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Student presentations in Canvas
By David Greaves, ICT Support Services What does a good student presentation look like in an online learning environment? Take a moment to think about it. While you were thinking, you likely made the realization that the learning environment makes a difference. This post will guide you through the technology selection process as you design your student presentation. Let’s start with some assumptions: It is not best to try to recreate a live student presentation in an online learning environment The technologies we choose should allow our students to showcase their learning in the best possible light Students should spend more time learning your course’s actual content than learning new technologies You are using Canvas to host your course (since…
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What Does a Well-Designed Canvas Course Look Like?
Just as students appreciate seeing good examples of work before doing their own, instructors designing courses often feel the same way. As Canvas is our adopted learning management system, we want to provide you with some examples through the following two courses. In both cases, student information and data has been removed. ETAD 402 – Multimedia Design and Production This course from Professor Marguerite Koole in the College of Education is a blended course in that it’s a mix of asynchronous and synchronous delivery. ENVS 818 – Introduction to Sustainability This course from Professor Maureen Reed from the School of Environment and Sustainability. This is an example of an asynchronous…
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Utilizing Peer Feedback in Canvas
Peer feedback involves students providing feedback to each other on work prior to a final or revised version being submitted to the instructor. This creates the opportunity for students to receive formative feedback, improve on their work, and then submit it to the instructor. The integration of peer feedback for assignments or other activities in your courses creates benefits for you and the students. When students can submit a rough draft and receive feedback, they are less likely to engage in academic misconduct due to the need to submit a rough draft, and they also have the chance to receive constructive feedback prior to the work being seen by their…
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Using Authentic Assessment to Integrate Current Events Into Courses
Authentic assessments are activities, whether for marks or not, that involve students addressing “real-world” problems in a way that reflects activities they might engage in as professionals in the discipline. Authentic assessments can provide several benefits to both students and instructors, including: Enabling students to engage with current issues to increase engagement in learning actively Allowing students to see the role the discipline may play in addressing issues Broadening the audience, which may lead to increased effort and quality Sharing potential solutions outside of the institution is “what the world needs.” Reducing issues around academic integrity When creating such activities for your students, there are a number of things that…
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Canvas Commons Opens New Ways to Share Materials With Colleagues, and Beyond
As part of our move to the Canvas LMS, the U of S gains the use of the Canvas Commons. The Canvas website describe it as: Commons is a learning object repository that enables educators to find, import, and share resources. A digital library full of educational content, Commons allows Canvas users to share learning resources with other users as well as import learning resources into a Canvas course. As an instructor who is a Canvas user at USask, you will be able to find materials in, and share materials to the Canvas Commons. In addition, there are institution-wide documents, such as a U of S Canvas template available in…
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Why Is My Syllabus Public?
Syllabi within the learning management system (LMS) have long been set to public as the default at the U of S. There are a number of reasons for this, including allowing students to view course syllabi prior to registering for courses. We encourage you to leave your syllabi public for the benefit of students, and to help promote your course (think of your syllabus as the equivalent of the abstract in a journal article. With this in mind, please remember: Do not include any copyrighted material within your syllabus (e.g. images) Do not include contact information for anyone, such as your teaching assistants without their approval Instructors, however, have always…
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Why Open Educational Practices in Our Context?
In the previous post about open educational practices (OEP) at USask, I explained what they are. In this post, we will explore why so many people are already engaging in OEP, and why you should consider integrating these practices into your own teaching and research. Our beliefs make us Open supporters Open allows students to participate in the co-creation and sharing of text on current major issues (BLM / Indigenous lives, the pandemic, climate change, struggling small businesses) in their learning, demonstrating that USask is engaged with addressing major issues shaping the world and giving students relevant career skills they can demonstrate for potential employers. When students create materials to…
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What Are Open Educational Practices in Our Context?
We have seen significant growth in the use of open educational resources at the U of S in the past six years. As of this fall, more than a dozen open textbooks have been created or adapted at by instructors and students have saved well over $2 million dollars. “Open”, however, is about more than just textbooks and money saved, it’s about a way of thinking about teaching and learning. This is the first in a serious of posts looking at the integration of open educational practices (OEP) already occurring at the U of S, as well as about the potential for integrating OEP into courses and programs across the…
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How Do I Set Up My Notifications in Canvas?
As you’re getting started with Canvas, you’ll want to set up a few things to make it work more like the way you’d like. Within Canvas you’ll find a button under which it says Account. When you click on that you’ll see a list of links including Notifications, Profile, Files, Settings, and some other things we won’t worry about for right now. Notifications is where you can specify how and how often you receive notifications about updates within your courses in Canvas. These may include posts to discussion forums, submission of assignments, students signing up for appointments, etc. This resource created by Canvas details how to set up your notifications: How do I set…
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Copyright and Remote Teaching
As you prepare for remote teaching this fall, you need to keep in mind issues related to copyright. The following key points were made in the USask version of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARLs’) copyright guidance released as the University quickly shifted to remote teaching in March: Most of the legal issues are the same whether the teaching is done in person or online. If it was okay to do in class, it is often okay to do online – especially when your online access is limited to the same enrolled students. You can continue to apply the University of Saskatchewan (USask) Fair Dealing Guidelines. The following resources have…