Canvas Release Notes 1/7/17

Great news in this Saturday's Canvas release: instructors can display recent announcements on the course home page! Find out how to do this and more new features by watching the video below.


Canvas New Feature Screencast (2017-01-07)

Wrapping Up the Semester and Canvas Update

Wrapping up the Semester

Here are a few things to do before wrapping up the semester and enjoying the holidays.

• Check your Grade Center total column to make sure it is calculating correctly 
• Check to make sure you haven't hidden any students that have actually been in the class (Grade Center > Manage > Row Visibility) 
• Download the Grade Center to your hard drive for safekeeping 
• Archive (backup) your course

The last two items are more important than ever now that we are transitioning to Canvas. Please be sure to do this for every course you teach before Blackboard goes away in June 2018.

Canvas Update

OEI recently reported that 106 of 115 California Community College campuses (including Compton Center and North Orange Adult) have committed to moving to Canvas. There is a rush of activity around the state at all these campuses to make the transition. We're not alone in this!

We are on track for our pilot faculty to begin teaching with Canvas in 2017 spring. These 12 hardy souls will be on the bleeding edge for everyone else. They will discover problems we don't know about yet so we have solutions in place before the whole college moves to Canvas.

Spring semester is the right time to start learning Canvas. Everyone can begin teaching with Canvas during summer and fall of 2017. All faculty will need to teach all courses with Canvas during the spring 2018 semester. If you want to get started over the break, view the Lynda.com Canvas videos. This two hour course will give you a good start with Canvas.

I scheduled four Canvas workshops for Flex Week. Space is limited, so reserve your spot early. See my workshop schedule for more information on all the workshops I will be offering.

I will begin writing a series of blog posts about Canvas starting during Flex Week. Please help us get everyone on campus to subscribe to this blog at the bottom of my website.

I wish you all a joyous holiday season and happy new year!

@ONE Courses Offered Starting in January

@ONE is offering several sections of online courses you may be interested in taking.

Introduction to Teaching with Canvas 

This course will prepare you for teaching with Canvas. Email Rhonda to receive a coupon code our faculty can use to take this course for free through @ONE. This course is also taught at Cuyamaca College.

Introduction to Teaching with Canvas (SP173) (New)

1/9/17 - 2/3/17 (Pacific Time)

Introduction to Teaching with Canvas (SP174) (New)

2/27/17 - 3/24/17 (Pacific Time)

Introduction to Teaching with Canvas (SP175) (New)

2/27/17 - 3/24/17 (Pacific Time)

Introduction to Teaching with Canvas (SP176) (New)

2/27/17 - 3/24/17 (Pacific Time)

Online Education Standards & Practices (OESP)

OESP is the new certificate program for teaching online. This certificate is accepted by Cuyamaca College as preparation for teaching online.

Online Education Standards & Practices (OESP) SP171 (New)

1/9/17 - 3/31/17 (Pacific Time)

Online Education Standards & Practices (OESP) SP172 (New)

1/9/17 - 3/31/17 (Pacific Time)

Online Education Standards & Practices (OESP) SP173 (New)

2/27/17 - 5/19/17 (Pacific Time)

@ONE is offering other online courses that may tempt you, but they are remnants of their old certificate program which is being phased out and are not recommended. OESP the better course to take at this time.

Canvas Release Notes 9/17/16

This Saturday, is Canvas update day (every third Saturday).

New Feature Video

Full Release Notes

 Highlights

• Excessive Points Alert in Gradebook
• Notifications UI and Settings Updates
• Canvas Colors
• Rich Content Editor gets MathMan integration and Caption Files in Mobile Apps

Canvas Example Courses

For your viewing pleasure, Canvas has provided example courses that you can take a look at for ideas for how to structure courses in Canvas.

How do others use Canvas?

Example Courses by Audience

Example Courses by Subject

Canvas Training Courses

Sample Course Templates

Canvas Release Notes (2016-08-27)

One of the things people like about Canvas, is that instead of making huge changes once or twice a year, Canvas makes small changes every third Saturday. On the Monday before the release, they publish release notes which include a video showing the changes. I will begin posting these release notes to this blog so everyone can stay up to date with Canvas changes.

Usually, watching the video will provide enough information, but if you want to know more, you can read the Full Release Notes.

New Feature Video

Full Release Notes

Highlights

• Dashboard Course Cards can have images!
• Underline all links option
• Change the calendar an event appears on
• Live captioning for Conferences

The Teaching With Canvas Train Has Left the Station!

Spotted on the Grand Lawn last week:

This past week marks the beginning of Cuyamaca College's journey from Blackboard to Canvas. The decision has been made and I've been asked to help make it happen.

Like the Hogwarts Express, with less literary flair, the Teaching With Canvas train is chugging through Cuyamaca College to get us to our destination. Last week, this train picked up passengers for the  first Teaching With Canvas online course and I couldn't be happier with the exceptional group of adventurous faculty who have come together to share this ride. We have a team of smart, creative, and funny colleagues keeping it light and fun while we figure out all this techy stuff.

We have about 2 years to get everyone on board. We will be stopping to pick up passengers for the Teaching with Canvas train twice every fall and spring semester, and once every summer until everyone is on board.

I am anxious to share Canvas with everyone. So far the response is very positive and many of those who try it want to start teaching with it right now. Unfortunately, we won't have the GCCCD server up until late this year. We hope to get our Canvas server talking to Colleague/WebAdvisor so it can manage all the automatic enrollments in time to offer our first courses in Canvas beginning with the spring semester.

There's no rush to get on board right now; the big push will come after we get our server running. I want to keep you all updated about where we are, where we're going, and let you start thinking about when you want to hop on board this train. Take a look at the Route to Canvas Timeline for more information.

I plan to start offering "how to" posts on Canvas as soon as we get our GCCCD server running, so have everyone you know sign up to receive emails from this blog.

If you want to be in that first group of faculty to teach courses in Canvas for the spring 2017 semester, sign up for a Teaching With Canvas course this fall.

• Teaching with Canvas Syllabus
• Sign up for Teaching With Canvas
• Sign up for the Cuyamaca Online Blog

Free Canvas Training Next Week

Canvas is offering free webinars next week. If you would like to know more about Canvas, this is a great opportunity to learn.

The two most useful workshops for faculty brand new to Canvas are on Friday, February 26th:

8:30 AM - 10:00 AM PST

Part 1 - Canvas Fundamentals Higher Ed

11:00 AM - 12:30 PM PST

Part 2 - Canvas Fundamentals Higher Ed

Register by clicking the links above.

You can get a free Canvas account by going to https://www.canvaslms.com/try-canvas and clicking the Build It link.

Questions from Blackboard and Canvas Side by Side Workshop

I promised to find answers to questions from the two Side by Side workshops that I gave last week. Here they are!

1. Will Canvas integrate with my publisher's content?

This is one of the most important questions we need to be asking right now. In Blackboard, publishers create "building blocks" to integrate their content. Canvas uses the LTI standard which allows publishers to create one tool that can be used in multiple learning management systems.

The Edu App Center provides an index of LTI tools that are compatible with Canvas. Check their site to see if your publisher is listed. If it is not, contact your publisher and ask if they support Canvas.

2. How do I create hotspot questions in Canvas?

Hotspot questions ask the student to click on a certain region of an image to get the answer right. Canvas doesn't have this question type, however images can be annotated in an image editor with numbered or lettered regions for students to choose from. Adam Williams posted this example to the Canvas feature request as a workaround.

3.  How does one sign up for the OEI group in the Canvas Community?

The OEI (CCC Online Education Initiative) has created a Canvas Community group so we can ask questions and share what we learn with each other. It is best to create a Canvas account before following the steps below.

To join this group, go to the Canvas Community page and search for california community colleges. Click the link in the Places section on the search results page for CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY COLLEGES.

Once on the CCC group page, click the Join group button in the upper right. It may prompt you to create a community account, then give you an opportunity to log in with your Canvas account.

 4. What happens if we don't sign up for Canvas?

We will not be able to participate in the online course exchange. 47 California community colleges have already signed up for Canvas and those colleges will be able to participate in the exchange. We need to ask ourselves if we will be able to effectively compete for students without being part of this exchange.

In addition, Blackboard has created a new interface called "Blackboard Ultra." At some point we anticipate Blackboard will force us to move to this new interface, so if we stay with Blackboard, there will be a steep learning curve ahead.

 5. What kind of support does Canvas offer?

Canvas provides 24/7 online and telephone support for students and faculty as part of the contract. It also provides comprehensive help via the Canvas Guides. 

 6. What about plagiarism checking?

Since Canvas does not have plagiarism checking built into their product, we will need to subscribe to Turnitin software to get this functionality. Turnitin and SafeAssign are comparable products. The cost for Turnitin will be approximately $5,200 for Cuyamaca College and $12,000 for Grossmont College.