Beginner Course
We assume you haven’t used Canvas yet except how you login to your schools Canvas instance. Email communication is available to help every step of the way for any questions that arrive before the class.
What
We begin with the basics of how to set up your basic settings and your Homepage then on to Pages, Assignments, Quizzes, Announcements, Calendars, Modules, SpeedGrader™, Outcomes, Grades, Analytics and our favorite ‘The Commons’.
By the end of this course you should have 1 complete course that you can teach from and allows you to follow the assignments, quizzes, grades and activities of your students. Remember the heavy lifting really is in the weekly homework that you complete.
When
Weekly at 10am on Saturdays.
January 5th, 12th, 19th and 26th
February 2nd, 9th, 16th and 23rd
March 2nd, 9th, 16th and 23rd
April 6th, 13th, 20th and 27th
May 4th, 11th, 18th and 25th
Homework #1 – Watch this video
Here are some of our Favorite things about Canvas…
For Faculty
Clean interface – Canvas’s straightforward, simple architecture lets instructor content be the focus.
Easier building experience – Canvas is easy to navigate, so instructors can build courses easily and consistently.
SpeedGrader – This tool makes grading assignments much easier, enabling instructors to give students more thorough and efficient feedback.
For Students
Mobile app – 50 percent of student respondents indicated they used a mobile device to access Canvas, and that the ability to use Canvas on a smartphone or tablet was a significant advantage.
Grades – Students can include hypothetical grades and view their final grade percentage throughout the term.
Simplified collaboration – Students can take a proactive approach to group work, sharing documents and hosting discussions all within the LMS.
Calendar – This tool helps students stay organized, displaying assignments and due dates across all active courses.
While this is not a comprehensive list of the tools in Canvas, here are the basic features:
Communication Tools
Inbox
Announcements
Discussions
Conferencing
Assessment Tools
Assignments
Quizzes
Grades
Speedgrader (unique to Canvas)
Outcomes
Content Tools
Pages
Modules
Syllabus
Files
Interactive Tools
Group Work (People)
Conferencing
Collaboration
Analytics
Speedgrader™
If you have not tried using the Speedgrader™ tool with Canvas, you are missing an opportunity to streamline your grading time. SpeedGrader™ allows you to view and grade student assignment submissions in one place (most importantly, without downloading files in most cases) moving from one student to the next without a lot of additional clicking. Canvas accepts a variety of document formats, including URLs, media submissions, and Google Docs. Some document submissions (i.e. doc, docx, pdf, ppt, pptx) can be marked up for feedback directly within the submission using built-in annotation tools in your web browser of choice. It is possible to grade assignments using rubrics that can be as simple or complex as you make them. You can also provide feedback to your students with text or media comments.
Embedded media elements
In an online environment, using media can help to personalize your course, making you more than just text to a student, but a real live person (audio or video). Canvas provides a ready tool, allowing you or your students to easily make a quick audio or video file as a submission, feedback, instructions and more. It is integrated with the Speedgrader tool allowing media comments. It is part of the editor allowing for media to be included in pages of content, discussions, announcements, instructions, quiz questions, and peer review.
Modules
The Modules tool allows you to set up a framework or sequence of activities for your students to know how to progress throughout the course. There is flexibility in setting prerequisite tasks, linking to assignments, discussions, quizzes and your content pages. Modules tool has a clear edge in user-friendliness. You can look at the modules and have a sense of how the course is organized. If indentations are used, it is like having an outline of what you need to do in the course.