Recent changes to Conversations

Matt McGhie from Instructure will introduce some new features that have been added to Conversations. Click the link below to see a short video highlighting the changes.

http://vimeo.com/36169133

Conclusion of Fall courses and Student Enrollments

This past week all Fall 2011 student Enrollments were concluded except for year-long and concurrent enrollment courses.

If you need to view past student enrollments for grading purposes in a concluded course click on the People tool.
 

 Click on View Prior Enrollments.

A list of prior users will be displayed along with their final grade.

To view individual grades for students click on their name then click on the Grades for (Student’s Name) button.

Alternatively you can click on the number under the Total column to be taken directly to the student’s grades.

This will show a detailed list of their grades and you can view their submission details, if available, by clicking on the assignment title. If you have same student in multiple courses you can change the course by selecting a new course from the For the course drop-down.

Restoring Student Enrollments

A common scenario we often run into is a instructor wants to give a student access to the previous semesters course so they can finish their course work due to an incomplete or other situation.

You can restore individual student enrollment to your course by clicking on the People tool.

Click on View Prior Enrollments.

From the list click the name of the student you would like to restore.

When the student’s details display click on more user details…

Click the Restore this Enrollment link in the Membership(s) section.

The student will now have access to the course.

Once the membership is restored the link will change to Conclude this enrollment which will allow you to conclude the students enrollment when they are finished.

Instructure Canvas Best Practices Webinar Archives

For the past few months Instructure has hosted webinars featuring instructors and administrators who are actively using Canvas. The webinars have been archived and can be viewed at the Canvas Community Forums. A list of the archives is available at the link below.

http://help.instructure.com/forums/20373403-best-practice-webinar-archive

If you would like to be informed of upcoming webinars and other announcements from Instructure you can visit their community announcement page.

http://help.instructure.com/forums/20349046-instructure-announcements

You can also login to the community site using your A-number and password to be alerted though email when a new announcement is posted. To login to the Canvas Community Forums click the login link at the top-right of the site.

Canvas Conferences

Here at USU, Canvas and Wimba are integrated together for live online classroom based sessions. The tool that allows you to access Wimba live classrooms is the Conferences tool. This post will give an overview of how to create and manage your online classroom (Conference). We will also discuss some common issues that you may encounter and how to avoid them.

Creating a Conference

Start by clicking on the Conferences tool in the left-hand navigation.

Click the Make a New Conference button on the upper-right-hand side of the window.

The Start a new Conference settings will appear and you can make changes to the following options.

Name: Allows you to give your conference a unique name. We suggest changing this to something other than the default Course Conference so it can be easier to find for administrative purposes.

Options: The long-running conference prevents the conference from closing after the duration of the conference has ended. Once a conference has ended it is preserved in the state that it was at the time it was ended. This means that any new course members will be unable to view the archives and you will no longer be able to use the conference for any new sessions. It is best to enable this for frequently used conferences, such as weekly lecture conferences, as the conference will not automatically close and become unusable and the archives will be available to all course members.

Duration: If the conference is only going to be used once and you know the approximate time limit you can specify it in the minutes textbox.

Description: Let participants know what the conference is used for. You can include information such as the phone number and classroom PIN number they can call if they are having audio difficulties.

Members: By default Invite all Course Members is enabled. If you wish to do a special conference with only certain students, uncheck this option and you will be able to select individual students. Keep in mind if you end the conference only those you have invited to the conference will have access to the archives.

When you have finished changing the settings for your conference click the Create Conference button to finish.

Joining a Conference

By default a conference will not be available to students until you click the Start it now button. When you click the Start it now button an invitation will be sent to selected course members with a link to the conference.

After clicking the Start it now button your conference will start and you will be taken to your conference.

The next time you view the conferences page you will see two new buttons, Join it now and End it now where the Start it now button used to be.

Join it now: This will start your conference, students will be unable to enter the live classroom until the instructor enters.

End it now: This performs the same behavior as what happens when a conference passes it’s duration time limit. The conference becomes unavailable except for the archives, to both teachers and students. It is preserved in its current state, new or uninvited course members will be unable to view the archives if any exist. Once you end a conference it cannot be re-enabled.

Editing a Conference

From the Conferences tool click on the title of the conference you would like to make changes to.

The Conference Details will be displayed. The conference details page contains information about the conference, links to archives, and the currently invited course members. To edit the conference click the Edit Conference Button on the right-hand side.

Here you can change the settings of your conference.

If you would like to change advanced settings pertaining to the Wimba live-classroom click on the Manage Advanced Settings… link.

Once you have made any modifications click the Update Conference button to save your changes.

Viewing Archives

From the Conferences page click on the conference you would like to view archives for.

In the External Links section, click the View archives(s) link.

A window will appear listing the available archives. Click on the archive you would like to view and it will open in a separate window.

Best Practices

• If you are going to host frequent conferences such as weekly lectures and hold office hours, you can create just one conference and use the conference description to let students know the times of each. Make sure that the long-running conference option is checked, and do not end it when you are finished with your session. This will ensure that students are not confused as to which conference room to go to.
• Don’t create and end separate conferences for each time you need to hold one, especially for lectures. This can cause problems in the future if new students enroll in your class and need access to archives.
• If you would like to repurpose an existing conference you can use the announcement tool to inform students of the change and re-post the link to that conference.
• If students are having difficulty entering the conference from links sent through notifications to their email, have them enter from the link in the conferences tool.
• If you have given a conference a time duration you may want to add 10-15 minutes and start early so you and your students can deal with technical issues that may arise.

With the start of Spring semester just around the corner we have created a checklist to help you get your courses ready. Below is a brief overview of is included in the checklist.

The Basics:

• Copying your Canvas course
• Update your Syllabus
• Checking content (assignments, quizzes, discussions, etc…)
• Enable the grading scheme
• Assignment group weights
• Ensure that you can see all the sections of your course
• Adding a TA
• Publish course
• Introductory announcement(s) (Optional)

• Copying your Canvas course

See the link below for information on how to copy your course.

http://blog.usu.edu/canvastips/2011/12/05/canvas-tips-and-tricks-dec-5-2011/

When copying your course remember to also copy your settings so your syllabus and homepage settings are included in the course copy.

Update your Syllabus

Check your syllabus for any content that needs to be changed such as dates, and meeting times. If you have linked to a pdf version of your syllabus you will need to unlink or delete the old syllabus link and add your new one.

Click the Syllabus link in the left-hand navigation.

Click the Edit Syllabus Description button.

You can use the syllabus description to post a link to your syllabus, or type or paste the contents of your syllabus in the description.

To upload a syllabus file click the Files tab in the Insert Content into the Page panel.

Click the Upload a new file link and click the Choose File button to browse your computer for your syllabus file. When you have selected

• Checking content (assignments, quizzes, discussions, etc…)

When checking your course content make sure you adjust any due or locked dates. Click below for instructions on how to edit details, and change dates.

Assignments:
How do I edit Assignment details?
Quizzes:
What quiz options are available to me?
Discussions:
How do I edit a Discussion topic?
Modules:
Click the Modules link in the left-hand navigation.

Click the Edit module settings (pencil) button on the module you need to update.

Use the date picker to select a date and enter your time and click Done to close the date picker.

When you have finshed changing your dates and other settings in the modules click the Update Module button to save your changes.

• Enable the grading scheme

Enabling the grading scheme will allow you to publish your grades to banner and display letter grades for assignments. For convenience we have created a default grading scheme that matches USU

In your course click the Settings link in the left-hand navigation.
 

Check the Enable course grading scheme box and click set grading scheme.
 

Search existing grading schemes by clicking the blue magnifying glass to find existing grading schemes.

In the list of grading schemes scroll to the bottom and select USU Standard.

Click the Use This Grading Standard to set the default grading scheme.

Click the grey X at the top of the window to exit the View/Edit Grading Scheme window.

Click the Update Course Details button to save the new settings.

• Assignment group weights

If you need to make any adjustments to assignment weighting you can through the assignments tool.

How do I create Assignment Groups for grading purposes?

• Ensure that you can see all the sections in your course

To see all the sections associated with your course first click the Settings link in the left-hand navigation.

Click the Sections tab to see a list of sections.

If you are missing sections contact the FACT office for assistance at 435-797-9506.

• Adding a TA

At the end of the post below there is instructions on how to add a TA.
http://blog.usu.edu/canvastips/2011/12/05/canvas-tips-and-tricks-dec-5-2011/

• Publish your course

When everything is to your liking and you are ready to teach from your course, you need to publish your course. You can determine if your course is unpublished or published by checking to see if the THIS COURSE IS UNPUBLISHED message is displayed above your course homepage.

To publish your course click on the published link and the Course Setup Checklist will appear.

Click the Publish Course button to finish the publishing process.

• Introductory announcement(s) (Optional)

Once your course is completely published it may be a good idea to send out an introductory announcement letting your students know that the course is available and a message telling them what they need to do next.
How do I create an Announcement?

Styling Options in Courses

Canvas offers several different ways of displaying your course content to your students. By default the Course Stream is displayed in new courses. To change the homepage click the Change Home Page Layout link and you will be be able to select which layout will be displayed to your students. When you have made your selection click the Update Layout button to save your settings.

Page I’ll Design Myself
This will offer you the most ways to customize how content is displayed to your students. The page option will allow you to create your own frontpage with links to your content, including modules, and the assignment list. You can use tables to help you design your page, or if you are comfortable editing HTML you can click the Switch Views link to access the source of the page.

Modules
Modules are a way to organize your course in organizational containers such as weeks, units, or any other structure that works for your course. Modules are also useful for sequencing course materials by having the option of setting requirements and prerequisites. Requirements are tasks that must be completed inorder for the module to be marked as complete. These tasks can require a student to score above a particular score on a quiz, view a document, contribute to a page, or participate in a discussion.
Prerequisites prevent a student from accessing the content of the module until they have fulfilled the indicated requirements.

Assignment List
Assignments in this view are separated into three categories: upcoming assignments, undated assignments, and past due assignments.
Upcoming assignments are any assignments have a due date that is in the future.
Undated assignments are those that have no due date, to eliminate this category ensure that you have specified a due date for all assignments.
Past due assignments are those that the due date has passed. For assignments that have not been submitted and are past due, the date will be bolded and red.

The Assignment List With Syllabus
This view displays your syllabus when students first come to your course, along with a list of assignments and calendar events arranged by due date. This list is automatically populated as you add assignments and calendar events. This feature can save you time if you maintain a timetable in your syllabus. Assignments without due dates will be listed at the bottom. If you are looking for an example syllabus or tips on how to create an effective syllabus see the Online Syllabus Template Tool on the FACT Faculty Resources page.

Files tool
This view is useful for those who use Canvas for supplemental material in their face-to-face classes. This is one of the simplest ways to manage a course in which you just want to allow students to access files like presentations, and handouts. if you have the files already organized in folders on your computer, you can place them in a zip file and upload them into your course. Canvas will automatically unzip the file and your files and folders will be accessible to you and your students. Any modifications to files will have to be uploaded and will replace the existing file.

Copying a course

With the semester’s end fast approaching we thought it appropriate to show you how to copy your existing courses into next semester’s courses.

Start by going to your new course:

When your course loads the course setup checklist will appear at the bottom of the screen. Click on the Import Content link.

If the course has already been published, you can click Settings,

in the Navigation panel and click Import Content into this Course.

Click on the Copy content from snother Canvas course button.

From here you can search for a course or use the dropdown menu to see a list of available courses you are teaching.

When you have made a selection click the Copy From this Course.
 

A list of content from your course is displayed. By default all content is selected except for ungraded discussion topics.

If you would like to copy everything you can check the box next to
Copy Everything from …

When you choose to copy everything you will be asked if you want to copy Discussion topics only or Discussion topics with replies. Since we are copying content into a new course choose Just Copy Topics.

Checking the Settings from … box will set your homepage preferences along with other settings the same in the new course.

When you have finished selecting the content you want imported, the last option you have is to adjust event and due dates. This feature can help you adjust all due dates to a comparable date in the upcoming semester, by entering the start and ending dates for both semesters.

If you are switching days that you teach you can add a day substitution by clicking on Define a day substitution link and changing the days in Move everything on and to happen on dropdown boxes. You should double-check the dates that it substituted to ensure that they are correct.

When you are finished click the Import Course Content button.

A progress bar will be displayed and the button text will say Copying… this will take a few minutes.

When the course is finished copying the next screen that appears is the list of resources that have been imported successfully. You can click the Back to the … Home Page link to return to your course.

This would be a good time to double-check that everything was copied correctly into your course.

Adding a TA to your course by A-number

When adding a TA to your course you can use their A-number rather than their email address.

Start by clicking on the People tool in the navigation panel.

Click on the Manage Users button in the right panel.

Click on the Add Users button.

From the Add More dropdown menu select TAs.

You can also restrict TAs to be able to only grade and interact with students in the section the are assigned to. To assign a TA to a section click the For the section dropdown menu, and select a section.

In the box enter the TA’s A-number. If you need to add multiple TAs to the same section you can seaperate each A-number with a comma (,).

Click Continue… 

Canvas will confirm that the A-number is linked to a valid user account, and the user details will be displayed.

If you are satisfied with the results click the OK Looks Good, Add This 1 User button.

If there were problems or it is the wrong person click the Go back and edit the list of users link and you can make changes.

You should now see a TAs Current Users section with the person or people listed as TAs and their section they are assigned to if you specified that.

Create an Extra Credit Assignment

A common question we get asked is how can I add extra credit? The only difference in creating a extra credit assignment to creating a normal assignment is that you do not enter a value in the points possible textbox.

To create an extra credit assignment click on the Assignments tool in the navigation panel.

If you want to add the extra credit assignment to a particular group click on the Add Assignment (Plus sign) to the right of the Assignment group name.

Fill in the information about the assignment, it is also a good idea to indicate in the assignment name that this is extra credit.
 You can enter a due date if desired in the due: textbox or you can click the more options link below the points: textbox to make additional changes like adding a description. If no other changes are needed you can click the Update button to save your assignment.

The extra credit assignment will be added to the total points possible for the course but will not count against the students.

Graded and Ungraded Surveys

Surveys are created the same way a quiz would be, in fact, they are quizzes with additional settings.

Start out by creating a new quiz and under the Quiz Options panel click the This is a: drop down box. There are several new options that appear for surveys.

Both survey types can be anonymous or attached to the student. To make the survey anonymous check the box next to Keep Submissions Anonymous.

Graded surveys have a additional textbox to specify how many points to award to the student for submitting the survey. To change the point value of the survey enter it into the Score: textbox.

For graded surveys, students are awarded points for submitting the survey even if they did not answer all or any of the questions. Graded surveys can be combined along with the Keep Submissions Anonymous setting for students to receive points for submitting a survey and keeping it anonymous at the same time.

View the results of the survey

When you are ready to view the survey click on the survey from the Surveys section of the Quizzes list.

To view overall survey results click the Survey Statistics button.

Each question in the survey is graphed for easy comparison and further analysis can be performed by clicking the Download CSV button to export the results as a CSV file.

Click this button for a file you can open with Excel or other statistical software for further analysis.

To view individual survey results click the Show Student Survey Results button.

If the survey was anonymous the students names will be replaced with student 1,2,3, etc… If it was not anonymous the students name is displayed.

When you click on each student their survey results are displayed similarly to what the individual results of a quiz would be.

Show or hide courses in your Courses List

If you have a long list of courses you can now control which ones are displayed. If you are enrolled in 12 or more courses a Customize link will appear on your Courses menu.

Uncheck the box next to each course you want to hide.

When you are finished hiding or showing courses click the close button at the top of the menu to exit the customization menu.

Module Settings

Modules can be used to organize content and control student access. To modify these settings click the Edit button, (pencil icon), on the module you want to modify.

The Edit Module Settings dialog box will be displayed

 There are several options that you can choose when editing the module

1. Lock module by date: You can have the contents of the module become available only after a certain date. This is useful if you separate you modules into specific time periods and you want to release modules based on calendar dates.
2. Prerequisites: This ensures the student cannot skip ahead in the class and neglect materials in previous modules. Click the Add prerequisite link to select a module the students must complete before they can move on in the course.
   
   You can add as many prerequisites as needed, and use the red X button to remove prerequisites.
3. Requisites: This is were you can specify what needs to be accomplished before the module is marked as completed. Click the Add requirements link to select module content, and specify what action the user must perform to fulfill the requirement.
   
   What the user must do:
   
   When the score at least option is chosen a box will appear next to the requirement where you can enter a point value the student must score above. Use the red X button to remove requirements.
4. Sequential order: The student cannot skip module requirements and move on to the next module, they have to fully complete the module before they can move on.

Page History

Canvas Pages track changes made to  each page in your course. If you made a mistake and need to revert back to a previous version of a page you can do so by clicking the Page History link.

A list of Revision dates and times are displayed and you can click on any link to view what the page looked liked.

To Replace the latest version with the one you are currently viewing click the Roll-back to this Version button. From this menu you can also Go to the Latest Version or Back to the Revision history list.

Take a look at the new Gradebook

Instructure is developing an improved gradebook. This grade book is still in beta-testing so there may be features of the current grade book that have not been implemented yet.

Some of these improvements include:

• Speed improvements for large classes.
• Re-order columns by dragging and dropping them into place.
• Sort descending or ascending by column.
• Additional visual queue for grades that have been dropped because of grading rules.

To get to the new grade book click the Grades tool in the left-hand navigation.

In the address bar add the number two at the end of gradebook and hit Enter.

The new gradebook will appear.

Creating grading rules for assignment groups

If you would like to drop the lowest scores of a certain assignment group grading rules will automatically do that for you. To create a grading rule click the Assignments tool in the left-hand navigation.

Click the Pencil icon next to the group you want to create a grading rule for.

Underneath the title of the group click the add grading rule link.

A new grading rule will appear where you can select several options from the drop-down menu. The options are Drop the Lowest, Drop the Highest, and Never Drop. You can specify the amount of assignments to drop by entering a number in the textbox. When you select the Never Drop option you can choose the assignment you do not want dropped. When you are finished click the Update button.

New Assignment “mute” function

An instructor can now mark an assignment as “muted”. A “muted” assignment will not send out grade change notifications to students. Students won’t be able to see their current grade or any new instructor comments until the assignment is unmuted. While an assignment is muted, students see a “mute” icon on their grades page so they know the assignment is muted.

To mute an assignment click on the Grades tool and find the assignment you want to mute. Click the down-arrow to the right of the assignment name and select Mute Assignment.

To unmute the assignment repeat the process but select Unmute Assignment.

Quizzes: Random Question Order

Canvas will randomize question order for each individual student. To do so, add a question group to the quiz.

Give the question group a title. Designate how many questions you would like selected from the questions within the group and how many points each question will be worth. (All questions selected within the same group have to be of equal point value, but you can add multiple question groups to the exam.)

Next, add questions to the group.

You can either add questions by creating them individually or select questions from a question bank.

To add individually, click on the green plus sign icon on the group header and create your question.

To add questions from a question bank, click the “Find Questions” link at the bottom of the page.

The “Find Quiz Question” window comes up. Click on the name of the question bank you want to use. Then select the questions you want to use. (You can click on “Select All” at the top of the listing of questions to use all of the questions from the question bank) and at the bottom of the “Find Quiz Question” box where it asks to “Add questions to the quiz group:” select the new question group that you created in the quiz. Finally, I click on the “Add Questions” button.

If you use a question bank you can use the same questions in multiple classes.

Locking files

When locking files there are several settings to take note of.

1: The file is accessible only when you have linked to it from a tool such as a pages, assignments or quizzes. Students cannot see the file in the file list for students.

2: File remains locked until you unlock it. This will also prevent it from being displayed in other tools. If your students have trouble seeing files that you have locked   and they are included in assignments and quizzes you will want to check option one.

3: Allow access by using dates. Just like many of the other tools in Canvas you can specify an opening date and a closing date.

Drag and drop in the Files tool

To ensure you can successfully drag and drop in Canvas make sure you are clicking and holding on to the icon to the left of the filename rather than the filename itself. Depending on your browser the mouse pointer will change to an open hand or a four-way arrow when you place your mouse over the icon. This will indicate that you can drag the file within the browser.

The Files tool has two panels; the left panel contains an expandable list of links to folders and files, the right panel also contains a list of folders and files but items in this panel can be manipulated. You can drag files to folders within the same folder using the right panel. The selected destination folder will have a distinct grey background.

If you need to move the file to another folder outside of the folder you are currently in you can drag the file to the desired folder in the left panel. The selected destination folder will also have a distinct grey background.

Publisher question banks in Canvas

Using the quiz import tool in Canvas you can upload your existing Blackboard/WebCT question bank files that you have downloaded from your publisher’s website into Canvas.

To import your question bank

1. Click the Settings button then on the right side then click Import Content into this Course.

2. Click the Import Quizzes link and the form to choose your question bank file will appear.

3. Click the Browse… button to find your file.

4. When you have chosen your file click the Import Quiz button and you will receive an email when it is completed.