Reading Time: 2 minutesA big concern among educators and practitioners is that students are using Generative AI to cheat, and this is a legitimate concern. With the vast amount of data that the LLMs have access to, students could easily type in “What is the name of the rabid dog that Atticus shoots in the street?” and get an answer in a split second. However, based on the presentations I have seen thus far, the presumption that students are using GAI to cheat is unfounded. In a previous post, I discussed what I learned from a session about student ethics in using ChatGPT for writing assignments. Another session I attended…
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2024 AECT Reflection: Student Usage of GAI, Part 1
Reading Time: 2 minutesDr. Jared Pyles recently attended the Association for Educational Communications and Technology conference and has prepared some reflections and takeaways for us. Join us for this mini-series on the hottest topics discussed at the conference! As expected, there are a lot of research presentations on Generative AI at AECT. Shocking, right? One presentation was on a study coming out of a public higher education institution in the US. They studied undergraduate students’ perceptions of using ChatGPT in higher education coursework and the ethical dilemmas associated with it. In this study, 365 undergraduate students filled out an online survey that contained demographics and presented six ethical scenarios of…
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Canvas New Quizzes Update: Results Visibility & Adding Time During an Attempt
Reading Time: 2 minutesCanvas is bringing new and updated features to New Quizzes on October 19. In this update, instructors can now define how and when students can view quiz results as well as add time to a student’s ongoing quiz attempt. Quiz results Previously, you could still restrict students from viewing quiz results and feedback in New Quizzes – but it was a permanent restriction (unless you would go and change the setting again). With this update, you can schedule exactly when you want students to be able to view results. You can see all the new options in the New Quiz “Settings” tab under “Hide results from students.”…
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Canvas Update: SpeedGrader Comment Formatting Options
Reading Time: < 1 minuteCanvas is making leaving clear comments in SpeedGrader even easier with the update going live on September 11. In this update, some of the Rich Content Editor formatting options will be available in SpeedGrader. Previously, you could only leave plain text comments as submission comments in SpeedGrader. With this update, you’ll be able to organize your feedback to students better with headings, bulleted or numbered lists, bold/italic/underlined text, and even live links (some formatting options are under the “three dots” menu at the right of the ribbon). Additionally, Canvas will now let you edit draft comments! If you type out a comment and then…
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Transform Your Teaching: Education in the Age of AI – One Year Later
Reading Time: < 1 minuteLast summer, the Transform Your Teaching hosts talked a lot about AI and its role in education. What has changed in the world of AI since that summer 2023 series? Were Rob and Jared’s ideas on the trajectory of AI and its uses on point or totally off base? Listen as Rob McDole and Jared Pyles revisit some of their takes and give an update on the current climate. Podcast links Resources FOCUS Blog from the Cedarville University CTL Chat with us!
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Canvas Update to the Update: “Assign To” Feature Is Getting Simplified
Reading Time: < 1 minutePreviously, we talked about how Canvas has added new ways to update the dates for assignments, quizzes, and discussions. This week, we’re going to be talking about that same topic – but about another change that’s coming Wednesday, August 28. After releasing this feature, Canvas realized that there was one factor they missed accounting for across their design process – the ability to quickly view the due dates on the settings pages for assignments, quizzes, and discussions. So they’re fixing that and reverting the settings pages to their previous design. This doesn’t negate any of the other updates they brought with the original “Assign To” update!…
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Canvas Update: Rubric Enhancements
Reading Time: 4 minutesCanvas has recently released some new updates to make creating and using rubrics easier. These changes can be seen in the “Rubrics” page in a course, the rubric builder, and SpeedGrader for any assignment that includes a rubric. Note: At this time, rubric rating descriptions will appear to be missing when an instructor views them through the student view. Students, however, can still see the rubrics and all information in them, including the descriptions for each rating. Rubrics page Previously, the rubrics page in a course was very simple – any rubrics in the course would be listed on the left, and there was also an “Add…
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Canvas Update: New Method for Adding or Changing Due Dates
Reading Time: 3 minutesWe’re all familiar with how to change the due dates or availability dates for an individual assignment, discussion, or quiz – you go into the settings, scroll down, and add or modify the dates. Now, if you follow that exact same method, you find a “Manage Assign To” link that slides out a panel where you can update all the information. While this change may seem confusing, it enables Canvas to modify how and where the “assign” feature can operate – and it can simplify the processes we use to work with these dates. With this feature update, you can now update dates directly from the Modules…
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Canvas Update: Inbox Out of Office and Signature Settings
Reading Time: < 1 minuteCanvas is rolling out new features and changes July 20, and we’ll be discussing two of them today – Canvas Inbox out of office and signature settings. While messages through the inbox are still rather bare-bones (the RCE is not used there, so messages are text-only – font styling cannot be changed and hyperlinks cannot be added), Canvas is now giving instructors some additional control over their inboxes. Both the out of office and signature settings are easy to set up! In your Canvas inbox, click the gear icon at the top right to open the Inbox settings. You’ll instantly see your options for both “Out…
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Generative AI, In Practice: Assignment Creation
Reading Time: 4 minutesLast spring, I taught an online course. In the middle of the semester, a student did not do well on one assignment and asked if I could give him another set of questions to review. I said yes. The assignment was a database design task that involved a business case and a dozen sample data rows – for example, a fictional medical clinic that uses Excel sheets to manage its appointments. The table in the image below contains sample data from last year. The most time-consuming aspect of creating a similar assignment was developing a new case and generating sample data which must represent as many unique…