-
Active and social learning in Canvas
This is the third post in a series about how you can use Canvas to integrate the eight Learning Technology Ecosystem Principles. You can find more about these principles here, but in this post, we’ll be looking at the second principle. 2. Active and Social: Learning is a process of meaning making, constructed through learning with others, and as part of an intentional, deliberate system within a course and across experiences. Active and Social learning enhances student engagement and promotes comprehension and memory. These types of learning are important elements in a learner-centered approach to knowledge. In order for learning to be considered active, a student must be processing, discovering and…
-
How Does Canvas Make Learning Accessible?
This is the second post in a series about how you can use Canvas to integrate the eight Learning Technology Ecosystem Principles. You can find more about these principles here, but in this post, we’ll be looking at the first principle. Accessible: Learning must be found easily at any time, and all learners and teachers have equitable access, regardless of culture, language, ability, etc. Accessible education gives everyone equal access to content and ensures that all learners have equitable access to course content regardless of their culture, language, age, gender, preferred learning style or ability. Accessible courses remove barriers that may exist for some students and reduce the instructor’s need to make…
-
What are Learning Technology Ecosystem Principles and why are they important?
Technology and education go together like strawberries and cream, or peanut butter and jelly, and in this time of remote instruction, teaching and learning are both enabled by and reliant on technology. In order for us to be successful in an online teaching and learning environment, there are eight principles that USask instructors should consider important when using technologies for teaching and learning. The eight principles, shown in the graphic below are research supported characteristics of effective digital learning spaces that prepare students for work and life, and are aligned to the University of Saskatchewan’s Learning Charter. Following this post will be posts delving into what each principle means and why it matters, so stay tuned.
-
Reading the Remote Room: Surveying your students
It is always a good idea to collect feedback from your students about your teaching, but this importance is magnified while teaching remotely. if you’re teaching primarily synchronously (e.g., on Zoom) you might be getting a sense that things are going well, without realizing that some students are struggling with the content and/or their internet connections if you’re teaching primarily asynchronously and don’t have regular assessment and engagement methods in place, you might be finding it difficult to get much of a read at all Now that we’re a month into the term, it would be a great time to anonymously survey your students for feedback. Canvas has a built-in…
-
Grading Discussions in Canvas
By Roberta Campbell-Chudoba You’ve set up and run your first graded discussion in Canvas – and the volume of posts seems a bit daunting. Now it’s time to assess the individual student contributions against the defined criteria and get results out to them before the next discussion goes up. Here are some tips for grading discussions, using tools in Canvas to assist you. Canvas automatically marks posts as ‘read’ when you scroll down the page (changing the green dot left of the post to white). This function might interfere with keeping track of what you’ve read, and be a time waster if you have to backtrack through posts automatically marked…
-
Orange Shirt Day
Orange Shirt Day began as a result of a residential school commemoration event held in Williams Lake, BC in the spring of 2013. It grew out of Phyllis Webstad’s story of having her shiny new orange shirt being taken away from her on her first day of school at the St Joseph Mission residential school, and it has become an opportunity to keep the discussion on all aspects of residential schools happening annually. Sept 30th was the date chosen for Orange Shirt Day, as it was the time of year when approximately 150,000 children were removed from their families and communities and taken to one of the 139 residential schools…
-
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…
-
Small group synchronous discussion or presentations using WebEX
WebEx has a new feature that allows you to automatically or manually sort your students into small groups so they can remotely do the types of small group activities you had them do in your face to face classroom. While they are in groups, you can: send a message to give instructions, to all or some of the rooms or people pop into the rooms to observe invite people back to the main room end all the break out rooms to automatically close them When students return to the main meeting room, they have video off and be muted, but they can change those settings once they are back. The…
-
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…
-
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…
