I Use Canvas Some, But Want More (2024)

Online@UT (Canvas)supports academic learning across several core categories of class activitiessuch as the ability to communicate with students, deliver course content, engagestudent participation, administer assignments and assessments, and trackgrades. In the event face-to-face classroom instruction is interrupted for anextended period of time, instructors can utilize Online@UT (Canvas) to continuetheir instruction. For both novice and experienced Online@UT (Canvas) users,the resources and strategies below will help you quickly switch to onlinecourse delivery.

Login to Online@UT (Canvas) with your NetID and Password.

Get Started

To get started using Online@UT (Canvas) we recommend the following training options:

• Reviewing our Online@UT (Canvas) Resource Guide,
• Working through our Canvas Training for Faculty and Staff, or
• Reviewing techniques in Teaching Online Reboot: Canvas and Zoom.

Communicate withStudents

Ask your students to keep communication channels open. In addition to receiving alerts from the university, inform your students to make sure that they do NOT turn off Notifications in Canvas for announcements and conversations (email), which you will use to communicate about your plan for the course.

• Announcements are an ideal way to post time-sensitive information critical to course success. Add announcements for due dates for assignments and projects, changes to your syllabus, corrections/clarifications of materials, and exam schedules.
• Conversations allow you to send email to students in your course without launching a separate email program, such as Outlook or Gmail. You can send email to individual students or to groups of students.
• Chat with students who are online at the same time as you.
• Schedule online office hours and notify students of your preferred mode of communication (UTK email, Canvas chat, Zoom conference, phone call).

Deliver CourseContent

Canvas hasseveral different components that allow you to create and organize content inyour course.

Use the Canvas Syllabus tool to share your printable syllabus. The Syllabus makes it easy to communicate to your students exactly what will be required of them throughout the course in chronological order by displaying calendar events and assignments.

Modules are used to organize course content by weeks,units, or whatever organizational structure works for your course. Each modulecan contain files, pages, videos, discussions, assignments, quizzes, externalwebsites, and other learning materials. You can easily add items to your modulethat you have already created in the course or create new content items withinthe modules.

Pages are similar to web pages and are referred toin Canvas as Wiki Pages or Content Pages. You can include text and video aswell as links to your files. You can make links to the other pages that youcreate. Use pages when you want to include narrative with your content. You canuse pages to link to content from other sources such as images, externalwebsites, course files, or library resources.

Files are where youupload course files, syllabi, readings, images, or other documents. Files canbe placed in Modules, Assignments, or Pages. In the Files area, you can rename,delete, and organize files.

Determine how you will be running lab activities

One of the biggest challenges of teaching online from anywhere is sustaining the lab components of classes. Since many labs require specific equipment, they are hard to reproduce outside of that physical space.

Considerations as you plan to address lab activities:

• Take part of the lab online:Many lab activities require students to become familiar with certain procedures, and only physical practice of those processes will do. In such cases, consider if there are other parts of the lab experience you could take online (for example, video demonstrations of techniques, online simulations, analysis of data, other pre- or post-lab work). Save the physical practice parts of the labs until access to campus is restored.
• Investigate virtual labs:Online resources and virtual tools might help replicate the experience of some labs (for example, virtual dissection, night sky apps, video demonstrations of labs, simulations). Those vary widely by discipline, but check with your textbook publisher, or sites such asMerlotfor materials that might help replace parts of your lab during an emergency. ThePhETwebsite provides simulations for online engagement in Biology, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Mathematics, and Physics.
• Provide raw data for analysis:In cases where the lab includes both collection of data and its analysis, consider showing how the data can be collected, and then provide some raw sets of data for students to analyze. This approach is not as comprehensive as having students collect and analyze their own data, but it might keep them engaged with parts of the lab experience during the closure.
• Increase interaction in other ways:Sometimes labs are about providing time for direct student interaction; consider other ways to replicate that type of interaction or create new online interaction opportunities, including using available collaboration tools, such as Zoom.

Encourage Student Participation

Assign online individual, paired, or group work

• Use the Canvas Peer Review feature for students to submit rough drafts and provide each other feedback.

DiscussionForums

• Discussions are a good way to encourage students to think critically about your coursework and interact with each other’s ideas. Simply post a prompt(s) and invite the students to lend their input, and/or respectfully respond to other student’s posts.

Student Presentations

• Students can record their presentations using Canvas Studio and submit them as an online assignment.

Assign and Assess

• Use online Assignments to collect student assignments, including documents, links, and videos. Assignments can be checked for plagiarism usingTurnitin Similiarity.
• Assignment Types
• Creating Assignments
• Create an Online Quiz Use Quizzes to design your quiz or tests. You can scramble the questions and/or answers, time each attempt, assign password for access, etc.
  • Tips for Canvas Quizzes
  • Step 1: Create and Add Questions to your Quiz
  • Step 2: Set Options for your Quiz (provide special access for Select Students, if needed)
    • Giving Students Extra Attempts on Quiz
    • Giving Students Extra Time on Quiz
  • Step 3: Review the Student’s View of the Quiz
  • Step 4: Implement Proctorio
  • Step 5: View Student Attempts and Grades
  • Step 6: View Statistics About Your Quiz
• Within the SpeedGrader you can provide feedback to students via text, audio, video, and interactive scoring rubrics.
• Use the Canvas Gradebook to consistently notify students of their Grades.

Canvas Teacher (Mobile Application)

Canvas Teacher allows you to facilitate your courses on the go, both inside and outside the classroom by providing quick access to grading, communicating, and updating content. Available for download free from the Apple® App Store or Google Play.