Designing Online Activities

Activities in Canvas

Discussions

Canvas Discussions are designed for students to discuss ideas openly with their peers. This gives students an opportunity to build onto an existing idea. We recommend designing prompts in such a way that encourages students to build on the ideas of their peers and providing clear/explicit guidelines on the time frame for the discussion (for example, posting their response by X day of the week and going back to respond to peers by Y day of the week).

Learn how to create discussions in Canvas.

Assignments

Assignments are where students submit their work directly to you. This could be anything from reflection papers to graphic organizers they create. Assignments have the peer review as an option so that peers can provide feedback and insights.

Learn how to create assignments in Canvas.

Learn how to create peer reviewed assignments.

Exams

Canvas quizzes allows you to create exams and deliver them online. They can be opened ended essay questions, or simple multiple choice questions. Some things to keep in mind when setting up a quiz:

Setting a time limit, as well as an available from and to date is usually recommended. Please provide students with these details in advance.
High stakes exams can be proctored.

Learn how to create a quiz in Canvas.

Asynchronous Learning Activities & Tools

Asynchronous learning can be an exciting way for students to navigate a course without the need to meet via Zoom each week.

Check out our Instructional Guide with a variety of Asynchronous Learning Activities.

Discover Asynchronous Learning Activities -->

Online Group Work & Team Presentations

Synchronous Group Work (real-time via Zoom)

When you are holding a class session over Zoom, you can break students into pairs or small groups. Students are send into their own "breakout room" and they can chat with their partner in that space. Of course, you can jump from breakout room to breakout room to check in on students or to touch base to see how they are progressing in their conversation. Learn more about how to break students into groups on Zoom.

Asynchronous Group Work (working at their own pace)

You may want to assign students to work on a team presentation outside of class time. In this case, students can still create a recorded presentation on their own time and then share it via Canvas so their peers can benefit from their work. You'll want to create a space in Canvas for them to "submit" their presentations, such as a discussion forum. You can use and modify these guidelines to help students understand how they can get started with creating their group presentation.

Individual Student Led Presentations

Students Leading Synchronous Presentations

Students can use part of your synchronous Zoom session to run presentations and discussions. They will need to prepare their lesson beforehand (including slides, videos, and/or visuals) so please make sure they understand that they will be delivering their lesson via a video conferencing tool. During the Zoom session, they will simply need to share their screen (see shareable instructions).

Students Leading Asynchronous Presentations

You may assign students to lead class sessions where you expect that they will create a presentation and teach it to their peers (along with related activities); however, there may not be enough class time to fit in these presentations. In this case, students can still create a recorded presentation on their own time and then share it via Canvas. You'll want to create a space in Canvas for them to "submit" their presentations, such as a discussion forum. You can use and modify these guidelines to help students understand how they can get started with creating their presentation.

Formative Assessments: Taking Temperature

Polling

Polling is a quick and easy way to assess whether students are on track with what they are learning. Online polls can be designed to be anonymous and provide students with freedom to provide feedback on their learning experiences. Some options for polling tools are:

PollEverywhere allows you a variety of ways to gather information from students, everything from multiple choice, scale, open-ended responses, clickable images, etc.
Padlet Polling Padlet is a fantastic tool for student collaboration. You can utilize its polling feature along with many other features to engage students.

Surveys

Surveys give you the opportunity to ask open- and closed-ended questions to better assess how students are doing in the course. This can help you gather important insights, such as the material being interesting to students but not having enough time to complete the work. Some options for survey tools are Google Forms and Qualtrics.

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