Using Canvas for online course

[arcturus]

Skip all the fancy frills of Canvas and stick to the basics.

I agree absolutely!  There are some funky things available in Canvas, but all you need is the basic functionality to run an effective course.

The key is to have a module for each week, and have the same components in every module. Make the parts of the course predictable. So as someone has said above, put your course components in order in each module.  It might look like this:

Week 1: The American Revolution
• What to do this week [a list of instructions]
• Lectures to view [post the lectures or the links to the lectures]
• Reading [post the reading here]
• Discussion board [first post due Wednesday, response to another student's post due Friday]
• Short writing assignment [due Wednesday]
• Short quiz on the material [due Friday]

Where people run into trouble is by having the components be different every week, and therefore unpredictable. If the students have a quiz on Wednesday the first week, on Friday the second week, no quiz the third week, and on Monday the fourth week, you'll have a ton of confused, frustrated students, and a ton of emails begging for second chances because they missed the quiz deadline. Plus you yourself won't be able to remember what's supposed to happen!

Your clarity here is probably indicative of your clarity and organization of your course. I think your students are lucky to have you as an instructor!

So the keys are:

1. Make it uniform and predictable, as above
2. Get it all set up in advance, every bit of it!  No exceptions!  Then you can relax and devote time to paying attention to the students when the course gets going.

I recommend sending an announcement at the end of every module, summing things up and reminding them of deadlines, and whenever anything big is due.  I put this notice in the introduction to the class:

So that you get all announcements sent out about the course, set your notification preferences for Announcements to "Notify Me Right Away." 
   Do this as follows:
1. Log into Canvas.
2. On the left, click on "Profile."
3. Then click on "Notifications."
4. Go down the list of settings to "Announcements" and click on the left-most checkmark.

Then you, the prof, send out announcements by going to your Canvas homepage and looking at the row of options on the left, and clicking on "Inbox." Then go to the top right and click on the little icon of a person holding a pen. You will get a little box that says "Compose Message." When you compose the email, click on the little box that says "Send an individual message to each recipient." This will ensure that the students don't get a long list of all the emails of the other students in the class with every message. It will also mean that if they reply to the message, their reply won't get sent to all the other students.

Doc700, if you PM me, I will email you my two handouts, "Quick and Simple Tips for Teaching Online," and "Simple Tips for Online Quizzes in Canvas."  The people in my programs says the tips save them a good deal of time.

Hegemony - is there a reason you choose to send your announcements through the email (Inbox) option rather than use the "announcements" part of the course? I use the announcements feature, since that means that the announcements are always affiliated with the course, in case a student needs to refer back to them, rather than lost in more generic email. Students can (are encouraged to) set up their profile such that course announcements are sent to their preferred email address so the immediate result for the students is the same. Also, my experience has been that Canvas emails are deleted (i.e., I can no longer access) after the term ends, so there is no record of what communication I may have had with the class if I were to send announcements via the Inbox feature.

[Hegemony]

I'm not sure what you mean — my announcements stay affiliated with the course and show up as Announcements, and are accessible after the course ends. ?

[arcturus]

I'm not sure what you mean — my announcements stay affiliated with the course and show up as Announcements, and are accessible after the course ends. ?

Perhaps it is just a different way to do the same thing. I just use the "Announcements" tab in the course, rather than using the Inbox. I only use the Inbox to contact individual students...

[downer]

I will say that the "submit grades to Banner" feature is a great idea. Why doesn't Blackboard have that?

I just submitted a bunch of grades!

[cathwen]

I will say that the "submit grades to Banner" feature is a great idea. Why doesn't Blackboard have that?

I just submitted a bunch of grades!

But is there some indication of which students are Pass/Fail?  I ran into that problem today.  I happened to know of one student already, but there was no indication of that grade option when I tried to enter grades.  I know you can enter grades manually, but what happens if a student is P/F and you don't know it?  Would Canvas transmit that to Banner, which would automatically change a C (for example) to a P? 

[darkstarrynight]

I have been teaching on Canvas for almost a decade. It is significantly better for me than other LMS I used (in my past life I was an adjunct at three institutions in the same city and each one had a different LMS). Several folks suggested different ways to lay out the class. I have mine organized in two-week modules (eight total for a 16 week semester). In each module, I have readings, assignments, links, and video clips. Unlike what others suggested, I have each as separately items in the module list. However, I co-taught a course with a colleague who puts everything for a module on one page. You can embed videos and links into pages, and Canvas allows links to other areas of the Canvas course directly (e.g., discussions, syllabus, assignments). I like that things are put in multiple places, so if I create an assignment, it shows up in the syllabus, assignments, modules, to do list, calendar, and probably somewhere else, and all of the places link to the assignment directions. Rubrics are easy to use and save for the future. It is also very easy to copy parts of or entire courses from semester to semester, and adjust the calendar dates before doing so. I find there are always little things to check in terms of dates, and Canvas is supposedly about to add a feature for multiple due dates (right now I manually enter in the calendar that a first discussion board post is due since the deadline is for the responses to classmates). I can help if you have other specific questions.

[downer]

I will say that the "submit grades to Banner" feature is a great idea. Why doesn't Blackboard have that?

I just submitted a bunch of grades!

But is there some indication of which students are Pass/Fail?  I ran into that problem today.  I happened to know of one student already, but there was no indication of that grade option when I tried to enter grades.  I know you can enter grades manually, but what happens if a student is P/F and you don't know it?  Would Canvas transmit that to Banner, which would automatically change a C (for example) to a P?

Good question. I'm just assuming that those smart people in IT have sorted that stuff out.