Reading Time: < 1 minuteScheduling a Zoom meeting through Canvas is an excellent way to meet with all the students in your course. However, what’s the best way to meet with a single student when you want to ensure nobody else can join the call? Enter scheduling your Zoom meetings through Google Calendar. With a simple add-on, you can create a meeting through Google Calendar and set it to launch a Zoom meeting. Installing the add-on You’ll see a message letting you know that the add-on has been installed. Scheduling a Zoom meeting Joining the meeting When it’s time to join the meeting, you and your student would just go…
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Everything has changed…again
Reading Time: 2 minutes“And the days went by like paper in the windEverything changed then changed again” – Tom Petty, “To Find A Friend” So, you’ve been teaching remotely for a week because of COVID-19. You thought you were halfway through, and then you got the latest news: We’re doing this for the rest of the semester. (And if you’re hearing this for the first time…surprise?) Whether you’re excited or apprehensive about the rest of the semester, know that you’re not alone. The CTL is here for you, and we’re going to help however we can. We’ll be adding to the Getting Started with Remote Learning course, and we’ll keep…
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Remote Learning: The Next Level
Reading Time: 2 minutesOnce you’ve worked through the tools we talked about in Remote Learning: The Basics, you’re ready for the next step. These items will enhance your course – they make content easier to find for students, grading easier for you, and improve accessibility in your videos. Linking Canvas content together We’re going to start off with one of the coolest features in Canvas: linking to items within the course from a page, discussion, announcement, or anywhere else that the Rich Content Editor is used. This is especially helpful if you’re sending an announcement out to students where you reference a page or assignment – you can link directly to…
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Best Practices for Conducting a Synchronous Session
Reading Time: 3 minutesWhile synchronous sessions can function similar to class sessions (you get to verbally communicate with all your students at once), there are some considerations you should make. From coming into the session with a plan to developing a method for student interaction, these items will help your sessions run smoothly. Prepare and plan ahead Are you planning on going through a presentation? Showing some other program or document via screen share? Have all of those items ready so it’s a simple toggle to the resource. You won’t have to sort through files for folders to find what you need. Consider also having an outline on what you…
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How Can I Organize my Canvas Course?
Reading Time: 2 minutesWith moving online, you’ll most likely be adding more content to your course than before. But what is the best way to organize that content so you and your students can easily find items? Each of the methods we’re going to look at uses the Modules section in your Canvas course. Modules are particularly helpful because you can add almost anything – content pages, videos, assignments, quizzes/tests/discussions – to keep content grouped together in some way. There are a few options for organization, so let’s look at how they each function. Modules by class day/week This is the method we use in our fully online courses. We number…
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Remote Learning: The Basics
Reading Time: 3 minutesYou’ve survived the first couple days of teaching remotely because of COVID-19 – congratulations! We’re going to use this post to take a pause and review some of the methods that are most helpful for transitioning online. These are the things that will make your course functional. Your course will survive. And later in this transitioning online series, we’ll be covering items that will slowly take you from surviving to thriving. But for now, we’re starting small. If you haven’t checked out the Getting Started with Remote Learning course in Canvas, please do so. We walk through these tips plus best practices, FAQs, and ways to get…
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Using Google Forms for Proctor Registration
Reading Time: 3 minutesWith our sudden pivot to online learning, you may have an upcoming exam where you want to assign proctors. You’ll need to collect some information (e.g., email addresses so you can send proctoring information), and Google Forms is an easy and organized way to collect that data. Dr. McClain created a Google form for this purpose and shared it with the CTL. We’re going to look at how to create the form, add items, preview the form, share the form with your students, view responses, and send information to proctors. Creating the form and adding items This form is simple to create – it’s four short-answer questions…
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Speeding Up Grading with the SpeedGrader Keyboard Shortcuts
Reading Time: < 1 minuteWe’ve previously talked about how you can speed up grading and improve your feedback to students in Canvas with the four types of assignment comments and the annotation tools in SpeedGrader. Today, we’re looking at another element of SpeedGrader that can help streamline your workflow: keyboard shortcuts. These shortcuts can help you quickly move from student to student as well as select various items from the submission information and grading panel. As a note, the shortcuts only work if you have the submission information and grading panel “in focus.” If you have clicked on the document and are in the process of making annotations for a student,…