The ability to assign different teachers to specific sessions within a course/module

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We use different instructors/teachers within a course to teach certain topics within a course/modules/session and find it is not necessary for some instructors to have access to all of the  course material.

Having the ability to limit them to only that sessions(s) module(s) folders and material they are responsible for could prove to be very helpful.

The instructor would also need to be available to students through canvas prior to and after each assigned session for a limited time.

Just the ability to assign modules and session to selected instructors would be great.

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14 Comments
Stef_retired
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni
Status changed to: Moderating

@davidf2 

Thanks for sharing this idea. We're reading it as a request for the ability to assign specific modules to selected instructors within a single course. Could you clarify what you mean by "session" in the context of Canvas features and functionality?

davidf2
Community Member

Sure, thanks for the quick response, much apricated.

Each course has modules and within the module it has sessions. Having the ability to assign instructors to not only a course but a specific module or session(s) within a particular module would be helpful. 

Example:

Module One: The ABC's of Marketing

Session 1: Identifying your customer base

Session 2: Objectives and strategies

Session 3: Social Media

Lets say I have 2 different instructors presenting this material. Session 1, 2, and 3. If it was just one instructor I would assign the whole module to that individual, but I had two instructors I would then need to assign the sessions within the module. 

If the course has 5 modules I may need to assign an instructor to 3 of the modules but only certain sessions within those five modules.

 

Stef_retired
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni

@davidf2 

Instructure Canvas would not be able to differentiate "sessions" by user, because a "session" isn't a feature or content type in Canvas. What content type are your teachers/instructional designers using to create the sessions?

Stef_retired
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni

@davidf2 

While you're researching the "sessions" question, I'd like to point out that modules themselves do not constitute content: they act as content wrappers and content delivery mechanisms. The content instructors and designers add to modules resides in other areas within Canvas: assignments, discussions, and so forth. Therefore, in order to develop a feature that restricts access to the contents of a module to a specific teacher, we'd need to develop that functionality for each of the content items within that module. 

Would you identify the most commonly used type of content and write the idea to address that specifically?

davidf2
Community Member

Not sure I completely understand your question but when we enter subject matter/curriculum 99% of it is designated as an "assignment" that we select on the drop down menu. 

The assignment tells the participants what material to read, what homework needs to be completed prior to the zoom meeting, downloads that have been entered into canvas and sometime links to URLs. We imbedded a zoom link using canvas to zoom platform and it shows up in the course  

Stef_retired
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni

@davidf2 

Typically, schools manage co-teaching scenarios such as the one you've described by creating course sections and assigning specific instructors to grade and facilitate their sections. 

While Canvas doesn't currently have a feature that would limit a user with the teacher role to post grades to only one section, that might be an idea that would address this scenario—if your school is set up to create these topics as separate sections within the course. Even so, any user added to a course in the teacher role can manage all of the content in that course. Some schools create a custom TA role that lacks course content editing privileges and use differentiated assignments to ensure that the appropriate section gets the right item:  How do I assign an assignment to a course section?

Can you give us an idea of how many different topics are included, and how many different teachers typically participate, in a single course in your use case?

davidf2
Community Member
Stefanie,
 
Thanks for your support on this- much apricated. I will look at the TA role and review the "how do I assign an assignment" link 
Stef_retired
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni

@davidf2 

You're welcome! One last question: are you using Canvas via Free For Teachers? I ask because many of the existing solutions require admin capability.

davidf2
Community Member

Yes we are.

We specialize in helping Veteran business owners grow their business with the core curriculum base around completing a 3 year growth plan or a 12 month turn around plan.

We bring in experts that specialize in the main topic being covered usual as a guest expert in addition to the instructor/teacher but sometimes utilize them as the instructor for a particular module or session.

 

Stef_retired
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni
Status changed to: Archived
 
Stef_retired
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni

@davidf2 

Thanks for confirming that. 

We're archiving this idea because, as written, it is exceptionally broad in scope and would require reconfiguration of nearly every Canvas feature. The Idea Conversations forum accommodates singularly focused requests for enhancements to a specified feature, as detailed in How do I create a new idea conversation in the Canvas Community?

We generally encourage members who are interested in seeing this kind of new, all-encompassing functionality added to Canvas to discuss that with their Customer Success Representative (CSM), as that is another important source of feedback for our product team. As that recourse isn't available to users of our free product, we encourage you to continue the conversation you initiated at  is it possible to assign a teacher to certain sess...  in the hope that one of our members can help you find a solution with the tools available to FFT users.

kmeeusen
Community Champion

Hi @davidf2 

I first responded to your initial posting in our Question Forum, and @Stef_retired has asked me to see if there is more help I can offer based on the additional info you have provided here.

It is quite challenging to try to fit your curriculum, your teaching structure, and the language you use to describe them into a new LMS. Typically, our first frustrations come from the language challenge - what does this LMS call this function we need to use, or this process we need to incorporate?

Your use of the term "session", without clarification of what a "session" means to your organization challenged the members of our community to help you. That's okay, we like challenges!

So for the purposes of your question, by "session" you mean a time delineated delivery of instruction by a guest. Is that correct? And this guest will be delivering some form of a lecture (sounds like you intend for them to use Zoom for lecture delivery), and might also be responsible limited learning materials (files, links, documents, media etc.) and some learning activities like assignments and quizzes that are related to their lecture. The combined instructional content including the lecture are what you are calling a session. Again, is this correct? But on top pf these guests, you have regular instructors for the courses.

Assuming the above is correct, and your question is how can you create a teacher-based role that only permits access to one or more specific sessions, and not monkey up somebody else's stuff while in there? The bottom line answer is that you cannot do this in Canvas! Even with a lot of hinky work-rounds, you cannot do this in Canvas. What you are really have are "guest speakers", and what you are asking for is the ability to have guest speakers with privileges. And, to be rather blunt, you are trying to get this with a free product! You're lucky I don't throw a sales pitch in at this point, but the truth is that this would be challenging with the hosted version of Canvas with a custom interface with your SIS!

I think you are left with two choices....

  • Rewrite your guest lecturer contracts to include some really strong provisions restricting their access to their own sessions with some real strong enforceable teeth. Enroll those speakers into your canvas classrooms, then remove them promptly when their session is complete.
  • Revise your instructional delivery structure so that your existing full-time classroom instructors are responsible for all content creation and management, and grading, And your guest speakers are limited to just that - speaking, demonstrating and answering question. Any content they create, will just have to be forwarded to the course instructor prior to their session so that the instructor can pre-load it.This works very well, and I have designed courses this way for many years, decades actually!
  • I just thought of a third idea, you could create a new idea conversation for a guest speaker role with limited temporary content management permissions. 

If you would like more help, please DM me. I think you can tell from this post, you won't get any BS, just help that will work with Canvas.

Good luck,

Kelley

 

 

 

davidf2
Community Member

Kelly,

Stefanie was of great help.

I was under the impression after my initial question on the community board that this thread  was submitted for recommendation for a possible new feature for flexible assignments for instructors (should it not be available at all). I fully understand I am using a free version and am much appreciative that it is offered.

Sessions are the same as classroom instruction but virtual/zoom for 3 hour periods. We review homework, discuss the objectives of the particular subject, and use breakout rooms. When we use a guest expert most have a PowerPoint presentation and we do not use a lecture format. our sessions are interactive. Should an expert be teaching as an instructor they would use our curriculum as a guideline to incorporate the learning objectives for that day. 

I was just looking to plug in instructors where needed without them having full access to the entire 28 week course and at the same time have access to the material needed. there are other ways to complete this task such as file sharing. 

I am a big fan of Canvas, if it were up to me we would have a subscription. We are not where we need to be to do that yet. 

Thank you for your time and information. The fact that you and Stefanie has spent this much time addressing my post is appreciated.

Always Grateful,

Davidf

 

 

 

JBMaurice
Community Explorer

I have the same question, I think.

 

It's not about "session". To use Canvas' vocabulary,I would like to be able to assign a specific teacher to a specific module or discussion within a course.
Is that possible?

I have a large course with several teachers involved, and they don't want to see each others modules, nor they want to receive notifications for each and every discussion in the course, only those that they are supposed to manage. 
Is there any way to do that?

It seems that it's not possible, yet, it would be a very basic features on most LMS...