Faculty development group or area?

[clcavana]

Hello,

I facilitate a campus-wide "Teaching Online Series" for Indiana University. The series focuses on instructional design and best practice within the Canvas LMS. There has been some talk about creating a cohort for all faculty who go through the series. Additionally, my unit is talking about opening something like this up to wider audiences (for example, sharing to Canvas Commons as a public resource). Where is the best place to start this discussion or see if there is interest in the Canvas Community? Is it possible to begin a Faculty Development group in the Canvas Community so that our faculty members have more exposure to the wider community? I'm interested to hear what others think or advise. Thank you in advance!

[anthonem]

Hi Christy, I'd suggest talking with your Canvas Customer Success Representative. I think there is an opportunity to create a subgroup within this Canvas community site where you can facilitate online collaboration with your faculty. I think there would even be the possibility to make membership to the subgroup available to all community members.

That said, depending on your institution, you should also be able to make a Canvas course where you enroll your faculty. You could then link to parts of the existing Canvas community space and encourage your faculty to interact with this larger audience. The Instructional Designers​ group is an excellent place to direct your faculty.

[clcavana]

Thanks Mark! We do have a Canvas course for faculty development. However, this course is made to be customized. Therefore, different schools and faculty end up needing their own version of the course. Additionally, I think networking outside the course might serve greater long term benefit.

[biray · Accepted solution]

If you go to Join Groups​ main page, you will see that a group related to ​ (or faculty development) has been suggested. It's gaining some traction amongst the community. I encourage you to vote it up and see if there may be a way to create a more general public group in the community to a team of folks dedicated to teaching/training on Canvas.

What  @anthonem ​ is referring to is if you want a private group in the Community dedicated to your campus/your faculty. Then you'd have to reach out to your Canvas Admin (who would then reach out to your CSM --- or if you're the Canvas Admin, you can reach out to your CSM directly)

Hope that helps!

[clcavana]

I thought I understood Mark's recommendation and thank you for sharing more about it. I believe that being part of the larger community is ultimately more helpful for generating discussion and finding people with additional shared interest. Therefore, I looked at the Centers for Teaching and Learning group idea. That title would resonate with our faculty since our teaching online series was developed in collaboration with IU Centers for Teaching and Learning.

[biray]

You may also want to check out the Canvas Strategies​ group, as well.

[clcavana]

Such prompt and helpful responses in this community! I like this recommendation too and will pass the link for Centers for Teaching and Learning voting as well as this one to my leadership and see which direction we want to go. Thank you so much.