Course Review, Standards and Medals

[GideonWilliams]

Next September will be the beginning of our fourth year of Canvas (well, 31/2 as we had had a phased launch).  I have been thinking more and more about conducting a formal audit of the courses and getting our departments to review their courses.

By chance I came across this article from Middlesborough College in the UK who have done exactly that but have created medal criteria for their courses (Gold, Silver and Bronze) - https://www.mbro.ac.uk/about-us/news/detail/2019/03/19/going-for-gold

I contacted James Wells, the Head of Digital Curriculum, who I would imagine has played a major role in the implementation of such a scheme. I am hoping he might give me a head-up and some direction as to where best to start (UPDATE: Skype meeting set up 19/07)

I am clear in my mind that the audit needs to look at requirements that will support teaching and learning across a spectrum of elements eg from Adding resources to a Module to providing timely feedback to assignments. In delivering training to staff about Canvas, I have tried to follow the tenet of "Creating resources/activities on the platform when you know it has impact and makes a difference" leading on from many great posts such as Horse Before the Cart. Purpose first, Canvas second and Creating a Purpose

The challenge is where do you start and what outcomes do you use. There are lots of interesting models around

Digital Learning + Canvas + SAMR Checklists‌

Canvas Tool Guide for Teachers‌

Not forgetting this great post on Structural design evaluation with a checklist from  @shauna_vorkink ‌  @erin_keefe ‌  @deonne_johnson ‌ and Deactivated user‌ at https://community.canvaslms.com/groups/designers/blog/2018/06/29/course-evaluation-checklist

A quick Google search for similar models led to a nice post from Croydon college and their review of Moodle - 

https://moodle.croydon.ac.uk/elearning/item/363-gab-quality-report-2012-pilot What was interesting about this model was how the college went from a Yes/No tick box of features for each 'medal' to a points based system. I agree with the author, Andrew Checkley, on this point and this is something I would be using in mine. Although the Course Reckoner is yet to be made, I am thinking about using Excel and Forms. Although the amazing  @tobe_baeyens ‌ created a Canvas quiz from the Evaluation tool guide above - I turned all the items with one star into a little checklist that I added to our Canvas teacher course. It's a graded quiz. The quiz has one question with 15 checkboxes. Teachers do get 1 point for every item they check. The grades appear in the gradebook, so I can give feedback based on what (they say that) they did. So food for thought.

Whilst I am interested mainly in Canvas, I am also aware that many of our staff also use Class Notebook to support students (using the Class Notebook integration in Canvas) so not quite sure how I go about this.

My question to the Community asks if anyone has done something similar and would they be willing to share some of their ideas.