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Basic Canvas training– Online or Face-to-face
This basic course is strongly recommended for all faculty and administrative staff, and will give you the basic skills you need to successfully run a course in the LMS. You can choose to attend via our self-paced Online Canvas Training Course or our monthly face-to-face workshops.
Basic Canvas 1: Welcome to Canvas, and
Basic Canvas 2: Designing in Canvas. OR…
Basic Canvas Training (1 & 2) Online.
The content for the online course matches the content covered in Basic Canvas 1 & 2.
Preparing for Training
Get the most out of your Canvas training! Make the following preparations before you attend:
- If you are attending face-to-face training, make sure you have registered online and reviewed the course objectives for Workshop 1 and/or Workshop 2.
- For both online and face-to-face training, make sure your university-issued and home computers have the latest version of the Firefox web browser.
- For Workshop 2, please bring a syllabus and course documents (assignments, pdfs, etc.) on a USB flash drive. You will begin building one of your courses in this session. You will also need these documents on your computer if you are completing the online training course.
Advanced Canvas Training
Once you have completed Basic Canvas training and successfully run your course in Canvas, you might want to take an Advanced Canvas Training seminar to learn to maximize the benefits of Canvas in your course.
Working with Quizzes and Question Banks
with Monique Pinkney
This is a hybrid course introducing participants to the quiz, survey, and question bank features in Canvas and the secured browser and assessment tools from Respondus. We will explore ways to encourage academic honesty and discuss pedagogical and practical strategies for administering online quizzes. In the 90-minute hands-on portion, you will receive step-by-step instructions on creating, editing, and managing the relevant tasks. This course has a MOOC-inspired design, useful resources, flexible participation options, and opportunities to gain experience credit. Read more.
Advanced Assignments and Assessment
With Ted Curran
This hybrid course addresses the “how” and “why” of advanced assignments and assessment tools in Canvas. This course will help you go beyond the basics in Canvas‚Äô Assignments, the gradebook, and the SpeedGrader. You will learn specific techniques to make your activities more interactive, provide students with better feedback easily, and align your course assessments with SMU’s learning outcomes. This course is a four-week hybrid intensive, with online discussion activities each week and one in-person “hands on” meeting per week.
Advanced Communication and Collaboration: “Out of Isolation”
With Ellie Hoffman
This course will consist of four standalone, in-person sessions focusing on Canvas’ tools for communication and collaboration. These sessions do not depend on each other, so you can attend the ones you are most interested in.
Groups in Canvas (One stand-alone 90 min. workshop)
Group assignments engender collaborative learning. The Groups feature in Canvas offers many options. We will examine the Group Tools from both instructor-created and student-created perspectives.
Peer Reviews (One stand-alone 60 min. workshop)
We will experiment with options in the Peer Review feature, and collaborate on how to create effective Peer Reviews for your students
Canvas Collaborative Communication Tools (One stand-alone 90 min. workshop)
Canvas uses 3rd Party vendors for collabortive document-creation and for Real-time conferences. We will examine the pros and cons of these applications and explore other possibilities
Canvas Web 2.0 Tools (One stand-alone 90 min workshop)
What is Web 2.0? We'll explore the concept, see several examples, and investigate the tools that are integrated into Canvas. By end of session you will create or explore a Web 2.0 tool with which you can enhance your teaching.
Get an Overview of Canvas
Canvas is SMU's new Learning Management System (LMS) that replaced Blackboard in January 2013. Canvas has the modern features SMU faculty have been asking for:
- Extensive Use of Multimedia: Create video and audio messages and easily upload and play video right in the course space.
- Integrated Help Resources: Every page in Canvas links directly to online support services.
- Rubrics and Outcomes-based Grading: SpeedGrader allows you to grade with rubrics based on program or course-specific learning outcomes - click your way through grading!
- Real Time Collaboration Tools: Collaboratively edit documents and use Conferences tool for webinar-style distance learning.
- Mobile Friendly: Apps for iOS and Android allow for easy navigation on mobile devices.
- Integrated Course Calendar: Shows assignments and deadlines in all your courses. Subscribe feature allows you to see your Canvas calendar in Outlook.
- ePortfolios: Students and faculty can create a public or private portfolio of their best work.
- Sophisticated File Management: Displays uploaded files (like PowerPoints, PDFs, and Word Docs) right in the site - no need to download or email files.
- How did Canvas come to be?
- How is Canvas designed?
- Canvas Glossary
- Canvas Blog
- Canvas YouTube Channel
