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,…
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Canvas Fellow Interview: Megan Brown
Reading Time: 9 minutesToday we’re debuting the second installment in our Canvas Fellow interview series. We joined Dr. Megan Brown from the School of Education for this chat. Check out the recording or read the transcript below. Lauren Eissler: Today I’m talking with Megan Brown from the School of Education and one of our Canvas Fellows. Megan, thank you so much for chatting today. Megan Brown: Of course. Lauren: So to start off, can you please briefly describe your role here at Cedarville? Megan: So I’m an assistant professor of education, I specifically teach the literacy courses, children’s literature, the methods courses. I also teach some special education courses as…
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Canvas New Quizzes and SpeedGrader
Reading Time: 2 minutesEven though it isn’t a feature that’s advertised by Canvas, SpeedGrader can still be accessed and used with New Quizzes – it just takes a couple of extra clicks now. Let me diverge with a brief illustration: Imagine you’re going to pick up a tin of cookies from a friend’s house (you do this regularly). Typically, you would walk up to the front door, and the tin would be right there on a little table waiting for you. But then the process changed. You can still get your cookies; but now you need to walk around the house to the back door, knock three times, whisper “cilantro,”…
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New Quizzes vs Classic Quizzes: Who You Gonna Call?
Reading Time: 2 minutesLast time, we talked about how Canvas is updating the location and icon for New Quizzes. If you haven’t reviewed how this change will affect you, please take a moment to go and brush up. We’ll wait for you. Okay? Welcome back. Now that you’re up to speed, we’re going to look at exactly what the differences between New Quizzes and Classic Quizzes are and give some guidelines for how to choose what best suits your needs. If you want to use third-party tools (e.g., Respondus Lockdown Browser) Currently, only Classic Quizzes support third-party tools such as Respondus Lockdown Browser. If using a lockdown browser is your…
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Canvas Release Update: New Quizzes Moving to Quizzes Page
Reading Time: 2 minutesCanvas is consistently working on and looking for ways to improve the system. As a part of this, Canvas is in the process of creating a new quiz engine. This quiz engine (hereafter called “New Quizzes”) is currently available in Canvas and has slightly different features and capabilities from the current quiz engine (“Classic Quizzes”). We’ll get into the differences between the two options in a future post. Today, however, we’re going to look at the updates Canvas is making to where New Quizzes are housed and created as well as noting the icon designation changes. These changes will go live in Canvas Saturday, February 15. New…
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Canvas Fellow Interview: Aleda Chen
Reading Time: 7 minutesToday we’re introducing a new feature for Focus – interviews with our Canvas Fellows. We joined Dr. Aleda Chen from the School of Pharmacy for our first chat. Check out the recording or read the transcript below. Lauren Eissler: Today I’m talking with Aleda Chen from the School of Pharmacy and one of our Canvas Fellows. Aleda, thank you so much for chatting with me today. Aleda Chen: I’m happy to chat with you. Lauren: So first of all, can you please describe your role here at Cedarville. Aleda: Yes, so I am the assistant dean in the School of Pharmacy, and within the School of Pharmacy…
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Speeding Up Grading with the SpeedGrader Annotation Tools
Reading Time: 3 minutesCanvas provides a nifty tool to speed up your process of grading: SpeedGrader (an apt name). This tool allows you to annotate papers directly in the system instead of downloading them, marking them up, and re-uploading them into the system. You may have been using this tool since we made the switch to Canvas, or this may be completely new to you. Either way, let’s take a look at the Canvas annotation styles. With each of these annotation styles, you can click a comment bubble on the right side of the paper to type out a note or explanation for each mark. We highly recommend you take…
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Canvas Gradebook Tips: Grade Breakdown, Assignment Weighting, and Dropping Lowest Grade
Reading Time: 2 minutesSince we’re still close to the start of the semester, now is the perfect time to make sure your gradebook is set up properly. It may feel like you have lots of time left before this is absolutely necessary, but that’s not the case. If you take the time now, both you and your students will see accurate grades across the semester. So let’s talk about three things to check to make sure your gradebook is set up how you want. 1. Setting up the grade breakdown Canvas makes it easy to take your syllabus’ grading system in percentages and apply it to your course. You’ll set…