Canvas Update | March 2021

In the latest Canvas release (March 20), you can expect to see these enhancements (subject to change.)

• Students WebCam Submissions in Assignments
  In file upload assignments, students can use their webcam to submit to an assignment. This change allows students to use their webcam to submit a file upload assignment from the browser and aligns behavior with the Canvas Student app.
• SpeedGrader Submission Reassignments
  In SpeedGrader, you can reassign an assignment with a due date to an individual student and ask them to redo their submission. This change allows you to provide feedback and reassign an assignment to an individual student, which places the assignment back in the List View Dashboard as another assignment to complete.
• Rich Content Editor File Preview Enhancements
  Files linked in the Rich Content Editor can be previewed in an overlay or inline. This change allows you to control the display of the file preview. Previously all file previews opened in a new browser tab. Preview inline loads the displays the preview directly in the Rich Content Editor window once the file is clicked. If the option to expand the preview by default is also selected as an option, the file is automatically expanded in the page and users do not need to click the file to view it. Instead, users can close the preview by clicking the Minimize Preview link that displays along with the image.
  
  
  
  
  

Canvas Updates February 2021

In the most-recent Canvas release (February 20, 2021) you'll see the following:

• LaTeX equations can be entered in any Canvas text field, and MathJax is loaded if Canvas detects an equation image added by delimited LaTeX characters.
• The Rich Content Editor includes a pretty HTML editor in addition to the raw HTML editor.
• When grading periods are used in the Gradebook, the Gradebook CSV exporter will append the title of the selected grading period to column headers whose values vary based on grading period. Additionally, the Gradebook importer recognizes and can apply changes for final grade override scores.
• For instructors, the Gradebook View menu includes the View Ungraded as 0 option, which is a visual change only and does not affect any grades. This is a feature option that can be turned on in each of your course(s).

This short 4-minute release note video highlights all of these updates.

For detailed information, check out the comprehensive release notes.

Part II | Student Feedback About Improving their Canvas Course Experience

At the end of the Fall 2020 semester, students from two sections of the Human and Public Services STRT courses participated in a survey about “Things that would improve Canvas at LCCC”. A previous blog post covered Part I of their survey replies. The following is a continuation of their responses, which includes some suggested methods to address that feedback.

1. “Grades on first page/ Having the grades on the main page/ Have all grades in "one place"
   Instructors can make Grades visible in the Course Navigation menu and remind students about this location. Also, consider providing a link to Grades from the Course Home page.
2. “Side bar not being in alphabetical order” Faculty can arrange the sequence of tools to appear alphabetically or in any order for their Course Navigation - by going to Settings and proceed to the Navigation tab.
3. “Having separate due dates for first discussion post and replies”
   Currently there is no automatic way to do this, however when creating the Discussion assignment, faculty can list due dates for first post and second reply post. Example: 1st Post due September 22 (10 points) and 2nd Post reply to classmate due September 25 (10 points). Another option is to create a Canvas Page that follows the Discussion assignment, and provides a due date for the second post by checking “Add to student to-do” at the bottom of that page.
4. “Posting all the deadlines at the beginning of semester” Instructors should provide a tentative schedule of all assignments and due dates in the course syllabus, or refer students to the Canvas Syllabus page which generates a Course Summary of all assignments and dates.
5. “Having all zoom links in the same place for each class” Faculty can enable a link to Zoom in the course Navigation menu from Settings. Another option is to create a link for Zoom sessions on the Course Home page or within the Course Overview module. It is also helpful to send weekly reminders to students about Zoom sessions and links in Announcements or Inbox messages

Having this student feedback provides some useful insights into their concerns and can be very helpful to improve their Canvas course experience.

Part I | Student Feedback About Improving their Canvas Course Experience

At the end of the Fall 2020 semester students from two sections of the Human and Public Services' STRT courses participated in a survey about “Things that would improve Canvas at LCCC”. The following is a list of their responses and below each student comment are some suggested methods to address that feedback.

1. “Universal Canvas outline and organization" "All Canvas pages look the same and have everything in the same places for all classes" "All teachers post things in the same place as all the others"
   
   This is a very frequent comment from LCCC students about differences between Canvas courses. They would like to see a consistent structure for LCCC Canvas courses so that modules and course materials have a common layout and location.
2. “Notifications about if classes have changed to Zoom from in-person and vice versa" "Post on main page if class is cancelled”
   
   Faculty can address this by confirming that announcements always appear on a the main or home page of a course. Another practice to consider is to use the Canvas inbox to send regular messages to all students about class status.
3. “Save button on assignments, posts, etc. so we don’t lose work”
   
   Canvas recently added the Assignment Enhancements feature that will help students track the flow of their submissions. Here is a link to the Student guides. Faculty should also remind students to save a back-up copy of all assignments in a personal folder.
4. “Remind notifications for assignments" "Get notifications for when assignments are due i.e. get remind messages”
   
   Instructors can send out a weekly Announcement or message from Inbox with reminders about upcoming assignments. Faculty can also encourage students to set up Notifications in Canvas for due dates and announcements. All due dates that have been associated with the Canvas course do appear on the course calendar; students can also post personal reminder dates or a “To-Do Item”.

Being aware of these student comments can help instructors improve the overall Canvas course experience.

Passport to Canvas is the New LMS Student Tutorial

“Passport to Canvas” is a new orientation course that Canvas recently created for learning about the various tools and features within the LMS. The “Passport to Canvas” tutorial also includes a module about “How to be a Successful Online Learner” that was developed by CET and includes contributions by Amanda Brown to offer some helpful guidelines and strategies for remote learners. Students have provided some positive feedback about this tutorial. “Yes it was extremely helpful…I think that should be mandatory practice in high school cause I was lost using Canvas!”

Beginning in the Spring 2021 semester, “Passport to Canvas” replaces the “Online Introduction to Canvas” that was previously used as a student tutorial. This new course consists of nine modules that take students through the major functions they will need to know about using Canvas successfully. Students can progress through these modules in any order, and after completing each module they are able to earn a Badge. Below is a list of the modules included in the Passport to Canvas:

1. How to be a Successful Online Learner
2. Communication Tools
3. Navigating a Course
4. Assignments
5. Quizzes
6. Discussions
7. Grades and Feedback
8. Peer Interactions
9. Student App

The following topics are addressed in the “How to be a Successful Online Learner” module:

• Characteristics of an Effective Online Learner
• Study Space
• Time Management
• Independent and Persistent Learners
• Participate in Classes
• Technology
• Mental Preparation
• Stress Management

Students can always access the “Passport to Canvas” by clicking on the Help? icon at the bottom of the Global Navigation menu and choosing the Passport to Canvas link on the Student Resources site. This self-enroll course is also available to faculty and staff wanting to learn more about the standard tools in LCCC's Canvas instance. Once a learner self enrolls in this tutotial, it remains available as an on-going resource for reviewing those materials.

Canvas & Zoom Updates, January 2021

Canvas Updates

The Assignment Enhancements feature is now available for students. This update to the classic assignment details page improves the assignment interface and submission workflow for students. To see this feature from a student view, see this short video:

“The benefits that students get with the new workflow (saving progress, or uploading a document before processing the submission) was well worth turning this feature on!”
– David Stokowski, Principal Learning Consultant for the State of Wyoming, Instructure

The student workflow is focused on keeping everything on one page (no separate page for submission details), access to previous submissions, and better DocViewer feedback visibility. See How-to Student Guides for steps for each assignment type.

Zoom Updates

Enhanced privileges for co-hosts for managing Breakout Rooms; sharing slides as a virtual background; in-meeting security controls. These feature updates require the most recent version of the Zoom desktop client to be installed. If the features are not available in your classroom, submit a work order to the LCCC Support Desk to update the Zoom software.

• Windows: 5.4.3 or higher 
• macOS: 5.4.3 or higher

Canvas Changes are on the Horizon!

New changes will be implemented in Canvas before faculty return on January 12, 2021. Among them will be the new Rich Content Editor (RCE), as previously blogged about here, as well as updates to where media uploads are stored and the new student view button.

First, media upload changes will be as follows:

• Newly recorded media, using the Upload/Record Media link, will now be stored more appropriately depending on the destination of the file. For example, media recorded for a discussion post will now be stored in the course files, whereas media recordings for an assignment will be store in the student's user files.
• This change will only affect the storage quotas for courses if the media file is directly uploaded to the course files rather than recorded within Canvas using the Upload/Record Media link. More information about this change can see in this demonstration video.

Next, the student view button is moving! The student view button is leaving the right sidebar and being placed in the top right corner of pages that the student role can view. For example:

• The student view button will show on the top right corner of the home page because this is a page that students can view.
• The student view button will not show on the course settings page because this is not a page that students can view. You can see the new button in action in this demonstration video. 

For more information about these changes and others, such as the "View Ungraded as Zero" option in the gradebook, please check out the new Canvas release notes for December 19, 2020.

Have a wonderful holiday season and enjoy the break with friends and/or family. The weekly CET blog posts will take a brief hiatus but will return for the Spring semester on January 18, 2021.

Pronoun Options Now Available in Canvas!

In collaboration with Student Engagement and Diversity, the CET has enabled the new Canvas option that allows users to select their preferred pronouns!

The list of choices was provided by Student Engagement and Diversity, and while not every possible pronoun is available, we have included those that are currently within the LCCC Safe Zone documentation.

More information regarding this setting, including full instructions similar to those below, can be found at this link: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Student-Guide/How-do-I-select-personal-pronouns-in-my-user-account-as-a/ta-p/456. Please feel free to share this link with your students!

To select your preferred pronoun:

1. Log in to Canvas and click on your “Account” icon.
2. Click on "Settings".
   
   
    
    
   
   
3. Click on the "Edit Settings" button, located on the right side of the page.
   
   
   
   
   
4. Click the “Pronouns” drop down menu to display the list of options.
5. Choose your preferred pronoun from the list.
6. Click the blue “Update Settings” button.
   
   
   
   
   

Learn to use Canvas Settings for Accommodations

You may have run into this Issue: To set accommodations for one student, you (instructor) change the settings for a graded discussion, quiz or assignment. You switch the content from being assigned to everyone to being assigned to only one student in order to extend the time and/or allow multiple attempts for the one student. This causes the grades in the gradebook to disappear for all students except the one it is assigned to. This can be fixed by reassigning back to everyone in the Assign To field, however it’s not the recommended method for assigning accommodations.

Below are resources depending upon the scenario, to provide accommodations in Canvas.

1. Provide extra time and/or attempts for a quiz
   Extended time or extra attempts can easily be set on quizzes built in Canvas. This is done after the quiz is published, but before it is administered.
   
   Quiz availability dates still apply when moderating a quiz (classic and new). If the Until date passes when students are taking the quiz with extended time, the quiz auto-submits even if the student’s time extension has not expired. If you have set a time limit on your quiz, you can grant access for extra time.
   
   For Classic Quizzes,
   
   • Once I publish a quiz, how can I give my students extra attempts? 
   • Once I publish a timed quiz, how can I give my students extra time?
   
   For New Quizzes,
   
   • How do I moderate a student's assessment attempt in New Quizzes?, as well as
   • Course-level accommodations for a student applied on all assessments.
     
     
2. Setting different due dates/times for assignments and discussions
   Differentiated assignments is a function within Canvas that allows you to set different due dates/times as well as availability dates for an individual student within the same activity assigned to the rest of the class. This can be done on assignments and graded discussions.
   
   
   • Assignments:
     You can set different due and availability dates for a student within an assignment that is assigned to the rest of the class. To set this up, use How do I assign an assignment to an individual student? 
   • Graded Discussions:
     Only the student(s) specified in the discussion details can view the graded discussion. To set this up, use How do I assign a graded discussion to an individual student?
     
     
3. Prepare two formats (paper and online) of the same quiz
   
   To print a quiz in Canvas (applies to classic and new quizzes):
   
   • Click Quizzes from your Course Navigation.
   • Select Quiz Click the name of your quiz.
   • Preview Click the Preview button in the top right-hand corner.
   • Browser Print Function Using your browser’s print function, find and select Print.
     Note: Printed quizzes often split answer options between pages and leave little room for essay answers.

New Analytics Reports in Canvas -- What's Happening in YOUR Class?

Released in late September, Canvas now has a few useful reports available within the New Analytics tool. These reports are course specific and can be found by clicking either the “New Analytics” button on the homepage of your course or the “New Analytics” link in your course navigation, then clicking the “Reports” tab.

The available reports are:

1. Missing Assignments: a list of assignments that have not been submitted yet
2. Late Assignments: a list of assignments that have been submitted late
3. Excused Assignments: a list of assignments that are excused
4. Class Roster: a list of students enrolled in the course or section with student contact information such as email and SIS ID
5. Course Activity: a list of daily user views and participation

After clicking the “Run Report” button you then have the option to filter—depending on the chosen report—by Date, Assignment, Section Name (useful for cross-listed courses), and Student Name. Multiple filters can be applied to obtain specific information. A CSV file is immediately downloaded to your local machine, which can be opened and viewed in Excel. 

Note: These reports are subject to the New Analytics 24- to 40-hour data delay.

For more information check out the super useful Canvas documentation page.

Canvas Feature Options

We want to share a few great features available in Canvas that you might not know exist. These features can be accessed in your Canvas course by clicking the “Settings” link located in the navigation menu. (Note that these features must be configured for each course where you would like them enabled).

From the settings screen, click on the “Feature Options” tab at the top of the page.

From the Feature Options screen you will see a list of available features that can be enabled or disabled for the specific Canvas course. Enabling a feature option is as easy as toggling the switch from off to on. 

The four Feature Options that we would like to highlight are:

Final Grade Override

This feature will allow the option to override a student grade in the Gradebook. There is a second step to enabling this feature which can be found at this Canvas guide.

Gradebook - List Students by Sortable Name

This feature will allow instructors to sort their gradebook by a more commonly used Last Name, First Name format. Once enabled, check out this Canvas guide on how to toggle this feature.

RCE Enhancements

In one of our last blog posts of the Spring 2020 term, we presented the new Rich Content Editor that is available in Canvas. This new RCE will become the default editor beginning with the Spring 2021 term. Learn more about how to use this feature with this Canvas guide.

RCE Auto-Save (RCE Enhancements Required)

An additional feature that makes the new RCE such a fantastic option is Auto-Save. This will automatically save any page in which you are currently working and allow restoration in the event the page is closed unexpectedly.

There is always so much more to learn when using Canvas, so please get in touch with the CET if you have questions or would like to explore additional features!

Professional Development Opportunities for Canvas and Online Teaching

As the busy new academic year commences, we want to make you aware of some valuable professional development events to consider.

This year’s Canvas conference will be offered in a free online format called CanvasCon. Scheduled for Thursday October 15, this live world-wide conference provides an excellent opportunity to learn more about using Canvas, as well as current educational developments and challenges. The keynote speakers will be LeVar Burton a leader in children’s literacy, and Sal Kahn founder of the Khan Academy. In addition, there will be over 55 presentations offering information about best practices for online teaching and learning plus other topics. Scheduled sessions include: 10 Ways to Make Online Learning More Engaging, Designing for Kindness, and Learning at a Distance. Even if you are unable to attend, enroll in this conference to receive recorded sessions. Registration is open until October 9.

Another constructive development opportunity is being provided through NISOD which has collaborated with other higher education institutions to create a small course Best Practices in Online Teaching (BPTO). This free course offers a clear and concise summary of good practices for online teaching. It provides a valuable collection of links to additional resources, including helpful information about making online materials accessible. The dynamic discussion forums within each module promote sharing strategies and productive interactions with other faculty participants from around the country. The course is self-paced and estimated to take 4-6 hours to complete. Follow this link to enroll in BPTO. Note that although we use Canvas at LCCC, you will still need to follow the built-in steps to set up a new Free-for-Teacher Canvas account for accessing this course. BPTO contains many useful considerations and applications for any online instructor. 

Finally, though we are working primarily virtually this Fall, all members of the CET are available to assist. Contact us at cet@lccc.wy.edu--we'd love to learn beside you!

A New Academic Year Begins!

Whew…we’ve learned lots in the last few months and the CET believes you all rocked it! We’re looking forward to the year ahead and the opportunity to start fresh and start to build and strengthen the practices that we all had to learn on the fly. Please note the following as you prepare for the year ahead:

• We post weekly to this blog with news on everything from technology to teaching. Follow by email so that you don’t miss a beat!
• We’ve aligned all Canvas course shells with course start and end dates in Colleague to meet student expectations in terms of course availability at the start and end of each block. Faculty do have access to inbox communications with class rosters in any course that they’ve published so you can send your Syllabus Supplement to your students for the 2020 Fall semester.
• All faculty are encouraged to share the Online Introduction to Canvas enrollment link with their students. This self-paced course is a great introduction to using Canvas as a student and can pave the way for a successful start to the semester. The course is available now. All Strategies for Success 1000 courses will be requiring students to finish the course beginning this Fall.

2020 Fall In-Service Sessions from the CET

• We’ll be introducing the features of Roll Call in Canvas (Attendance Tool) through the scheduled In-Service sessions and look forward to seeing you there via Zoom.
• Using the LTI integration in Canvas for Zoom and Teams is an easy way to schedule your virtual class meetings. Thirty minutes and we'll have you up and running!
• PowerPoint Live is a new tool Microsoft released this summer that allows students to interact with your PowerPoint and view live subtitles.
• Respondus Monitor is available to all faculty and is now compatible with New Quizzes. Monitor is a remote proctoring solution that enables video recording of online exams. Respondus offers free webinar training on Monitor and the LockDown Browser. Look for quick 30-minute sessions during the In-Service for tips on how to use Monitor in your course.

More Resources

• The Exchange is a one-stop-shop containing information and useful guides on topics such as technology usage, course design, and much more!  Detailed information about the syllabus supplement, Roll Call, PowerPoint Live, and Respondus is in this Canvas course.
• Growing with Canvas is a self-paced course demonstrating the basics of using Canvas as a teacher.  LCCC Adjunct Orientation is a self-paced course designed to orient adjunct faculty with the college. Also useful for full time faculty!
• Canvas Support via telephone, chat or report a problem, can be reached by clicking the Help icon in Canvas.  Available 24/7 whenever you need it and staffed by employees of Instructure that know Canvas inside out.   

Out with the old, in with the new!

With our final blog post for the Spring 2020 semester we want to introduce the new Canvas enhanced Rich Content Editor (RCE). This new feature will automatically be implemented on May 26, 2020.

The new RCE provides several improvements over the old RCE and from the screenshot above we can immediately see two of these:

1. The text editing bar is updated to mirror popular software such as MS Word.
2. The right-side menu is gone, giving the page a wider space for work.

Some changes that might not be so obvious:

1. Plugins (Yuja, Office 365, etc.) are no longer in the chevron icon, but are now in the plug icon at the end of the text editor bar. Clicking this Plugins icon will now open a small overlay window listing all available plugins, including a handy search box!
2. Per #2 above, the right-side menu, which allowed for quick linking to course content, is now located in the Link icon. Clicking this icon will produce a small drop-down menu with two options: External Links and Course Links.
3. The HTML editing option is now located near the resizing icon (lower right of the editing window), denoted with the </> icon.
4. Pages will now autosave! You can see a demonstration of how this works in this short demo video.

All the above is just the tip of the iceberg! You can read more details on all the new changes and features in the Canvas release notes for the new Rich Content Editor. Additionally, you can find instructions on using these new features in the Canvas Instructor Guides.

Although we will be taking time off from blogging throughout the summer, the CET will continue standing by to assist with questions regarding the RCE or any other Canvas feature usage. Please get in touch with us at CET@lccc.wy.edu.

Course Reflection and Adjustments

With the recent circumstances emanating from COVID-19 many of you have undertaken a rapid online migration of your courses. As you have progressed with implementing your course, you probably have observed many things that worked well and other parts of your course that could use some enhancements. That is to be expected with the development of any new course or significant additions. This is especially understandable considering the unanticipated conditions that caused an urgency to create and modify course materials for remote learning. Moreover, all courses require continuous quality improvements and updates as part of an ongoing course maintenance process.

As the end of the semester approaches, it is very important to obtain student feedback about different aspects of your course. You may want to reach out and survey the students about what content, assignments, or other areas of the online course they found most challenging, plus which parts they found most effective. You can create a survey in Canvas by using the Classic Quizzes tool and selecting the Quiz Type as being a graded or ungraded survey. UC Berkley has developed an extensive bank of survey questions that can be used to generate useful student feedback about your course. In addition, this question bank was developed by LCCC faculty and is easily modified to meet your survey goals.

Another way to acquire formative course feedback is by reviewing students’ performance scores regarding assignment and assessment outcomes. These provide valuable information about how well the students are learning important course content and achieving the desired competencies. The summative results of these learning activities help identify the stronger segments of your course where students are most successful, as well as weaker areas where the outcome results are frequently low. Examining students' achievement outcomes provides insights about possible modifications to instructional activities, lesson designs, or teaching materials.

By obtaining different forms of course feedback, instructors can reflect on making adjustments and revisions to help improve student learning about important concepts and competencies.

Big Differences Between Canvas Question Banks and an Item Bank

In the classic quiz tool, the banks are called "Question Banks" and can be accessed from the quiz index page under the options menu (3 vertical dots). In the new quiz tool, the banks are "Item Banks" and are accessed from the quiz edit screen. Question banks and Item banks have some significant differences, these are the big three:

1. Questions are not Added to the Bank Automatically
   In classic quizzes, questions are automatically added to the unfiled questions bank, however, in the new quiz tool, individual questions created in a quiz are not automatically added to an item bank; they can be added to a new or existing item bank when they are created or edited.
2. Banks are Linked to You | Naming Scheme is Needed
   In the new quiz tool, the item banks are connected to the person that created them regardless of which course the item bank is associated with. This means all item banks from all courses can be accessed when creating a quiz from any course. Because of this, it is important to use a detailed naming scheme with items banks that identify course and chapter (INET1581 CH2, for example) or other identifiers that help you determine what is contained in each item bank. Question titles and type will display at the top of a question so it is easy to quickly see what type of questions each item bank has stored in them. Instructors can share item banks with other instructors. Item banks that are shared give all instructors the same read/write privileges so be careful about editing or deleting item banks that are shared with you.
3. Questions are linked to the Bank, not the Quiz
   It’s important to note how questions are linked in banks in classic quizzes vs. new quizzes.

• Classic Quizzes Question Banks
  With the classic quizzes tool, when questions are added to a quiz using the “Find Questions” option, copies of the questions in question banks are added to the quiz and there is no direct link. Once a question is edited in a quiz, the same question in the question bank is not updated until you go to the question bank and update the question manually.
• New Quizzes Item Bank
  In the new quiz tool, the opposite is true. In a new quiz when a question is added from an item bank, this creates a link to the question in the item bank. The question content must be edited in the item bank. If you attempt to delete a linked item bank question that has student submissions, you will see a warning that deleting the question in the item bank will affect quiz statistics. If quiz statistics are important to you, then you mustn't delete questions, instead edit a copy of the question which will be seen by students that have not taken the quiz. 

What's New in Canvas? April 2020 Edition

So many new Canvas updates have been coming our way over the past few months that I felt it was necessary to provide another “What’s New in Canvas?” blog. This month we are welcoming some of the most requested features to the LCCC Canvas instance.

First -- what will probably be the most celebrated new feature by our students -- is the introduction of a new feature: Mute Notifications by Course. Hurray! To exercise your right to disable course notifications, head into the Canvas course shell and find the button “View Course Notifications” on the right side of the screen. Clicking on this button will open a second screen with a single toggle switch that will disable notifications for this course.

Second, we can now access SpeedGrader directly from the assignment header in the Gradebook. This was a highly utilized feature of the legacy Gradebook and I’m sure many of us are happy to see this small change return with the new Gradebook.

Finally, there are three more minor changes that are equally welcome and exciting:

1. New Quizzes questions with multiple answers can now award partial credit.
2. Rubrics will now be available in the Course Navigation (no more rooting around to find them!)
3. A new celebration animation will play when a student submits their work on time (this can be disabled by students in their account Settings screen)

More details on all the above-mentioned updates can be found on the Canvas Release Notes page. Additionally, please feel free to contact the CET for assistance with any of these new features by emailing CET@lccc.wy.edu or using our Bookings Form.

Ongoing Communications are Important for Online Learners

Students in an online environment need frequent communications to keep them on-track and engaged with their learning. Ongoing and recurrent forms of communication will provide your online students with the sense of a learning community and help them stay focused on course tasks. In face-to-face courses, you often give reminders about up-coming assignments and assessments, and you need to intentionally do the same for remote learners. Below are some suggested ideas for staying in touch with your students and keeping them informed about the course schedule and benchmarks.

• Weekly announcements
  The Announcement tool in Canvas is an excellent way to broadcast information to the entire class. Use announcements to provide a description about the week’s content, activities, and important due dates. Consider including a To-Do list about the action-items students need to complete.
• Repeated contacts
  Provide the class with periodic messages through the Canvas Inbox. Apply these communications to reach out and check-in with students about how things are going and any difficulties they may be experiencing. This can also be an opportunity to offer the students encouragement, motivating statements, and acknowledge their good efforts and progress.
• Course related questions
  One method for managing course questions is by creating an open Discussion where all inquiries can be posted and shared. This can help reduce individual emails by providing a one-stop area for all students to view instructor responses to various questions and concerns.
• Scheduled office hours
  Establish virtual office hours when you will consistently be available to answer questions and provide assistance. Inform the students about which communication format you will be using such as the Canvas Inbox, the online Chat function in Canvas, or log into the Exchange to learn about creating reoccurring Zoom meetings.

Keeping your online students informed, connected, and aware that you are available to help them is an important factor for promoting student success.

Canvas New Quizzes!

Below are all the updates CET has about new quizzes (previously known as quizzes.next) in Canvas. The link to create new quizzes moved from assignments to quizzes.

• Respondus LockDown Browser Compatibility
  Currently, new quizzes are not compatible with Respondus LockDown Browser which is causing issues with remote proctoring of those quizzes. Canvas has updated its timeline for new quizzes but it has not come fast enough to help with the Spring 2020 semester and COVID-19. The CET has been in contact with Respondus and with Canvas and expressed our urgency and we are hopeful that Respondus LockDown Browser will be compatible at the beginning of the Summer 2020 semester.
• Temporary Solution for Proctoring
  The CET is working with both the main campus and the ACC Exam Lab to do remote proctoring with Zoom as a temporary solution. Proctoring via Zoom requires one proctor for every student, requiring lots of help from our co-workers. Many of the paid-for solutions do not fit the needs of LCCC or are way too expensive. Please help us get the students what they need to complete this semester; look for further communications in email.
• Classic Quizzes Deprecated
  Classic quizzes will be deprecated by February 2021, therefore once LockDown Browser is released to be compatible with new quizzes, we recommend you begin migrating your quizzes over to the new tool. You will need to be ready to use it for the Spring 2021 semester. See new quizzes resources for additional information and contact us in the CET for additional help.
• Additional Question Types
  One of the most exciting features of new quizzes, is there are four new question types! The links below are to the Canvas guides for each.
• Categorization questions require students to place answers in the correct categories
• Hot Spot allows instructors to upload images and have their students identify a specific area in that image
• Ordering questions, allow students to place answers in a specific order
• Stimulus gives students a piece of content with associated questions

New Quizzes Overview from Instructure Canvas Community on Vimeo.

Canvas Tool Updates!

The March 21, 2020 Canvas update brought forward a few commonly requested changes to existing tools: Syllabus and Gradebook.

On the Syllabus, a new check box will be added that allows hiding the Course Summary. The course summary is the view in which all assignments are listed by due date on the Canvas Syllabus page. This new checkbox will be located in the Edit screen of the Syllabus tool as shown in the screenshot below.

A short video demonstrating the Syllabus change can be found online.

The Gradebook will see two new updates to existing uses. The first of these is an update to the plagiarism icons. The screenshot at left shows the old and new icons as they will appear in the gradebook and SpeedGrader.

The second of the two gradebook changes pertains to the sort order of exported grades. Until March 21, all gradebook exports were statically sorted by student ID. Moving forward, exported grades to a CSV will match the current sort order of the gradebook, preserving the preferences set by the instructor of a course.