Tag: 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

Don’t Just Copy-Paste: Reflect and Revise!

As the academic year winds down, it’s tempting to take the easy route and copy over this year’s Canvas course into next year. After all, why reinvent the wheel, right? But before you hit that “Import” button, consider this: What worked well for your students this year? What fell flat? How can you enhance the learning experience for everyone involved?

1. Reflect on Student Engagement

Think about what lessons went well and which units needed a lot of repeated explanations. Is there content you could add or modify in Canvas that would assist? Look back on assignments, were there several that were never completed?

2. Seek Student Feedback

Your students are your best critics and allies. Send out a survey asking for their honest opinions. What did they enjoy? What frustrated them? Encourage them to share their insights on Canvas navigation, content clarity, and overall experience. Their feedback will guide your revisions.

3. Evaluate Content Relevance

Consider the relevance of your course materials. Are there outdated resources or redundant content? Trim the excess and focus on what truly matters. If there’s material you haven’t used in several years, don’t bring it with you into next year.

4. Explore New Tools and Features

Canvas evolves, and so should your course. Investigate new features, plugins, and integrations like Google Assignments. Maybe there’s a better way to organize assignments (into Modules, not pages) or facilitate peer reviews. Perhaps you can start using Discussions as a quick exit or entrance ticket. You consider using New Quizzes for formative assessments. Stay curious and open-minded.

5. Collaborate with Colleagues

Reach out to fellow educators. Share your successes and challenges. They might have brilliant ideas or solutions you haven’t considered. Collaboration fuels innovation.

Copying over your Canvas course is like reheating leftovers—it’s convenient, but it won’t satisfy anyone in the long run. Take the time to evaluate, tweak, and reimagine. Your students and their families will thank you for it!

Remember, teaching is an art, and your Canvas course is your canvas. Paint a masterpiece that inspires, engages, and empowers your learners.

Canvas

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

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

Grading Periods for New Term

visual organizer of the grading periods transition

Secondary teachers are approaching the end of a new term (semester 1/quarter 2). Here’s what you need to be aware of in Canvas.

Teachers will have access to make edits, give feedback, and grade assignments in Canvas for 1st Semester until 11:59 pm on January 31, 2023. After that date, the grades will not be editable, you’ll need to follow your building’s process for updating a grade on record. Please note change due to snow days.
Students will continue to have access to submit assignments with due dates in the first semester UNLESS YOU HAVE AN AVAILABLE UNTIL DATE OF JAN. 30 (11:50 pm) OR EARLIER. You can edit those dates in bulk by following the steps here. If you have a year-long course, please look over your assignments and consider what you want to remain available.

Semester 2 is set to “open” on January 30, please make sure any semester courses are published by then. You can filter your grade book to view assignments with due dates in the Semester 2 grading period by following the steps here.

If you have questions, please submit a tech ticket.

Canvas

Awesome New Quizzes Canvas Updates!

Here are a few September Canvas updates in New Quizzes to be excited about:

New Quizzes: Build on Last Attempt

In New Quizzes, instructors can allow students to build on their last attempt of a quiz by reattempting incorrectly answered questions.

In New Quiz Settings, select Allow multiple attempts [1], and then select the Enable build on last attempt checkbox [2].

Note: When the build on last attempt feature is enabled, students can only view questions marked with incorrect answers, all other questions are hidden. If you have short answer questions you want them to reattempt, you’ll want to add a waiting period to give you time to grade those items.

Additional Details

Students can reattempt incorrectly answered questions until the answer is marked correct in SpeedGrader or they run out of attempts. Students who get all questions correct will not have the option to reattempt.

❗ Bonus Tip: Did you know that you can grade one quiz question at a time in SpeedGrader? How do I grade one quiz question at a time in Spee… – Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

New Quizzes: Quicker Item Analysis Report

In New Quizzes, instructor access to Item Analysis reports is faster and the user interface is updated. While the item analysis used to take 24-28 hours, it will now take about 1 hour (depends on the size of the quiz and other factors).

If you like these features but have Classic Quizzes in your course, reach out for information about migrating those quizzes to New Quizzes. There have also been hesitations about partial credit on new quizzes, check out this resource (3 slides) that breaks down how this works in New Quizzes.

Not sure how to interpret the item analysis? New Quizzes Quiz and Item Analysis – Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

Sharing New Quizzes

If you have tried to share a New Quiz with a colleague you may have been frustrated if images or audio did not come with the quiz. To solve this, you can export the quiz file (QTI ZIP file) with these directions: How do I export a New Quiz from a course? – Instructure Community (canvaslms.com).

After exporting the file, you should be able to email the file to a colleague and they will be able to import it into their quiz. How do I import a quiz from a QTI package in New Q… – Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

This isn’t the typical, seamless process of sharing content in Canvas, but we are hopeful can an update will come down the road.

Canvas

Remind’s Evolving Business Structure: Embracing Canvas for Better Communication

In the ever-evolving landscape of educational technology, adaptability is key. Remind, a popular communication platform for educators, is making changes to its business structure that will affect the way our district’s users send and receive messages. Many of you received an email from Remind about these changes. We encourage you to embrace Canvas as the primary platform for communicating with students and families.

What’s Changing with Remind?

Remind has been a helpful tool for educators to connect with students and parents, providing a streamlined way to share important updates. However, Remind will be limiting the number of messages our district’s users can send starting September 13, 2023. This change may impact how you communicate with your students and their families. While we understand the convenience of Remind, we want to offer Canvas as an alternative solution that ensures effective communication without restrictions.

Why Canvas?

Canvas, our district’s learning management system, can serve as the ideal platform for seamless communication between educators, students, and parents. Canvas offers a mobile app that allows students and families to receive instant notifications. This ensures that important messages and updates are never missed, even on the go. By consolidating communications within Canvas, everything related to your course can be found in one place. No more switching between multiple apps or platforms. For example, if a parent checks a grade or due date in the Canvas app, they can message you directly from that screen instead of opening Remind.

Notification Settings

Due to the change in communication methods, you might encourage students to update their Notifications settings in the mobile app. Observers can also set up alerts for certain situations like a missing assignment or Announcements posted. See the chart below for helpful links and a quick video guide.

Plan to send out a communication to students and families about the settings you recommend for your course. If you use Announcements often, ask they adjust their settings to get push notifications for Announcements. If you plan to utilize the Canvas Inbox more frequently, prompt them to check that often.

Change can be daunting, but it can also lead to improved efficiency and effectiveness. By embracing Canvas as our primary platform for communication, we can provide students and families with a more reliable and comprehensive solution.

Canvas Remind

Action Required: Publish Your Course 23-24 Courses

Please note that each teacher must manually publish the course(s) they want to be visible to students.

Publishing your course only takes one click! From the Course Card on your Dashboard, click “Publish” (see screenshot below).

Alternatively, you can open the course home page and click the “Publish” button on the right side of the screen (see screenshot below).

Rest assured, students will not be able to access the course until the term start date. You can verify this under the course Settings (and adjust if desired).

As a reminder, your courses in MISTAR have been auto-populated in Canvas and auto-rostered with students. These are the course(s) you should publish and actively use with students. Any manually created courses should either be copied or cross-listed with your auto-populated courses. You can also cross-list multiple sections of the same course following the instructions provided in one of our previous posts.

Canvas

Need Help with Canvas?

Canvas is an important learning tool in our district. We hope that you continue to find it a valuable teaching and communication tool. If you are new to the district or have questions come up about it, we want you to be aware of several resources that are available to you.

First, click the “Help” icon on the Global Navigation Menu. For general and common questions try searching the Canvas guides. If your problem or question is unique and specific to your situation you can chat online or call the Canvas Support hotline. You can be connected with a support agent that can help you almost immediately.

If you would like to slowly browse resources, please check out our resources at the P-CCS Tech website, https://tech.pccsk12.com/canvas-lms/

Have a lot of questions? You can set up a 45-minute meeting with a Panda Pro. This experience is available through the beginning of September. Find more about this service on their website.

If you are instructional staff working on meeting your PD expectations, please note we have a number of courses including the following listed below (all of them are 3 hours) that can help increase your understanding of how to use Canvas effectively available for you in the Catalog. https://catalog.pccsk12.com/

Canvas 1.0
Canvas 2.0
Canvas 3.0
Canvas in the Face to Face Classroom
Simplify and Streamline your Elementary Classroom with Canvas

As always, please submit a tech ticket if you have any questions. https://links.pccsk12.com/helpdesk

Canvas