Reading Time: 3 minutesI have always been a little skeptical of online courses. I have never taken an online course and have never taught one either. But as I’ve seen them grow in popularity, especially among dual enrollment and homeschool students, I started to reconsider: maybe they do have an important role to play in the higher education ecosystem? I decided to suspend judgement and spend 3 days with the Center for Teaching and Learning in early January to learn more about online learning and how one of my favorite courses to teach, CY-1000 Introduction to Cybersecurity, could be taught online. By the end of those 3 days my perspective…
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Canvas Updates: Rich Content Editor
Reading Time: 1 minuteIt’s been a bit since we last wrote about Canvas updates, but some cool things have been happening. Canvas is always working on tweaking or adding things (you can keep up with them in the Canvas Release Notes!), but today we’re focusing on what’s changed in the Rich Content Editor (RCE) over the past few months. Access to detailed word/character count statistics The RCE displays word count at the bottom of the editor, but it’s expanded that functionality a bit. Now when you click on that word count, Canvas will pop a window and show you detailed word and character count. Dragging-and-dropping/pasting of content Previously, to add…
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Using Rubrics for Grading in Canvas
Reading Time: 2 minutesWith finals just over a month away, it’s the perfect time to revisit how Canvas rubrics can make your grading life easier. We’ve talked before about some aspects of adding and using rubrics in courses. As a brief refresher, Canvas has excellent resources on creating and adding rubrics to assignments as well as creating and adding rubrics to discussions. We’ve also talked about how to add existing (already created in Canvas) rubrics to an assignment or discussion. Today we’re turning our attention to a setting that’ll make your grading life easier – using a rubric for assignment grading. You may think that you’re doing that by default,…
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Kaltura: Creating Videos, Editing Videos, and Creating Playlists
Reading Time: 3 minutesNow that you know how to add existing videos to Kaltura and share those videos, we’ll turn our attention to some additional tools Kaltura provides. Creating Videos using Express Capture and Kaltura Capture Kaltura Capture is already downloaded on classroom/lab computers as well as tech cars. For personal devices, install Kaltura Capture through my Media according to these instructions: download and install Kaltura Capture. With Kaltura Capture, you can capture a screen through either Canvas or Kaltura Media Space (video.cedarville.edu). You have two options: Express Capture and Kaltura Capture Kaltura has created thorough resources for using Kaltura Capture: Editing a Video and Specifying a…
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Canvas Updates: Inbox Improvements and Scheduling Page Publishing
Reading Time: 3 minutesCanvas is updating two different areas across the coming months. On October 15, you’ll also be able to specify dates and times to publish pages. And later this year, you’ll see some minor changes to the Canvas inbox. Schedule Page Publish Dates/Times Canvas is also adding a “publish at” setting for pages. When you use this setting, students will not be able to see publish-delayed pages until the set publish date and time. To set a date/time, go to a Canvas page. Below the textbox is an “options” heading where you can choose who can edit the page (an existing feature) and also choose a “publish at”…
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The Four Types of Assignment Comments in SpeedGrader
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe Four Types of Assignment Comments in SpeedGrader Canvas SpeedGrader allows you to annotate student submissions to provide feedback. You can use a variety of tools (including a highlighter, text annotation, and a pen tool) directly on the document to thoroughly explain your comments to a student. For more information about using those tools, check out Canvas’ information on adding annotated comments in SpeedGrader. But did you know that you have options for how you leave overall feedback comments to students in the “Assignment Comments” section? You have four options on the comments you leave there: text comments, file comments, media comments, and text comments via speech…
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Top 3 Ways to Use Announcements
Reading Time: < 1 minuteAs the semester continues, we want to keep exploring ways to effectively communicate with students. We’ve talked about three tips for writing clear content. And today, we’re looking at one of the areas to apply those principles – the Canvas Announcements tool. These tips below are suggestions to boost communication and support your students throughout the course. Manage your students’ expectations regularly If you want to do more than provide textual guidance, you can embed video from Kaltura. Providing a video or audio announcement adds a personal dimension that many students enjoy. Finally, you can pre-program your announcements and then delay them from posting. Keep students…
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How Can My Students Do Presentations in an Online Course?
Reading Time: 2 minutesHaving students give presentations is easy enough in a face-to-face class – everyone is present and there’s few technology considerations that have to be made. But once you swap to an online format, a once-simple assignment gets more complex. How can students record presentations that include sharing a screen, video of themselves, and audio? How can students submit their videos so that just the professor can watch them? How can they submit videos so that their peers can view and comment? We’re going to walk through all the options so you can choose what is right for your course, and then we’ll also provide resources for you…
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Kaltura Resources Roundup
Reading Time: 2 minutesWe’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 Videos…
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Kaltura: Video Analytics and Creating Video Quizzes
Reading Time: 4 minutesWe’ve reached the last post of our Kaltura series! Here, we’ll be covering two final aspects of Kaltura – accessing video analytics and creating video quizzes. Finding Video Analytics Viewer analytics can be accessed from My Media both inside and outside of Canvas (through video.cedarville.edu). Creating a video quiz Creating a video quiz can be done in My Media either inside and outside of Canvas (through video.cedarville.edu). You can create video quizzes with media you upload, media that is shared with you as a collaborator, YouTube videos, and audio recordings. After you are satisfied with your quiz, click “Done.” You can then preview it and embed it…