Seeking Help with Canvas LMS for K-12 Distance Learning

[judywatsonn]

Hello fellow educators and Canvas enthusiasts,

I hope this post finds you all in good spirits. I am a teacher who's navigating the world of K-12 distance learning, and I'm seeking some guidance regarding an issue I'm encountering with Canvas LMS. I'm hoping that the experienced members of this community can lend me a helping hand.

Here's the situation: Our school has adopted Canvas LMS to facilitate K-12 distance learning, and while I'm excited about the potential it offers, I'm currently facing a challenge that I'm not sure how to address.

As a teacher, I want to ensure that my students have a smooth and effective learning experience on the platform. However, I'm encountering some difficulties in terms of structuring my courses, managing assignments, and ensuring seamless communication with my students and their parents.

Can any of you provide insights into effectively using Canvas LMS for K-12 distance learning? I'd greatly appreciate any advice or guidance on how to overcome these challenges and optimize the platform to enhance our virtual classroom experience.

Here are some specific questions I have:

How can I organize my courses on Canvas LMS to ensure clarity and ease of navigation for my K-12 students?
What strategies or features within Canvas can I use to effectively manage assignments, quizzes, and assessments in a remote learning environment?
Are there any best practices or creative approaches that fellow educators have used to foster engagement and interaction among students in a virtual classroom setting?
I apologize if these questions seem basic, but I'm committed to providing the best possible learning journey for my students and could really use your insights.

If any of you have experience with Canvas LMS and K-12 distance learning, I'd be immensely grateful for your guidance. Please share your thoughts, advice, or any resources that might assist me in navigating this unique teaching landscape.

Thank you all so much for your understanding and assistance. I'm eager to learn from your experiences and make a positive impact on my students' virtual learning journey.

[mjoaquin]

Hello! I'm Misty. I'm the Canvas admin and trainer for a PK-12 district in Texas. Our teachers in grades 6-12 use Canvas with their students. I thought I would share my tips. I hope you'll find them helpful! 

1. How can I organize my courses on Canvas LMS to ensure clarity and ease of navigation for my K-12 students?

• The main thing for organization within Canvas in my opinion is using Modules. Some teachers think of Modules as their week, some look at it as a unit of study. I've seen my teachers have success with both. Ex: Week 1 8/14-8/18 vs Unit 1: Cells (if you are curious about seeing specific examples let me know!) Modules house your instructional materials. This is where you can strucure your lesson. In a traditional classroom you might have Bell Work, then a mini lesson, followed my group practice, and then individual practice and reflection --these same instructional steps can be followed in Canvas. Using Modules and prereqs and requirements you can move students through content into practice into assessment. (Just one example!)
• Depending on the age of your students having an organized home page can go a long way too. I am adding a couple of pictures so you can see what some of my teachers do. (if your students are older, the Modules view works too) 
• Only publish what students need as they need it. 
• Clean up the side bar navigation. Remove items from the sidebar that your students don't need!  

2. What strategies or features within Canvas can I use to effectively manage assignments, quizzes, and assessments in a remote learning environment?

• Speedgrader is your best friend! It lets you view student submissions and give feedback on work quickly. 
• If you school has grade passback, use it! This saves time on entering grades. Check with your Canvas admin if you aren't sure. 

3. Are there any best practices or creative approaches that fellow educators have used to foster engagement and interaction among students in a virtual classroom setting?

• Use the discussion features
• Bring in interactive learning activities like Edpuzzle that integrate into Canvas well. 

4. Communication

• Message students who is a life saver! This lets you mass email students who are missing an assignment or scored below a certain score. 
• Announcements! For virtual teachers, a video announcement or video instruction is a great way for students to connect with you. Seeing your face and hearing your voice goes a long way! 
• Use the Calendar! Make sure assignments have due dates so they populate in the course calendar.

These may be more simple that what you are wanting, but if you are new to this and getting your feet under you, these are where I recommend you start. Please feel free to email me if you ever want to talk Canvas! mjoaquin@leisd.ws 

[BradMoser]

Hi @judywatsonn, welcome to the world of Canvas and I am happy to share some thoughts about your questions. I've launched Canvas is a couple districts and lead our distance learning program and rebranding in my previous role. Here are some thoughts I have for you. I see that Misty has shared some great tips, so I will try to not to repeat but I might because they are solid ideas.

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Here are some specific questions I have:

How can I organize my courses on Canvas LMS to ensure clarity and ease of navigation for my K-12 students?

Nomenclature (naming scheme) and structure. It's important for students to know where they are in the course and they need to do next and what they just completed. I recommend something simple like "UNIT 1 Activity 1 Then A Title" or "Lesson 1 Assignment 2 Then A Title". Some folks will use acronyms that works too but can be confusing at first, i.e. "U1A1 Then A Title" or "L1A2 Then A Title". Also, using ICONS and color can greatly help with consistency. Leverage the Modules to organize content is a must. 

What strategies or features within Canvas can I use to effectively manage assignments, quizzes, and assessments in a remote learning environment?

Assignment Groups for weighting but also to organize activities when viewing the page. Using modules to arrange sequence of learning. Leverage Due Dates, Online Submission Types, Module Requirements and PreRequisities. Graded Group Discussions but you can choose to put these into an Assignment Group that has Zero Weight or make them worth zero points so they don't impact the grade. Also, I using Outcomes and Rubrics to help with standards grading and reporting. 

Are there any best practices or creative approaches that fellow educators have used to foster engagement and interaction among students in a virtual classroom setting?

This varies with teachers. But I think if you can facilitate student voice and choice in their learning. You can do this by providing optional assignments perhaps managing that using a Mastery Path or you could simple have assignments that allow choice in some of the topics being learned that can meet the same standard. Also, not every page in Canvas has to be added to a module. You can create a resource page that is referenced and linked from another Canvas page, but doesn't show up in the Module page. That way things are neat and tidy in your modules which can get long. Making each page clean, clear and simple is also very important. It shouldn't take long for students to get to the information and at the same time you don't want to make it look boring. Bring images, videos and colors to make the content more engaging and easily navigated.

I found that I needed ways to manage our page templates, provide consistency in colors and bring some life to our blank Canvas pages. When we revamped our online content we purchased the add-on from Cidi Labs called DesignPLUS and it was a game changer for accomplishing much of what I just shared. While its an added cost for these great tools, the time my fellow distrance learning teachers saved and I saved as the director was well worth it. There are lots of great add-ons for Canvas. You don't have to only use your own creations, but you can incorporate WeVideo, Canva, Adobe Express, Nearpod and so many other LTi's that can integrate into Canvas. Which is why I love Canvas so much. In fact, because of all my integrations and experience, I since left the district and join one of these great edtech teams to help others enjoy the great benefits of the open canvas that Canvas provides. 

Good luck in your development!