Category Archives: Canvas

Canvas Workshops – February 2019

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The LTC will be offering Canvas Hands-On Introduction, Canvas Construction Zone, Canvas Open Labs and Canvas Deep Dive sessions during February 2019.  Additional Spring 2019 workshops will be scheduled soon.

Canvas Hands-On Introduction – 2 Parts (1 Hour)
We will cover the basic function of the core tools in the Canvas platform. There will be time to ask questions along the way. If this is your first time touching Canvas, this workshop is the one for you!

Part 1: 24/7/365 Support, Global Navigation, Create Module, Create Page
Upload File (PowerPoint, PDF, Word, etc), Assignment Groups (set up gradebooks categories)

Part 2: Create Quiz, Create paper submission area, Doing grading and feedback in Speed Grader, Syllabus, Calendar

Event Name Date/Time Location Register
Canvas Hands-On Introduction – Part 1 Thursday, February 7th – 1pm McGraw 19c In-Person Registration
Canvas Hands-On Introduction – Part 2 Thursday, February 14th – 1pm McGraw 19c In-Person Registration

Canvas Construction Zone (1 Hour)
Are you ready to start digging into your course setup? Do you need help straightening up after moving a course from Desire2Learn (D2L) into Canvas? Do you have questions on how to set things up? This is the session for you! This session will be 1 hour of lab time with support staff on hand to help you construct your course in Canvas. Don’t forget your hard hat!

Please transfer a course from D2L to Canvas before coming to the workshop. A step by step guide is available at: https://spaces.uww.edu/x/HoCc

Date/Time Location Register
Thursday, February 21st – 1pm McGraw 19c In-Person Registration

Canvas Open Lab (1 Hour)
We will be available to answer your Canvas questions during the sessions below! Whether you are working on your current course, or if you are getting ready to teach in Canvas for the first time – stop on by!

Date/Time Location Register
Thursday, February 28th – 1pm McGraw 19c In-Person Registration

Canvas Deep Dives (1 Hour)
We will focus on a single tool, and dive deep into various options and use cases for how that tool works.

  • Content: This is delivered on the concept of backwards design driving the look and feel of course setup. It is about taking what you already do and molding a better experience for you and your students.
  • Quizzes: This will touch on different question types, building in targeted feedback in auto-graded quizzes, and most likely spend the bulk of the time in the Question Bank area to help instructors get a feel for how Canvas Question Bank is different than D2L Question Library.
  • Rubrics: This will start by touching briefly on rubric creation, but will focus on techniques to maximize the amount of value you can get by building rubrics directly in Canvas.
  • Discussions: We will look at setup (including threaded vs unthreaded), visibility, the lack of a “Forum” in Canvas (compared to how D2L had it), group setup, and grading.
  • Grades: Weighting grades, Late policies, Muting Assignments, SpeedGrader, setting a default grade, and setting up extra credit.
Event Name Date/Time Location Register
Content Friday, February 8th – 1pm McGraw 19c In-Person Registration
Quizzes Friday, February 15th – 1pm McGraw 19c In-Person Registration
Rubrics Friday, February 22nd – 1pm McGraw 19c In-Person Registration
Discussions Friday, March 1st – 1pm McGraw 19c In-Person Registration
Grades Friday, March 8th – 1pm McGraw 19c In-Person Registration

If you have any questions about these sessions, please reach out to the UW-W Learning Technology Center.

Canvas Workshops – Winter 2019

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The LTC will be offering Canvas Open Labs, Canvas Hands-On Introduction, Canvas Construction Zone and Canvas Deep Dive sessions during the Winterim 2019 semester.

Canvas Open Lab (2 hours)
We will be available to answer your Canvas questions during the sessions below!  Whether you are working on your final grades to send to WINS, or if you are getting ready to teach in Canvas for the first time during Winterim or Spring semesters – stop on by!

Date/Time Location Register
Monday, December 17th – 1pm McGraw 19b In-Person Registration
Wednesday, December 19th – 1pm McGraw 19c In-Person Registration
Wednesday, December 26th – 1pm McGraw 19c In-Person Registration
Thursday, December 27th – 9am McGraw 19c In-Person Registration
Friday, December 28th – 11am McGraw 19c In-Person Registration


Canvas Hands-On Introduction (2 Hours)
We will cover the basic function of the core tools in the Canvas platform. There will be time to ask questions along the way. If this is your first time touching Canvas, this workshop is the one for you!

Event Name Date/Time Location Register
Canvas Hands-On Introduction Monday, January 7th – 1pm Hyer 210 In-Person Registration
Webinar Registration
Canvas Hands-On Introduction + LUNCH Tuesday, January 15th, 10am Hyer 210 In-Person Registration


Canvas Construction Zone (2 Hours)
Are you ready to start digging into your course setup? Do you need help straightening up after moving a course from D2L into Canvas? Do you have questions on how to set things up? This is the session for you! This session will be 2 hours of lab time with support staff on hand to help you construct your course in Canvas. Don’t forget your hard hat!

Event Name Date/Time Location Register
Canvas Construction Zone Wednesday, January 9th – 1pm Hyer 210 In-Person Registration
Canvas Construction Zone + LUNCH Tuesday, January 15th, 12:00pm Hyer 210 In-Person Registration

Canvas Deep Dives (1 Hour)
We will focus on a single tool, and dive deep into various options and use cases for how that tool works.

  • Grades: Weighting grades, Late policies, Muting Assignments, SpeedGrader, setting a default grade, and setting up extra credit.
  • Rubrics: This will start by touching briefly on rubric creation, but will focus on techniques to maximize the amount of value you can get by building rubrics directly in Canvas.
Event Name Date/Time Location Register
Grades Friday, January 11th – 12:00pm Hyer 210 In-Person Registration
Webinar Registration
Rubrics Thursday, January 17th – 12:00pm Hyer 210 In-Person Registration
Webinar Registration

If you have any questions about these sessions, please reach out to the UW-W Learning Technology Center.

Canvas Transition Update

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As the Fall Semester is coming to an end, we have a few exciting Canvas updates to share!

  • Grade Transfer to WINS. eGrading is now available for Canvas which will allow you to automatically send your final grades to WINS.  For step by step instructions, see https://spaces.uww.edu/x/ugPN
  • Canvas course navigation bar will be receiving an update. Starting December 26th instructors will be able to add Discussions (this allows students to see discussion alerts) and People (this allows students to self-enroll in groups) as course navigation items, as well as remove Syllabus and Collaborations if they are not used.
  • Winterim and Spring Courses are now available inside of Canvas.
    As a reminder, there is no more course request process with Canvas. All courses will be automatically created inside of Canvas.  If you teach the same course every semester, you may see two courses that look alike.  On the dashboard, you will also see the course term listed.  This will help you locate the correct course.
  • Winterim Workshops.  Want to learn more about Canvas? Join us at one of our online or face-to-face workshops this winter! Signup at: http://go.uww.edu/ltc-workshop-signup
  • Course Combinations.  Do you want to combine multiple sections of the same course into a single Canvas course?  Follow the steps in the Cross-Listing/Merging Canvas Courses guide.  If you need to combine courses that you are not the teacher for or if you have any questions please contact Canvas support.
  • Tips and Tricks. We have collected some tips and tricks from your colleagues to help you setup your courses in Canvas.  Take a look at them here: http://blogs.uww.edu/instructional/2018/12/10/canvas-video-snippets/
  • UW-System wants your feedback.  In order to better understand your experience with the Digital Learning Environment this fall, please provide UW-System with your feedback.  Please follow this link and complete the Survey by December 21st 2018:  https://milwaukee.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3WPF3Np4HLTRT4V

Please remember to reach out to Canvas 24/7/365 Support for all issues.

Canvas Video Snippets

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Are you wondering what some of the Tips and Tricks your colleagues have for you on Canvas?  Check out the short snippets below!

Do you want to record a snippet to share?  Contact the UW-Whitewater Learning Technology Center.

TED Tips – Issue 22: Lessons Learned

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TED Tips – Issue 22: Lessons Learned from Canvas Peer Mentors

Back in Issue 10 “Tips and FAQ’s from a Peer Mentor” at the start of the semester, we introduced the LTC faculty peer mentors that are available for each college to assist with the Canvas Transition. Canvas 24/7/365 is still the place to go for Canvas questions, but the peer mentors can help by sharing what they have discovered and learned.

canvas lessons

lessons learned

The peer mentors gather monthly to share notes and discuss what we’ve learned. Now that we are approaching the end of the semester, I want to share some of the lessons learned this term in Canvas from our most recent Peer Mentor meeting. These are all Tips shared by the mentors on things they learned this semester while using Canvas. Hopefully they can help you!

Lessons Learned

  • Provide a link to the Canvas Student Training during the first module or week in class. Canvas Student Training link: http://go.uww.edu/canvas-student-training
  • Provide a bit of navigation and orientation to the class at the beginning of term. Show students where important things are located in Canvas. Review with them where they need to go and what they need to do. While Canvas is mostly new to us as faculty, it is also mostly new to students. Even thing like how to submit an assignment in Canvas can be really helpful. Providing that guide to where things are in your course can be really helpful to students.
  • Setting up the Course Home page in Canvas is important. Organizing content by weeks or by topic helps a lot.  Don’t underestimate the important of structure. Students have the tendency to click on the assignment tab – and they miss the rest of the weekly content, the readings, and other supporting activities. It is important to link back to those weekly modules from the assignments…and remind students to check the content in each module each week.
  • Creating a weekly checklist or “TO DO” list is very helpful to students. D2L could create those as you were creating content, Canvas does not do that. I create a checklist item for students and post it at the top of each module as a roadmap for the week. I can also physically hand out a notecard with that weekly checklist to students in class so they know where to go and what to do.
  • Creating larger assignments with multiple parts is easier to set up in Canvas as a series of different assignment submissions. It is also easy to create these as multiple “zero” point assignments. So, for example, if a student needs to submit a rough draft as a paper, create a separate assignment for that rough draft – you can then use speed grader, provide feedback, and return it to students. The FINAL paper or submission can be created as a separate assignment in Canvas.
  • Setting up the gradebook to reflect more logical areas that corresponded with assignments makes providing feedback and grading much easier.

Canvas Peer Mentors The peer mentors are available to:

  • Help answer your transition questions.
  • Provide you with training information and resources about the Canvas platform.
  • Work with you to understand different ways that Canvas can be leveraged for enriching teaching and learning.

College of Arts and Communication
Jodi Galvan
Bill Miller

College of Business and Economics
Kelly Delaney-Klinger

College of Education and Professional Studies
Carmen Rivers
Eileen Schroeder

College of Letters and Sciences
Kris Curran
David Reinhart

– Ted Witt
Teaching, Learning, and Technology Consultant

RESOURCES:
Canvas Student Training link: http://go.uww.edu/canvas-student-training

LTC Peer Mentors: http://www.uww.edu/icit/ltc/canvas-portal/peer-mentors

Canvas Guides: great place to start for searching for information about Canvas: https://community.canvaslms.com/community/answers/guides/

[RESOLVED] Canvas Issue Update

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RESOLVED – Thursday, December 6th:
On Thursday, December 6th Canvas ran a process to restore the Assignment Grade data in courses that were not already manually corrected. At this time, the issue is resolved.  
Please contact Canvas Support if you have any further questions about this issue.

Update Tuesday, December 4th:
As a follow-up to the issue that occurred on Monday, November 26th, UW-System and UW-Whitewater have been working with Canvas as they perform some additional investigation around restoring the Assignment Grade data. Investigation is still ongoing and we will provide an additional update no later than Thursday, December 6th.

Original Message:
Thank you for your patience as we have been working to understand the impact of the Monday, November 26th, 2018 issue which affected course enrollments in Canvas. Canvas was able to determine the root cause of the issue, which was caused by a faulty process in their system that loads course enrollment updates into the Canvas platform.  Canvas, UW-System, and UW-Whitewater are working together to make sure processes are in place to mitigate any future issues.What do you need to know?

Prior to Monday, November 26th, if you had assignments that were assigned to specific students, groups, or sections (basically anything that was not “everyone”) you will need to go back in and update those assignments.  This includes any Due Dates, From Dates, or Until Dates that may have been set for those assignments.

Follow the steps below in any active Canvas courses to check and verify that your assignment grades are visible.

  1. Login to Canvas by going to http://www.uww.edu/canvas
  2. Load the course, and click on the Grades menu from the course navigation.
  3. Check your assignments that you have graded, to verify that you can see the grades.  The image below is from a course where the Grades are not currently visible.
  4. If all grades are visible – that’s it!  Nothing more needs to be done.  Otherwise, continue on to step 5.
  5. For each assignment that is missing grades, click on the assignment name of the top of the grade column.
  6. Once the assignment has loaded, click on the Edit button.
  7. Scroll down to the bottom, and you’ll see an empty “Assign to” section.  Click on Add and select Everyone in the Assign to box.  Alternatively, you can also set this to a group, section, or individual student if that’s how it was configured previously.
  8. Dates are not required – but you can populate those if desired.
  9. Click on Save

  10. Your grades should now be visible for both Instructors and Students.
  11. Repeat steps 5 to 10 on all impacted Grades.

We understand that while this process is fairly straight forward, it is time consuming.  Canvas is investigating if there is anything additional they can do to restore those grades, but we wanted to make sure there was an immediate option available.  We’ll provide an update no later than Monday, December 3rd, 2018.

If you have questions about how to change these settings, or would like assistance with the process, please reach out to Canvas 24/7/365.

Winterim 2019 and Spring 2019 Courses

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Canvas Users: Winterim 2019 and Spring 2019 Courses are now available in Canvas.  Now that you have your course – here is what’s next:

  • Courses are Unpublished.  By default, all courses that are created in Canvas will come across as unpublished.  When a course is unpublished, it’s only visible to you – and students will not see the course.  Once you have your content loaded up into the course and ready to go, simply hit the “Publish” button in the top right corner on the course home page.  For more information see: Canvas Guide: How do I publish a course?
  • Course Combinations.  Do you want to combine multiple sections of the same course into a single Canvas course?  Follow the steps in the Cross-Listing/Merging Canvas Courses guide.  If you need to combine courses that you are not the teacher for or if you have any questions please contact Canvas support.
  • Import your content (Master Course).  If you have been working in a Master (Blank) course inside of Canvas – great!  You can easily copy that content into your semester course and then you’ll be ready to go!  Follow these steps to Copy Content from an Existing Canvas Course.
  • Import your content (Desire2Learn).  If you want to pull content directly over from Desire2Learn into your Canvas course – we got you covered!  Follow these steps to Export your Desire2Learn Course and Import it into Canvas. Keep in mind, there will be some adjustments you need to make – so don’t want until the last minute.  Check out the D2L Course Complexity App for more information.
  • Canvas Support.  As a reminder, with Canvas we do have 24/7/365 Phone, Chat and Email Support (links on the login page)!  Please direct all questions to Canvas support.  If they cannot assist you, they will escalate the issue to local support at UW-Whitewater.

Desire2Learn Users: Winterim 2019 and Spring 2019 Course Requests are now available.  You can request for your course at: http://my.uww.edu/d2lrequest  Contact Desire2Learn Support with any questions.

As a reminder, starting in Summer 2019 all courses must be taught in Canvas and Desire2Learn course requests will no longer be available.

TED Tips – Issue 14: Feedback and Speed Grader

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This week, I wanted to explore some reflections on giving and receiving feedback in the context of an academic setting, share a specific tip as it applies to Speed Grader in Canvas, and finally highlight an upcoming LEARN / LTC workshop that will also explore feedback.

For feedback to be effective it needs a context in which learners have both the ability and opportunity to hear, understand, and act on that feedback. It should help learners reach a goal – provide clarity of what they did well or not do well, and how they can improve that work. Research shows that good feedback should be formative – it should help to improve performance or increase understanding. Feedback should be timely — happen at a moment when it is possible to learn and change. Finally, feedback should be descriptive – directed at fulfilling some clearly defined goal. Another way to put it is that feedback should tell a student what they accomplished (descriptive), what they were asked to accomplish (goal referenced), and what they must do next (goal directed).

ink

feedback can be painful

With that in mind, I want to share an example of actual feedback. It is fortunately not my onus of shame for personally receiving it; however, I was witness when my classmate actually did. It was so laden with ink it actually dripped red. It was fresh. This is likely not the type of feedback I would recommend using, but it is another example of how Fr. William Ryan, SJ made an impression on terrified students. I introduced Fr. Ryan in my Ted Tips Issue 9: First Impressions. This type of feedback definitely made a powerful first impression… and I apologize if I have inadvertently increased your anxiety!

What tools are available to assist in providing good feedback in Canvas?

Providing feedback in Canvas, has never been easier!  Canvas offers a tremendous tool:  Speed Grader.

Speed grader allows you to view and grade student assignment submissions in one place.  You do not need to download papers, then mark them up, and upload them.  Instead, you can directly assign points or use rubrics.  Canvas accepts a variety of document formats including URL submissions.  Some document assignments can be marked up for feedback directly within the submission. You can also provide feedback to your students with text or media comments.

You can use SpeedGrader to:

  • View submission details for each student, including resubmitted assignments
  • Leave feedback for your students
  • Track your grading progress and hide assignments while grading
  • Use rubrics to assign grades

For each student, SpeedGrader has five areas:

  1. View student submissions (text entries, website URLs, media recordings, and/or file uploads). Many file types are able to be previewed directly.
  2. Assign a grade based on your preferred assessment method (points or percentage)
  3. View Rubric to assist with grading (if one is added to the assignment)
  4. View comments created by you or the student about the assignment
  5. Create text, video, and/or audio commentary for the student

Video tip!

524 – SpeedGrader™ Overview from Instructure Community on Vimeo.

Upcoming workshop

If you are interested in learning more about feedback and strategies, I want to up invite you to check out then next LEARN Center / LTC workshop in the 2018-2019 “Back to Basics to Balance Workload.” Next Workshop: Focused Strategies for Providing Formative Assessment by Dana Prodoehl, Alexis Piper, Trudi Witonsky.

Thursday, October 18th, 12:30 – 1:45, UC259A (lunch is provided).  Sign up here:  https://my.uww.edu/signup/Public/Available/15834

At this workshop, panelists will draw on current pedagogy to discuss strategies for providing focused feedback to students at they are engaged in active learning activities. Some of the strategies will be time-saving. Others help instructors direct feedback in productive ways to foster student learning and development. An LTC representative will also be on hand to provide a brief overview of some of the feedback tools in Canvas, along with tips for utilizing them.

– Ted Witt
Teaching, Learning, and Technology Consultant

RESOURCES:

https://my.uww.edu/signup/Public/Available/15834

https://blogs.uww.edu/instructional/2018/08/31/ted-tips-issue-9-first-impressions/