Canvas With Confidence

Description:

Canvas with Confidence is an 8-module course designed to help faculty build a strong foundation in the Canvas learning management system through applied learning. It should take between 5-10 hours to complete the course, depending on technical comfort level, prior Canvas skill level, and chosen advanced practice activities. The course was designed with all faculty skill levels in mind, will be used during orientation of new faculty, and can be re-used each year to keep faculty apprised of Canvas feature updates.

The course is built with two track options. One option is a is a self-paced track with no specific due dates. Each module contains assignments and a quiz that must be completed before the participant can progress to the next module. The second option is a facilitated track with weekly due dates. Both versions must be completed within a specific time-frame regardless of track. The course is designed to take place entirely online in Canvas with optional weekly Learning Circles scheduled to meet in person on Wednesdays, and live Q & A chat sessions on Fridays.

Those who complete the course will receive a badge on their Canvas profile.

Objectives:

Prior to this project, orientation sessions for faculty were often not long enough to cover all of the necessary details of the learning management system. This required several additional follow-up sessions, and often, faculty struggled on their own before calling for help leaving a poor impression of the LMS.

Faculty often called the helpdesk within days of the start of the semester asking for course assistance which put a strain on our limited resources. Calls consistently featured the same requests for items like course copies, uploading, and linking files, and simple course reviews that faculty could easily do on their own if they learned how.

Faculty also needed to be updated on changes that occurred to the system during the year, or that they may have forgotten about since the last time they taught.

Project Details:

I identified weak areas of the orientation session based on follow-up calls to the help desk then developed course modules to address these issues along with assistance from my intern.

Results

The first cohort went through the course Fall of 2017 and help desk calls for spring course preparations have already been reduced due to faculty's ability to help themselves with key tasks like course copies.

Project Sample Files:

• Course Introduction
• Sample Course Schedule
• Course Overview & Expectations