CELT Teaching Tip • November 29, 2018
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Five things students wish happened in their Canvas courses
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“Canvas is a great tool. It’s easy to learn and its widespread use across campus will benefit everyone.”
The Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching spoke with undergrad and graduate students, instructional designers, and examined tickets submitted to the ISU Solution Center by students. Here are five ideas as you prepare your course for spring semester:
- Your Canvas front page is the entry way to your class experience. Every time a student logs into your course they see whatever you provide them via the front page (How do I set a Front Page in a course? web guide) or announcements (How do I add an announcement in a course? web guide). Take the opportunity to make it something worthwhile. Create an informational front page or post regular announcements in your course to keep students up to date on your class and valuable information.
- Organization helps students concentrate on the subject matter. Undergraduate students are often enrolled in up to six or seven different courses all with different Canvas course shells. Make your course easy to navigate so that they can concentrate on the subject matter at hand. For example, if you do not require discussions, hide this from the Navigation bar so that students do not get “lost” in the Menu Options. Learn how from the How do I manage Course Navigation links? web guide.
- Tell them what is required and when it is due. Canvas gives you the ability to create calendar events and have these events show up on the student’s to do list. In the calendar you can even create course events (How do I add an event to a course calendar? web guide) with links to readings that you want students to do in preparation for a class discussion.
- Save trees, ask students to submit via Canvas. There are certainly needs for printed assignments. However, if these do not exist, submitting assignments and homework via Canvas saves students the trouble of finding a printer, saves paper, and provides you the ability to use SpeedGrader within Canvas, providing an electronic record of the students’ work, your feedback, and the grade (How do I use SpeedGrader? web guide).
- Finally, publish your course/modules/quizzes/tests/assignments. One of the greatest complaints to the ISU Solution Center is that students cannot access the course, the modules, quizzes, tests or assignments. Be sure to publish your course, etc. It is helpful to use Student View to make sure that they see what you see (How do I view a course using a test student? web guide).
Best wishes for Dead Week and Finals Week,
Sara Marcketti, Director
Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching
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Final Grades are due on December 18
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2018 Fall Semester final grades are due by December 18th at 2:15 p.m.
Follow this end of semester checklist to guide you through the end of the semester process in Canvas via the
End of Semester Checklist webpage.
You may also submit grades through AccessPlus.
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2019-20 Miller Faculty Fellowship proposals due Dec. 10
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Miller Faculty Fellowships have provided funding to over 800 faculty to improve the undergraduate teaching and learning experience at Iowa State University. The Miller Faculty Fellowship Program provides recipients with opportunities to enhance their scholarly work in the undergraduate academic programs of the university and to develop innovative approaches to enhance student learning. Recipients will have up to twelve months to meet the goals of their Fellowship project.
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- Workshop, Turning your scholarly teaching into Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), Dec. 6 (12:10-1:30 p.m.)
- Meetings, ISU Online Learning Community (ISU-OLC), Dec. 14 (11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.)
- Seminar, CELT Spring Semester Teaching Assistant (TA) Seminar, Jan. 11 (10 a.m.-12 p.m.)
Quality Matters
- Workshop, Applying the Quality Matters Rubric (APPQMR) Workshop, Dec. 3 (8 a.m.-4 p.m.)
- Workshop: Quality Matters: Improving Your Online Course, Dec. 7 (8 a.m.-12 p.m.)
- Meeting, Quality Matters Learning Community, Dec. 13 (3-4:30 p.m.)
Building & Managing Your Course in Canvas Workshop Series
Building Your Course in Canvas Series
- Course Design Basics, Dec. 4 (3-4:30 p.m.)
- Assignments and Quizzes, Dec. 5 (3-4:30 p.m.)
- Grading and Student Data in Canvas, Dec. 6 (9-10:30 a.m.)
Manage Your Canvas Course Series
- Group Work and Collaboration, Dec. 11 (3-4:30 p.m.)
- Rubrics and Outcomes, Dec. 13 (1-2:30 p.m.)
- Personalized Learning and Mastery Paths, Dec. 14 (3-4:30 p.m.)
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Plan your professional development for spring 2019
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CELT has a number of great opportunities this spring. Start planning your professional development by downloading the following calendars:
By Topic
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In an effort to conserve energy during a period of reduced activity on campus, CELT will close December 24-January 1. In addition, CELT will observe modified hours of operation from 7:30 a.m.-4 p.m. during winter break (December 17-January 11). Normal operations and hours will resume on January 14.
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