Reading Time: 2 minutesWhile I was in Vegas, another session I attended focused on instructional design. A group of designers from Utah Tech University faced the daunting task of developing or redesigning 175 courses as part of 14 new online programs. And they had to finish it in nine months. Oh, and did I mention there were only four designers? Because there were only four designers. It was clear they would need some help. Their solution was to equip their faculty with the skills and tools needed to design courses. For their instructional method, they decided to employ project-based learning. As an aside: project-based learning is an excellent teaching practice…
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Lessons from Vegas: The Digital Florilegium
Reading Time: 2 minutesFlorilegium is a medieval Latin word that is a combination of flor (flowers) + legere (to gather). The term is first seen in print as a title of a book from 1590. The book was a collection of engraved pictures of flowers. That tradition continued through the 1600s and even today through printed books or curated collections. However, that’s not really where florilegium gets its roots. “Jared, that was a horrible pun. Also I’m lost.” I know. I’m getting there. Florilegium is a reading practice used by medieval scribes as early as the 5th century. It referred to the reading of a manuscript and gathering (legre) passages,…
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Lessons Learned in Las Vegas
Reading Time: 3 minutesI know what you’re thinking…what a bizarre title for a post. Especially on a blog that is part of Cedarville University. You would be right in thinking that if I had not attended the AECT (Association for Educational Communications and Technology) convention in Las Vegas last month. I was invited to be a part of a panel with some other Boise State doctoral students and alums to discuss how our professions changed in response to COVID-19. So I figured that while I’m in the area, I’ll attend some sessions and see what I can bring back to share. This month, I’ll be sharing some of the takeaways…
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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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Three Tips for Writing Clear Content
Reading Time: 2 minutesNow that we’re a few weeks into the semester, let’s revisit a topic that fits into just about every aspect of a course – creating clear content. Whether you’re writing a quick note for your students or a longer piece to use in your course, you’ll need your message to be easily understood. Including just enough information to be clear without over-explaining can be a fine line to walk. Let’s look at some tips for writing content that will keep students focused on the concepts and not slowed down because of word choice or structure. 1. Write with a clear purpose. Know what your goal is before…
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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…