due date, you just need to drag and drop it to a new date.

If you create an event from Calendar, you add a minimal amount of information and you have the choice to click “More Options” to add more direction.

This is a great way to get started with Canvas to share important assignments and events with students and families. Take a look at a secondary student’s calendar below:

Things I Wish I Would Have Known: Canvas Edition-Google Assignments

Introducing a new series, Things I Wish I Would Have Known: Canvas Edition. We will highlight things we wish we might have done differently when we started using Canvas and what you might consider updating in your course going forward. When back to school time hits it can be overwhelming to consider what updates to make in your Canvas course. Our hope with this series is that you will consider some changes you can make for next year and start implementing some of those new ideas now.

Three Big Reasons to Try Google Assignments in Canvas

If you used the predecessor to Google Assignments, Cloud Assignments, they are being deprecated in June 2024. Learn more about this in our earlier blog post. If you have any assignment that look like the one below, please be sure to take action.

If you have Google Document that you ask students to make a copy of, you may be creating unknown barriers for students. Many students forget if they have already copied and started an assignment. If they did already start it, they may not be able to find it again. With Google Assignments, each student receives a labeled copy organized in a dedicated Drive folder, making it easy to keep track of submissions, and peak and their progress while they work.
- In earlier years using Canvas, some teachers did not like it because:
  - You couldn’t use the Canvas Speedgrader, you had to use the Google grader–you now have the option to grade with Speedgrader.
  - People reported problems with it. In the early years of Canvas, there were a lot of problems talked about but these days I seldom hear of an issue.
One of the standout features of Assignments is the availability of originality reports. These reports scan student submissions against hundreds of billions of web pages and millions of books, helping you identify potential instances of plagiarism or missed citations. Each course is allotted five originality reports. When enabled students can even check over their originality report up to 3 times to help catch their errors. This feature would be an excellent reason to give Google Assignments a try before the end of the year.

Tutorial: Create a Google Assignment

March Canvas Updates

March 16, 2024 Canvas is releasing two welcome updates!

New Quizzes Item Analysis: Fill In the Blank Data now provides additional information on specific question types for instructors to evaluate student responses and provide appropriate intervention. Previously, if you had multiple blanks or dropdowns you would not get stats on all the blanks. Now you will be able to get data for each blank. See image below.

Multiple gradebook filter options can be applied at once.

Video walkthrough:

Canvas

Canvas Discussions Redesign Coming this Summer

This summer, Canvas is rolling out a redesign of the Discussions feature to provide a more modern, accessible, and user-friendly experience. While the core functionality of Discussions will remain intact, the new redesign brings a host of exciting enhancements.

What’s New in the Discussions Redesign?

Cleaner, more accessible UI with improved screen reader capabilities
Flexible viewing options including inline view and split view
Reply reporting with notifications for instructors
Quoting functionality to make referencing easier
Improved search with text highlighting
Support for full and partial anonymity in graded discussions—this functionality is currently turned off for P-CCS until Canvas adds a moderation feature
Additional sorting and filtering options

The goal is to facilitate better peer-to-peer interaction and collaboration through a modernized discussion forum experience. Popular existing features like posting before seeing replies, marking posts read/unread, group discussions, peer reviews, and rubric support will continue to be available.

While some may be apprehensive about the changes, Canvas emphasizes that no current functionality is going away. The redesign aims to elevate the overall discussion experience by adding conveniences like quote replies, anonymous postings, and a more intuitive design.

So get ready to embrace the future of Canvas Discussions coming your way this summer! The refreshed interface and new capabilities will foster more engaging discourse for students and instructors alike.

Find more information here: 2024_Canvas-Discussions-Redesign_Data-Sheet.pdf – Google Drive

Canvas

New Student & Family Canvas Orientation

In an effort to better help new students and families understand how to use Canvas, we have created a Student and Family Canvas Orientation. We plan to link it in several places throughout our public-facing websites. For now, it is conveniently linked in the “Help” area in Canvas.

There is a family module and student module. They contain walkthroughs in several formats (video, interactive tutorial, and linked guides).

students orientation modules — Module for Students

Individuals don’t need to be be logged into view the course, so you can also share the link directly. Please feel free to spread the word to anyone who would benefit from this resource. We will update this blog post when we add the link in other places.