Let's talk student-centered learning in Canvas

[jared]

At InstructureCon 2015​ we're focusing on student-centered learning, an idea that has been at the heart of Canvas from the beginning. But just having technology with the potential to support student-centered learning experiences isn't enough. We need to share examples of how this can actually work for real teachers and real students, across disciplines and grade levels.

"Student-centered learning" is sometimes broadly interpreted to mean everything from active learning to personalization. We want to focus on student-centered learning as an educational approach that aims to develop students' capability for self-directed, lifelong learning by granting them more choice, control, and responsibility for the learning process. Student-centered learning is by nature active learning, and includes approaches like inquiry-based or project-based learning. Because student-centered learning shifts traditional roles toward learners, we must also deal with issues of mindset and motivation.

I'd like to get a conversation started here in the Canvas Community around student-centered learning that will carry-on through -- and beyond InstructureCon:

• What teaching practices have you seen that are truly student-centered?

• In what ways have teachers or designers leveraged Canvas to facilitate student-centered learning?

• Have teachers connected real-world, student-centered tools or services (personal web sites, blogs, wikis, social media, etc) to Canvas for their students?

• How have students themselves taken advantage of Canvas features to support their own learning?

[ewander]

One of the great student-centered designs I love is the student's ability to choose their own way of learning or specific subject to learn. We're currently working on a course where there are six units but they only have to choose 3. So, here they have the choice to go through what interests them, or something they may not know much about. If they do not do well in that unit they can always choose another to complete and redeem their point value. The difficulty we're running into with this model is the student's ability to create a community within the course with their peers. If they're all doing a different unit how can they come together and discuss? As we've been brainstorming this we've found that it might be fun to put them in random groups to come together and teach each other.

I love the idea of student-centered learning! I wish this would have been a trend while I was in my undergrad.

Thanks for opening this up for discussion, Jared.

Erin

[kmeeusen]

Erin:

For me it's all about student- centered learning, and that is what makes me so very happy about this year's InstructureCon 2015​ theme.

Our school is investigation a product from a Canvas partner called LEAP that lets you differentiate/personalize learning based on how well the students does on graded activities, and can direct students to both internal and external resources.

They will be at the Conference, perhaps you should check them out.

Kelley

[jared]

Erin, do you have any sense as to how providing that choice has impacted students' motivation or attitude? That's a theme that we've seen recurring through research literature.

[ewander]

Jared,

We haven't implemented this in the class yet, it's still in the development phase. It will be a high-registration course and we're hoping it will get some motivation going with the students. I'll keep you posted!

[travis_thurston]

 @jared 

 @ewander ​ and I were involved with a presentation last week discussing the design model for this course. We are expecting to find that self-directed learning will optimize the learning experience (Markant & Gurekis, 2013; 2012). We look forward to implementing the design.

[scottdennis]

Phil Hill posted to e-Literate today, sharing a video interview with an ASU instructor that relates to changes in her role as a teacher with regards to student centered pacing.  Read about it here: http://mfeldstein.com/instructor-replacement-vs-instructor-role-change/

[kmeeusen]

Jared:

Great discussion choice, thanks for launching!

Right now, adaptive learning is showing some huge pedagogical advantages for improving learning, but Canvas, like most of its competitors, has very few tools to support adaptive learning. This capability is available as an integration from at least one Canvas partner, but I would love to see this packaged into Canvas as a standard.

What Canvas has done very well is improve the communication functionality of the LMS, and more are in the works from what I see in the roadmap. Teacher presence, a proven pedagogical practice for online teaching, is much easier to accomplish in Canvas than in any other of the four LMSs that I have used.

Another advantage of Canvas is that it has made the integration of external content not only possible, but easy. There are many great external tools that support student learning, and it is nice to be able to use them within Canvas rather than having my students navigate away from the LMS. I have always found that mash-ups of websites to be problematic, especially for students who do not have strong 21st Century skills. In fact, I have very strong tech skills but dropped out of my first MOOC, because it had me crawling all over the web like Spiderman - the work flow was not intuitive.

this leads me to what I also appreciate about Canvas,  and that is that it's very flexible structure permits the teacher to set up courses so that access, navigation and workflow for the students can be made very simple. I am a firm believer in the KISS philosophy, and want my students to be able to focus on the course content and meeting the course objectives, rather than spending inordinate amounts of their time wrestling with the LMS. Wrestling with the LMS is my job as a teacher and Canvas Administrator - and your UI actually makes that fairly easy - yes, improvements are needed, but Canvas is continually improving.

Again, thanks for this opportunity to share.

Kelley

[jared]

I love this observation, Kelley: "Teacher presence, a proven pedagogical practice for online teaching, is much easier to accomplish in Canvas..." -- and not just because it's praise for Canvas, but because it recognizes that even as we aim to be student-centered, the teacher's role is still critical. But it also shifts the teacher's role and responsibilities, as  @scottdennis ​ and others have already begun to allude to.

[scottdennis]

Many years ago when I was a college student I had to take introductory algebra three times before I successfully passed.  Part of the problem was that I was a poor student but poor course design/teaching played a part too.  The first time I took the class the instructor was a musician who had to also teach math to fill out his teaching load.  He would usually stride into the classroom five minutes late, begin rapidly filing the white board with math notation which he would then quickly erase to make room for more scribbles.  He would not stop for questions and kept it up until the bell at which point he would exit, still in a hurry.  Our grade was based on two high stakes in-class exams. I took his course twice.  I never got higher than a D+ in that class and almost dropped out in frustration.

The third time I took algebra I took it in a lab. I was responsible for working at my own pace and direction.  I could work along in the book and whenever I ran into a question or dead end I could go ask the lab tutor for help.  I don't remember her name now but she genuinely loved math and made puzzling through it enjoyable for me too.  All of my assignments and unit exams were graded by someone who would explain what happened when I did something wrong.  I earned a good solid A and probably would have been happy to take more classes in the lab had they been available.

Back then I had never heard of student centered education or a constructivist approach to learning but as I look back today I realize that just as the technology we use in education today has come a long way, so has the understanding of teaching and learning.  The tutor in the lab course I took was a facilitator and a guide.  I was required to learn the materials and complete the exams and assignments but I was responsible for my own schedule and learning.  Looking back, I wonder what role Canvas might have played, were it available back then, in helping me to connect with my peers.  What has changed now that there are increased opportunities for collaborative learning?  How would the teacher and the tutor I interacted with in the lab have used analytics and reporting to help me learn and to improve the course?

[wittmann]

Scott,

Thank you for sharing your story. It's helpful to me to hear more students' points of view.

And your questions at the end are just as valuable. Especially because as I consider course design I think mostly from my experience as a student and I tend to overlook tools like analytics and reporting which either weren't used or I didn't see them used.

Yvonne

[snugent]

Found this video on Google+. What Eric Mazur says in video is so true! I think everyone agrees at our institution that we should support student centered learning but it is hard to for some to change the way they teach. I would love to see more of our instructors take this kind of approach but it seems to be a hard transition.

[kona]

By far the coolest, most amazing student centered learning I've seen in Canvas is done by Michelle Stephens - The Theatre Professor

Background: This is for an online Theatre Appreciation course taught in Canvas for almost two years. Michelle had been really really unhappy with the course and was ready to move it back to the f2f classroom. We had a number of talks about this and through our conversation (and her amazing brilliance) she came up with a student focused idea that would put control into the hands of the students and also make it fun and more energized for everyone.

What is she doing?

• Contracted grading - » What is contracted grading? The Theatre Professor - Basically the students get to pick what assignments they want to do to earn the grade they want. All of this is based on what the learning outcomes are for the course, but allowing for the fact that there are different ways (assignments) to meet these goals.
• Gameification - Michelle developed a story line around Thespis (according to ancient tradition the first actor in Greek drama) and that he lost the jewels for his crown. The mission for students is to travel to the different islands of theatre (based around the five major areas of theatre) and collect gems for his crown. There are different colored gems worth differing numbers of points - which relate to the difficulty of the assignment. Yet, remember, students can pick which assignments they want to do to earn the grade they want. Yet, they do need a certain number of each type of gem to get the desired grade --> this is what allows Michelle to make sure students meet all of the needed learning outcomes for the course. Pretty crafty, huh?
• Hacking the heck out of Canavs - I think she stated somewhere in the old community that, "I challenge you to find a feature that I not only use, but one that I don't strap a saddle on it and...." This is totally and absolutely the truth and here are a couple of examples » Gaming the System: Hacking your rubric and » Hack Your Class: Harder than you might think.

And just think what Michelle (and other instructors) will be able to do as Canvas continues to add new amazing student centered features!

[christine_mckeo]

Hi  @kona ​! As mentioned in another thread, I'm on the hunt for exemplar Canvas sites at other institutions! You don't by any chance know if any of Michelle's courses are publicly available? A quick Google has returned nada!

[kona]

 @christine_mckeo ​, I know she has in the past, but I'm not sure what the status of those courses are at the moment. My recommendation would be to contact her directly to see - Michelle Stephens | Richland Community College

[scottdennis]

Hey Kona,

Just fyi; it looks like the domain you linked to has since been taken down.  Too bad as your descriptions are intriguing!

[kona]

That is pretty sad. Those were pretty awesome blogs and hacks for Canvas.

[scottdennis]

[christine_mckeo]

Aww, boo! Thanks for the quick reply, though! I'll keep digging!

[Stef_retired]

Here's your chance to ask  @jared ‌! Be sure to RSVP to the CanvasLIVE event Ask Me Anything: Jared Stein, VP Product Strategy for Higher Ed which is coming up this Wednesday, February 15, 2017. RSVP “yes” if you will be there--and if you’re interested, but your schedule doesn’t allow you to attend in real time, RSVP "no" or "maybe" to receive all event updates. Your RSVP ensures that you will receive a notification should the event be cancelled or changed.