Canvas Course Navigation

Course navigation in Canvas is how instructors and participants navigate a Canvas course.

Instructors can manage course navigation. While course navigation can be rearranged or limited, you cannot totally hide all navigation. We recommend the least number of navigation links shown to students as possible; you can always add more navigation links as the course progresses.

Use for Course Navigation

For online content creating items (pages, discussion, assignments, quizzes) within modules helps participants attend to the content more than the process of navigation within the course. Relying on the course navigation, versus creating/maintaining/teaching the use of instructor-created buttons for course navigation creates consistency between all the courses a student is enrolled in. When all teachers in a school/cluster/district use the same process for navigation students learn the process of navigating more rapidly and can then quickly go to course content.

Consider the number of navigation links as a denominator, dividing your student’s attention from the learning at hand.

Visible and Hidden

Home is always the first navigation link, and cannot be excluded, and Settings is always the last, visible only to the instructor(s). AS the instructor you can enable – turn on for students to see – and disable – hide from student view – other navigation links. And you want to start any course with the fewest navigation links visible for ease of navigation. Consider the number of navigation links as a denominator, dividing your student’s attention from the learning at hand.

How do I use the Course Navigation Menu as an instructor?

The recommendation for your initial course navigation is Home, Announcements, Modules, (Grades if completely online). These should be “enabled” for students to view. The order of course navigation may be something a grade level or school chooses to standardize.

Redirect Tool

An instructor may wish to add a link to the course navigation. This would be a link that persists throughout the course, it may be a calculator tool or a reference document to which students may always need access. Many teachers create a page for a single document such as a course syllabus and then add that page via this process. This can be accomplished by using the Redirect Tool.

 

 

/0 Comments/by

Due Dates in Canvas LMS

, , , ,

Below are all the reference materials associated with this mini-training.

Training Recordings:

Canvas Guides:

Instructor Guide: Grades

How do I use the to-do list for all my courses in the List View Dashboard as a student?

What is the difference between assignment due dates and availability dates?

How do I bulk update due dates and availability dates as an instructor?

How do I add a page to the student To-Do list as an instructor?

Redelivery Cheat Sheet:

/by

Grading Online Submissions

, , ,

Do you remember grading in your first year of teaching? It felt great to find your stride!
Usually, a veteran teacher gives helpful hints that help you find the right way to grade.

Online submissions are just different enough that you may need some more ideas. Here are some tips to help you find that stride – online!

Schedule Time to Grade

Blurred Calendar Reminder with links

 

Use your calendar to schedule a time to grade. Include links to the courses and any feedback spreadsheet you have created/borrowed/repurposed.

Work with your colleagues teaching the same modality/modalities as you at your school to assure you are in line with the turnaround time for grading. Post your grading schedule in several places (make note of where for future updates): Office Hours, Announcements, School website, etc.

Quality Comments

Consider what might happen if students focused on our commentary over a letter or numeric grade. Feedback to students should encourage reflection and confirm learners’ understanding (Garrison et al., 2010). While grading is a necessity, the teacher can mix up the percentages with a credit/no credit assignment to help students focus on teacher comments. Students are more likely to consider improving submissions using feedback than static grades. Providing timely feedback is a major component of Teacher Presence (Gurley, 2018).
</>
When building or revising an online course, consider the range of submissions from students. Perhaps the submissions range from an erroneous submission (wrong file/format) to complete and accurate submission. If you have the opportunity to build a rubric, build your feedback comments at the same time. If you make only one comment per submission, consider a comment which covers many possibilities and then you can just copy and paste a portion of the comment or delete a portion before submitting.
</>
Here is an example of a comment sheet for a course. I use emojipedia.org and the emojis copy and paste nicely between the Google sheet and the Canvas LMS SpeedGrader. Feel free to make a copy and modify it as needed.

 

There’s A Canvas Guide for That

How do I leave feedback comments for student submissions in SpeedGrader?

How do I use a non-scoring rubric to assess submissions in SpeedGrader?

How do I use free-form comments instead of ratings in a rubric in SpeedGrader?

References

Garrison, D. R., Cleveland-Innes, M., & Fung, T. S. (2010). Exploring causal relationships among teaching, cognitive and social presence: Student perceptions of the community of inquiry framework. The Internet and Higher Education, 13(1-2), 31–36. doi:10.1016/j.iheduc.2009.10.002

Gurley, L. E. (2018). Educators’ preparation to teach, perceived teaching presence, and perceived teaching presence behaviors in blended and online learning environments. Online Learning, 22(2), 197-220. 10.24059/olj.v22i2.1255

 

/by

Increase the Quality of Discussion Posts

, , ,

Discussion posts can engage a wider variety of students than in-person, time-driven discussions. The deep thinker, the shy student, the serial responder can all use a discussion post to further engage with your course content – if you correctly set one up. Consider the following tips and use the resources referenced to add a new depth to your Canvas courses.

Discussion Post Guidelines

Discussion Posts benefit from specific guidelines to assure successful participation by students. Provide a link to your Discussion Post Guidelines for every class Discussion Post. The bottom of the RCE is ideal for this or a similar notice:

Of course, that means you need to create a page to link to which contains your Discussion Guidelines – and that you have Discussion Guidelines. Both are easy to accomplish. Discussion Guidelines help students meet instructor expectations and allow the instructor to thoughtfully craft a discussion. Consider the two versions in Commons: Search Discussion Guidelines in Hall County Commons.

Sample Discussions

Consider importing the Sample Discussion Post from the Hall County Canvas Commons to customize. Link your Discussion Guidelines and then duplicate for multiple modules:

To Grade or Not to Grade?

Graded discussions do not count toward user storage quotas. Also remember that grading can be as simple as complete/incomplete. However, if you want to be more precise – and take advantage of the awesome Speedgrader – consider adding a rubric to your discussion.

Consult the Canvas Guides on Discussions for more specific information.

 

 

/by