The Canvas Building Block Series was introduced in May with a number of one-hour, highly focused training sessions focused on building skills required to create an engaging course in Canvas. Delegates came prepared to ask questions and discover how to successfully leverage Canvas to enhance and support instructional practices.
There were 96 delegates registered for 6 sessions scheduled during the last week of May with a high proportion of delegates opting to join the class online, rather than attend the training room in person.
Canvas Building Block cover everything from assessment, communication and content building tools with a how-to focus. June dates are now available for registration. For more details, check out ‘Upcoming Events’ which are advertised on the HOME page of the blog.
Video recordings of the 1hr building block sessions are now available below. You will need to use your QUB login credentials to access the video resources which are stored on the Mediasite server at Queen’s University.
Set up and Start to Build
This is where you begin your Canvas journey. This course explains how to navigate the key areas of Canvas and set up your profile. Learn how to use the ‘Files’ section to quickly move content from QOL VLE to Canvas. Finally, see how to quickly and easily populate the Blueprint Template pages using some basic editing features.
Topics Covered: Introduction to Canvas, Settings & Profile, Folders & Files, Blueprint Template Pages, Rich Content Editor Basics
Create and Communicate
This is where you start to build content in your Canvas course. We will focus primarily on how to use the ‘Rich Content Editor’ to create learning resources. You will also learn how to structure your course and create a learner journey. Lastly see how you can use the communication tools in Canvas to effectively communicate with students.
Topics Covered; Rich Content Editor, Building a Module Structure, Announcements, Inbox, Chat.
Get Together with Canvas
This is where you get to grips with the functionality in Canvas that allows collaboration and group project work. Explore the features available in groups and see the group homepage that each group can access. Learn how to use the discussions and conferences features to create a student community within a course before seeing how the calendar and scheduler can minimise the time taken to set up and manage student appointments.
Topics Covered: Discussions, Conferences, Calendar & Appointment Groups, Collaborations
Get Quizzical with Canvas
This is where you learn how to use the powerful Quizzes functionality within Canvas. Work through setting up question banks that make it easy to administer and categorise quiz questions. See the wide range of question types available and the extensive feedback made possible by the Canvas Rich Content Editor. Lastly set up your own quiz and see the powerful analytics that can be provided to you on student quiz results.
Topics Covered: Question Banks, Question Types, Quiz Types, Quiz Settings, Quiz Analytics
Grader Expectations
Canvas has moved to a new Gradebook. The below information will be updated in due course. For more information please see: The New Canvas Gradebook
This is where you learn how to set up your assignments and weighting on your Canvas course. See how the weightings set in assignment groups will feed into the Gradebook to populate the student’s overall grade. Set up an assignment and explore the many submission types within Canvas that allow you to be creative with how you assess students. Learn how the Gradebook can be used to record results before looking at the many options for assignment grading and feedback available to you in Speedgrader. Please note that Gradebook has changed and the functionality may be different than that included in the video below.
Topics Covered: Assignment Groups, Create Assignments, Assignment Types, Gradebook, Speedgrader.
Turnitin Essentials
Canvas has moved to a new Gradebook. The below information will be updated in due course. For more information please see: The New Canvas Gradebook
This is where you look in detail at how best to use the Turnitin integration within Canvas. Work through the process of setting up a Turnitin assignment in Canvas and explore both the Canvas assignment settings and the Turnitin settings focusing on any potential pitfalls. See how the student will submit using the Turnitin integration within Canvas and how the similarity report is viewable in several areas within Canvas. This is a crucial workshop for anyone using Turnitin within Canvas.
Topics Covered: Setting up Turnitin Assignments in Canvas, Canvas Assignment Settings, Turnitin Assignment Settings, Student view of Turnitin submissions.
