Are you looking to learn from other faculty examples what works for Next-Level pages in Canvas? Now is your chance! Join us for hands-on workshops filled with faculty examples, step-by-step instructions on how to adapt those innovations to your own courses, and tips and tricks to take your Course designs to the “Next Level”.
TWO sets of three related workshops. EVERY workshop is independent; you don’t have to commit to more than one to attend.
Every workshop will have both faculty examples and a guided “how to” take away that they can work through in the workshop and immediately apply it to your classes. Pexels photograph by Andrea Piacquadio.
Program Goals:
Discover use cases in practice by Whitewater instructors and faculty.
Apply innovation solutions to your specific classroom challenges.
Explore the techniques, processes, methods, and technology to level up your course design.
This session explores modular organization, use cases like the FAQ syllabus, links and tricks to save you time copying courses from one section to another, and other tips to reuse modules.
“Next-Level” Design in Canvas – Navigation and Gating
This session explores how faculty use multimedia in creative ways, from intro videos to weekly video “to-do” lists, to short podcasts. We will also explore how to incorporate multimedia into student assignments, video presentations, and discussion boards.
“Next-Level” Multimedia – Rethinking the “Blended Lecture”
This session explores how to rethink the “Blended Lecture”. What are the best practices for multimodal video capture? How long should videos be? What shouldn’t be captured? How can I interleave lecture content with other blended materials? How else can I connect content and assessment?
“Next-Level” Multimedia – Rethinking the “Discussion Board”
This session explores rethinking the “Discussion Board”: Examples of how to use video discussions; when to use Canvas compared to when to use other discussion tools like Webex; equity and privacy concerns; and faculty use cases of discussion boards.
Digital Transformation is the adoption of digital technology to transform services or businesses, by replacing non-digital or manual processes with digital processes. Digital solutions may enable new types of innovation and creativity, rather than simply enhancing and supporting traditional methods.
Join the LTC as we explore how these concepts can impact traditional teaching and learning methods within Higher Education and your classroom including:
Exploring the challenges and opportunities that Digital Transformation will have on Higher education.
Improving design by exploring the impact from the student perspective.
Learning strategies to save time in a digital environment.
Discovering tips and tools to increase performance utilizing technology.
Check out the details of the upcoming three-part series below. We hope to see you soon!
Digital Transformation #1 — Culture: Design for the Student Perspective September 14th 3:00 pm | Register here
Digital Transformation #2 — Workforce: Strategies for Saving Time in a Digital Environment September 28th, 3:00 pm | Register here
Digital Transformation #3 — Technology: Tips and Tools to Increase Performance in a Digital Environment October 19 3:00 pm | Register here
On Saturday, July 17, Instructure will deploy the latest release to the Canvas environment. The highlights of this release are listed below. The full release notesare also available.
SpeedGrader – Comment Library: Comments can be added and saved for reuse within SpeedGrader, allowing individual users to save frequently used comments to be reused across assignments in multiple courses.
New Quizzes – Item Bank Management: Item banks can now be shared with the entire account or individual users. When instructors share an item bank, the item bank supports a new View permission, which can be given to a user and provides access to the bank as read only. The user who shares an item bank can continue to specify editing access for other users.
Canvas – Maintenance Window: Instructure has moved their intermittent maintenance to twice monthly scheduled maintenance windows. Moving forward, maintenance will be performed on the first and third Thursdays of each month, beginning at 1:00am, and running no later than 3:00am. Canvas may be unavailable to users during these windows. All users are able to view maintenance window times through Account then Settings. For additional information, please refer to the Canvas Community discussion.
On Saturday, May 15, Instructure will deploy the latest release to the Canvas environment. The highlights of this release are listed below. The full release notes are also available.
Assignments – Student Annotated Submissions:Instructors can use annotated document assignment type to upload a document for students to annotate and submit directly in Canvas. This assignment type is included under the online assignment types so that instructors can select additional submission options for students unable to annotate onscreen.
New Quizzes – Save and Build Button Workflow: The New Quiz creation page includes both a Save and a Build button. When an instructor creates and enters details for a quiz, the page displays both a Save and a Build button. Previously the page only included the Save button, which counterintuitively launched in the New Quiz editor.
UW-Whitewater Updates
Planned Data Center Outage, May 21: Due to a state-initiated project, a temporary power shut-off of the UW-W data center will be required to complete planned maintenance at 6 p.m. on Friday, May 21st, with a targeted return to full service by 8 a.m. on Saturday, May 22nd. During this maintenance window, all IT services, applications, and web pages will be unavailable so please plan accordingly.
The conference will start with an Equity in the Classroom workshop led by the LEARN Center Equity Ambassadors. The workshop will begin with a panel discussion followed by interactive breakout sessions focused on practices that you could use to create a more equitable and inclusive learning environment. For more on the Equity Ambassadors: https://www.uww.edu/learn/equityambassadors
Lunch Break Noon to 1:00 PM
Afternoon Session (Celebrating Teaching and Learning)
Teaching with Technology: Organization, Assessment, Equity, and Inclusion
Erin Bauer, Assistant Professor of Musicology
I typically teach a handful of general education courses in the online format. However, prior to the pandemic, I did not consider teaching my music history survey courses online. With the onset of COVID-19, my music history survey courses, general education offerings, and upper-division electives all shifted online. As such, I made a number of modifications to the structure and content. While these changes were initially made out of necessity, many have served my students better than anticipated and will continue in face-to-face offerings. This presentation will focus on the use of technology in my music history survey courses, but these techniques function similarly across all my offerings. In particular, we will explore the organization of materials on Canvas, alterations to learning resources in the online setting, gating of content to promote student accountability, effective assignments and assessments, and incorporation of provocative issues of racism, classism, and sexism in an inherently exclusionary online curriculum.
Presentation Description:
Organization of Course Materials: Even in my face-to-face classes, I typically rely on the LMS. However, in shifting fully online, this method of structuring each course became even more important. I break each course into content-based modules. Each module consists of a “page” providing a brief introduction to the material and learning objectives, my own lecture video, additional learning materials, and a list of assignments. I also expanded my learning materials to include supplemental readings, videos, and podcasts. These provide a variety of methods for students to access the material, but also introduce more provocative issues of racism, sexism, and classism within the Western canon. To hold students accountable, I “gate” the content. When students first log into the course at the beginning of the semester, they see only a “Welcome” module, consisting of my video introduction, the syllabus, and a discussion board with short, personal introductions. Once they view/complete these items, subsequent modules become available. The content page at the start of each module is followed by short multiple-choice quiz on the learning materials for the week. Students must complete it with 100% accuracy before subsequent assignments become available.
Effective Assignments and Assessments: Prior to the pandemic, assignments in my music history survey courses closely resembled those in my own undergraduate career. In moving the courses online, I shifted assignments to focus on critical thinking. For each module, students now listen to musical examples and write a reflection on the discussion board, respond to a more provocative discussion prompt centered on issues like the inherent whiteness and maleness of the canon, the narrative of composer as genius, and the importance of representation, and complete an examination consisting of short essay prompts.
Equity and Inclusion: The technology-based alterations to these classes have increased equity and access to the curriculum. Beyond changes to curricular content to address issues of diversity, tokenism, and power within the Western music canon, alternative learning materials, free and open-access resources, flexible synchronisms, and student choice of assessment modality allow students from diverse backgrounds to interact with their educations in ways that are most approachable, engaging, and productive for individual circumstances.
Using adaptive learning software in an introductory statistics course to improve student engagement and achievement.
Meg Waraczynski, Professor of Psychology
This presentation will introduce audience members to using Realizeit’s adaptive learning platform to support student success. Adaptive learning software allows students to achieve mastery at their own pace. In my introductory statistics course the Realizeit platform takes the place of a textbook. Students learn basic content interactively and with immediate feedback on their comprehension. Students who struggle can be directed to extra support while students with existing knowledge can skip exposition they do not need. Realizeit affords several advantages. For instance, the instructor gets information about which concepts or skills need more exposition and also about which students are struggling with what material. Students can spend more in-class time working with peers to practice new skills via the analysis and interpretation of authentic datasets. Students may work on lessons until they achieve a target mastery level. Lessons remain available for review throughout the semester, with novel questions presented at each iteration. Attendees will get a brief introduction to creating Realizeit lessons and will see what a typical lesson looks like to students.
Presentation Description:
Attendees will learn that mastering adaptive learning software for their courses need not be intimidating.
Attendees should see that adaptive learning software offers substantial and numerous advantages to them and their students.
Attendees should gain the background to start thinking about how adaptive learning software might apply to their own courses.
Technology to Engage Learners: A New Way of Teaching!
Jeannine Rowe, Professor of Social Work
Using technology has evolved significantly in the last two decades. Wherein the past technology was touted as a substitute for teaching traditional face-to-face classes, today it is viewed as a platform to transform the learning experience. This presentation will include a first-hand account of using technology in teaching over the past 20 years. As part of this account, the presenter will share her perspective as a social science educator on the evolution of technology, and share examples of how she utilizes technology to actively engage learners and transform the learning experience in an online format. Unique to this presentation will be the sharing of activities that use technology to promote positive skill growth for learners enrolled in social, behavioral, and allied health professional training programs.
Presentation Description:
This session will be of interest to instructors who want to engage students as active and creative learners using technology. Because the presentation will include examples of activities using technology in online and social and behavioral health arenas, it may be particularly attractive for instructors in similar venues. The activities to be shared will be presented within the context of PICRAT, which is a technology integration model that requires consideration of the student’s relationship to technology and the instructor’s use of it, in designing activities/lessons with technology to maximize student engagement and achievement. Sample activities to be shared include those that foster interpersonal skills, promote written and oral communication skills, and enhance group facilitation skills.
Individuals who attend this presentation will:
Recognize the value of using a framework, such as PICRAT to develop activities/lessons that integrate technology
Identify the how activities using technology can be both creative and transformative
Classify how different activities/lessons fit within the PICRAT framework
The presentation will be engaging and prompt attendees to rethink how they might develop activities/lessons using technology. There will be time for attendees to ask questions and engage with the presenter and others.
A Focus on the Good: Technology to Improve Engagement, Equity, and Best Practices in Post-COVID Learning
Steven Girard, Associate Professor of Chemistry
Our sudden move to remote learning one year ago laid bare the systemic challenges facing all institutions of higher education. While the downsides of online instruction became apparent from our sudden shift online, so did unexpected benefits. In this talk, we will focus on the good: increased flexibility in managing time and work/life balance; accessibility and communication; and the learning and leveraging of new technologies to improve student outcomes. These benefits of online instruction will persist well beyond the pandemic, and in many ways have already become ingrained. I will detail my use of a variety of technologies to improve student-student and student-instructor classroom community; linking instructors to technology best practices; and ways to improve accessibility and equity of online/remote teaching resources.
Presentation Description:
This talk will highlight:
Technology to build a sense of community and belonging in the classroom via trivia games.
Online discussion sessions to facilitate in higher order learning and “un-Google-able” exam questions.
Technology to build community and best practices amongst faculty and staff.
Adaptive learning and online textbooks: growth mindset, positive study habits while improving accessibility and equity via Cerego and Open Educational Resources (OERs).
May brings many updates to the Cisco Webex suite! In this post, we’ll summarize the critical updates for Webex Meetings as well as what’s new in Webex (formerly known as Webex Teams).
Webex Meetings
On Tuesday, May 11th, Cisco will release the Webex Meetings 41.5 update. The highlights of this release are listed below, with full release notes also available.
On Friday, May 14th, Cisco will release the Webex (Teams) 41.5 update. The highlights of this release are listed below, with full release notes also available.
Web App Attendee Functionality: Attendees, hosts, and cohosts who join from the Web App will see greater parity in functionality for answering Q&A, video layouts, and syncing their stage.
Stop Video for Attendees: Meeting hosts can now stop video coming from video devices and mobile attendees. When any of these attendees leave and re-join the meeting, their video will start, even if it had been stopped previously by the host.
Share Post-Meeting Content to the Webex (Teams) App: From the post-meeting web page, share meeting content to an existing or newly created space in Webex (Teams) to continue collaborating.
Recording Availability Indicator Icon: Your Recorded Meetings page will now display within how much time the recording will be generated, which is typically within 24 hours, depending on file size and bandwidth.
Tool Tip for Customizing the Stage: Participants will see animated tool tip in the stage views to quickly show how they can customize the stage by drag and dropping participants from the filmstrip onto the stage.
Webex Events (New)Now Available: This update brings a new service called Webex Events (New), which includes many of the advanced features you’re familiar with from Webex Meetings, as well as some from Webex Events (Classic). When scheduling a Webex Event, you will have the option to use the New or Classic service.
This is a new service that has not been available for any length of time. UW-Whitewater staff have not had the opportunity to test it with live audiences. At this time, we recommend you continue to use Webex Events (Classic).Events scheduled from the Webex Events (Classic) scheduler will continue to have the original Webex Events experience.
View our Knowledge article Webex Events (New) – Information to compare the two services and to learn about to learn about current known issues and limitations with Webex Events (New).
Look for training and additional resources to be available soon!
You may see this highlighted next time you sign in to uww.webex.com with a walk-through.
Webcast mode is not available on our account.
Webex (Teams) 41.5 Update
Full-Featured Meetings: When you join a Webex Meetings scheduled or Personal Room meeting using Webex (Teams), you’ll have access to full-featured meetings, which offers you most of the Webex Meetings features even when you join from Webex (Teams). These features include stage view, breakout sessions, reactions, Webex Assistant, and People Insights profiles.
Webex (Teams) meetings from a space will remain unchanged at this time. Mobile users will see Webex Meetings launch when they join.
Schedule Webex meetings right from the app: No need to go outside the app to schedule your standard and Personal Room meetings. Add important meeting details, check the availability of the attendees, and send out the invites right from the Webex (Teams) app.
Additional In-Meeting features: No more self view when your video is off; shared content is automatically optimized; a new Stop Sharing button for ease; new connection and computer indicators will help meeting quality; and the ability for hosts to turn off attendees videos will improve Webex (Teams) meetings.
Messaging Updates: Mark messages as unread, move quickly between spaces you’ve visited with navigation history, and choose your default tab when the app opens.
Webex now on Linux: All the core capabilities are in a single app for Linux users, with the full-featured meetings to be added soon.
Each semester, grades need to be entered into WINS. While many instructors do this manually, Canvas can help automate some of the steps for you. The Learning Technology Center is providing training on the three steps needed to push grades from Canvas so they can be accepted in WINS.
The Spring 2021 WINS Grades Roster will be open on May 10 and close at noon on May 18. We have scheduled 60 minute hands on training sessions if you are interested in receiving live support.
Registration to attend the FREE Learning Technology Development Council’s 2021 Virtual Showcase, themed Transforming the Future of Education is now open! The showcase will be held June 15 and 16, 2021.
Registration Open!
Keynote speakers include Bryan Alexander, author of “Academia Next: The Futures of Higher Education,” and Kathe Pelletier, Director of Teaching and Learning with EDUCAUSE. They, along with instructors and staff throughout UW-System, will reflect upon ideas and innovations, lessons learned, the technologies utilized, and the experiments tried over the last year that may shape future educational opportunities.
Instructors and staff are invited to participate in the 2021 LTDC Virtual Showcase: Transforming the Future of Education to be held Tuesday, June 15 and Wednesday, June 16, 2021. We are accepting two types of proposals: pre-recorded, asynchronous “TechTalk” videos and more traditional conference-style presentations. Proposal submission deadline: Friday, April 16, 2021
Transforming the Future of Education
TechTalks: Technology administrators, instructional designers, and instructors are invited to create brief (5-15 minutes) pre-recorded videos explaining how to use a tool or certain applications of the tool. The focus of the TechTalk should be training or demonstration.
Traditional conference presentations: Sessions will be 30 minutes and will consist of 20 minutes of presentation and 10 minutes of Q&A. Presentation materials and proceedings are welcomed and will be shared on the LTDC Virtual showcase website.
This year’s LTDC Virtual Showcase will include three tracks. Proposals from instructional designers, instructional technologists, faculty and instructors are invited around the following tracks:
Student Experience and Success: This track explores ways in which the student experience has changed within the new learning modalities due to the addition of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) practices, Universal Design for Learning (UDL) practices and accessibility practices. How has shifting from face-to-face instruction to multiple modalities impacted the student experience or their success?
Online Instructional Pedagogy: This track explores how online education has impacted course design and layout, synchronous/asynchronous techniques for engagement and motivation, group work, activity or assessment creation, or other learning designs and lessons learned. What instructional challenges have you overcome as you have learned about online instruction? What are some key takeaways or lessons learned over the past year that you would like to continue to develop?
Leveraging Learning Technology: This track explores the use of various tools, technologies and teaching strategies used to enhance student learning, create efficiencies, or promote engagement. How have you used certain technology or tools to enhance your teaching and the student experience? What tools have intentionally made the online student experience more equitable, efficient or engaging?
Proposals may be submitted for presentations or TechTalks. If you are interested in presenting on multiple topics, please fill out the online submission form for each topic. Proposals will be reviewed by the LTDC Virtual Showcase Planning Committee, and all participants will be notified of participation within the showcase on Monday, May 3, 2021. https://uwsystemadmin.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_508e664pbXufxC6
On Thursday, April 8th, Cisco will release the Webex Meetings 41.4 update. The highlights of this release are listed below. Full release notes are also available.
Zoom In and Zoom Out in Grid View. A new slider is available to zoom videos larger in grid view.
Customizable Stage View. A new “customizable stage” is available that allows you to control the layout that is available in Webex Meetings (And soon Webex Events). Hosts or Cohosts can sync the “Stage” for everyone in the meeting.
Webex Meetings for iOS
iPhone Breakout Room Host Support. Similar to desktop and Android, iOS users will now be able to host and assign breakout sessions directly from their mobile apps on their iPhone devices.
OS Support for 14.4 and 14.5 iOS. Webex Meetings on mobile now officially supports OS versions iOS 14.4 and 14.5.
Here are some of the highlights included in the 41.3 update from last month.
Q&A Added to Webex Meetings. Meeting participants can type their questions into the Q&A panel, which can be answered by the host or cohosts.
You can’t answer Q&A from the web app. In order for hosts, cohosts, and panelists to answer questions, they will need to use the desktop app.
Q&A isn’t currently supported within a breakout session. Q&A is only supported in the main session.
Edge Chromium and WebView2 Required for Facebook Live Streaming. As Microsoft has retired support for Internet Explorer, you may be required to install Microsoft Edge Chromium and Microsoft Edge WebView2 in order to sign in to Webex using your Facebook account, or when streaming to Facebook Live. Please contact the UW-W Helpdesk for installation assistance.
Media Enhancements – HD Video. The meeting application will default to this setting based on hardware capabilities. It can be adjusted in the Camera settings screen.
iOS 10 OS No Longer Supported. Webex Meetings will no longer support iOS 10 OS. OS 10 users will no longer be able to install or update their Webex Meetings app versions. No functionality will be turned off.
Here are some of the highlights from the 41.2 update in February.
Let Anyone Join Breakout Sessions. Hosts and cohosts now have the ability to let participants join any breakout, even if a participant isn’t assigned to a breakout or is assigned to a different breakout.
Improved Layout Control. Layout controls are now in single button labeled “Layout,” which includes the option to “Hide non-video participants.”
Raise Hand Improvements. A host can now raise a hand, and a host or cohost can lower a participant’s hand.
