[ARCHIVED] Innovation within Canvas

[colleen_bergin1]

There are many people who end up using Canvas  as a hub - one stop for all resources galore for their classes.  While this is an excellent LMS to hold resources, I was wondering what innovative activities have been done in Canvas.  I have done breakouts, research, collaboration, etc. within my Canvas courses. I was wondering if anyone else had activities they do within Canvas.  (this thread might also be helpful for teachers who are not 1:1 and unsure of how to use Canvas when you're not 1:1).  I look forward to hearing about your ideas! 

[GideonWilliams]

Have done some Badgr badging with a self-paced introduction to Canvas course with top end primary - How we introduced Canvas to our Junior schools‌ and Introducing Canvas to Junior Schools - Page Design, Badging, Portfolios and H5P‌

Always on the look out for developing and using integrated free tools in Canvas through pages - Embedding Web 2.0 Tools‌

Desperately trying to make Office365 integration better and used more widepsread in our school.

We benefit by being 1-1 though..

Highly recommend following  @Bobby2 ‌ for some amazing K12 Primary stuff too.

[Bobby2]

Thanks for the shout out  @GideonWilliams , still very early days for us.

Learning and experimenting all the time. Great seeing teachers trying all sorts of new things. 

 @colleen_bergin1  understand your thirst for ideas.  Thinking cap on, I will try to collect some ideas for you. 

[bgreenslade]

Hi

We are just beginning our Canvas journey. And by just I mean teachers are sand-boxing, with no curriculum released to students yet.

So I'm not sure if this is of any value!

I created a course called 'Allergies' and within that a Module for each year level. (Foundation, Year 1, Year 2 etc) Then we created an assignment with the name of each child in the class with an allergy: Bob Jones. When the child's name is clicked on, it shows all the allergy information relation to that child.

I mentioned this to my Special Ed coordinator and my desire to make a similar course for special needs/adjustments etc. She posed the idea of possibly having it sorted by student, rather than by need (allergy, adjustment, medication etc).

I thought it was a good point. Then you could simply click on the class, then the student, and see all their information in one spot, instead of having it in separate course. This would be excellent for TRTs.

Is there a better/more efficient way to set this up? I'm sure there is.It seems cumbersome to make a course for each class, but I'm really not sure.

Bill Greensalde

[Bobby2]

Hey I like your thinking  @bgreenslade  and welcome to the Canvas Community.

You have done a magical thing and started with your purpose first. Love it. https://community.canvaslms.com/groups/strategies/blog/2018/01/27/horse-before-the-cart-purpose-firs...  

I've noticed that a lot of primary/elementary schools are getting traction with Canvas by building a Staff Room where they keep resources, timetables, daily news announcements, collaborative team group work, quick links etc. Perhaps your brilliant idea could work in a space like this, accessible to staff only?

[colleen_bergin1]

 @bgreenslade ‌

That's a great idea, although I'm not sure of a more efficient way to set that up.  for Sp.Ed, maybe create a module for each grade level, within each module put the students for that grade level and their information. If you did it with an assignment format, you could allow teachers to submit a weekly note of how the student is doing?  My only concern is that teachers who have access to this course also have access to pages of students that are not theirs. Unless you did something that was similar to Mastery Paths or group assignments in which teachers only saw specific assignments assigned to them.

 @Bobby2 ‌, My previous school before I transitioned to my current role utilized Canvas in the manner that you were speaking of.  There were a multiude of modules that focused on different things such as PD, Weekly Happenings, School Resources, etc.  It was extremely beneficial to have available.

[Bobby2]

You make a good point  @colleen_bergin1 . I guess it would depend on the school.

In many antipodean (Australia/New Zealand) schools all teachers do playground duty and will need to know medical alerts.