How would you separate instruction in using Canvas into beginner, intermediate, and advanced features?

[rpsimon]

OK so this is a pretty strange question (actually it's more of a discussion) so I will make sure to give you background and context first. 🙂 

I am the Director of Educational Technology and my school's Canvas Admin at my high school (grades 9-12).  While Canvas is quite robust and includes many features, the teachers at my school are not required to use most of them.  They are basically required to post assignments and enter grades in the gradebook.  I am finding that a number of teachers are pretty lax about entering assignments and grades in Canvas.  My thought is that it's just laziness and they don't want to spend the time to do it.  My principal seems to have the opinion that the lack of doing it is due to not knowing how to do it.  He wants me to schedule Lunch N Learn sessions based on beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels to show them how to use Canvas properly.  I guess I will base it based on who is using it, even though I disagree with it.

So moving forward, how would you organize features in Canvas based on beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels?  Your input is greatly appreciated.  🙂

[abbyrosensweig]

I think this question is very specific to your school and the teachers there. In general, I'd start with where they are - if they're using assignments and gradebook, let those be your "beginner" topics and make sure that they know the full functionality of those tools to use them correctly (settings on assignments, gradebook visibility settings, Speedgrader, etc.) Then think about expanding out to other course areas - I'd think Pages, Files, and Modules would be your intermediate topics to encourage teachers to put more content in Canvas and organize it in a way that will help their students know what they're expected to do daily/weekly. You might think about building some course templates to either send directly to faculty or share in Commons so your teachers have a more approachable way to build course sites. Finally, your advanced topics might include reporting (New Analytics), accessible page design (no layout tables! pay attention to color contrast, using headings, etc.), using discussions and quizzes, any tools connected to Canvas.

Good luck!