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5 Golden Rings Giveaway: Instructure Learning Services   New Year's Resolution What’s Included in This Post? • A chance to win Instructure swag! • A fun Community Engagement Activity!   It’s day 3 of our 5 Golden Rings Giveaway! Since our t-shirts are the most sought-after swag, we had to include that gold as our giveaway for today! You have a chance to start the new year in this Instructure T-Shirt! To enter, make a New Year’s Resolution for your Canvas course and share it with us.  How to Enter the Giveaway! Submit your resolution via this Google Form before midnight EST tonight. One golden entry will be randomly chosen and the winner will be announced in the comments below.   Final Thoughts   Come back tomorrow for more swag, freebies, and fun! We can’t wait to watch you shine this week!   Please comment below. We’d love to hear from you! If you would like to learn more about our services, please contact your CSM. ... View more

5 Golden Rings Giveaway: Instructure Learning Services   Caption This! What’s Included in This Post? • A chance to win Instructure swag! • A fun Community Engagement Activity!   To kick off our 5 Golden Rings Giveaway, does a fun activity and a chance to win some swag sound like 24k magic? At Instructure we love Pandas and we believe your ideas are GOLD. So why not combine both? Add some sparkle to this Panda graphic by sending us your best caption for a chance to win an Instructure 24 oz Stainless Steel Water Bottle! Panda hanging out in a tree   How to Enter the Giveaway! Share your caption on this Google Form by midnight EST tonight! One golden entry will be randomly chosen and the winner will be announced in the comments below. Update: Thank you for entering our first of five very exciting giveaways! Check out some of our favorite submissions!  Final Thoughts   Come back tomorrow for more swag, freebies, and fun! We can’t wait to watch you shine this week!   Please comment below. We’d love to hear from you! If you would like to learn more about our services, please contact your CSM. ... View more

5 Golden Rings Giveaway: Instructure Learning Services What’s Included in This Post? • The one-stop-shop for our holiday giveaway! 'Tis the most wonderful time of the year! We are so excited to offer you 5 Golden Rings this season from our Learning Services Department! Now, we can’t quite send all of our followers an actual golden ring, but we promise 24k magic in the next five days that will add a little sparkle to your holiday season. Follow our blog every day, December 19-23rd, for opportunities to win swag and freebies from our team. Your Jewelry Box of Freebies Caption This Enter in our first giveaway by captioning an image of our favorite member of the Instructure team, the panda! This or That Enter this giveaway by letting us into your wintery secrets! What would you choose? New Year’s Resolution Enter this giveaway by telling us your goals for your Canvas courses in 2023. Wrapping Up the Year In this post, we give away some golden content! Check out some of our favorite posts from this past year! Course Stickers Let us treat you with something you can use for your own courses– some stickers!    Final Thoughts Thank you for letting us show you some love this season. We are so very grateful for all that you do and we wish you all the best in the coming year! Warmest Wishes from Learning Services Please comment below and be sure to interact with each post and subsequent resources. We’d love to hear from you! If you would like to learn more about our services, please contact your CSM. ... View more

ID Horror Stories: Put Poor Design to Rest What’s Included in This Post? • Research that supports good instructional design • Tips on how to design your courses to meet the needs of your learners • Examples of what good instructional design can look like in Canvas! EEEEKKKK! Have you ever felt like designing a Canvas Course can be daunting? Developing a well-designed course experience can be unnerving as you navigate the spider web of instructional best practices. As flustered as we may feel in course development, we must all consider the amount of cognitive load we are putting on our learners. In our traditional classrooms, we inherently consider the capacity at which our students retain information. With the recent developments in our educational models, it’s more important than ever to bring these considerations into our online learning environments. According to Sweller’s Theory of Cognitive Load, humans only have a certain amount of working memory, which can overwhelm the brain when too much information is presented. This can cause a person to shut down and ignore the content provided. Do you feel goosebumps form as you think about designing your course for appropriate cognitive retention? Let’s explore some ideas and lay your fears to rest. Headings Our courses can sometimes be chilling for learners because they experience a cognitive overload as they process the amount of content on a page. Headings can be a great way to organize your content in a course, without giving your learners nightmares! It’s common to see a teacher’s entire lesson plan on one singular page in a course, rather than chunks of information. In the before and after below, you can see how adding headings makes it easier to process the content on the page. Before & After Before: Headings After: Headings PRO TIP: Use the text styles to format your headings. For the headings you see below, we recommend the use of the Heading 2 style. Go into the HTML and add the style section to the Heading2 code: <h2 style="color: #ffffff; background: #3278BC; text-align: left; padding-left: 5px;">Heading Here</h2>     Color We see that color can sometimes be as blinding to learners as the sunlight is to Dracula. You’ll want to ensure that your color enhances rather than distracts from the value of your content. Similarly, it’s important to remember that color cannot be the only way meaning is conveyed to a learner. In the before and after below, you can see how adjusting color clarifies the cognitive noise on the page. Before & After Before: Color After: Color PRO TIP: Choose colors that complement one another. A great tool to generate complementary color palettes is this awesome Color Palette Generator! Remember to consider your contrast between text and background. You can use WebAIM’s Color Contrast Checker to ensure your color choices pass accessibility standards.   Images Just as each ingredient of a witch’s brew serves its purpose, so should every element on the page in your course. Images, especially, should be used intentionally; whether as nonlinguistic tools or to enhance the meaning of the lesson’s content. If an image does not add to the value of a specific topic or component of the lesson, your learners may experience the difference between a deadly poison and a love potion. In the examples below, you will notice the designer used an icon to send a visual message to the learner, while also relaying the information through text. In the next example, you can see that the image helps support the information taught on the page. Examples Example: Icons Example: Image with Information PRO TIP: Images may need alt text to describe what is shown in them if they bring context to the page. Use the W3 An alt Decision Tree to help you decide if you need to add alt text to your image or if you should set your image as “decorative.”   Lists The post-trick-or-treat-bucket-dump is just one example of what our learners feel when looking at a content page with little organizational structure (except, maybe, without the drool). Naturally, we search for bullets and visual hierarchy to help lead our brains into processing the information. Lists help to reduce cognitive load by organizing content in a manner that is approachable and simplified for learners. Take a look at how we use lists in the examples below. Examples Example: Unordered List Example: Ordered List PRO TIP: To make an accessible list, use the list feature in the Canvas RCE. Keep in mind the difference between ordered and unordered lists. Ordered lists are meant for procedural instructions, indicated by a numerical or alphabetical bullet. Unordered lists are meant to provide information without sequence.   Overall Course Tips To get to the skin and bones of good course design, you can easily implement these quick strategies and give your course new life for your learners. Organize your course using modules Adjust course navigation to exclude unused or unwanted items Unpublish unnecessary content Utilize module requirements and prerequisites to protect a learner’s experience Use the link validator in the course settings   Final Thoughts Now that we’ve unraveled the web of cognitive load in course design, you are ready to brew the most powerful course that would keep even the Boogeyman away. So, carve those pumpkins, park your brooms at the door, and invite all your ghoul-friends over because it’s time to celebrate boo-tiful course design!   Please comment below. We’d love to hear from you!   Our Instructional Design team offers templates, consultation, badging services, course evaluations, workshops, and more. If you would like to learn more about our services, please contact your CSM or @rosina_marie, Manager, Learning Services, via rmonteiro@instructure.com ... View more

Ready, Set, Launch! Our newest Ready-Made Template Suite Update What’s Included in This Post? • About our new templates • Sneak peeks • About our team’s collaborative process   Another year has come and gone and it’s time to update you on our Ready-Made Template (RMT) Suite. If you don’t already know about our RMTs, you’re missing out! Our suite of Ready-Made Templates provides our clients with various course styles and graphic designs. All templates are built with Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and Canvas best practices in mind. These templates are flexible and fit a variety of instructional settings, audience needs, and content types. Templates are imported into an institution’s Canvas instance for customization and easy export/import into course shells. To help you personalize your courses, we’ve included complete instructions for modifying design elements. What’s New With Our RMTs? As with every design, there’s always room for improvement. In the last year, we have resolved to improve the accessibility of our templates. We’ve updated the structure of our Ready-Made Templates to reduce the usage of bold and italics together, improved alt text on the Image Options pages, and ensured that all text is left aligned to make it easier to read. New Template Showcase We are so excited to introduce you to the following six Ready-Made Templates we’ve added to our collection! These templates include specialty, higher-ed, and professional use cases, and would be an incredible addition to any institution’s template collection. Specialty RMTs Unit | Social-Emotional Learning This template was created to help organize and manage social-emotional learning education courses or programs. The earth tones in this template ground the topic of social-emotional learning with real and representative imagery. In addition to the standard elements included in all RMTs, this template includes a matching content divider. Secondary Template | Social Emotional Learning Check out this template in the Ready-Made Template Suite!   Higher-Ed Weekly | Cityscape This template has a weekly instructional layout. The cityscape theme will engage your learners by awakening their wanderlust! This template also includes matching content dividers! Weekly | Cityscape Check out this template in the Ready-Made Template Suite!   4D | Green Mini Icons This template has a 4D instructional layout. The simple and clean look of this template is sure to make your courses stand out! Matching content dividers are included, as well as the option to customize the template color! 4D | Green Mini Icons Check out this template in the Ready-Made Template Suite!   Professional Corporate | Grape Gradient This course supports a fully online professional development experience. The purple hues in this design will bring some personality into any of your professional development courses. Even better, this template also includes a customizable badge option! Corporate | Grape Gradient Check out this template in the Ready-Made Template Suite!   Corporate | Office Views This course supports a fully online professional development experience. The clean and fresh color palette is sure to provide all the good office vibes in your professional development courses. This course template also includes a customizable badge option! Corporate | Office Views Check out this template in the Ready-Made Template Suite!   Professional | Orange Mini-Icons This course supports a fully online or blended professional development experience. The modern look of this course is to die for; you’ll be sure to turn heads with this one! This template also includes matching content dividers, and you can customize the color of this template! Professional | Orange Mini-Icons Check out this template in the Ready-Made Template Suite!   Our RMT Challenge We are even more excited to share these last four templates because we had so much fun making them with the rest of the Instructional Design team! This group of templates was created for professional, elementary, higher-ed, and secondary audiences. Developing these templates was a collaborative experience we will never forget. In the RMT Challenge, each template was built in six phases. Our Instructional Design team of 14 split into four groups and rotated through the templates as we moved through each phase. By the end of the challenge, each person on the team worked on each template. For example, Group 1 worked on the Canvas for Elementary banners in Phase 1 and worked on the buttons for the Healthcare template in Phase 2. Not only did we have a blast working together, but we grew in our creativity, skill, and expertise while designing these templates! We’re looking forward to doing this again for our next batch of RMTs.   Specialty | Healthcare This template was designed for a healthcare course, program, or department. This contemporary blue and green design is perfect for your healthcare program. The template also includes a customizable footer and custom healthcare icons to meet the needs of your institution. Specialty | Healthcare Check out this template in the Ready-Made Template Suite!    Primary | Weekly | Playful C4E This template has a weekly instructional layout made specifically for the Canvas for Elementary platform. You can’t go wrong with this fun design! Since Canvas for Elementary does not require the use of buttons, we included playful announcements for teachers to showcase students of the month and weekly agendas. This template even includes a sticker set! Primary | Weekly | Playful C4E Check out this template in the Ready-Made Template Suite!   Higher-Ed | Module | Bold This template has an instructional layout organized into modules. Through the bold color palette and imagery, this template blends modern and traditional elements to appeal to all audiences. This template also includes customizable badges. Higher-Ed | Module | Bold Check out this template in the Ready-Made Template Suite!   Secondary | Unit | Gaming This template has an instructional layout organized by units. Its fun and engaging design is sure to appeal to today’s learners! This template also includes a sticker set. Secondary | Unit | Gaming Check out this template in the Ready-Made Template Suite!   Final Thoughts We hope you love this new launch as much as we do! If you’re interested in learning more about our Ready-Made Template Suite or are interested in purchasing one, be sure to reach out to your CSM! In the meantime, comment below with your favorite design! Please comment below. We’d love to hear from you!   Our Instructional Design team offers templates, consultation, badging services, course evaluations, workshops, and more. If you would like to learn more about our services, please contact your CSM or @rosina_marie, Manager, Learning Services, via rmonteiro@instructure.com ... View more

2022 Learning Services Teacher Appreciation Giveaway Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! We are so excited to celebrate you this week! Each day, Instructure’s Learning Services team will shower you with our gratitude for all that you do!   What’s Happening This Week? Check out this incredible graphic to learn more about the opportunities available to you this week! Also, be sure to follow us on Twitter for more details on the daily giveaways! 2022 Teacher Appreciation Giveaway Schedule   Monday, May 2nd Instructure’s Beloved Educators Instructure shares about our beloved educators on Twitter! Tuesday, May 3rd My Favorite Teacher Share about your favorite teacher on Twitter for a chance to win a Canvas Training Webinar and a Canvascasters Prize Pack! Wednesday, May 4th Sending Warm Hugs Send warm hugs (virtual hugs, high 5s, compliments) of support to educators on Twitter. You’ll be entered for a chance to win a Canvascasters Prize Pack, a year’s subscription to Calm, or a FREE Course Template! Thursday, May 5th School Spirit Day Post pictures of teachers/students/admin. having fun at school today on Twitter! Your post could win you a Canvas Certified Educator Scholarship, a Canvas Coaching Session, or a Canvascasters Prize Pack! Friday, May 6th Thank You, From Instructure Thank you for all you do to support our community. Check out this Teacher Appreciation wrap-up video on Twitter and our Teacher Appreciation Week celebration blog! We hope you feel loved and appreciated this week! You deserve it!   Final Thoughts We hope you feel as important as you are; we are so proud of your commitment to your students and community! We can't go without saying how much you mean to us! Thanks for being a part of our family here at Instructure! Please comment below. We’d love to hear from you! ... View more

The Dos and Don’ts of Icon Maker What’s Included in This Post? • ID Best Practices for the New Icon Maker • Do and Don’t Examples for the new Icon Maker   @Laurie_Norris and I are so excited to share the newest feature coming to your Rich Content Editor (RCE)-- the Icon Maker! Since this amazing feature launched this weekend, we wanted to offer some Instructional Design best practices for using these icons to maximize the effectiveness of your courses and keep accessibility at the forefront of course design. To check out how to use the Icon Maker, visit @dlyons's blog post. What, Why, and How? What is Icon Maker? As David Lyons mentioned in his product launch blog post, “Icon Maker in Canvas will allow teachers and course designers to create simple and reusable icons directly inside the Canvas RCE.” Icons can be a visual symbol used to designate content or used as a navigational tool. Why use icons?  Icon Maker can create appealing visual icons to welcome and engage your audience.  Icons can serve as: A visual cue for learners to associate an image with an action. A way to develop visual interest and chunk content. A design element that provides a cohesive look to your course. How do icons work? Icons are literally and figuratively images; the Canvas Product Team has just provided a way to create them natively in Canvas.  When building your icons in Icon Maker, remember: If text is included on your icon, a screen reader will not recognize the text. If there’s no alt text, the accessibility checker will flag the icon as inaccessible. If you adhere to accessibility guidelines, your icons will add to the effectiveness of your course. Consider Accessibility Accessibility is your learners' ability to access your content. When we consider accessibility, we must consider how the information is presented and how it may be received. For more quick tips on accessibility, check out our last blog post! Dos of Icon Maker When considering accessibility, you will want to make sure the images you create in Icon Maker model simplicity and have appropriate color contrast.  Do: Model Simplicity Select a color palette that doesn’t conflict with existing images on the page or your institution’s branding. Format your icons similarly so learners can navigate easily through your course. We encourage icon distinction, but there should be a thread of consistency between each icon. Do: Use Appropriate Color Contrast Select colors that do not conflict with one another or bring attention to the key content in your images.  We encourage creativity in color choice, but style should not supersede access.  Note: The accessibility checker does not recognize color contrast errors in images, including those created using the Icon Maker. Proper color contrast is essential for those with visual impairments. You can check for color contrast using the WebAIM contrast checker or this awesome CCA tool! Don’ts of Icon Maker You will also want to ensure that you don’t ignore accessibility rules. Choosing inappropriate colors or forgetting to label your images using alt text can negatively impact a learner’s experience in your course.  Don’t: Choose Inappropriate Colors Be sure your colors don’t draw unnecessary attention, and instead, highlight information that’s important. Don’t forget to leverage the tools we provided for color contrast above! Don’t: Forget to Use Alt Text We encourage you to take the time to describe the image and its purpose in your alt text to help engage learners and increase your images’ usability. Alt text is what a screen reader narrates as a learner navigates through your course. Consider When and Where to Use Icons When creating your images in Icon Maker, consider when and where you are using them. Icons can serve many different purposes, whether it’s to add visual interest (decoration), take learners to a new destination (navigation), and/or provide visual context to a lesson (information). For this reason, we must be strategic in when and where we use icons.  Dos of Icon Maker Overall, it’s imperative that we practice simplicity when determining when and where to use icons. Learners should be able to quickly identify an icon’s purpose. When we include too many images on the same page, it will be more difficult for our learners to make these distinctions.  Do: Practice Simplicity Keep your page clutter-free for easy navigation and setting a clear purpose We encourage you to be consistent in your design and placement of icons so that the transition from page to page in your course is seamless. We recommend limiting the number of images on your page. A good rule of thumb is to include one icon per Heading 2 plus a few additional decorative or informational icons.  Don’ts of Icon Maker Be careful not to recreate navigation that is inherent to Canvas. Canvas has a robust and clear navigational system already established; when we use icons to override that navigational system, we can detract from what’s most important.  In fact, our team at Canvas has seen this on more than one occasion. In one instance, a student with a visual impairment using a screen reader had difficulty with his online course – specifically the overuse of navigational images. On each page, discussion, quiz, and assignment navigational icons were included to help direct learners back to “home”, “grades”, “discussions”, etc.  While we know this was designed with good intention, it distracted from the learner’s course experience. The audio on the screen reader reads the image description plus the destination of the image for every icon on every page. This was confusing to the student, causing him to think he had a glitch in his screen reader or Canvas course. Though we may be well-intentioned, we must remember that our efforts may cause more harm than good.  Don’t: Recreate Canvas Navigation If a simple navigational system is present, there’s no need to make a new icon. In other words, as we say here in the South, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Note: We encourage the use of navigational icons on home pages but we recommend that you refrain from adding these navigational pieces to every page in your Canvas course. Consider the Audience When you build icons to consider your audience, you put their needs above your own. In other words, I’m worried about what my learner may think more than I am concerned about what I think. Dos of Icon Maker Icons will look different depending on the age you are designing for. Consider the appropriate size, colors, and amount of icons to meet the needs of your learners.  Do: Consider the Age of Your Learners For a younger audience (primary-elementary school): You will want to build larger icons (large or extra-large in Icon Maker) You’ll want the colors to be engaging and subject appropriate You should use fewer icons to reduce cognitive load For a secondary audience (middle-high school): You will want to use mid-sized icons (medium in Icon Maker) You want the colors to be engaging and subject appropriate You should only use necessary icons to reduce cognitive load For a higher-education audience: You will want to use mid-sized icons (medium in Icon Maker) You want the colors to be simple and to compliment your institution’s branding You should only use necessary icons to reduce cognitive load Don’ts of Icon Maker When you don’t consider your audience, you may find that learners have trouble navigating through your course or feel overwhelmed by the content at hand.  Don’t: Ignore your Learners’ Needs After creating icons, always be open to changing your layout to support what your learners need. If your sizes, colors, and/or amount of icons are creating confusion for your learners, it’s never too late to remake them with their considerations in mind. Consider the Message You Send Images and icons serve a purpose and portray a message - whether it’s for visual engagement, for navigational purposes, or for providing information. It’s important to consider the message you want to impart using your icon. Explore our Ready-Made Template Suite to see examples of how to leverage icons to send the right message. Dos of Icon Maker When considering your icon’s message, you want to make sure that your icons are visually appealing, useful, organized, and consistent. Do: Make Icons Visually Appealing and Useful You can also check out this awesome resource to create your color palette and simplify your design process! Be sure to choose the right colors while keeping the accessibility rules in mind. Do: Use Icons as Symbols  Note: Icon Maker’s smallest size looks good with Heading 2. Use the same “math icon” for information about your math course Use the same “extracurricular icon” when referring to extracurricular content We encourage you to include icons on the same line as Canvas’s Heading 2.  These can designate specific actions, information, or instruction. For example: Don’ts of Icon Maker Be sure you keep your purpose in mind when creating your icons in Icon Maker. Don’t: Misrepresent Your Icon’s Purpose Creating an icon using a symbol that doesn’t match its purpose can confuse your learners. You wouldn’t want to send the wrong message Don’t: Include Too Much Text  We recommend limiting text on an icon to 3-4 words.  Once again, remember to consider your audience. Especially when making icons for younger audiences should include minimal text. Icons should have limited text to send quick and easy messages to your learners. Final Thoughts We are so excited about this new feature and know it will make your lives much easier! When using Icon Maker, remember to consider (1) accessibility, (2) when and where to use the icons, (3) your audience, and (4) the message you are sending. We hope that these Instructional Design tips will help you make the most of Canvas’s new Icon Maker. We can’t wait to see what you all create! This is just the beginning of what you can do with Icons in Canvas. To elevate your course design even further, contact your CSM to purchase our Instructional Design services. Please comment below. We’d love to hear from you!   Our Instructional Design team offers templates, consultation, badging services, course evaluations, workshops, and more. If you would like to learn more about our services, please contact your CSM or @deonne_johnson, Manager, Learning Services, via djohnson@instructure.com ... View more

Four Tips to Spring Clean your Canvas Courses What’s Included in This Post? • Tips to Refresh your Canvas Courses • Infographic Keepsake • Resources Galore It is that time of year when some of us prepare for Spring by cleaning out closets, organizing kitchen cabinets, or replacing that old grungy front porch doormat. It is not only the time to refresh your home but also your Canvas classes. Canvas’s Instructional Design team came up with five things you can do to tidy up your online course faster than it takes to clean out the fridge. 1 | Make It Accessible What is Accessibility and Why is it Important? There are many ways to define accessibility, but in simplest terms, accessibility allows learners to use your course and course materials without barriers. A course designed with accessibility in mind will enable users to participate and engage with the content. Accessibility standards encompass everything from color contrast to navigation. Though we highly recommend building a course following accessibility standards from the beginning, it’s not too late to implement these practices today! Designing your courses and course materials with accessibility in mind provides equal access to content, improves usability for all, and adheres to the law. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, 19.4% of undergraduate students, 11.9% of graduate students, and 14.4% of k12 students can report living with a disability. These percentages translate to 570 undergrads on a small campus of 3000 or 2800 K-12 students in a school district of 20,000 who could experience barriers because of inaccessible course content. Check It Out If you’re new to accessibility and don’t quite know what’s considered inaccessible, Canvas’ engineering team has worked hard to enhance the capabilities of the Accessibility Checker in Canvas. It will automatically flag most accessibility errors in the Rich Content Editor (RCE). Using the Accessibility Checker is a great starting point for making a fully accessible Canvas Course. Easy as Pie Who doesn’t love pie? Let’s go over some quick and simple tips you can implement now! Be Clear Set alt text for images in your Rich Content Editor (RCE). Alt-text is what a screen reader narrates as a learner navigates through a page. Therefore, our recommendation is to briefly describe the image you include on a page to maximize a learner’s experience. Make sure your videos have editable captions. Use descriptive text for hyperlinks. Organize Use headings on the page to help students navigate through content and break up word walls. Also, apply appropriate text headings as you create documents and PDFs for the course. Use tables for data and not design. Leverage the image percentages in Image Options instead of using tables to insert images into your pages. Use bulleted and/or numbered lists to chunk text-heavy content. Check Visibility Check for color contrast using the WebAIM contrast checker or this awesome CCA tool! Accessibility is a massive topic of discussion and can warrant a book rather than a section of a blog post. Luckily, our team has spent hours developing our incredible course on accessibility. Check out this blog post for information on how to access our life-changing course! If you want some more information and/or quick tips & tricks on accessibility, visit our blog post. If you’d like to bring more awareness to the importance of accessibility, help us spread the word about Global Accessibility Awareness Day on May 19th!    2 | Don’t Hate - Collaborate Why Online Collaborative Learning Works Collaborative learning is not a new learning theory, but it’s one that’s easier to forget when building our online courses. In “Theoretical Models for Teaching and Research,” Yue Zhang describes collaborative learning as a learning strategy where students work with one another to reach a shared goal. Often, we rely on students to explore our online material without the support of their peers. In Zhang’s research, it’s evident that learners who had an opportunity to collaborate online gained more knowledge than those who had not. Zhang also noted that online collaboration could decrease anxiety, improve self-confidence, and enhance learners’ connection to online learning. Online collaborative learning provides opportunities for learners to hypothesize and explore while connecting to their online learning community for added support. It's Not Rocket Science Groups You’re probably thinking, “Sure, but that’s easier said than done online…”. What if I told you it was as simple as leveraging the Groups tool in Canvas? You can increase student engagement for both low and high-stakes assignments. The tool does the hard work for you— you can allow students to choose, or instructors can create them. Each group will have its own collaboration space, discussion board, and assignment(s). Instructors have full access to these collaborative tools and can monitor student progress. Note: Be aware that groups provide an entirely new area for students to create discussions, share files, etc. Be sure to set guidelines for group interactions before using this tool. Collaborations Collaborations in Canvas is another easy tool to implement that allows several users to work together on a document in real-time. Changes are live and immediate, making it easy for group members to work on assignments simultaneously and provide live input. You can use collaborations to create notes accessible by everyone, share lists and agendas, text-based whiteboards, and/or to use as a collaborative assignment. 3 | Make it Personal Why Should I? Consider how the world has changed in the last few years as we’ve shifted back and forth from traditional models of learning to online platforms. Now consider the effect this has had on socialization and personal connections between instructors and learners. We want to humanize our online learning experiences. Just because we’ve changed the modality, doesn’t mean we should sacrifice a core principle of education—connection. Personalized Feedback Creating a community of learners is important in any classroom and any modality. One way to build community, increase instructor presence, and facilitate student engagement is to personalize your feedback to students using Canvas’s audio or video tools. For example, you could use video to provide feedback when evaluating student work or record audio to respond to different threads in a discussion board. We know that this may be a challenge with a roster of a hundred or more students. If you’re worried about the time it may take to provide personalized feedback, consider the following: Keep your video or audio responses short and sweet - they don’t need an introduction and conclusion. You can say a lot in 15 seconds! Point out one unique positive attribute and one constructive element for each submission. Your takes don’t need to be perfect! Don’t worry about deleting and rerecording; just go with the flow! Mistakes make your responses more real! Authenticity is refreshing! Put it on a Page Just as teachers in a face-to-face class would not press play on a video without first introducing it to students, online content requires the same type of introduction. To provide context around presentations, links, or readings, build your content using Pages in Canvas. When using pages to deliver content, instructors can provide a brief description of the presentation, video, or reading along with the link. This added description helps students understand the importance of the content and can reinforce learning from a face-to-face class meeting if applicable. In addition, pages help students navigate through the content with fewer clicks. Count the Clicks For this, you’ll have to put on your student hat! Count the clicks—it’s as simple as that! Since I’m starting to sound like a Dr. Seuss book over here, I’ll get to the point–Reflect on your course’s experience from the student lens. Think about how effective, efficient, and easy it is to use your course. Are students required to open a video, then a pdf, then a google doc; all to submit in a tab in Canvas? When we give learners too many options for navigation, it’s easy for them to get lost, feel overwhelmed, and get distracted. In a face-to-face setting, we do our best to minimize learner distractions; we should do the same in a virtual or hybrid setting. Consider the following when counting the clicks: Keep your buttons and links clear and to a minimum. You don’t want learners to have to search for material. It should be easy to navigate! Keep as much content on a Page, Discussion, or Assignment, as possible without navigating learners away from Canvas. Add videos to Canvas Studio and embed directly on a page, rather than linking to the video in an external site. If you don’t have access to Canvas Studio, you can also directly embed downloaded videos. You can embed pdfs and use the “expand preview by default” feature to display directly on your page for students to read. Limit the number of websites you share on a page. Choose the top two or three resources you wish to share or implement UDL principles and provide learners with the choice to explore resources that interest them from a longer list. 4 | Organize Your Space Do I Have To? At this point in the school year, any classroom will begin to feel cluttered. A little bit of re-organizing can help declutter the space and set students up for success for the rest of the year. It can also help change your headspace when planning for your next semester. What is/isn’t working? What causes you to feel overwhelmed? This may feel like a mammoth task, but take it step-by-step! For goal-setting help, check out our last blog post, which could apply to any goal- big or small- in your life! Newest Content First Whether you are teaching in a K-12 district or Higher-Ed, there is, undoubtedly, a lot of content in your course. There is no need for students to scroll endlessly in your class to find the latest module. Instead, set up your course, so the newest module appears at the top. You could simply reorder your modules or reorder the module items (pages, headers, discussions, assignments, quizzes, etc.). Nevertheless, moving the newest content to the top is a quick and easy way to make your course more accessible. Note to Self Go retro and consider creating an unpublished module that acts as your very own diary for all things teaching and learning. After teaching a unit or module, there are always resources we wish we used or changes we would like to make. Keep track of these revisions and ideas on/in an unpublished page or module. You can also add links and other resources to this unpublished module. As the saying goes, “You do you, Boo!” This is your space. Feel free to organize it in a way that makes the most sense for you and your needs as an educator.    Final Thoughts Spring Clean Canvas Infographic As instructors try new methods in the face-to-face classroom, the same is true for the online and hybrid classrooms. We seek progress, not perfection. Honor this experience as another step in your process and give your course that budding flower smell that comes with Spring! A special shoutout to @katehoof who collaborated with me to make this post awesome!! Please comment below. We’d love to hear from you!   Our Instructional Design team offers templates, consultation, badging services, course evaluations, workshops, and more. If you would like to learn more about our services, please contact your CSM or @deonne_johnson, Manager, Learning Services, via djohnson@instructure.com References Accessible U. Home | Accessible U. (n.d.). Retrieved March 21, 2022, from https://accessibility.umn.edu/   Digest of Education Statistics, 2020. National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Home Page, a part of the U.S. Department of Education. (n.d.). Retrieved March 16, 2022, from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d20/tables/dt20_204.40.asp   The NCES Fast Facts Tool provides quick answers to many education questions (National Center for Education Statistics). National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Home Page, a part of the U.S. Department of Education. (n.d.). Retrieved March 16, 2022, from https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=60#:~:text=How%20many%20students%20in%20postsecondary,20%20percent%20for%20female%20students.   Theoretical Models for Teaching and Research. Joy Egbert & Mary F. Roe, Yue Zhang. (2020). Retrieved March 21, 2022, from https://opentext.wsu.edu/theoreticalmodelsforteachingandresearch/chapter/online-collaborative-learning-theory/ ... View more

Resources from Instructure’s Instructional Design Team There are so many resources out there for Canvas best practices and it can be so overwhelming to sift through it all! We thought we would simplify your search by organizing our top tips, blog posts, and resources to best support your needs! Explore the resources below directly from our Instructure Instructional Design experts! Use these tips to develop your course design, implement accessibility standards, make your course more engaging, and so much more!    What’s New! Accessibility in Online Course Design RMT 2022 Launch 2022 Teacher Appreciation ID Giveaway Four Tips to Spring Clean your Canvas Courses The Dos and Don'ts of Icon Maker     Definitely Read Course Evaluation Checklist v2.0 Design Tips for Pages in Canvas! 3 Ways to Bring More Humanization into Your Online Courses Spotlight on Five-Star Course Design Canvas Course Design with Accessibility in Mind: Making All Learners Feel At Home   Nice to Read Rethinking Page Design: Your Gateway to Learning Shareability vs. Data Collection  Canvas + Ted Talks = Magic Centers in Canvas The ABC’s of Badging… Easy as 1, 2, 3!   Get to Know the Design Team We have an incredible Instructional Design team here at Instructure. Follow our team for updates on what's happening in our world: @brittany_jeanes, @deonne_johnson, @DonLourcey, @Jennifer_Leimer, @katehoof, @kimberly_ellis, @laurie_norris, @melissa_fedigan, @MichaelKocher, @miranda_madigan, @NicoleHiers, @rosina_marie, @RyanLay, @SamOHanlon, @​​SasaStojic, @tiffany_foster   Still want to learn more? Check out our Instructional Design blog and follow to get notifications about new blog posts!   Final Thoughts We hope you find this post helpful in helping you navigate the waters of Canvas. Feel free to comment, give Kudos, share, or follow our content to engage with us personally. We’d love to hear from you! Our Instructional Design team offers templates, consultation, badging services, course evaluations, workshops, and more. If you would like to learn more about our services, please contact your CSM or @deonne_johnson, Manager, Learning Services, via djohnson@instructure.com ... View more

Resources from Instructure’s Instructional Design Team There are so many resources out there for Canvas best practices and it can be so overwhelming to sift through it all! We thought we would simplify your search by organizing our top tips, blog posts, and resources to best support your needs! Explore the resources below directly from our Instructure Instructional Design experts! Use these tips to develop your course design, implement accessibility standards, make your course more engaging, and so much more!    What’s New! Accessibility in Online Course Design RMT 2022 Launch 2022 Teacher Appreciation ID Giveaway Four Tips to Spring Clean your Canvas Courses The Dos and Don'ts of Icon Maker   Definitely Read Course Evaluation Checklist v2.0 Design Tips for Pages in Canvas! 3 Ways to Bring More Humanization into Your Online Courses Spotlight on Five-Star Course Design Canvas Course Design with Accessibility in Mind: Making All Learners Feel At Home   Nice to Read Rethinking Page Design: Your Gateway to Learning Shareability vs. Data Collection  Canvas + Ted Talks = Magic Centers in Canvas The ABC’s of Badging… Easy as 1, 2, 3!   Get to Know the Design Team We have an incredible Instructional Design team here at Instructure. Follow our team for updates on what's happening in our world: @brittany_jeanes, @deonne_johnson, @DonLourcey, @Jennifer_Leimer, @katehoof, @kimberly_ellis, @laurie_norris, @melissa_fedigan, @MichaelKocher, @miranda_madigan, @NicoleHiers, @rosina_marie, @RyanLay, @SamOHanlon, @​​SasaStojic, @tiffany_foster   Still want to learn more? Check out our Instructional Design blog and follow to get notifications about new blog posts!   Final Thoughts We hope you find this post helpful in helping you navigate the waters of Canvas. Feel free to comment, give Kudos, share, or follow our content to engage with us personally. We’d love to hear from you! Our Instructional Design team offers templates, consultation, badging services, course evaluations, workshops, and more. If you would like to learn more about our services, please contact your CSM or @deonne_johnson, Manager, Learning Services, via djohnson@instructure.com ... View more

  New Year, New Course Goals Starting the Year Off Right What’s Included in This Post? • Goal Setting Framework • Resources for Successful Implementation • Real-World Scenarios and Sample Goals • SMART Goal Setting Template   The "Why" I don’t know about you, but New Year’s resolutions always seem to be short-lived; drink more water, lose weight, wake up early… New habits are difficult for me to form- goals seem unachievable. Maybe I get lazy. Maybe I’ve not been setting them right. Or maybe I don’t have a measurable action plan.  I’ve realized that New Year’s resolutions are far less effective than focused goals. Our ID team came together recently to talk about our goals but wanted to be SMART (pun intended) about how we implemented them. @SasaStojic introduced many of us to the idea of setting SMART goals, which got me thinking- why can’t we set SMART goals to support our classrooms (whether online, hybrid, or in-person)?   SMART Goals SMART goals are “statements of the important results you are working to accomplish” (University of California, 2016). They are “designed in a way to foster clear and mutual understanding of what constitutes expected levels of performance and successful professional development” (University of California, 2016). In other words, SMART goals allow us to set clear and measurable expectations for the goals we wish to pursue. We can build accountability and measurable actions with goal setting in just a few simple steps. Framework: S Specific What will be accomplished? What actions will you take? M Measurable What data will measure the goal? (How much? How well?) A Achievable Is the goal doable? Do you have the necessary skills and resources? R Relevant How does the goal align with broader goals? Why is the result important? T Time-Bound What is the time frame for accomplishing the goal? (Content from University of California, 2016) Specific goals must be actionable and measurable! Consider using Bloom’s Taxonomy vocabulary to develop higher-order thinking (HOT) goals. You may even consider using this easy learning objectives generator as you get more comfortable with building these goals. Measurable goals must yield a comparison. Consider using New Analytics, Pre- & Post-Assessments, student Self-Surveys, or Course Surveys in your course to determine growth. Achievable goals are imperative! Do you have all of the necessary skills needed to meet your goal? Without the foundational knowledge, setting a baseline platform would be too challenging. If you find yourself aiming for a goal seemingly beyond your reach, take a step back and analyze the foundational goals necessary to achieve your goal. Relevant goals must yield an improved process. Are there people in the past who have changed the process of your particular goal? If so, what was their success? Can you apply the success of your goal to the process of your greater goals? Time-bound goals must have a deadline. Without clarity of time, the specificity of the goal gets lost. A short-term goal is usually measured within 1-3 months, while a long-term goal is measured in 6 or more months. In this process, feedback is essential. Shorter time frames, or checkpoints, are recommended to monitor progress. Remember, it takes 3-4 weeks to recognize if a habit is changing! If you aren’t seeing a change within this time frame, take the time to re-evaluate each element of your SMART goal. "Classroom" Goals I surveyed a group of educators from my own personal social media to find out some priorities for teachers this year; what’s important, and what are you trying to accomplish this year? Many of my former colleagues commented with the priority to survive this year. With the current state of education, I’m not surprised. In fact, it reminded me of the gap that exists between the support teachers need, and what they sometimes receive. Hopefully, with deliberate planning, we can achieve much more than just survival. Hopefully, we can thrive with specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals that can support our personal goals and those that serve our learners. Beyond the priority to survive, my former colleagues expressed a need to fill learning gaps and to foster a love for learning through student engagement in their “classrooms”. Let’s take some of these goals and turn them into SMART goals, where we can measure our progress toward accomplishment. Steps to Setting "Classroom" Goals Step 1 Before jumping into your “classroom” goals, ensure you have everything you need to set the proper foundation. Remember, your goals need to be achievable! If your goals will be implemented in Canvas, make sure you apply the design basics. Step 2 Define your major goals and work on one at a time. According to K. Francis from eLearning Industry (2018), some of the major goals of eLearning are to “enhance the quality of learning and teaching, meet the learning style or needs of students, improve the efficiency and effectiveness [of instruction], and improve use-accessibility and time flexibility to engage learners in the learning process”. These are examples of general goals. Take the time to consider a specific goal you can measure (examples to follow). Step 3 Analyze the broader importance and implications of reaching your goal. Why does this goal matter to you? Understanding the lasting impact of your goal makes it much easier to commit to it fully. Step 4 Determine how you will measure your progress in achieving this goal. There must be a starting point and an ending point.  Step 5 Set a realistic time frame for your goal. It is best to build in checkpoints to reevaluate and revisit your action plan.  Examples Explore the scenario-based SMART goals below for a better idea of how to address your own classroom goals Filling Learning Gaps Ms. Watts teaches eighth-grade English. Recent data from the students’ mid-year diagnostic shows that many of her students are three years behind in reading comprehension, despite her prior efforts in academic intervention. She would like to focus on filling learning gaps for her students as her SMART goal. Ms. Watts analyzes the resources available to her to ensure that she can be successful in achieving her goal. She also recognizes that her broader goal is to not only bring her students back up to the grade-level standard but to also challenge them beyond the status quo. She reminds herself to take baby steps and begins building her SMART goal. S Specific By implementing a tiered system of support, students will demonstrate a 25% growth in a specified area of concern (dependent on student needs) from the mid-year diagnostic to the progress check-in.  M Measurable I will begin with the data from the mid-year diagnostic to determine the starting point for each student. The progress check-in, administered through Canvas Quizzes, will measure the specific area of concern in which each student receives support.  A Achievable I feel successful and prepared with resources and support from my administrative team to provide a multi-tiered system of support for my students.  R Relevant By supporting my students through this process, they will not only gain the necessary skills to begin filling their learning gaps, but they will also become more confident and motivated to continue on their learning journey. T Time-Bound Each area of concern will be reevaluated at 4 weeks. I will revisit the goal with each student at this time.    Survival The pandemic has not made it easy for teachers across the globe to feel successful in their position. Mr. Matten has started to feel like each day is more challenging to finish than the last. For Mr. Matten, it is taking every ounce of effort to make it through each day. He sits down to develop a SMART goal. S Specific I will record one part of each day that brings me joy in my career in a journal.  M Measurable I will show success in implementation if I can record one joyful part of my day, each day, for three weeks.  A Achievable Because of my current mental state, finding one thing each day that sparks joy is enough to make me feel more positive about my position.  R Relevant If I can continue to see the positives in my career, I will feel more satisfied in my role. My long-term goal would be to develop boundaries in the areas that do not bring me joy in my career, but I must first recognize the things that do. T Time-Bound I will read through all of the things that I’ve recorded at the end of each week. After three weeks, I will determine if I’m ready to move on to a new SMART goal.   Student Engagement Mrs. Hall has been utilizing Canvas for five years. She feels confident in her skills when it comes to content development. However, she would like to grow in how she presents the content to her fifth-grade students. For her first SMART goal, Mrs. Hall wants to focus on increasing student engagement utilizing Canvas Studio. S Specific I will implement Studio quizzes and commenting features to increase student engagement with Canvas Studio videos.  M Measurable I will measure student engagement using New Analytics to gain a starting point and record whether students are more engaged after implementing Canvas Studio interactions. A Achievable I have the foundational skills to accomplish this goal. If I have trouble implementing these Studio changes, I feel comfortable reaching out to my Canvas support team. R Relevant This is just the beginning of making my course more engaging. After increasing engagement through Canvas Studio, I will research and implement different Canvas LTIs to enhance my students’ experiences.  T Time-Bound I will collect data in three weeks to determine if the Studio engagement enhancements are an effective tool for my students.    Resources Click on the images below to access the editable and/or printable SMART goals templates. Editable SMART goals Template Printable SMART goals PDF References Blooms Taxonomy. 2021. What is Bloom’s taxonomy? https://bloomstaxonomy.net/ Francis, K. 2018. Major goals and expectations of eLearning. https://elearningindustry.com/goals-and-expectations-of-elearning-major Thomas, A. & Thorne, G. 2009. How to increase higher level thinking. https://mycll.org/how-to-increase-high-order-thinking/ University of California. 2016. SMART Goals: A how to guide. https://www.ucop.edu/local-human-resources/_files/performance-appraisal/How%20to%20write%20SMART%20Goals%20v2.pdf Final Thoughts   There are so many ways to approach a new goal-- this is only one! I encourage you to take the time to try something out of your comfort zone. Start small and don't give up! With the right tools and mindset, we can our permanent and healthy habits to enrich each day. If you have been successful in implementing new course and/or personal goals, we'd love to hear your success stories and celebrate with you!   Please comment below. We’d love to hear from you! Our Instructional Design team offers templates, consultation, badging services, course evaluations, workshops, and more. If you would like to learn more about our services, please contact your CSM or @deonne_johnson, Manager, Learning Services, via djohnson@instructure.com ... View more