Announcements, Discussions, & Log In

Welcome to Summer Semester!

Canvas is experiencing a few technical difficulties and we’re working on them furiously.

Announcements and Discussions

You may have noticed that Announcements and Discussions aren’t working properly.  Content is disappearing from new Discussions and Announcements aren’t being announced.

This is not your fault.

Instructure is aware of the problem and we will hopefully have a bug fix soon.  In the meantime, you may use the Canvas Inbox or Groupwise for class-wide messages.

Log In

You’ll also notice a different log in screen.  Please use your Wildcat username and password (the one you use for your eWeber Portal and your student email).

Please let us know if you see any other issues.

Student View in Canvas

Have you ever bought a pair of jeans and thought, “If only I could step outside of myself, I could see how good I really look…?”

Well, thanks to Student View, it’s now possible to do this in Canvas.

Student View creates a test student account for your course so that you’re able to see whatever the student sees – the gradebook, the home page, everything.

Do you want to know if your navigation is effective?  Student View.

Do your course links work and make sense?  Student View.

It’s a powerful tool.  Here’s how to find it in Canvas:

Step 1

Log in and go to your course in Canvas if you aren’t there already.

Find and click Settings on the navigation sidebar.  It’s usually in the lower left corner of your screen.

Step 2

In your course Settings, you’ll see the Student View button at the top right corner of your screen just below the Inbox, Profile, and Logout links.

Click this and you are now a student.

Step 3

Explore your course and ask yourself some questions:

• What works?
• What needs a little more direction?
• Can you easily find course resources and navigate through different sections?

Step 4

If you discover a few things you might need to change, exit Student View by clicking Leave Student View at the top of your screen.

You’ll notice that Leave Student View has replaced the Inbox and Profile links.

Feel free to return to Student View as many times as you’d like – whenever students have questions, whenever you want to see how effective your course is, or simply to see how good it’s looking.

BONUS: Increase Online Student Engagement & Retention!

Last week, Drs. Kristen Betts and Karyn Holt presented a webinar on how to effectively communicate with online students from first contact through graduation.

If you’d like to see the recording and view the handouts, follow the links posted below.

The webinar covered the challenges of communicating online and how to avoid this by improving your communication skills.  Their list of best practices will give you plenty of ideas to bring to your own online and hybrid courses.

Click here to access the webinar.

Click here to download their PowerPoint.

Click here to view their awesome list of resources.

Migrating Blackboard Content

The end is nigh for Blackboard at WSU.

On April 25, 2012, Canvas will take the stage and the Black Swan, er, Blackboard, will be a fond memory – to the delight and chagrin of people everywhere.

This means migrating content from the old system should be high priority for those instructors who still have current course content in Blackboard (and red alert for these same instructors who will soon teach summer courses).

Don’t worry.  Migrating content from Blackboard into Canvas can be simple.   Here’s how to do it in 7 steps:

Step 1

Log in and go to your unpublished course shell in Canvas (if you have a long list, hover over your ‘Courses’ dropdown and then click ‘View all courses’).

Note: We recommend migrating course content in two ways, depending on the situation:

Option 1: You can migrate content into an upcoming course shell in Canvas.  For example, if you taught English 1010 in Blackboard Spring 2012 and you’ll be teaching the same course Fall 2012 in Canvas, send your Blackboard content to the Fall 2012 course shell.

Option 2: If you won’t be teaching the same course for a few semesters, you can migrate content into an older course shell in Canvas, preferably the same course from a previous semester.

For example, if you taught English 1010 in Blackboard Spring 2012 and you won’t be teaching it again until Fall 2013, you can migrate your course content into Fall 2011 OR Spring 2012 in Canvas so that your content will be ready when your course shell becomes available.

Step 2

On the “Next Steps” pop up, click on “Import Content” near the bottom right of your screen.  (Hint: If your ‘Next Steps’ pop up is gone, you can click the ‘Course Setup Checklist’ button in the upper right corner of the page. This will show the ‘Next Steps’ again).

You should now see the Import Wizard.  Click on “Import content from a content package or another system.”

Step 3

Now click on the dropdown menu and select Blackboard Vista from the list.  Then select the school (Weber State, Weber State, great, great, great!) and enter your log in information.

Click “Retrieve list of courses for this account” and find the most up-to-date version of your course in Blackboard you plan on migrating over.

Step 4

Canvas will ask if you’d like unassigned questions to go into an imported questions bank or a new question bank.  We suggest selecting “New question bank” and leaving the question bank name blank.

Below this, you can opt to selectively import course content piece-by-piece, but you can do that later, so leave this unchecked for now and click “Import Course.”

Let it work behind the scenes while you go have a drink.  You deserve it.  Plus, hydration helps the brain function.

Step 5

You’re almost there!

Once Canvas has finished its behind-the-scenes processing, you should receive a notification in Canvas as well as an email letting you know your course content has been migrated.

To finalize the import, you’ll need to go back to your unpublished course shell in Canvas, the one you selected to hold all of your Blackboard content, and again click on “Import Content” on the bottom-right corner of your screen (see Step 1 above).

You should see the Import Wizard again.  Click on “Import content from a content package or another system” again (see Step 2 above).

Step 6

Now you should see new content that reads, “There are previous migrations for this course: View Migrations.”  Click this link.

Now click on the link with content from Blackboard.  It should be the only line of dialog on the page.

Step 7

This is where you’re going to either “Copy Everything” into your Canvas shell or select specific pieces.  Note: You can always copy everything and then pick and choose pieces you want to send into your upcoming course later.

You can also have Canvas auto-adjust event and due dates at the bottom of this screen.

Now click “Import Course Content.” Once the progress bar finishes moving, your Blackboard course content should be in Canvas.

Step 8 (the most important step)

Click around your new Canvas course to see where your Blackboard content ended up.  Be sure to design course navigation, check due dates, files, quiz questions, etc.

This is the most important step because this is the point where you arrange and build your best course yet.

Be sure to contact your Instructional Designer if you need any help.

Extra Credit in Canvas Courses

Creating Extra Credit assignments in Canvas is just like peeling a banana: there’s more than one way to do it and only one of those ways is really popular with monkeys.

We suggest two approaches to Extra Credit in Canvas.  The first is for courses using total points in their grading schemes and the second for courses using weighted assignment groups.  Take a look:

Courses Using Total Points

If your course is based on total points possible, you can simply build extra credit assignments and then leave the points possible blank.  This way, points for extra credit assignments will go above the total being used to calculate the student’s grade in the class.

The course above has 300 total points possible (50 for each assignment and 100 for each quiz).  The extra credit assignment doesn’t factor into the overall total until an instructor adds points after a student submits an extra credit assignment.

The student’s grade will be calculated based on the 300 point total and may include extra points from the extra credit assignments.  If the student doesn’t submit an extra credit assignment, the student’s grade is not affected.

This method works great if you don’t have extra credit quizzes because quizzes require that you designate points.  If this is the case, you’d want to go with the second option.

Courses with Weighted Assignment Groups

Step 1

If your course uses weighted assignment groups and you offer extra credit, we recommend creating specific assignment groups labeled extra credit and assigning them weights that go above 100%. Like this:

Notice how the weights of the required assignment groups equal 100% and each extra credit group equals 3.33%.  Also note that each extra credit assignment is in its own group. Here’s a closer look:

Side note: If you weren’t planning on weighting scores but you have assignment groups, you can simply find the total points of each group and then find their percentage of the total points of the course (e.g. (Group 1 points / Total course points) * 100).

Step 2

Now it’s time to determine how many points you’re going to offer for each extra credit assignment and find out how many percentage points above 100% you need to get that number of extra credit points.

Here’s a quick way to figure out what percentages above 100% you need to assign your extra credit:

• (((Extra credit + Total Required Points) / Total Required Points) * 100) – 100

Using the example above, the total required points in this course is 300 and there are two extra credit assignments worth 10 points each.  Plugging them in to the formula above gives you two extra credit assignment groups each worth 3.33% above and beyond the 100% of the course.

With this method, you’ll want to assign total points to all extra credit assignments (e.g. out of 50) and separate each extra credit assignment or quiz into its own group so that the weight calculations will work properly.

The student’s grade will still calculate whether or not the student turns in an extra credit assignment because the extra credit is going above and beyond the 100%.

Write down the Extra Credit Formula above and contact your Instructional Designer if you need help building extra credit assignments into your courses.  Bananas not required.

(A huge thank you to Neal Legler at USU for breaking down the extra credit process and for those awesome formulas!)

Copy Your Course to a New Semester

You’ve spent countless hours building content and making your Canvas course shine, so what do you do when the semester ends?

A.  Cry

B.  Curse

C.  Copy

You can do all of the above, but C is the best answer.

Copying your Canvas course content to another course within Canvas is easy so that all of those long hours don’t go to waste.  Not only will it save you time, it saves the crying and cursing for the hard stuff, like dealing with students.

Here’s how to Copy your Canvas course content in 6 simple steps (Note: contact your Instructional Designer if you use question banks in Canvas because the process may be different):

Step 1:

After logging in to Canvas, go to your new, unpublished course shell for the upcoming semester.

Step 2:

On the “Next Steps” pop up, click on “Import Content” near the bottom left of your screen.  (Hint: If your ‘Next Steps’ pop up is gone, you can click the ‘Course Setup Checklist’ button in the upper right corner of the page. This will show the ‘Next Steps’ again).

Step 3:

You should now see the Import Wizard.  Click on “Copy content from another Canvas course.”

Step 4:

In the search box, find your previous Canvas course in the list.  Make sure you select the correct instance – look at semester and type (e.g. Spr 12 ONL or WSU).  Click “Copy From this Course.”

Step 5:

Next, select the content you’d like to copy and import.  We suggest clicking “Copy Everything” at the top.  You can always take away content later.  Canvas will ask if you’d like to copy discussion topics and student responses.  We recommend discussion topics only.

Step 6:

Finally, at the bottom of your content list, you can have Canvas import events and assignment due dates that mirror the previous semester so that you only have to check that the dates are accurate after the content has been copied.  Click this and Canvas will show a date range.  Make sure the start and end dates of the semester are accurate and you’re ready to go.

It’s that easy.

Once you’ve copied your course content over, go through our Before Class checklist to make sure you do all the technical and pedagogical tasks needed before your course begins.

And if you need a little assistance, we’re here and happy to help.

Canvas Update – February 17

Canvas Tips and New Features

Sorting the Conversation Inbox (two new options)
1. Enter a course name in the course filter box at the top of the conversations list and messages relating to that course will
appear.

2. Stars! – star your BFF’s and view all those ‘special’ messages.

http://help.instructure.com/entries/20931796-02-04-12-releasescreencast

Best Practices Course Reviews

Process update
Recently, the WSU online group had a discussion regarding the best practices review and how to handle courses that have limited online elements and are not seeking to add any in the near future. The decision was made that courses of this nature will not benefit from this review and will therefore no longer be included.

Canvas Announcements

Registration is now open for InstructureCon 2012!

Early-bird registration rate for InstructureCon is available until March 30th.

Training Opportunities

The recording for the webinar “Moving a Classroom-Based Course to Online or Hybrid” is now available for distribution to WSU Faculty and Staff.

Link to Recording

https://innovativeeducators.webex.com/innovativeeducators/lsr.php?AT=pb&SP=EC&rID=25092812&rKey=bd4c95551abe08d9

Handout

http://www.innovativeeducators.org//v/vspfiles/V4_Backup/02_08_361_MovingClassOnlineDebraRunsheSpring2012.ppt

Implementation Guide

http://www.innovativeeducators.org/_s/73.htm

On-Site Evaluation

http://www.innovativeeducators.org/_s/73.htm

Canvas Tips and New Features

Does Canvas Change Quiz Answers?
We have received reports from students who say that Canvas changed their quiz answers.  This possibility has been researched extensively, and we cannot find any evidence that actually changes quiz questions. See the following link for more information.

See link: http://help.instructure.com/entries/20931957-does-canvaschange-
quiz-answers-short-answer-no

Canvas List Serve Discussions

Rubrics – If you would like to use your rubric across several courses,
you can copy an assignment with an associated rubric to the
destinations course. The rubric will be copied over and put into the
rubric area.

Fun Video Announcing Canvas K-12

http://help.instructure.com/entries/20943888-today-instructure-annoucescavnas-

k-12