The videos on this page are from the Winter Institute Workshop Series hosted by Everspring in Dec 2021.
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Set Up Your Course Curate Your Course Content Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes
Assessment: SpeedGrader and Gradebook Utilizing Video Communication via Canvas
Set Up Your Course: Modules, Pages, Files, and URLs
Key Takeaways:
- Skip ahead to 5:30 to skip past introductory conversations
- Canvas has 2 main helpful tools for organization: Files and Modules
- Modules: 9:14
- you can create various modules to categorize units that will be covered throughout the course, sets of resources that relate to a certain topic,
- Under each module, you can add Assignments, Quizzes, Files, Pages, Discussions, etc, that will lead students directly to those places.
- Once you create a module, you can add already existing Assignments, Pages, etc., or you can newly create them and edit them then, or go in and edit them later.
- Publishing your module: press the grey 🚫 icon on the top right of the module, and the icon will become a green checkmark. This means the module is now published and it will appear on the students’ end of the Canvas course.
- Files: 15:23
- An “Instructor Only” File is recommended for storing and organizing items that are meant for you, but not the students.
- For every file, you have the option to publish it, keep it unpublished, only make it available to students with the link, or schedule when it becomes available for students.
- If you want to reupload an edited item that is in a Files folder, as long as you do not change the name, Canvas will prompt you to replace the old file with the newly added one. If you click “Replace,” the new version will be applied anywhere where the previous file was shared within the course.
- Keep your modules/files system consistent so students know where to find what they need to get their work done throughout the term.
Curating Content for Your Course: Adding Links, Files, Images to a Page
Key Takeaways:
- Skip ahead to 8:16 to move past introductions.
- Use External Links to link text in your page to sites outside of your Canvas course. Use Course Links to link pages and sites within your course such as the Syllabus.
- Documents option allows you to link newly uploaded documents or documents already existing within your course.
- Use Files to upload documents, images, videos, and other media for your course. Be sure to utilize folders within the Files page to organize media for easy navigation.
- Use Alt Text to describe images for students that are visually impaired and use screen readers.
- Click the Page History button to view older versions of a page and revert back if needed.
Using Canvas Assignment, Discussion and Quizzes
Key Takeaways:
- Skip ahead to 8:33 to skip past introductory conversations.
- Discussions: forums where students and instructors can make posts. This can be with the entire class or groups that instructors make among students.
- Assignments: students submit deliverables and instructors can provide grades and feedback.
- Quizzes: “Quizzes” can be used for quizzes, exams, tests, or any assignment that instructors want to be timed (e.g. writing assignment).
- Assignment settings: 14:43
- Discussion settings: 25:26
- Building Quizzes and Exams: 29:36
- Student view of due dates on Canvas: 40:00
Assessing Students: Speedgrader and the Gradebook
Key Takeaways:
- Skip ahead to 6:57 to skip past introductory conversations.
- In an assignment page, you will see how many students have submitted their work.
- Click “Speedgrader” on the top right of your assignment page. This will lead you to students’ submitted assignments.
- Here, you can grade assignments, highlight and make comments, and more.
- Additional comments are possible on the overall assignment, in addition to comments for specific parts inside the student’s work.
- Annotation tools: 11:36
- Grading a Discussion post: 19:53
- Grading a Quiz/Exam: 22:36
- Navigating the Gradebook: 27:31
- Click the notebook icon on the top left of any Speedgrader page to navigate to the Gradebook. Here, instructors can see an organized chart of all students and all graded items.
- Instructors are able to hide grading until publishing.
- Don’t forget the blue “Submit” button to publish the grades and comments for them to be saved.
Utilizing Video in Your Course
Key Takeaways:
- Skip ahead to 7:33 to skip past introductory conversations.
Embedding from a third-party website:
- Obtain embed code, often found in the “share” option of video. (Watch 12:35 for example of YouTube video.)
- Place cursor where you want video to be on page > “Insert” > “Embed” > paste embed code > Submit > your video will appear on the page.
(Shortcut: the Cloud icon on the top-right is the same as the “Embed” button.)
Embedding your own video:
- Insert > Media > Upload/Record Media > 2 options:
- Computer – you can select a pre-existing video file on your computer, or
- Record – you can record a new video directly in Canvas.
- If a video is taking a while to upload/longer than 15 minutes, upload to a third-party source, then embed it in your page.
Embedding a video that’s already in your Canvas Files:
- Insert > Media > Course Media > search for video in your Canvas files > click on video, then it will appear on page
Communication Via Canvas
Key Takeaways:
- Skip ahead to 7:50 to skip past introductory conversations
- Course participants must have email notifications enabled in Settings (they should be enabled by default), but they will also see the notifications in Canvas
- Inbox: Send a message to your course through inbox. Course participants receive an email with your name as sender and the subject line, “[Professor] just sent you a message in Canvas.”
- Announcements: Posting an Announcement emails your course participants with the course title as sender and your announcement subject as the email subject.