Notes taken during the K-12 User Group Meeting @ InstructureCon, 2016

We are a 9-12 Boarding School in the Mid-Atlantic and we currently have a member of our facilities staff who is hearing impaired.   From his first month, he immersed himself right into our community, not only with his job responsibilities, but becomi...

Starting Canvas in our school, it was agreed that all homework should be put on the calendar for the course you teach to encourage students to get on to and explore the platform.Staff could make entries either as:An event - For tasks not related to C...

Online journaling is a tool I’ve just begun to use that brings together the best of instructional methods and technology into one easy-to-implement classroom practice. The emphasis here is on the word easy.  In this activity, I've incorporated Google...

We recently re-discovered how to do an advanced image search in google. For those of you who did not know, google moved the way of filtering image searches based on copyright permissions.  The great news is you still can search for images that are ba...

It feels like preparing your Tax return! No one looks forward to doing it, but it sure is nice to have it done – especially if you get a refund. So it is with switching over from the legacy Turnitin API integration (to be deprecated by the end of 201...

This is my first blog post in the Community, so it might be a little underwhelming. Just yesterday, Canvas published the first wave of breakout sessions from InstructureCon 2016 on their YouTube Page. Today, I burned through all the posted sessions. ...

Welcome back to school! Following up last year ‘Packing up the Classroom’ we will revisit the series with administrator and teacher tasks for the beginning of the school year. The thirty minute webinar will cover course imports, Commons, term date an...

As an Edtech Coordinator one of my goals next year is to help teachers transform their feedback. Below are two posts I recently wrote on my personal blog that I wanted to share with the Canvas Community.Part 1One of my AAU basketball coaches would al...

In a previous blog post I expressed how surprised I was that the students in my classes had not embraced Canvas in the way that I had imagined: Students who say, "just tell me what to memorise," and how to serve them​Yesterday, having spent another d...

I love learning, *really* love learning: if I could avoid my classes and sneak into the back of colleagues' rooms to listen to lessons on classical civilisation, Russian grammar, and theoretical physics all day long, that would be heaven.As it is, I ...

I was directed to Versal last week by a tweet from @alicekeeler. Versal is a free course generator that allows you to develop a number of interactive learning activities using 'gadgets'.The software is very straightforward to use. Sign up is simple (...

All our students have planners to write their homework into.  We usually put some school-specific information into the front few pages of their planners.  I've made a couple of pages explaining students how to use Canvas.  Here's the PDF and DOCX ver...

Cross-listing is a way of porting Sections of students in one Canvas class into another while keeping their Sectioning in-tact. Cross-listing is helpful for teachers with multiple classes of the same subject because instead of copying or importing co...

K-12 Users Group​ Thank you to all of you that attended the K-12 User Group Meeting this month.  Attached is the recording.  Please let me know what questions you may have.  I will send an email to everyone with a link to the notes and the chat log. ...

In a studio art classroom, it is difficult to be 100% paperless. Projects and sketches aside, I have been operating my classes digitally for three years. I initially started with another LMS, and after my school adopted Canvas in 2014, I’ve happily b...

The start of a blog and discussion about how to use CSS styles to develop your courses. The link below is a video to whet your appetite. It is part of a course we deliver for staff training.This video is currently being processed. Please try again in...

A webinar touching on best practices for administrators and instructors at the close of the school year. Learn about Terms, course conclude dates and managing student access after the term end date. Teachers will learn how to pack away their course a...

Recording of K-12 User Group Meeting #1 held 3/31/16 @ 9am MDT

I can't technically tie this to Canvas, but it has been so much fun that I wanted to share it with you.  I've been playing with Google Cardboard and Cardboard Camera over the last few months.  With Cardboard Camera (a free app for Android), you can c...

What's Wrong with the Built-in Google Doc Submissions?If you've been using Canvas for a while you probably know that students can connect their Google Drive to it. This allows them to turn in or submit files directly from their Google Drive without e...

Differentiated instruction allows teachers to tailor study to a student's needs and/or interests. Nothing is more frustrating than having to watch a student who has easily mastered the material not be challenged as he/she waits for others to grasp th...

How often do you view your course through the eyes of your students? Is your course organized in a logical manner? Can students easily find the content they need?  Is content placed into modules? Are titles of content explicit, pointing to lesson, to...

I don't know many people, especially teachers, who are not pressed for time. However, Canvas can help you save this precious commodity. Here's how:Canvas Quizzes Can Score Themselves: Use a variety of questions from matching to multiple choice to fil...

If we want our students to be well-prepared for an assessment, the way that we practice in class should closely mirror the format of the test itself.Why, then, are we still using paper review sheets?Don't get me wrong: there are some students who pre...

We started revamping our science curriculum a couple years back as a part of a big STEM push as an institution (complete with a new building). Lovingly called STEM 1 initially, now Science 9: Chemical and Physical Systems, the course Freshman take co...

I was speaking with a high school metal shop teacher the other day.  He had what I thought as a neat way to use Canvas in his lab.  The students must demonstrate how to safely use various pieces of equipment throughout the semester.  When a student i...

I had a teacher request that tests in her class not be available in Canvas unless students were using Safe Exam Browser.   SEB is a free open source lock down browser similar to Respondus, but free!So I slapped together a quick little snippet of java...

I LOVE the use of Rubrics within Canvas!Scenario: Previously, I would print out dozens of copies of a rubric- I use rubrics to provide clear expectations for my students. Traditionally, I make copies to handout when I assign a project and ask for stu...

Looking for ways to increase teacher collaboration in your school?Lucky for us Canvas is a perfect tool to increase teacher collaboration within and across disciplines! Here are a few ideas!1. Develop a teacher course housing Professional Development...