Reading Time: 2 minutesLast week, we took a moment to review the current status of Assignments in Canvas. This week, we’re turning our focus to Discussions. We’ve talked about Discussions a few times over the last several months because of some big updates to the tool. We’ll be going over those and more today! Discussion Checkpoints Canvas has finally added multiple due dates for discussions with their Discussion Checkpoints update earlier this year. Now, you can set one due date for students to submit initial replies to the prompt and a second due date for students to submit replies to other students. There was a moment of oddness with how…
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Canvas Update: Fixing SpeedGrader for Discussions
Reading Time: 2 minutesWhen Canvas recently added the discussion checkpoints feature, the way SpeedGrader operated for all discussions changed, too, removing the option to see a single student’s posts in one place and instead showing the entire discussion thread. On Wednesday, March 12, that will change as Canvas modifies the SpeedGrader interface once more to give instructors the choice of how to view their students’ discussion posts. If you want to view discussions how they were before – only showing one student’s responses at a time – you won’t have to do anything! Canvas is reverting to that being the default state for discussions in SpeedGrader. If you want to…
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Discussions and SpeedGrader – What’s Going On?
Reading Time: 2 minutesYou may have noticed that SpeedGrader is now looking a little different for discussions. When you opened SpeedGrader, you’d see all of a student’s posts on the left and have your grading tools on the right. If you wanted to see context for their responses, you could toggle the view and see the discussion in its entirety. When Canvas added discussion checkpoints (see Canvas Update: Multiple Due Dates for Discussions for full details on this feature!), they also tweaked how SpeedGrader works. Now, when you open a discussion in SpeedGrader, you’ll see the entirety of the discussion on the left with the student’s posts highlighted. In your…
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Canvas Update: Multiple Due Dates for Discussions
Reading Time: 4 minutesCanvas has brought a new and highly useful update to discussions – instructors are now able to set separate due dates for initial responses and additional responses. This update released January 18, and the change isn’t limited to just due dates. Instructors can also set separate point values for initial responses and additional responses. Does this feature work with EVERYTHING in Canvas? Before we jump into the “how,” there’s a couple of restrictions for where, when, and how this new feature can be used. Setting up discussion checkpoints Using discussion checkpoints is simple – you only need to toggle on one setting, then add the…
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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: 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: Discussions Enhancements
Reading Time: 4 minutesLast week, we talked about the updates Canvas is making to assignments. This week, we’re turning our focus to the discussions redesign in preparation for the changes to go live this weekend. These updates go a little deeper and have some added functionality. Let’s jump in and see what’s changed! 1. You can mention users in your posts! Canvas has added the ability for you to mention specific people in your posts. Simply type the @ symbol, and Canvas will give you a drop-down of all the people able to be tagged. 2. Canvas collapses threads automatically Canvas will collapse discussions threads so you only see the…
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Alicia McCartney: Using Google Slides for Classroom Collaboration
Reading Time: 3 minutesPerhaps you already leverage small group discussions to powerfully engage your students in the classroom. Or, perhaps, like me, you’ve wondered: How do I push students towards more specific, quality discussion answers? In this post, I’ll share how I’ve used collaborative Google Slides in the classroom to encourage students to actively engage in analysis and problem-solving. Why use digital collaboration for discussions? I began implementing small group student discussions in the classroom during my first year of graduate teaching after reading Stephen D. Brookfield and Stephen Preskill’s Discussion as a Way of Teaching: Tools and Techniques for Democratic Classrooms (2nd ed., 2005). Brookfield and Preskill’s classic guide…
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How Can I Make Sure I Don’t Miss Q&A Forum Posts in Canvas?
Reading Time: < 1 minuteStudents will always have questions to ask and a myriad of ways to ask them. They could reply to an announcement you post in Canvas, send you an email, or post in the Course Q&A forum included in the template CTL provides. That Q&A forum allows students to put forth questions for you or the other students to answer. That forum doesn’t automatically give you notifications, but they’re easy to turn on. Go to the Course Q&A forum in your course. Just below the text box on the right side, you’ll see a “subscribe” button. Click that button, and you’ll get email notifications when questions are asked. Have questions?…
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How Can I Get a Deleted Item Back in Canvas?
Reading Time: < 1 minuteSometimes you’re working in Canvas, decide to remove an item from your course only to later realize either you did actually want the item in your course or you accidentally deleted the wrong item. Before you panic or start stressing, Canvas does make it easy to restore most items (and it’ll even try to restore the student data)! Go to the Canvas course where you want to restore an item. At the end of the URL, add “/undelete” – it should be right after the course id number. Your URL should look like the following: cedarville.instructure.com/courses/####/undelete. Canvas will take you to a “Restore Deleted Items” page that lists the items you can bring back. Scroll through…