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I like that the items from the Help menu open a new browser tab. The student or instructor can go to the new tab, get their help, then close the tab without leaving whatever they were doing in Canvas. I tested all items on our Help menu, which is highly customizable. I liked the way each opened and didn't disturb the current Canvas location. I guess that's just me. I came here to see if we were missing something. I like different ideas to solve Canvas issues. 🙂 This idea sounded promising. Perhaps I haven't considered why a Canvas frame would look better than a new browser tab. Please educate me. 🙂 ... View more

Thanks for investigating further!!! 🙂   I suspect that many instances of Canvas are on Amazon servers, somewhere in the world. So many have gone to Amazon Web Services over the years. I am not surprised that Amazon IP addresses are showing up in page views. I bet even some smaller ISPs (and Canvas LTIs) are using Amazon. Perhaps Amazon's web service is cheaper than creating one's own server farm. I wonder too about the differing page views associated with Amazon that are recorded in Canvas. Perhaps this is a case of the path of least resistance over the internet. Aren't we really interested in page views to validate that the student viewed the page? The page view isn't accurate about where the student viewed the page, is it? Just a couple of thoughts! 🙂 Please correct my understanding!!! ... View more

I attended graduate school in the 80s. I kept all my papers. I have a file drawer full of these papers. Now, if I want to keep them electronically I must scan these documents, which I can do, especially with Evernote and Scannable.  Imagine the ability to download any or all of one's work into an ePortfolio. Imagine another helpful feature in this regard: Keep the course and the course content that one produces in an ePub of the course. Smart!!! Thanks for creating these helpful tools, Instructure!!! 🙂   ... View more

I wish we would promote the ePub feature of Canvas to students. They would have all the content, their performance, and a nice neat portfolio of the whole. Sadly, most students and faculty and even our department don't know about a students ability to save the course through ePub. Then, storing courses would be unnecessary. BTW: ePub is ONLY available to current courses. Students cannot save a concluded course. I'm not sure why. 😞 ... View more

. . . and students want to review the course because the course is available--unlike a "live" course. ... View more

David Lyons answered your question: Watch this video on importing material from another course. I hope all goes well. ... View more

Thanks for the comment and the wisdom. I share your enthusiasm for InstructureCon, though I've never been. We don't have it in our budget. Someone from our group should go and debrief the rest of us.  I have hosted many user-conferences, but I picture this one being different because we live in Canvas. Having support's perspective or the perspective of other user's would be invaluable. You can't get these experiences in a book or video. Thanks again! 🙂 ... View more

Curious! Instructure says nothing is wrong with Canvas. This thread has proven my complaint. Students need Read-Only access to their courses for the last term. They don't need to participate. In the Terms of our main Account, we set the "Students can access from" Start / End Date so that students can put the course on their Dashboard, just like the "Teacher" Dates. Sure enough . . . students can access the course in their Dashboard, but in participation-mode not Read-Only mode. Notice, too, that we check a box for participation with Course Dates or Section Dates. We don't check a box in Term Dates because the Term is highest you can go. This means that "Students can access from" dates are worthless, meaningless. If students can participate, then these dates are the same as Term Dates. I have written Instructure on this issue several times, and they keep sending me URLs to Guides and teaching how Canvas works. But we have a problem that's not solved by my education. Our problem is solved by their admission that something is broken. All of this happened after the last update. I have received several calls from students about this. Can we all be wrong? ... View more

Students enroll in online courses so they can attend class according to their schedule not according to the school's schedule or the instructor's schedule. We have "office" hours so that students can talk with the instructor face-to-face. We use Webex for that purpose. Even though the student and instructor meet one-on-one, they meet face-to-face and synchronously. These meetings are good for a social presence of the instructor. We also have optional synchronous events that are recorded through Webex. Perhaps 8 in a class of 80 attend. Usually the same ones attend, too. Times for the events are best scattered throughout the day so that students from all over the world and all walks of life can attend. These meetings are likewise good for the instructor's social presence. The instructor will have an agenda--maybe two items to cover. This is in case no one asks anything. Dead air time is not good. Purposeless talking is not good either. The recording is added to Canvas in a link--usually the next module. The other students can view the meeting at their leisure. No requirements are met by students. Our modules are usually weekly in our 101-109 courses. Sometimes a teaching assistant will conduct the meeting or the "office" hour. The teaching assistant might have their own meeting or meetings. Multiple teaching assistants in a course will meet with their section. As a course designer and technologists, I have sat in on these meetings to assure that Webex goes well. Some instructors are intimidated with Webex. ... View more

Good presentation on how to present/teach any subject. Thank you! "Flipping" a classroom makes perfect sense. Students can watch videos or demos or lectures at home or on their own time. Instead of using Magic Marker, which has no-comment ability, use Speedgrader and its comments. Give feedback with the score. Also, Magic Marker does not time/date stamp the assessment. Does Speedgrader in the IOS app? Without comments Magic Marker is a go- or no-go- assessment. It can only tell why one assessed the way one did through the outcome language. Thus, to maximize Magic Marker, one must craft the best and optimal teaching language for the outcome. As this presentation points out, a video demonstration of the competency and attached to the outcome is important, too. Do I understand this video correctly? ... View more

We have four of our six competencies built into our internship assignments. The students' final project is to submit their portfolios that describe and reflect on these four competencies demonstrated in their internship. Our internships can be 2-semesters or 1-year. We will add the other two competencies next year because a single department of the institution will have ownership of all the competencies and portfolios. Students will simply add the items to their already existing portfolios. They will demonstrate competency in these six areas to graduate. Students will start their portfolios from matriculation. They will submit a portfolio for various classes. What we like about Canvas is proximity of data and the flexibility to create numerous portfolios. I hope this helps! Thanks for reading. 🙂 ... View more

We are investigating portfolios now. We have used Canvas portfolios up until now. We don't find them "pretty" either. We also don't find them easy-to-use. Plus, we want to have the ability to create templates of various kinds of portfolios that students might use. All that said, I still find Canvas portfolios as compelling as any other LTI tool. The integration of data is the key feature. Students don't have to go far to include their work. In addition, after students use the tool, Canvas isn't so hard. Training seems to be a key factor here. Lastly, let me say that FREE speaks volumes. 🙂 As far as creating templates, we have not gotten serious about how we might create them. I'm thinking we could create a "dummy" student and a course that would solve the problem of templates and training in one step. The student and the course and the portfolios would be public for all to easily find. Lastly, most portfolio tools lure the institution with the portfolio and hook the institution with assessment and accreditation reports. First, we have not explored the tools that Canvas offers. Second, if we need to enhance those tools, then I think a reporting tool, like Tableau, is our answer.  I'm looking for ideas about portfolios in Canvas. I would love to hear from you about this. Thanks!!! ... View more

Sadly, I cannot find any reports off the data collected from portfolios either. Am I missing something? Is there a way I can at least get a CSV file for Excel? ... View more

Have you checked into ePortfolios? ... View more

In Chrome I selected Print before and after I selected Preview. Though I didn't print the quiz, the print preview Chrome provides was good enough for me. ... View more

Christ is is our midst! Wouldn't the student benefit from this as a course during their entire enrollment? If the course was perpetual, then they could return to it and repeat sections of it as refresher. ... View more

Christ is in our midst! Recording in Canvas has been an education issue with us. We have to get passed the general ignorance of video recording first. I record in Canvas with few problems, but I record generally on my MacAir with Screenflow. I upload to announcements or to a specific question one might have in an e-mail. Usually I want the recording to be "professional" not spontaneous. I find too a general ignorance about computing, e.g. closing applications when not in use or shutting down one's machine weekly or clearing one's browser cache. I am continually amazed that closing apps or shutting down a machine or clearing one's browser cache answers many questions about video. Try it; it won't hurt. 🙂 ... View more

Thank you for the clarification, Kona. That makes perfect sense. RE: Minimum Usage by Faculty We have no such requirement. Adoption of technology has been good, probably because we have been developing online courses since 2005. Growth has been steady. All faculty know they may participate; they all know that our support department is happy to help; they all know the inevitability of the situation. Our adoption has been top-down. Our Academic Dean is young and tech-savvy; he’s an evangelist and promoter of these tools. Since he teaches online and hybrid courses, he leads by example. Periodically in a faculty meeting, he will invite an instructor to demonstrate how he/she uses technology. This is contagious. After such a presentation, I receive calls and inquiries about doing the same. The only department with no Canvas presence is our PhD program. They have expressed no interest. <http://www.dts.edu/> <http://www.dts.edu/> Terry L Hebert, ThM, DMin Online & Distance Education 214-887-5326 214-887-5530 (fax) ... View more

Please forgive me; I'm not sure why one would require minimum usage. If courses are designed that engage students in the use of Canvas, then they will use Canvas according to the amount of engagement the designer builds into the course. Does that make sense? May I offer these two quick examples? Design discussions that post video responses. Design assignments that employ the group collaboration features. If Canvas is simply an assignment depository, a place to submit a paper, if Canvas is merely a place to watch video lectures, if Canvas is an online classroom and not a teaching technology, then we minimize the student's usage and engagement of the pedagogical features Canvas offers. The design minimizes student activity. I personally am working to rid our faculty of this predisposition about Canvas. I promote a design that increases the use of teaching methods in Canvas. I hope this perspective was helpful. If I have confused the issue, please allow me to clarify or retract. God bless you! ... View more