Mobile Series: Just-in-Time Design Checklist (2015)

[biray]

(September 17, 2015) As Canvas keeps evolving (hello, new UI!) and students keep leveraging mobile devices for learning, it’s imperative for courses to be more mobile-friendly. And, boy, do we have a checklist for you! This session will offer best considerations for mobile design and on-the-go delivery of your course(s). [Pesenter: Ryan.Seilhamer@ucf.edu​]

[GideonWilliams]

Brilliant! A must for anyone considering wider use of Canvas on mobile and tablet use. The Survey is the icing on the cake! The opportunity to have colleagues self review and evaluate their own courses is critical to developing and embedding canvas in their teaching and students learning.

[alexandra_razor]

New to canvas and most of my students are using their phones to access it.  Thanks for the ideas of how to improve the experience for my students.

[klundstrum]

Thanks Ryan for presenting! I like that this was an extended version of the presentation you gave at InstCon '15. I will definitely take key points from this and share with faculty. Our students have iPads and usually access Canvas the Canvas app. (Mobile friendliness is huge!)

[amber_hainline]

Wonderful information! I have been guilty of many of the great issues you pointed out and cannot wait to share your information with staff! I wish I would have had this information when I was still in the classroom! :smileyconfused: Thank you for the helpful tips!

[dejonghed07]

This is great Ryan.Seilhamer@ucf.edu​!

Where did you obtain the Instructure data to create the charts about overall mobile usage within Canvas?

[rseilham]

Thanks! The overall stats were from Deactivated user​ during InstructureCon 2015. She used to be the mobile PM.

[tankovpa]

Is it possible to add the link to the mobile check here?

Thanks

[biray]

Here is the link to the mobile survey, for those who are interested in checking your course for mobile friendliness: http://bit.ly/canvas-mobile-check

[dejonghed07]

Hi Ryan.Seilhamer@ucf.edu​ - Can I use separate parts of your video presentation with attribution (including the link to the full video) in an online faculty training workshop? The workshop will be about designing mobile-friendly courses and some of the video does not apply to our faculty (such as the student data from your survey and using styles). Within the online workshop, we could chunk your video into parts (or create our own smaller video clips - but yours is so great!). We could also include actual examples of do's/don'ts within the Canvas modules.

[tankovpa]

Thank you!

[rseilham]

Hi dejonghed07@macomb.edu​.

I have no issues with you using this video or creating a new video that makes more sense to your audience. Please let me know if you need more information or want me to elaborate on anything.

I also created a Canvas Commons mobile resource for faculty to use with their students. You need to search Canvas Commons for "Accessing Canvas With Your Mobile Device".

Thanks.

[dejonghed07]

Thank you! I'll check out your resource in Canvas Commons, too.

[applem]

Ryan.Seilhamer@ucf.edu Very informative presentation. I will share the mobile check site with our teachers.

[jamely]

Helpful information for mobile, a few tips that I found directly useful for me: keep images less than 30mb if possible and using text headers in modules to visually chunk information. I also will use student notifications for content that might not work with their app. Thanks!

This might be helpful to others:

1. Custom Styles (@ 8:00 minutes)
2. Content Chunking (@ 9:35 minutes)
3. Tables (@ 12:46 minutes)
4. File Types (@ 14:30 minutes)
5. File Sizes (@ 15:46 minutes)
6. Media Types (@ 16:32 minutes)
7. Modules (@ 19:33 minutes)
8. Student Prompts (@ 21:05 minutes)
9. Inform (@ 22:33 minutes)

[ronmarx]

Thank you  biray@instructure.com and Ryan.Seilhamer@ucf.edu for the information (and screen shots) showing what I think are the most important function of Text Headers in Modules: they create very readable lists on the mobile app, breaking up lessons and lesson components into a workflow/checklist for students. Love that!

[ryan_corris]

Ryan.Seilhamer@ucf.edu‌ Great information in this video!  Thanks for including this in the Canvas community!  After watching I was playing with the Canvas app and it appears that the indents in modules now work in the mobile app.  I was very happy to realize this since we have taught many staff members in our district to indent in their modules for organizational purposes.

[rseilham]

Thanks! The indents were added with a redesign of the modules in the app last fall. In addition to indents, I like that they also made it so items can have really long titles. Before the update, long titles were limited with ellipses. 

[ryan_corris]

Always improving.  Go Canvas!!!

[Bobby2]

Ryan.Seilhamer@ucf.edu. This answered a few nagging questions. Thanks.

[sbeck1]

Ryan.Seilhamer@ucf.edu‌ Thank you again for this! So helpful! I put this together for our faculty based upon this video!

https://cloud.nwmissouri.edu/documents/de8889e5f038aca16be4d81f35022a7d/de8889e5f038aca16be4d81f3502...

[rseilham]

This is awesome! Thanks for sharing. I'm glad I could help. The only note of change....#9 is now supported. Indents were support late last year, so I don't suggest it anymore. Also, I'm not sure if your school uses UDOIT, but I have worked with their team to add 2,4,5 as an automated check. It should be out soon! 

[sbeck1]

Thanks, Ryan! I'll update it. We are not currently using UDOIT, but it is on my to-do list for this fall!

[rseilham]

Awesome! I hope you get to use UDOIT! It's such a helpful tool! 

[wwolf]

Another terrific video with awesome information.  Thanks again Ryan.Seilhamer@ucf.edu‌!

[Bobby2]

Some great reminders here. Thanks Ryan.Seilhamer@ucf.edu

I particularly like your point that 'mobile is what people do between doing things'. I've seen people try to create a course on an iPad. Doesn't look that easy. Much better to use the iPad between creating things?

[rseilham]

bobby.pedersen@education.tas.gov.au‌, I agree. Even though the Canvas Teacher has made this a little easier. The function of the Teacher app isn't to create a course on an iPad, but some of the features make it easier than using the mobile web or Canvas Student app. 

[GregoryBeyrer]

Ryan.Seilhamer@ucf.edu Thank You for this awesome presentation. This was one of the best half-hours I have ever spent learning about Canvas and my only regret is it took me so long to get here. I get extra humble pie for being a member of the CMUG and participating a bit in the beta feedback for the Teacher app.

Obviously designing for mobile perfectly aligns with universal design principles. The recommendation to use Content Pages in lieu of PDF or MS Word files makes things so much easier when it comes to accommodating users with disabilities (especially PDF). Your online course checker is a goldmine too and something I would love to require for faculty to complete.

[rseilham]

Hi professorbeyrer@gmail.com‌, 

Thanks for the kind words and I'm glad you enjoyed it. Even though this is a few years old now, it still holds up because it relies on design and not technology. I'm not sure if you have seen this yet, but I worked with Education Services to create a nice checklist about mobile design: https://community.canvaslms.com/groups/designers/blog/2018/06/29/mobile-app-design-course-evaluation... 

Give that a look and see if it can be helpful with your faculty. Thanks again! 

[GregoryBeyrer]

Thank you!

[mmoore1]

Great Explanations.  Stands the test of time. 

[michelle_steven]

Even four years later, this information is still relevant and very helpful. Thank you for this video and for creating and including the link to your checklist above.

[nsweeten]

Ryan.Seilhamer@ucf.edu‌. You mention the use of Text headers as a mMobile-friendly strategy.  ( https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/7944?sr=search&searchId=9999676d-456e-4c35-9c87-df382300af0d&s... )

I've been frustrated by using Text Headers for anything I want students to see because they disappear when a student is navigating Modules using the "Next" button. Headers can only be seen in Modules list view.

Text headers are simply skipped!

My solution, for now, is to use a full content page H1 (Title box) and leave the page blank.  I don't know if this would translate to your headers solution for mobile or not, but be aware that Text Headers are too easy to miss on a desktop device using ideal navigation. 

[shannas_admin]

Would be so great to get an updated version of this!