Growing with Canvas - New Training Course

erin_keefe
Instructure
Instructure
27
38442

Please follow this blog:

https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Training/Growing-with-Canvas-Updates/ta-p/269717

in order to keep up with updates about the course going forward!

 

 

 

Subject: Growing with Canvas Video Updates 10/30/23
The Community Vimeo videos have been migrated to Studio which impacts the video links in the Growing with Canvas course. The Commons version of Growing with Canvas has been updated with the correct video links and the updated course is now in Commons. The CanvasNet version has also been updated. We highly encourage you to direct clients going through implementation to either version of Growing with Canvas instead of uploading a different version for them. If you’d like to continue loading the course into their instance for them, please make sure to update the videos with the correct links by July 31, 2023 to avoid broken links. Reach out to the Community for the Studio embed links if you decide to take this route.
Thank you,
Learning Services

 

 

Knowing where to begin when you are brand new to Canvas can be very daunting. Two years ago Mike Cowen saw the challenge and designed an amazing resource - Kung Fu Canvas - to help train Canvas users. Countless Canvas users have gotten their start with that self-paced course!

 

The great thing about Canvas is it is always growing and changing. Lots of features have been updated and new functionality has been released recently, so the Education Services team volunteered to take the fundamentals of the Kung Fu Canvas course and give it an update, too. We are excited introduce to you the replacement for Kung Fu Canvas - Growing with Canvas!

 

About The Course

Growing with Canvas has five modules of content that will take users through everything they need to know about using Canvas at their institutions - no matter what grade or level. The course uses a combination of the Canvas Video Guides and Canvas Guides to teach the content. Participants in the course will try out a number of the concepts through the practice activities.

 

Growing with Canvas Gif

 

The course is available in the Canvas Commons at this link: Growing with Canvas, (pro tip - make sure you're logged in to Canvas!) and is offered under a Attribution-Non-Commerical-ShareAlike licence. That means you’re free to share the course, as well adapt it to meet the needs of your institution.

 

If you’ve never used a resource in the Canvas Commons before, all you need is an empty course in your Canvas instance in which to copy the Growing with Canvas course. Once Growing with Canvas is in your instance, you’re free to edit and use the course as you wish. Check out this guide - How do I use Commons? - if you need more help.

 

If You’re a Canvas Admin

This makes for a great starting point to train your folks. Check out the very first Page in the Introduction module for tips and tricks about deploying the course to your institution.

 

The course is configured to work with Badgr and award badges for completion of each module. Instructions are in the course for setting up the integration, using the images, and awarding the badges.

 

If You’re a Canvas Teacher

This course is also for you! Even if your institution isn’t enrolling a bunch of faculty in a training course, you can grab your very own copy of Growing with Canvas and use it to learn how to use the LMS.

 

Potential Uses

  • Share this course with your colleagues
  • Apply the principles in Growing with Canvas to your own courses
  • Elevate your knowledge about Canvas

 

Huge thanks to some of our Education Services team who helped on this massive project - amansier and  @Mark_Sluzky .

 

Updates

 

We will post all updates to the course below, as they are made. Subscribe to this post to stay up to date!

 

August 30, 2018 - Update to Commons: 

In this version, we have made a few updates for enhanced accessibility:

1. Adjusted header tags to be in order on the page H1, H2, H3.

2. Removed tables used for the purpose of layout.

3. Ensured all items marked as decorative images were decorative and adjusted with alt tags.

 

November 8, 2018 - Recommendations until Next Update

The docs team has revised some of the video guides. The changes to the video guides are affecting the following embedded videos in the current version of Growing with Canvas. Details and recommendations are listed below. See the Action Needed column for steps you can take if you've already downloaded Growing with Canvas. 

Course Item

More Detail

Reason

Action Needed

2.3 | Course Settings

Second video is outdated - Course Settings Part 2

This topic is now covered in the Instructor Course Settings Overview (vimeo.com/79690358) video.

Delete the second video.

2.8 | Syllabus

Syllabus overview video

This topic is now covered in the Courses: Creation & Management (vimeo.com/76384788) video.

Replace with the Courses: Creation & Management (vimeo.com/76384788) video

3.3 | Discussions Overview

Second video is outdated - Discussion Creation.

This topic is now covered in the Discussions Overview for Instructors (vimeo.com/108385146) video.

Delete the second video.

3.5 | Assignments Overview

Second video is outdated - Assignment Creation.

This topic is now covered in the Assignments Overview for Instructors (vimeo.com/71970884) video.

Delete the second video.

3.7 | Creating Quizzes

Second video is outdated - Quiz Creation.

This topic is now covered in the Quizzes Overview for Instructors (vimeo.com/72004689) video.

Delete the second video.

5.6 | Course Importing and Copying

This topic is now covered in the Courses: Creation & Management (vimeo.com/76384788) video.

 

Replace with the Courses: Creation & Management (vimeo.com/76384788) video.

 

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

 

The Education Services department is always ready to help your organization create a cycle of success with
Canvas through Change Management, Training, Instructional Design, and Adoption Consulting! If you would like to learn more about our services, please contact your CSM.

27 Comments
Bobby2
Community Champion

This community is filled with incredible virtual gardeners. Thank you for the course  @erin_keefe  and team!

erin_keefe
Instructure
Instructure

We released an update to the course today in the Canvas Commons.

In this version, we have made a few updates for enhanced accessibility:

1. Adjusted header tags to be in order on the page H1, H2, H3.

2. Removed tables used for the purpose of layout.

3. Ensured all items marked as decorative images were decorative and adjusted with alt tags.

jayoder
Community Participant

 @erin_keefe ‌, Thank you so much for this. We used Kung Fu Canvas last year, but not everyone had a chance to take it, so this might be a good addition. Can I ask your opinion on the differences between Growing with Canvas and KFC in terms of content covered? Did you add in any new tools that weren't covered in KFC, did you leave out anything from KFC? I just pulled it into my instance and haven't had a chance to dive in since I already have KFC set for new teachers etc...Should I think about making this our new training system over KFC in your opinion?

erin_keefe
Instructure
Instructure

Hi  @jayoder ‌!

I'm glad that you've had success with KFC and are looking as well at our new resource! In my opinion, I'd encourage you to use Growing with Canvas for a number of reasons.

We took a lot of time analyzing Kung Fu Canvas to make sure that Growing with Canvas would include all of the same resources and information, plus more. Our intention as a group of trainers and adoption consultants who have used KFC and also build our own training resources was to say - what have our teachers who we trained over the past few years wanted to learn? What did we need to focus more time and attention on? 

So we made sure that Growing covered the same topics, and it also builds on them, while adding in a few that weren't covered in Kung Fu Canvas (for example - Quizzes.Next is added, as well as a more in-depth look at Gradebook, SpeedGrader, and Copying Courses). We still use the same resources that KFC did; we include the Video Guides and the links to the Canvas Guides. In addition to the "how" of the guides, we built in a "why" for each topic, and give some information about why teachers would want to use each feature or option.

We've also taken great care in the design the course, ensuring that it accessible to all users. We have also focused on making it engaging, including activities along the way, as well as self-check quizzes. It's also built to work with Badgr, and we've included badges if you decide you'd like to use it for micro credentialing as well. We're committed to continuing to update this course as things change in Canvas. I don't believe Kung Fu Canvas is still being maintained. 

I hope that helps you as you make your decision! Let me know if you have any other questions!

-Erin

ncrisosto
Community Explorer

I recently learned about this new training resource from our CSM.  I was wondering why there is so little about accessibility in the Growing with Canvas content?  I did find  a mention of the Accessibility Checker in 3.2.

While I was surprised to find very little on accessibility in the content, since the content can be edited, if anyone has a version they have adapted to include more accessibility strategies or examples, would you be willing to share it?

Or after looking through the content, do you have any suggestions for incorporating accessibility strategies and awareness within the existing content?  For example, in the section Understanding the Course Design, it could include:

 Accessibility 

This course incorporates strategies to make the content more accessible to users of assistive technology. Canvas has several tools to make content accessible for faculty and staff, including the Accessibility Checker, descriptive links, closed captions, alternative text descriptions, logical heading structure, table headers for columns and rows, and more. You will have opportunities to try some of these tools. You will also find additional accessibility resources throughout the course.

I would like to have Canvas release an updated version to Commons that highlights the various ways accessibility can be incorporated into Canvas content.  Or perhaps someone in this group would like to collaborate?

I shared some of this feedback to our CSM.  He asked me to open a Canvas support case.  I would like to encourage anyone who is interested in having Canvas incorporate more accessibility into basic Canvas training like this to also open support cases and make requests for accessibility to be incorporated at the same time the rest of the content is available.

-Nicolas

ncrisosto
Community Explorer

There still appear to be some minor accessibility issues with the content in the Growing with Canvas training course (I did not conduct an exhaustive review).  For example, 2.10 has the graphic labeled as a heading level 3.  Also, the videos in 3.5.2 about the Arc Video Tool appear to be missing accurate closed captions.

erin_keefe
Instructure
Instructure

Hi  @ncrisosto ‌! Thank you for your feedback and questions!

The intent of this course is to cover the basic training functionality a new Canvas user would need to get started. It's intended, as you correctly pointed out, to be a baseline training resource that institutions can add to, since we did provide it as a free resource in the Canvas Commons. I like your idea of calling out the accessibility functionality woven into the course. We will consider adding that to future releases. 

Regarding your call to open support tickets to ask Canvas to build more basic free training around accessibility - that is not the recommended workflow. I fear you've been incorrectly advised. Bringing that to your CSM and here in the Community is the best way to get the conversation started.

The Training Department at Canvas has other paid resources that deal with accessibility and teaching about designing with accessibility in mind. At this time, we do not have plans to release any free courses around accessibility.

It does appear, however, that there are some resources in the Commons that deal with accessibility that you might be able to download and customize for your training needs. It looks like there are a few great resources from  @kmeeusen ‌. I know he's a great accessibility advocate here in the Community. You might also want to connect with the folks in the Accessibility group here in the Community. 

-Erin

erin_keefe
Instructure
Instructure

Thanks,  @ncrisosto ‌. We are looking at this and will have it fixed for the next release.

jayoder
Community Participant

 @erin_keefe ‌ I thought I set it all up properly and 2 people have received badges, but they had no idea they received badges. How can I remedy that?

Also the link for the badges at the end of the module kicks out an error message that "Couldn't find valid settings for this link, but I add it as an External Tool and selected Badgr from the list...any ideas?

Also after they finish 1 Module when they hit next it won't take them to the next module, I think that is somehow related to this issue though.

I really want to start this next week, so any assistance would be much appreciated!

erin_keefe
Instructure
Instructure

 @jayoder ‌ - I will look at this today before lunch. 

erin_keefe
Instructure
Instructure

Hi again,  @jayoder ‌!

I did some digging with one of my test students.

First - because you're getting that error message: "Couldn't find valid settings for this link" your participants aren't see the badge awarded page. Nothing happens - it just takes them back to the Modules page. I recreated this in my course, and then found that the way to fix it is detailed here: Troubleshooting: Couldn't find valid settings for this link - Badgr Support - Confluence. I followed the directions in my instance to fix it (short story is: you have to remove Badgr and reinstall it). After I followed those instructions, and logged back in as my test student, the link for the badge at the end of th module works, and looks like this:

292681_Screen Shot 2018-10-05 at 11.46.36 AM.png

That way, your folks will know that they've completed the module and earned the badge. There won't be a next button, though after that...they'll have to click back to Modules. Seems to be the way the Badgr integration is built.

Second, make sure that you're including Badges as an item in your Navigation. 

292727_Screen Shot 2018-10-05 at 11.50.33 AM.png

Your participants will be able to see their progress when they click on Badges:

292728_Screen Shot 2018-10-05 at 11.51.14 AM.png

jayoder
Community Participant

Thanks for being so responsive! I will reinstall this weekend! I appreciate all your hard work!

jodi_k
Community Novice

I have recently set this up for some of our staff. Such a helpful resource. Thanks!

erin_keefe
Instructure
Instructure

I'm so glad,  @jodi_k ‌! Please keep us posted to how it's going!

jayoder
Community Participant

I kicked it off today and I have a few taking it. I really like its design. It does a great job showcasing  learning and the visual capabilities within Canvas. Badgr is working nicely thanks to Erin's assistance! Thank you!

erin_keefe
Instructure
Instructure

Hey folks! I wasn't aware that some of the videos are showing up that they are outdated and going to be removed...no need to panic! What I'm going to work on is a list of them, and post them here. You can definitely delete those oldies, as what the Community team is doing is consolidating info. So we aren't losing any good stuff! Stay tuned, and I'll post the list here, as well as clean that up in the next update. 

erin_keefe
Instructure
Instructure

Update - I made this handy chart to show ya what is outated and what to do till the next time we release an update to the course!

November 8, 2018 - Recommendations until Next Update

The docs team has revised some of the video guides. The changes to the video guides are affecting the following embedded videos in the current version of Growing with Canvas. Details and recommendations are listed below. See the Action Needed column for steps you can take if you've already downloaded Growing with Canvas. 

Course Item

More Detail

Reason

Action Needed

2.3 | Course Settings

Second video is outdated - Course Settings Part 2

This topic is now covered in the Instructor Course Settings Overview (vimeo.com/79690358) video.

Delete the second video.

2.8 | Syllabus

Syllabus overview video

This topic is now covered in the Courses: Creation & Management (vimeo.com/76384788) video.

Replace with the Courses: Creation & Management (vimeo.com/76384788) video

3.3 | Discussions Overview

Second video is outdated - Discussion Creation.

This topic is now covered in the Discussions Overview for Instructors (vimeo.com/108385146) video.

Delete the second video.

3.5 | Assignments Overview

Second video is outdated - Assignment Creation.

This topic is now covered in the Assignments Overview for Instructors (vimeo.com/71970884) video.

Delete the second video.

3.7 | Creating Quizzes

Second video is outdated - Quiz Creation.

This topic is now covered in the Quizzes Overview for Instructors (vimeo.com/72004689) video.

Delete the second video.

5.6 | Course Importing and Copying

This topic is now covered in the Courses: Creation & Management (vimeo.com/76384788) video.

Replace with the Courses: Creation & Management (vimeo.com/76384788) video.

 

MattHanes
Community Champion

We appreciate you continuing to keep this course up to date!

erin_keefe
Instructure
Instructure

Hi Folks! 

Before the holiday I had a really great convo with  @christopher_gil ‌ about the course. While we were chatting, we hit upon an idea of creating a version of the course that used MasteryPaths to allow users who might be a little bit more advanced the ability to move forward through some of the introductory material. Anyone have any thoughts, comments, interest in this?

-Erin

jayoder
Community Participant

I'd like to learn more about that! 

erin_keefe
Instructure
Instructure

Please follow this blog:

 https://community.canvaslms.com/community/answers/training/blog/2019/07/18/growing-with-canvas-updat... 

in order to keep up with updates about the course going forward!

Hildi_Pardo
Community Champion

Hi!  The URL with the link to the updates says Not Found.   It's listed at the top of this Blog in large text, and on the July 19 comment.

Our district is really loving this course, by the way!   We used it last year and had great feedback, and are using it again this year.   Thank you so much for this!

We've made some changes to tailor it to our district's needs/use/expectations; downloaded and shortened some of the Vimeo videos so they only see what is relevant; adding a few home grown resources, etc.   Thanks for the updates, Erin!

Gina_Hutchens
Community Participant

This link leads to an error page.

Bobby2
Community Champion
judy_harmon
Community Contributor

Today we uploaded the Growing with Canvas course into a shell; however, the images are not showing.  When going to FILES, I clicked on a couple and they are not loading there either.  Please advise.  Thanks!

 

yeet_god8-_-
Community Novice

hello

jbarr
Community Explorer

Having the same issues as @judy_harmon above.