Rational for integrating external apps into Canvas ecosystem. Canvas as the Hub:   There are so many great apps out there which enrich our teaching and learning experiences, but asking students to navigate away from Canvas for any reason may be challenging, confusing, and distracting for many.  By integrating your apps you are creating a one-stop-shop for your scholars and saving time, energy, and concern for yourself as an instructor. Auto Gradebook Updating:  When a Canvas "assignment" leveraging an installed app using the "external tool" option is published a gradebook instance is automatically created.  The gradebook is also populated with scores as student responses are marked in "SpeedGrader. Streamlined Workflow:   Because content creators and consumers engage with all materials in the Canvas environment workflow efficiencies are gained creating time for other important tasks while reducing unnecessary stress. Step 1: Installing External Apps into Canvas Course. Choose a course page. Navigate to "Settings".  Select the "App" tab.  Search for "edpuzzle and select the app's icon. Click the "Add App" button under the app logo.  Input "Consumer Key" and "Shared Secret" into dialogue box.  Find  "Consumer Key" and "Shared Secret" under your name from your Edpuzzle account information tab in the upper right-hand corner.    From your profile page navigate to the “School” tab. NOTE: This feature lies behind a paywall.  Your institution will need to set up a “School” plan through Edpuzzle.com in order to retrieve the codes.  Here is a link about Edpuzzle account tiers from Free to Pro: Free vs Pro – Edpuzzle Help Center. On the “School” tab scroll to the bottom of the page to find the “LMS” selector, s elect “Canvas” from the drop down menu and Copy and Paste the provided codes into the proper places in the Canvas "Add App" section.      A new "Edpuzzle" option is now available in the "Navigation" tab of the "Settings" page.  Drag and Place the link to the desired location before clicking "Save" at the bottom of the "Navigation" page.  Selecting the new "Edpuzzle" tab in the left hand navigation will reveal the instructor's Edpuzzle.com dashboard.   To confirm the integration was successful search "classes" from the Edpuzzle dashboard.  Step 2: Setting up an Assignment leveraging the newly installed Edpuzzle App. In the case of Edpuzzle all content must first be Created or Collected in Edpuzzle.com.  The Edpuzzle External Tool only makes videos from the instructor's Edpuzzle "My Content" section available for assigning. Here is a link to a beginners course for content curation designed by Edpuzzle:  Edpuzzle Level 1.  Once your content is created and ready to go navigate back to your Canvas course and commence the assignment creating process by selecting the "Assignment" tab in the left navigation menu and clicking the "+Assignment" button.  After you add your instructions in the assignment content management panel scroll down to the “Submission Type” section, s elect the “External Tool” option, and search for and select the Edpuzzle tool.    After clicking the "Select" button a new window is displayed prompting the instructor to select the desired video from their Edpuzzle.com course content section.  To choose select the eye (watch) icon which appears while hovering the cursor over the middle of the video. Once selected another window appears displaying more video details as well as a new "Assign" button.  Once assigned the Canvas + Edpuzzle assignment is set for publishing. QUICK TIP: Don’t forget to add a “Due” Date and “Save and Publish”.  This ensures that your new assignment appears on your student’s Canvas Calendar as well as their “To-do” list automatically.  When students engage with the "Assignment" they will see not only the teacher's written and/or video instructions they will also see the embedded Edpuzzle.com Video. Step 3: Grading Edpuzzle Canvas Assignments  The joy of leveraging Edpuzzle as an "Assignment" in Canvas is that an instructor doesn't have to worry about logging scores from Edpuzzle.com into Canvas #Grades; this is done automatically.  Nevertheless, you may still assign a grade, leave written comments, or even produce a video response.  The only feature which is not integrated for "External Tool" submissions are "Rubrics".  For a prolific user of Rubrics this is not ideal, but new developments occur everyday.  Always keep your eyes peeled for updates. Teachers receive performance details from Edpuzzle displaying “score”, date completed, date/time started, as well as an “options” button to reset score, if so desired.  Scores are automatically posted to Gradebook. Step 4:  Keep an eye on the Gradebook because it will make you smile. When leveraging Edpuzzle as a Canvas "Assignment" a gradebook instance is automatically created.  Scores also magically populate the gradebook as students complete the work alleviating the need for double entry and screen swapping while streamlining instructor workflow and improving accuracy.  In short; everyone wins :smileygrin:. **Please keep in mind the timing of this post.  Processes and outcomes mentioned above could change at anytime as Canvas and Edpuzzle continue to improve their integrations.  I also look forward to hearing from the Community.  Let me know if you have any questions, comments, or observations.  I'm always happy to help.** Kindest regards, Brandon K. Risenhoover ... View more

In the United States, all children with disabilities have the right to a “free, appropriate public education.” It’s a law: The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which promises to give educators and parents the tools they need to “improve educational results for children with disabilities.” These tools include grant funding, activity support, research, and training—plus “technology development and media services,” to use the letter of the law. In other words, educators must provide assistive technology tools in the classroom. ....continue reading more on our blog post! ... View more

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 content multiple times every time content is created in one course, the teacher creates it once in a class containing multiple cross-listed sections. If that's a little confusing, I completely understand. I struggled with this too, until I could play around and see it first-hand. Hopefully, this document helps you see this first-hand without having to play too much around with this concept yourself. This coming school year our school district is using the PowerSchool integration, and many of our teachers, especially elementary specialist itinerants, will be getting many auto-created Canvas classes that match their PowerTeacher Sections. THINK: an elementary art teacher traveling between two to three elementary buildings with 2-3 sections per grade level per building. THINK: a freshman center Biology teacher teaching 6 periods of College Prep Biology. This can add up to a LOT of importing and exporting content between the identical classes. As I turned to cross listing I initially had difficulty understanding the idea and terminology used and seeing how the application of this tool could help our teachers. Eventually, after looking around and trying it a few times myself in our test server, I thought it would be helpful for our teachers (who don't have access to our test server) to see it in action in our institution's Canvas environment. To me it just made sense to share it with others here in our Community who might find it helpful to see additional example of cross-listing to help them as well. Below are screencasts I created to share the cross-listing process. The screencasts can get a little wordy because I wanted to share details of each step. For example, instead of saying something like, "Do this for the remaining two classes," I actually record the repeated steps so the viewer can see them again, and perhaps start to anticipate the moves I make before I make them by the last repetition -- at least, that is the intention. The series of videos below uses the following scenario: a music teacher's Canvas classes created automatically by the PowerSchool integration 4 PowerSchool Sections of General Music = 4 auto-created Canvas classes of General Music 3 class Sections, one from their respective, auto-created Canvas class, are cross-listed into 1 auto-created Canvas class. The videos certainly won't win me any Oscars, but for our program they will do the trick. Drop a comment to let me know if they helped you out! Bonus Question: Can you identify the students' name relationships in each of the demo class Sections while you watch? After you watch, check your answer by highlighting between the arrows below the table. Canvas Cross-Listing 1 of 4: Renaming Sections Editing the Section names in your Canvas classes will help you differentiate one from another when they are all in the same Canvas class together. Canvas Cross-Listing 2 of 4: Cross-Listing Sections Although you can search for a course in the cross listing process I used the course number to cross-list in this tutorial. Canvas Cross-Listing 3 of 4: Modify a Canvas Class Name Help avoid potential student and observer role confusion for the Sections of users who now share the same class space by changing the name of the class and removing any period-of-the-day numbering from its original creation. Canvas Cross-Listing 4 of 4: De-Cross-Listing Sections There might come a time during the school year when cross-listing, after giving it a fair try, just isn't right for your teaching needs. If this happens, never fear. Just de-cross-list your Sections back into their original Canvas classes. Did you catch the students' names? Check how you did by highlighting the space between the arrows with your mouse. --------AnswerCheck-----> Section 1 were Planets ; Section 2 were Continents ; Section 3 were Trees ; Section 4 were Colors <--------AnswerCheck----- ... View more

I'm so mad, no one will let me do what I want to do. Maybe I will just run away and do my own thing where no one can tell me no. If I run away, I have no money, will that make me poor and will my friends laugh at me for not having items that they have? Will being poor cause me to be mad all the time and grow up to be always angry? Here is a list of great SEL books that will help students deal with their emotions and how to overcome some the challenges they might encounter.  ... View more

Books on SEL and integration of multicultural representations are important to include in your classroom to help children understand differences in others. The three books I selected are for various age levels and cover various people with vast differences.   ... View more