Boosting Student Engagement With Lucid Integration Into The Canvas LMS

[Mark_Sluzky]

Lucid Education Suite Integration

Canvas and Lucid

How does the new Lucid integration impact both Teachers and Students?
• Integrated whiteboard tool available throughout the Canvas LMS
• Drive student engagement by adding interactive elements from Lucidspark and Lucidchart
• Create student deliverables by incorporating Lucid within Canvas Assignments. 

The Instructure team is excited to welcome the Lucid Education Suite to the Canvas LMS.

Released over the summer, all Canvas instances should now offer Lucid.  Both teachers and students can leverage the power of Lucid throughout Canvas.

Students will be able to ideate, collaborate, and communicate quickly and easily with Lucid. Teachers can develop innovative learning environments while tracking student engagement and participation. Lucid provides an entirely new level of interaction within Canvas.

Below are just a few of the possible use cases for Lucid: 

• Collaborative Brainstorming
• Discussions
• Group Projects
• Freehand - Open Whiteboard
• Annotations
• Icebreakers

The Lucid Education Suite 

The full Lucid Education Suite, featuring Lucidspark and Lucidchart, is now part of the Canvas LMS. The suite provides users with collaborative workspaces to design, develop, and present content. Lucidspark is a collaborative virtual whiteboard for students to connect and interact with one another and linked content. Lucidchart is an intelligent diagramming application. Lucidchart allows teachers and/or students to create and interact with flow charts, mind maps, and other graphic organizers. Both tools are accessed throughout Canvas in the Rich Content Editor (RCE). 

Incorporating Lucid within a Canvas course creates another layer of interactivity for participants. The ability to connect with content while working collaboratively with peers can drive student engagement. Lucid creates an opportunity for students to be actively engaged and work together on common activities. This connection can be a key driver of learning and content mastery.

Google Jamboard Replacement

Many users may be unfamiliar with Lucid but have used Google Jamboards or other virtual whiteboards in their classrooms. For users who used and loved Google Jamboards, Lucid is an approved replacement.  Jamboard users can bring all their great Jams directly into Lucid and continue the magic. Lucid does many things that Jamboard did well … and provides users with features that Jamboard did not have.

Lucid In The Classroom

As a teacher, I loved having my students break into smaller groups to complete projects, activities, and other tasks. Utilizing breakout boards in Lucid can provide each of those groups with collaborative spaces to ideate, collaborate, and begin planning the next steps. Equally important, teachers can track student participation in each of the groups by monitoring and reviewing the breakout boards. This level of transparency empowers teachers to trust students to engage in group work because teachers can monitor participation and ensure learning is taking place. 

Students will find that using Lucid within Canvas is a breeze. Teachers can leverage Lucid to create impactful assignments that check for understanding of content and mastery. Using Canvas Assignments, teachers can incorporate Lucid tools for students to submit deliverables. As an example: a teacher can create a diagram of the Water Cycle in Lucid. Students can be tasked with adding details and information about the water cycle and submitting it through Canvas. In this way, Lucid can transform images and charts into worksheets or activities for students to work on and submit through Canvas. Once submitted as an assignment, teachers can provide robust feedback to students through the SpeedGrader tool.

PRO TIP: Quickly create a worksheet activity out of an image. Import an image into Lucid and create boxes for students to fill in and diagram. Students can diagram a cell or identify parts of the water cycle and quickly submit work through Canvas.

Final Thoughts

The Lucid Education Suite’s integration into the Canvas LMS creates a powerful tool for teachers and students. Lucidspark and Lucidchart allow students to connect with content and one another within Canvas like never before. As classrooms continue to pivot from passive learning environments into active learning environments; tools like Lucid will drive educational innovation and change. 

How do you envision utilizing Lucid within your Canvas course or your classroom?

Our team of dedicated strategic consultants helps customers deepen and elevate their use of Instructure Learning Platform products to meet pedagogical goals across their organization by offering expertise, strategic advice, customized consultation, and targeted coaching. If you would like to learn more about our services, please contact your CSM, or @Kelley_Lozicki, Manager, Learning Services, or by email kloziciki@instructure.com.

Please comment below. We’d love to hear from you!

[AyeB22]

This was very informative, thanks