[ARCHIVED] [ARCHIVED] Professional Development Ideas

[jayoder]

So I have recently accepted a brand new position at my public HS as a Teach on special assignment as we roll out Canvas and a 1:1. I have (2) 3 hr sessions I am in charge of leading to help my colleagues get familiar with Canvas after having completely misused a different LMS for the past 3 years...any one have suggestions on most efficient way to spend a full 6 hr training day?

My first thought was to create every kind of basic activity. I made 4 different assignments each with a different submission type. 2 Discussions...1 graded with Peer reviews and one as a group discussion. Then I made a quiz using each of the question types in the normal version and the beta version. And have them exprience Canvas as a student then teach them how I set each one up for first half...Then sandbox it for the afternoon so that they leave their creating course shells with at least an outline of modules to build over the summer.

Anyone have any success stories or tips? 

Thanks in advance!

[Bobby2]

Congratulations on your challenging new role  @jayoder 

How have they been misusing their previous LMS? 

Perhaps:

• Explore some of the marvellous possibilities that an LMS can provide.
• A guided tour of Canvas
• A Canvas treasure hunt
• Showcase some cool examples
• Time to play
• Time to explore Commons
• Show them where to go for HELP!
• Talk about/demo good design
• Buttons
• Templates to help them get started

Thinking cap on. I'm sure other people will add some fab ideas.

[jayoder]

Thanks Bobby! Great ideas! We misused the last LMS by just dumping all their files into poorly organized modules and that was about the extent of what most did. The kids barely even looked at it. 

[Bobby2]

Well that's a good reflection well worth having.

Funny how slowly the process takes isn't it. 

[rislis]

We didn't have an LMS before Canvas. I had been encouraging them to use Google Classroom. My battle now is getting them OUT of Google Classroom. I'm running some PD this summer as well. Thanks for your post and ideas. My contribution would include the following:

• Getting them involved in the Canvas Community
• Creating a "Closet Course" to add content
• Giving them HTML code for homepages that they can edit.
• Highlighting the features of Canvas that Google Classroom does not have - Speedgrader, Analytics, apps, video and audio commenting, etc. 
• Highlighting Respondus for Browser locked tests. (Although it looks like Google is launching this feature for Chromebooks in August. ugh.)
• Using Conferences for students who habitually miss a lot of class
• Using Collaboration as a way to edit student writing

[colleen_bergin1]

Lisa,

I am in the exact same boat as you. I am part of the digital teaching and learning team in my district.  We just signed for 3 additional years for Canvas and I believe we are heading in our third year of Canvas.  There are a lot of teachers who are comfortable with Google Classroom and do not want to transition. We are also running a few PDs on Canvas (one completely online and 2 that are face to face to accommodate both year round and traditional schedule). I would love to collaborate with you and compare ideas/strategies that seem to be working and whatnot.

Let me know if this is something you are willing to do! 

Look forward to hearing from you!  

[joseph_allen]

Colleen, we turned off Google Classroom.  Not a ton of teachers were using it, but we find that systems that are redundant to Canvas take away from the overall value.  Plus, with Canvas Data we can measure so many aspects of what kinds of progress is being made in the classroom, LTI tools, etc.  If everyone is on different systems, you don't have that opportunity to take a deep dive into what is really going on.

[bgreenslade]

Is there a Canvas Treasure Hunt per se? Or just something constructed by each site?

Some ideas I thought could be:

• post to our discussion board
• give someone a badge
• change your email noticifations
• in the Canvas Community find:
  • a person from the USA and follow them
  • a blog on assemsmnet
  • a question about peer evaluation
  • etc

Any other suggestions?

[colleen_bergin1]

That's a really cool idea  @bgreenslade ‌!  We have a district wide Canvas training course, but nothing like that.  This is an idea I'd definitely consider exploring!

[jayoder]

I created a course called Tech Academy, its on Commons. Basically I made every kind of basic assignment for online submission...I had the teachers take it as students...then I switched their role to teacher so they had to grade their responses to see the whole course from both sides of the equation. Sort of like what you're talking about...you could definitely add some of the items you mentioned above to it and then add in Badgr to give badge for each module or item! I'd be down to collaborate on something like that too!

[rislis]

You inspired me to share, Jonathan. I created a course for teachers, who entered as students. It is also in the Commons and called 2018 Training. I loved your idea of switching them over to the teacher role and will be incorporating that into my next PD day. Thanks!

[jodi_k]

I like the ideas that have already been mentioned. Something that we are looking at implementing with our staff is the Canvas Kungfu course that is available through Commons. Might give you some ideas for the day and also an option for ongoing training?

[jayoder]

That is precisely what I did for our independent/go-getters. I revamped what was on the Commons. I remade badges/belts using Credly. It worked well, but it does not have you actually do the assignments any other way than file upload nor do you take quizzes.

I now built another course that will start with the teachers as students taking each type of basic assignment and then once they complete the assignments, discussions, peer reviews, quizzes and couple external tools (Padlet, Voicethread) then I make them a teacher and they help me grade the submissions to bring it full circle. Allowing me to show how the grades/analytics work by the end as well. It worked really well yesterday and I have another session today. Unfortunately it was not mandated so turn out was rather low 20 out of a 110 faculty...

[rislis]

This sounds incredible!  Are you willing to share to the Commons?

[jayoder]

Its now in the Commons as Public  Domain under "Tech Academy" with Iphone image as the course card. I ran it last month and thought it went well especially when I made them techers after they finished so they could take part in the grading too! It went very well!

[KristinL]

 @jayoder - I love that you prioritized the dual experience! I think it's very important for teachers to have professional development housed in Canvas so they understand the students' point-of-view. (For a bonus, encourage them to complete a certain number of assignments on a mobile device!) You learn a lot from being a student!!

It's too bad that you had such a low completion rate. It's tough to get everyone on board, especially if it's not required. Adult learners are a lot like the students we teach. WHY and the VALUE of the experience is important. If it's not clear, the engagement goes down. Also, if there's not a way to hold everyone accountable, that influences completion. ...at least that's what I've noted. You'll always have those super-intrinsically-motivated individuals who do everything because they love to learn everything and everything, but beyond that, people need to be checked-up on and have a clear reason why they should finish. (Think how it works for people agreeing to work out at the gym together. Typically, people are a lot less likely to cancel if they have a workout buddy.) Has your administration been able to help with that?

[jayoder]

I am going to offer drop in sessions every week and informal Lunch Hacks etc. Looking forward to next week's conference to get me all set! I'm so pumped to be able to help my colleagues get more tech savvy. I think the slow wave is catching up and now more and more want on board. So I like that we did a very informal slow optional roll out it made the process more organic and then those power users can now help spread the word and hype other up!

[KristinL]

We started using KungFu Canvas as part of our onboarding process for new faculty. We are going to be starting our 4th year in Canvas, and we want to be sure that our newest teachers feel comfortable with the basics before jumping into full-faculty tech/Canvas meetings. I hope that it helps everyone feel more confident with Canvas as an LMS and come to the beginning of the school year with questions on like "Is there a way I can require students to move through content in a specific order?" rather than, "How do I create an assignment?"

[amariano]

Congratulations!

I know its a little early but at the High School Level you may want to have some of your more advanced users look at BluePrint courses.

If  teachers teach multiple sections or you have multiple teachers teaching one section( with some consistent curriculum) it can be a very helpful. Cross Linking can be very challenging and becomes a real problem if a teacher leaves mid-year. So starting with BluePrints is a nice way to have shared content. 

[jayoder]

Great idea, I was hoping to have some power users emerge from within each department and have them develop their own Blueprints. Do you have to know you are making a Blueprint course ahead of time or can I turn a class into a Blueprint after the fact or copy it into a Blueprint?

[rislis]

If you admin has the setting allowed, you can make any course a Blueprint course at any time.

[jayoder]

I'm going to a Blueprint drop in session next week at IntructureCon!

[mjoaquin]

Hi  @jayoder  I wanted to throw in my suggestions as well! 

For face-to-face training I have started offer the following: 3 hour Getting to Know Canvas course, a 1.5 hour Canvas Next Steps, and a 1.5 hour Canvas is Elementary. The 3 hour course is basically a hands-on version of the online course mentioned below, with me there supporting them and walking them through the steps. If I had 6 full hours for this, I would structure things a little different, with more time for hands-on creation. Right now, in my 3 hour window (sadly all I get!) they do get some hands-on, but the extra three hours would give the chance to really create content, adapt existing content, and think about how to utilize Canvas as so much more than a file dumping ground! 

I have found, and again just in my experience, many of our teachers want to be more "directly" taught how to use an LMS. I think the key is having that hands-on experience. 

With that said, I do have a fully online course that teachers can access year round. That course is badge-based, and essentially walks the learner through the steps of creating a course. The goal (hopefully!) being to lead them to creating a complete course while avoiding it becoming a file dump. So things like setting the course navigation, that may seem like after thoughts, are included early on as components of earning a badge. 

I am sharing the slide deck I used to lead my most recent 3 hour session. Anywhere it has an "I Can" slide with a checklist, we switched over to hands-on. This way, there was a mixture of the why and the how throughout the training. This may be totally off base from what you are looking for, but I know I love shared resources! (It is branded, but you can make a copy and edit as needed!) You may also be way past this point with your teachers, but when you said it was essentially year 0 after a 3 year misfire, I hear that as needing to have some level of basics and scaffolding for learners at all levels! 

I love to talk Canvas so please reach out of you have any questions or follow up thoughts! 

[Bobby2]

Wicked. Thanks for the insights AND the share  @mjoaquin .

I love how you blend the pedagogy and the hands on experiences.

[mjoaquin]

Anytime!! Let me know if I can share anything else, I am always happy to share! 

[jayoder]

I'm very excited to reference your slide deck as I develop my weekly tips blog and drop in sessions! Such great info! Thanks for sharing!!!

[sherryjorris]

Loved your presentation.  Could you please share what you used with the 1.5 hour Canvas is Elementary?

Thanks. 

[mjoaquin]

Hi! I am so sorry, normally I see these notifications sooner!  Here is the guiding session I used for Canvas is Elementary

I also have a couple of courses in Commons that include session presentations, marketing materials, and videos. 

Canvas Training Meeting Everyone's Needs

Conquering Canvas

[scottdennis]

Hey  @jayoder ,

People have already shared many excellent thoughts and ideas here but I wanted to also point out that you could also take a page from  @Bobby2 's book.  It appears that during her faculty orientations she often orients people to the Canvas Community as well so that this community becomes a part of their own PLCs (at least I surmise this is happening as I often see new batches of her associates showing up contemporaneously.

[Bobby2]

 @scottdennis what a groovy word! 

'Contemporaneously' LOVE IT!

[Bobby2]

One thing I want to be front and centre is WHY not the What.

It's not what we do but why we do it.

Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action | TED Talk  

Trying to get across that "I Believe..." feeling about Canvas is key. 

But how to do that with tired teachers after a busy day in the classroom is quite an art. 

[jayoder]

That is one of my personal favorite TED talks! I talk about his Golden circle all the time with my students when I introduce a project or even just talk about life and why we do what we do. Same is true of my colleagues and getting used to a new LMS! So important to keep in mind! Love it! I'm about to start my trek to #InstructureCon2018 and sad we won't get to meet in person  @Bobby2 !

[Bobby2]

One day  @jayoder . I hope!

[jayoder]

I have recently completed a Canvas Course as a Teacher Resource Center to roll out to the faculty as we begin our journey with Canvas with important links to the Canvas Guides and How to and Video tutorials. I also made/embedded the following video to help with the reason why an LMS can be a useful things for everyone involved!

Let me know what you think!

I was also inspired by the FIT Sneaky Teaching presentation at instcon 2018 and I am currently working on a very visual and upbeat presentation for my 1hr PD session with the faculty on the 1st day of PD!

[Bobby2]

Thanks  @jayoder for the bravery you have shown by sharing.

You highlighted some great points in your video. I love that you were inspired by others at instcon 2018 to further develop your presentations. The community is great for supporting each other with these important topics. 

[stacy_lambert]

HI  @jayoder ‌ - if you search Callaghan College training videos and quizzes in Commons, we have 4 sessions of training on Canvas with quizzes that were developed by our Head Teacher Technology  @david_summervi1 ‌. 

These might help - you cannot move forward until you get all the answers right. We also had badges added to gamify and at the end you were deemed a "Canvas Champion". Good thing about having it online - we start with this training (any new staff have to do it too - can be done anytime, anywhere -sorry - about to break out into the Goodies theme song) and then move on to any areas staff were not as comfortable with as others. This allowed us to then differentiate the face to face training with staff and not go over the stuff they already knew. Have fun. Take lollies!

[jayoder]

Thanks  @stacy_lambert  I went right to Commons and added them to the Kung Fu Canvas I tweaked from Commons where they were appropriate! I also revamped the badges in it so that they are working to earn their "black belt"/badges! 

Thanks to  @david_summervi1 !

[Bobby2]

Thanks  @stacy_lambert or pointing those gems out. I will be sure to check them out. 

We've been running fortnightly 15 minute skype sessions based on different topics eg. blended learning, differentiation, groups, quizzes, communication. Here's a link to a discussion about Communication in Canvas and our latest Digital Bites session on that topic.https://community.canvaslms.com/thread/24591-communication-in-canvas  

[stacy_lambert]

Thanks  @Bobby2 ‌! Champion.

[jayoder]

Update: New Teacher training went well! Had great discussions about Why we need an LMS as well as some discussion on a research book about Thinking in the Digital Era and how we need to embrace components of technology since we teach Digital Natives, but we need counteract it with lessons that promote proper thinking and problem solving skills forcing a generation of Google searchers to dive deeper into topics and to question the validity of sources!