Reading Time: 2 minutes We’ve recently published several posts running through everything you need to know to start using Kaltura. Today, we’ll be reviewing that info and pulling it together for easy access! Introduction and Important Terms Kaltura can be accessed through both a website and your Canvas course! Some tasks can only be completed in one place or the other, so make sure you’re familiar with the different locations. Check out “Kaltura: Introduction and Important Terms” for details. Adding Videos to your Library Whether you’re uploading Teams Meeting recordings or other videos you’ve created, you’ll need to know how to bring those files into Kaltura. “Kaltura: Adding…
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Accessibility Best Practices: Color and Text
Reading Time: 3 minutes Last post, we talked about the importance of captions, best practices for graphics, and tips for writing good alt text. Today, we’re looking at two other aspects of accessibility and usability – using color properly and working with text. Color Using color can be a powerful way to accentuate the information you’re presenting. But color shouldn’t be used as the only way to draw attention to or distinguish items. It’s easy to put warnings or urgent information in red, but that kind of visual indicator just doesn’t work for everyone. People who are red/green colorblind, for example, can have trouble distinguishing between and identifying those colors…
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Accessibility Best Practices: Captioning, Graphics, and Alt Text
Reading Time: 5 minutes Today, we’re going to dive into some accessibility best practices to implement into your courses. We’ll be looking at media in this post, and in our next, we’ll be talking about color and text. Captioning Captioning is likely one of the first things people think of when considering accessibility, and rightfully so. But it isn’t only beneficial for people who are deaf. Captions are helpful when people are in a loud, distracting, or public environment, especially if they forgot earbuds at home. With a captioned video, a student who forgot earbuds in the dorm could still work on that last piece of homework while all their…
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Introduction to Accessibility Series
Reading Time: < 1 minute Over the next few posts, we’ll be diving into accessibility. It’s easy to hear “accessibility” and think of captions for videos, but more goes into it than just that. Instead of focusing on just specific practices (which are important and we’ll cover), we’ll start with an overarching principle – designing for the whole person, and not the disability (21 Kalbag). If you base your work, whether it’s designing an element or building a course, on empathy and understanding (and good pedagogy), usability and inclusion will be “baked into” the result. This type of designing for the whole person is an element of universal…
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Canvas Update: New Quizzes Show in To-Grade List for Manually Graded Questions
Reading Time: < 1 minute Canvas has updated how New Quizzes function when they contain at least one manually graded question (short answer or essay questions). Previously, the quizzes would not show up in an instructor’s “to-grade” list, and students would automatically see their grade for the quiz – a grade that didn’t take into account the questions that needed to be graded by the instructor. New Quizzes will now be listed in an instructor’s “to-grade” list inside Canvas to make it obvious there are questions that need their attention. Additionally, students will not see their grade for the quiz until after the manually graded questions are marked. Questions? We’d…
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Canvas Update: New Quiz Fill in the Blank Question Type Modification
Reading Time: < 1 minute Canvas has updated one of the New Quiz question types. With this change, it’s easier to create fill-in-the blank questions. Previously, you had to type all your text then highlight specific words or phrases and hit “enter” to create blanks. With this update, you can easily mark the blanks as you go. Each fill-in-the-blank answer needs to be surrounded by backticks (just above “tab” on your keyboard. It took me way too long to find it since I don’t use that key frequently). Once you have your blanks marked, you can choose the answer type (open entry, dropdown, or word bank) for each blank. These…
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Microsoft Teams and Canvas Roundup
Reading Time: 2 minutes With Zoom soon going away, now’s the perfect time to do a brief recap of everything we’ve talked about so far with Microsoft Teams. Teams provides an easy replacement for Zoom – it’s integrated directly into your Canvas course, and you can access many helpful Microsoft products from inside a meeting. Let’s review some of the most pertinent information you’ll want to refer to as you get up and running with Teams. Setting up the Integration and Creating Meetings The first thing you’ll need to do is turn on the integration in your course from the settings page. After that, you’ll be able to create meetings…
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How Can I Quickly Adjust Multiple Canvas Assignment Due Dates and Times?
Reading Time: 2 minutes Previously, Canvas has made it easy to adjust due dates for all assignments in a course. You’d go to the assignments page, click that little “three dots” icon in the top right to expand a menu, and select “Edit Assignment Dates.” Canvas would display all assignments from the course and any dates associated with them currently. From there, you could either manually change dates or use the checkboxes and “Batch Edit” button to update multiple dates at once. But with these, you were stuck with whatever times were associated with an assignment. And if there wasn’t a time associated with an assignment, Canvas would default…
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Canvas Feature: Microsoft Immersive Reader
Reading Time: 3 minutes We’ve talked a lot about the Canvas/Microsoft partnership and how more Microsoft products and features are being incorporated into Canvas. Today, we’re revisiting one of those features – the Microsoft Immersive Reader. The Microsoft Immersive Reader is now available through more of Canvas. Initially only released on Canvas pages, it’s now also available on the syllabus, assignments, and a course’s home page. This reader presents the page text in a more accessible format where the user can choose the text preferences, grammar options, reading preferences, and to have the page content read to them. To launch the reader, click the “Microsoft Immersive Reader” button at the top right of a…
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Microsoft Teams Meetings Recordings: Tips and Notes
Reading Time: < 1 minute In our deep dive on different Teams Meetings features, today we’ll turn our attention to recordings. You Can’t Pause Recordings In Zoom, you could temporarily pause a recording, then restart it. However, you cannot do this with Teams meetings. If you stop a recording then start recording again, you will have two separate recordings. Remember to Stop Recordings Teams will automatically stop a recording when all participants leave the meeting. However, you shouldn’t rely on that. If one of your students forgets to leave the meeting, the recording will continue for four hours before it’s stopped. Recordings Won’t Capture a Couple of…