I can't add much to the bits already shared about the Canvas Intelligence Exchange, as I was behind the scenes most of the day. I'll share a bit about that in a minute. I'll second (third? fourth?) the comments of the other organizers: I got to meet and work with some great people: @kona , @BethCrook , @garth , and @kenneth_rogers .
The 65 people who attended were equal parts enthusiastic, patient, and engaged with the process and the discussions in each group. As I said, I was mostly floating around the space, and it was great to see so much energy in each of the groups.
One thing I want to share is a bit of the process. Once all the participants started arriving, the topic brainstorming started, and we found some great themes to talk about. Garth and I spent some time organizing the initial wave of Post-It notes, then kicked off the first round of the exchange. We re-factored the list as the event continued, ending up with three rounds. The last round was a bit smaller, as some attendees headed off to their pre-sessions.
The big challenge with putting together the groups was finding common threads through all the great ideas on the notes... and then coalescing that into four groups for each round of the exchange. Looking back now, we weren't perfect (accessibility could have been its own group), but the groups went where they wanted, once they got started.
The rounds broke out as follows:
- Round 1: Analytics and Data, Choosing an LMS, Engaging Faculty/Training, and Instructional Design
- Round 2: Canvas Admins, Engaging the Community, Mobile Design, and Blueprint Courses/Commons
- Round 3: Integrations/LTI/API, and a game of "Love it or hate it."
For this last one, Kona chose a topic, and participants moved to one side of the space or the other depending on how they felt. Then, they'd discuss the issue and see if anyone changed their positions (quite literally).
Photos of the topic clusters and the Text of post-it note clusters
If you didn't get a chance to talk about something important to you, post it over in the discussions section here on the Canvas Community.
Or, you could get a head start on next year's unconference. I've got a few Post-It notes left.
