Community

I have found both hypothes.is and Slack to be solid class discussion tools.  Hypothes.is does have a Canvas LTI that is in beta, and it works well - but you don't have to have the LTI to use hypothes.is, as it runs anywhere on the web.   I have students annotate the syllabus, videos, and articles routinely - having the discussion in the margins of the documents is remarkably effective. Slack does not integrate with Canvas, but it's easy and convenient.  Dialog in Slack is more conversational and fluid - I find students are more engaged and forthcoming.   Plus it works well on my phone.   ... View more

I would recommend using an external tool similar to Twine, which is designed for choose-your-own adventure storytelling.   Twine is open source and will let you build a branched story using some basic if-this-then-that logic.  It produces raw HTML pages for the story, which you can upload/host somewhere.  You can pull it into Canvas using the Redirect Tool (Settings > Apps), and might even be able to host the Twine pages within Canvas Files.   You might look at the work of Keegan Long-Wheeler who does quite a bit with Twine as well as as Canvas - his site has guides and examples of Twine and for using the Canvas Redirect Tool to pull in external content.   Customizing Twine Web App – Learning & Coding – Keegan Long-Wheeler  Now I want to try it too. = )  Brad ... View more

No, unfortunately they dynamic grids are not mobile friendly.  This was a proof-of-concept - v.2 should use responsive design, but we haven't revisited as of yet.  The bootstrap grid uses Canvas code and is responsive.  ... View more

Happy too.  These take a bit of work and I'm happy to share the details.  ... View more

In the School of Education @CUDenver we began creating collage-style image grids on course start pages.  Each box in a grid links to a module start-page, thus the grid supplements the Modules list. The first two examples below run a php script on an external server so that the grid boxes highlight/change from week to week - giving students a sense of 'you are here' - a type of gauge on course progress.  We hope to create some cinemagraph grids soon. This collage begins clear and full-color, and as weeks pass the boxes darken - indicating they should be complete. -------------------------------- This collage begins blurred, and becomes focused as weeks pass. ==================== Basic grid ==================== Our newest grid uses the same code as the Canvas dashboard to create a landing page grid. This is nice for faculty who may now edit the titles "Module XX" in the editor.  They can change the images too, but it's a bit tricky. ... View more

Yep.  Consider it done.  Adding a Module called Embeds & External Apps.  ... View more

Thanks Chris - I should have looked there first.   = ) I just hope these things actually get voted-up and implemented.  Seems the Commons has lots of potential and could really take-off with a few usability-tweaks. ... View more

The Redirect Tool will bring in an external website with SSL into the course.  Mostly.  appear.in works because the video opens inside the web page.  Other tools that use pop-ups or modals won't work the same.  We've done this with Zoom as well- which opens it's own window when you launch it so the student 'leaves' the course.  It doesn't look as nice, but is still fully functional.  Added a Zoom demo to CanvasHacks as well. The Redirect Tool opens some doors for Canvas hacking. = )   We are currently building a website specifically to bring into courses with the Redirect Tool - to add functionality.  Since we can't hack much inside the system, we're building outside and bringing it in.   It's kind of...  custom app development that is hosted on our own server and can be embedded.  Gives us more capability. ... View more

I wonder if the CanvasHacks should have a section on integrating external apps? We have been adding live video chat to course navigation using the Redirect App and tools such as appear.in.  This approach works great for bringing a variety of add-ons into Canvas.   Demo added to CanvasHacks.  ​Our faculty love this. ... View more

me too por favor    brad.hinson@ucdenver.edu ... View more

me too me too me too please. ... View more

Hey Amanda - that did the trick!  I've been tinkering with a pure css approach but couldn't get anything that wasn't 'cleansed' by the page editor.  So I thought I would somehow leverage the Canvas css, but no luck so far.   Looks like that's what this does - is that right? thanks so much! Brad ... View more

I've been combing the apps looking for an angle, but no luck so far.  Any idea which app? It may not be enabled in our instance...  ... View more

Thanks Chris...    Yes, the tabs from the style guide would be perfect.  I've successfully gotten them to render via CSS in the page editor, but they don't work as the javascript is stripped out of the page editor.    I am appealing to my Canvas admins, but they have traditionally not been very open to mods.  Their first response wasn't very hopeful, but I'm still asking.  It's a reasonable, pedagogical, need but I'm not very optimistic.  So my challenge is how to do this without the mod.  Hmmmm.   ... View more