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…
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Save Time by Scheduling Canvas Announcements
Reading Time: 2 minutesAs you keep thinking about next semester, you may be interested in using a Canvas feature that will allow you to save some time across the semester when communicating with your students. Canvas provides an announcements feature – you can use this to quickly and easily send messages to your entire class. Announcements is an excellent place for you to touch base with your students, notify them of resources, or give updates and reminders. But did you know that you can schedule announcements? Now this won’t work for every instance (e.g., “No class Tuesday”), but you can look ahead across the semester and identify places where you know…
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How to Transfer a Course to a New Semester in Canvas
Reading Time: < 1 minuteIt’s still the ideal time to be thinking about your courses in Canvas for next semester. If you need to start from scratch, check out our post on Three Tips to Quickly Build a Course in Canvas. But what if you have a course already in Canvas that you want to reuse? Canvas makes it simple to transfer content from one section (or semester) to another using the Course Import Tool. With this tool, you can transfer all of the content from a course, or you can pick and choose which pieces you want. After you’ve decided what content you want, you can opt to have…
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How to Use Google Drive More Efficiently with Drive Priority
Reading Time: 3 minutesIf you’re anything like me, you use Google Drive pretty extensively to keep your work organized. Drive is so easy and convenient to use – it doesn’t matter where I am or what device I use. I can always access my files. The tricky part about using a system that extensively is it eventually can take more time to find the file you need. With Drive, the search feature does work well to help you find what you need. But Google has introduced two features that make using Drive even easier: Quick Access and Priority. Quick Access Google Drive now shows a banner of files at the…
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Three Tips to Improve Accessibility in Your Course
Reading Time: 2 minutesLet’s make sure we all start on the same page by defining our terms. When talking about “accessibility” related to the web or course materials, it’s easy to think about it in a context of screen readers and disability accommodations. But it’s more than that. According to the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative, accessibility means that products are not only designed in a way that people with disabilities can use them but also people who have “situational limitations” (being in a location where they cannot use their device as they typically would) or “temporary disabilities” (an injury that affects how they handle their devices). Today we’re going to…
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Three Tips to Quickly Build a Course in Canvas
Reading Time: 3 minutesIt may seem like it’s early, but next semester is quickly approaching. Now is the perfect time to start thinking about your courses if you don’t want to spend time during break to pull them together. If you’ve already set up the course in Canvas, it’s a simple process to import the content and change the dates. But if you need to start from scratch (or a Moodle backup), here are three tips to help you speed up the process. 1. Make a game plan and template Take the time upfront and look over your course. Identify which pieces are consistent across it to make a template.…
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Canvas Release Update: Course Navigation Visual Changes
Reading Time: 3 minutesCanvas is implementing visual updates to course navigation on October 19, 2019. But don’t worry – this change will not affect how the navigation functions. This update will improve accessibility and clarity, especially regarding hidden menu items. So, what are the changes? Currently, course navigation displays items visible to students in black, items hidden to students in a light grey, and the current page with a blue highlight. When you hover over an item, it displays a light grey background. These style elements did not meet accessibility guidelines. The contrast between hidden and visible items was too low, and the hidden/visible status was only defined by color.…
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Adding External Tools to Your Course
Reading Time: 3 minutesWe’ve previously talked about how to use Ensemble for screen capture and webcam recording. We’ve also talked about how to add annotations, edit, and upload your video. But once you’ve uploaded your video, how do you get it into Canvas? Ensemble is integrated with Canvas as an external tool, so it’s a simple process to add media to your course. We’re going to use Ensemble as an example here, but you’ll follow the same initial process to add any external tool to your course. Add an external tool to a module If you want your video or other item from an external tool to be available directly…
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Best Practices for Webcam Recording
Reading Time: < 1 minuteLet’s set the scene. It’s the early evening, and there was a concept in class today that your students need a little more help with. You decide to record a short webcam video using Ensemble Anthem for them. As you prepare to make this video, there are a few things to keep in mind to make the video a good experience for your students. Check out this video for examples! Video by Jared Pyles Want to never miss a post? Subscribe here!