In this Issue: Getting your course on course

- Making minor course adjustments
- Setting up your Notification Preferences in Canvas
- IT Support Knowledge-base articles
- Netiquette issues and online misconduct
- Open office Q&A sessions from Canvas support
- Panopto: Video access solutions for students
- DEU support and contact information

Making minor course adjustments

After a week or two with your class up and running you might notice it needs a few minor tweaks to make things run more smoothly. Making small improvements early is a great way to ensure students can settle into the rhythm of their online learning this term. In this issue we’ll point you towards some recent resources for common issues we’re hearing about. Ryan Banow from GMCTL, for example, had a great tip this last week about setting up Groups in Canvas.

When creating student groups in Canvas (e.g., for Discussions or Assignments), include the course name in the name of the “Group Set”.

For example, call the Group Set “Art 101 Project Group” rather than just “Project Group”. This will ensure that the group names that students see show as “Art 101 Project Group 3” instead of “Project Group 3”.

The main way students access their groups is through the Global Navigation Menu item called Groups. This will list their groups outside of the context of their courses. Including the course name will really help them out.

Setting up your Notification Preferences in Canvas

One of the things you may notice now that classes have begun is the amount of notifications that may be coming from your Canvas courses. You can make adjustments to a wide variety of parameters to customize what is being sent to your inbox and how often.

Find out more about setting up Notification Preferences in Canvas

IT Support Knowledge-base articles

Did you know that IT Support has been developing a massive collection of knowledge-base articles that come from the common questions support services staff members recieve from instructors like you? It’s a great place to start your search when looking for answers about learning technologies and more.

Here are a few recent articles related to questions from folks like you.

Manage Course Enrollment in Canvas – Add a TA or other Instructors

Sending Messages to Course Members with Canvas Inbox

Best Practices for Web Conferencing

If you don’t find the article you’re looking for you can Submit a Request for answers.

Netiquette issues and online misconduct

Student misconduct can be a challege in a more anonymous online environment. It’s important to establish expectations of behaviour early with your class to avoid having to have those crucial conversations later. Netiquette information for faculty, instructors and students highlight the basics of internet etiquette including how to appropriately connect and communicate in a remote teaching and learning context.

These links also provides additional resources and strategies for creating a safe and welcoming online environment for you and your students.

Tips for WebEx

Reducing the anonymity of participants is one of the best ways to mitigate inapproprite comments and behaviours online. For synchronous video activities through web conferencing it’s recommended to schedule things from within the LMS instead of simply sharing the link to your WebEx “personal room” to ensure that course members are identifiable and therefore accountable for their conversations and actions. This approach also allows you to easily take attendance, and schedule and share recordings of synchronous sessions.

Discover the advantages of using Blackboard/Canvas WebEx over your personal USask WebEx account

Open office Q&A sessions from Canvas support

 In an effort to provide support while Canvas Help wait times are lengthy, Canvas will be offering 2 – 1.5 hour Zoom ‘open office’ sessions each week, Tuesday at 3:00pm and Friday at 11:00am, to answer questions and provide support on anything Canvas related. This will run at least until the end of September. Here is the Zoom info for Tuesdays at 3:00pm and Fridays at 11:00am:

Join Zoom Meeting: https://instructure.zoom.us/j/99163683204

Phones: 855 880 1246 US Toll-free or 877 853 5257 US Toll-free

Meeting ID: 991 6368 3204

Panopto: Video access solutions for students

A number of instructors have reported students having issues accessing the Panopto videos in their courses and so IT Support has written a couple of Knowledge Base articles to help students get access to their learning materials.

I cannot see a Panopto video in my Canvas course

What do I do if Panopto says I don’t have permission to view the videos in my course?

We’ve also been including the following blurb for students in the DEU online courses that have Panopto videos as a preemptive measure:

If you are having trouble accessing the videos in the Learning Materials please do the following:

Completely close your web browser, then start it up and go to https://usask.cloud.panopto.eu and try logging in with your NSID via Blackboard. For more information please see the article in our U of S Knowledge Base that describes this process in more detail.

If you continue to have issues please contact the ICT Service Desk.

As an instructor you may also want to view the following articles:

How to enable Panopto for my Canvas course as an Instructor?

and/or How do I add Panopto videos into my Blackboard course?