How do I...?

• Email from a Class Roster in MyU.

• Get student email addresses from the grade roster in MyU.

1. Video Postcards (3 episodes, YouTube Playlist).

   • Video Postcard: Getting Started with Google Drive (2:53mins).

   • Video Postcard: Sharing with Google Drive (3:12mins).

   • Video Postcard: Google Drive Tips for Educators (5:02mins).

2. Getting started with Google Drive (Google Doc with written directions). 

Try the Canvas Basics for Teaching: Video Series (a series of short episodes to get set up quickly).

• Upload a syllabus

• Upload a file 

• Create an assignment

• Link to content

• Have a discussion 

• Give a quiz

• Embed an external video (YouTube, Vimeo, or another website)

• Record and embed your own video

• Grade

Preferred Solution - Person of Interest

If  you do not have a summer appointment you can maintain access to your Canvas account. Ask your department administrator to make you a Person of Interest for the summer. This will give you the same access you have to your U of M accounts that you enjoy with an active appointment. The key advantage of this solution is that you will have access to all of your Canvas course sites. 

Alternate Solution

If you department is unable to make you a Person of Interest in PeopleSoft, you can request a guest account in order to work on your Canvas sites. You will need to work in a non-academic development site. Course content and activities can be imported into this development site from previous Canvas courses you have taught.  DEI can help you set up the development site and import your content.

1. Go to Request Guest Account

2. Complete the form fields.

   • Email Address: Enter an active email address; it cannot be a University email address.

3. Click Submit. An email message about your Guest Account is sent to the email address you specified in the form.

   • Your email address will be used as your University Internet ID.

   • The password is the one you set when you filled out the request form.

4. Email canvas@umn.edu. Send them the email address used to create the guest account and ask them to activate your Canvas account.

5. Go to https://canvas.umn.edu and log in with your email address and password.

When you establish a culture of respect and inclusion and build community in your course, you are engaging students. Engaged students are motivated to think critically, focus their attention more distinctly on course content and activities, and develop more meaningful learning experiences with their peers. As you build community you are building trust and creating a learning environment where students feel safe to participate.

Be Present, Available, and Authentic

• Begin early with open communication. Include an instructor-led introductory video that introduces the instructor, gives an overview of the course, and orients students to how they will be using Canvas.

• Check-in with students throughout the course. Survey the students in the first week to find out their experiences, level of confidence, and concerns with online learning. This can be accomplished through announcements, weekly summary videos, reminders, and other opportunities to support academic or professional growth.

• Give feedback on all assignments. Assignment feedback should provide specific explanations for areas of improvement as well as highlight exceptional qualities. To heighten social presence, video feedback is an option in Canvas. 

• Meet with students individually. Offer online office hours each week using Zoom or Google Hangouts. Use Canvas Calendar or Google Calendar to post your office hour schedule and sign-up. Regularly remind students to take advantage of this opportunity. 

• Share your personal teaching and learning experience. Invite students to be co-learners and co-creators. 

• Draft your online content and build your course site to reflect you and your teaching style. In your writing use the same voice you use in the classroom setting. When making videos focus on content, connection, and building relationships, over production values. 

Build Community

• Establish your virtual culture.

• Draft a statement on expected behaviors and respectful contributions. Invite students to contribute. This will cover etiquette and expectations for student contributions to the course. 

• Co-create grounding assumptions with your students. Establish what is needed in order to have a safe and productive online learning environment.

• Encourage students to ask questions. Give them a place on your course site. Use an “Ask Questions about the Course” discussion forum to collect questions and your answers about the course, content, and your Canvas site.

• Give students a place to connect and discuss. Think of the conversations students, and you, have had before and after class. Cultivate this experience with an “after class” Zoom session or a Canvas discussion.

• Create connections. Invite guest speakers. Post announcements about University events. Encourage students to participate. Assign students to attend webinars and online conferences. 

Communicate Frequently

Provide multiple methods for communication to support interaction between the instructor and students and students with each other. Share your communication plan with students as part of your orientation materials. 

Instructor to student

• Instructor-student communication begins prior to the start of course (e.g., through Course Announcements).  

• Introduce yourself using text, audio, images, and/or video.  

• Share how you will communicate with students throughout the course. Be consistent.

• Share with your students, through your syllabus and course orientation materials, how you prefer to be contacted (email, Canvas Inbox, online office hours) and the amount of time students should expect to wait for a response from you (e.g. “I check email from 8AM to 5PM CT and will respond within 24 hours”).

• Model the behaviors you expect from students, for example in discussion forums use complete sentences, grammar and punctuation, and respond in a timely fashion.

• Use Canvas notifications to stay on top of course activity. 

• Use the Canvas Inbox to communicate with all students in a course or send a message to one or more specific students.

Student to student 

• Student-to-student interactions are required as part of the course.  

• Students are provided with a way to introduce themselves to each other.  

• Activities to promote student interaction, communication, and community building (e.g., "get acquainted" forum, ice-breakers, requiring students to respond to discussion forum posts) are included.  

• Students can collaborate together on activities in small groups and submit projects. You can also have small group discussions where students work together to solve a problem, then bring their solution back to a larger group. 

Articles for Additional Ideas

• Faculty Focus - Creating a Sense of Presence 

• Creating an Engaging Course

• Chronicle of Higher Education - How To Be A Better Online Teacher

• 10 Tips to Support Students in a Stressful Shift to Online Learning

• Five Ways to Build Community in Online Classrooms

• Best Practices for Adult Learner Engagement in Online Courses: Curated References and Abstracts by Lyn DeLorme

Google Doc Version of this Article

Schedule office hours

• Create appointments in the Canvas Calendar.

• Create Google Calendar appointment slots.

• Share your chosen appointment calendar with your students via email or Canvas Announcement.

Host office hours

• Host a meeting via Zoom.

• Host a meeting via Google Hangouts.

• Host office hours via phone call.

Using Canvas

Use Canvas Assignments to collect student submissions

• How do I create a Canvas Assignment?

• How do I grade a Canvas Assignment?

• How do I give students feedback on Canvas assignment submissions?

Using Google Drive

Use Google Drive folders to collect student submissions.

1. Get student email addresses from the grade roster on MyU.

2. Create a Google Drive Folder for your course.

3. Create a folder for each student within the course folder.

   • Share each student folder with the appropriate student. Give that student permissions to edit their folder. This will allow them to upload files while protecting their privacy.

4. Invite students to upload submissions to their folder via email.

5. Provide feedback

   • Via email or 

   • Upload a file to the student’s folder with feedback on a specific assignment or 

   • Download, mark up, and re-upload submissions. 

Use Canvas

Use the group features in Canvas to allow students to interact, share files, and submit group work for grading.

1. Configure groups in Canvas.

   • Begin by creating a Group Set in Canvas.

   • Next, choose the appropriate option for creating the small student groups within the Group Set:

     • Automatically create groups (random membership)

     • Manually choose specific members

2. Consider Canvas group discussions if you need to allow students to share files and interact within the Canvas site. Instructors maintain access to these spaces to see all student interactions. For more detailed information about using group discussions in Canvas, including graded group discussions, see the CEHD Guide. 

Alternatively, students can use Google tools such as email and Google hangouts (text and video chats) for interaction and file sharing outside of the Canvas site (see above). 

3. Set up a group submission assignment in Canvas. Students can hand in one group paper or project to count for all group members.

   • How do I grade group assignments in SpeedGrader?

Use Google Apps for Student Group Communication

Every U of M instructor and student has access to Google Apps that can be used to interact and conduct group work. 

1. Consider Google Hangouts, integrated with U of M email, for live group text chats or informal video calls. Access Hangouts directly. 

   • How to get started with Hangouts.

   • Google for Education: Use Hangouts for Student Communication.

2. Use Google Drive to share and collaborate in documents (Google Docs), spreadsheets (Google Sheets), or presentations (Google Slides). 

   • Video Postcards (3 episodes, YouTube Playlist).

     • Video Postcard: Getting Started with Google Drive (2:53mins).

     • Video Postcard: Sharing with Google Drive (3:12mins).

     • Video Postcard: Google Drive Tips for Educators (5:02mins).

   • When collaboratively editing a Google Doc, Sheet, or Slides presentation, students can text chat directly within the Google app they are using.

Canvas Discussions

• How do I create a Canvas discussion?

Synchronous Online Discussion in Zoom 

Using Zoom 

CEHD Zoom Guide for Remote Instruction

1. In advance of the meeting:

   • Check your audio/video equipment and system requirements.

   • Install the desktop version of Zoom.

   • Schedule/Share the Zoom meeting with your students.

   • Practice how to screenshare your presentation (if you have one).

2. Start/Host your meeting at the scheduled time.

Zoom Breakout Rooms

Zoom Breakout Rooms allow you to have smaller, separate meetings within your original Zoom meeting.

1. Navigate to umn.zoom.us.

2. Click Log In.

3. If prompted, enter your UMN internet ID and password.

4. Follow the steps in the Zoom Breakout Room Tutorial.

   1. Note that the steps for checking if Breakout Rooms is turned on are slightly different:

      • Click Settings on the left hand side.

      • Click In Meeting (Advanced) on the sub-menu that appears.

      • Make sure the Breakout Room toggle is turned on (blue).

Consider Alternatives to Exams

• Consider alternatives to exams such as a capstone project or presentation, video project, or final paper—either individually or as a group.

• Consider replacing exams with a number of shorter and lower stakes quizzes delivered over the length of the course. Assignment groups and weights can be used to make a group of quizzes worth the same total point value as a single exam.

Recommendations for Online Exams

• Use Canvas Quizzes for exams. A Canvas Quiz also includes settings that make it possible to use a Quiz for a variety of assessments including ungraded surveys and exams.

  • Note: We recommend using “classic” quizzes rather than the “new quizzes” option, as some important assessment options are not yet fully supported with the "new quizzes" tool. 

• Consider making the exam open-book or open-note. You may need to revise your questions. Use fewer choose-the-correct-answer type questions and more open-ended questions that ask students to provide evidence to support their response, to demonstrate the steps taken to arrive at a response, or apply what they have learned. 

  • Note: Communicate with students that they will need to prepare for an open-book exam in the same way they would for an exam that is delivered face-to-face. 

• Consider having a practice exam at the start of the term with the types of questions that you anticipate asking. This will allow your students to get accustomed to the format and give you feedback on how the questions work.

• Break the exam into multiple parts. This gives online learners more opportunities for time management. For example, put multiple choice, true false, and matching questions in part one and essay questions in part two. 

  • Note: Each part will have its own entry in the gradebook. 

• Give students a range of days, for example, one week before the due date, to complete the exam. In Canvas set an available-from date in addition to a due date. 

  • Note: Canvas will automatically save a student’s progress on a quiz or exam. They can return to the exam until the due date and time or until they click submit. 

Exam Security

Consider the following options to increase exam security:

• Ask students to review the Student Conduct Code before starting the exam. 

• Set a time limit. Give students more time than you would when delivering the exam face-to-face.

• Randomize question order with Question Banks. 

• Shuffle the order of responses to multiple choice questions for each student. 

• Consider adding long-answer, open-ended or essay questions. 

Accessibility

• Honor current accommodation letters for students with disabilities, and encourage students to contact their Disability Resource Center (DRC) access consultant if different accommodations may be needed.

• Be flexible and willing to explore a variety of options when considering what practices facilitate effective and reasonable access and participation for students – particularly students with disabilities – in the new alternative instruction environments. 

• Canvas has several features to help when students need more time to complete a quiz.

  • Add different due dates for specific students.

  • On timed exams or quizzes, give specific students more time to complete.

  • Give specific students additional attempts on quizzes or exams. 

Review Using Accessibility Core Skills

• Review the “Start with the 7 Core Skills" pages on the Accessible U website. 

Udoit Accessibility Scanner

• Use the accessibility scanner, Udoit, to review your Canvas site. 

Record and Caption

How do I record a video and have it automatically captioned?

1. Record your lecture (see Replace Lectures or Presentations)

   • If you will have a slide deck with images and graphs, on-screen text (like a title or question prompt), or other visuals, incorporate a description of each visual into your recording and call out the most important aspects. 

2. Upload your video to Canvas My Media (Kaltura). Your video will be automatically captioned.

3. If you are not utilizing a Canvas course site, you can upload your videos to Kaltura Media Space. Your video will be automatically captioned.

4. Review and edit the captions for grammar and spelling errors.

5. Our team can provide captions to videos for CEHD courses.

1. Upload your video to Kaltura MediaSpace.

2. Add cehdvid@umn.edu as a collaborator.

3. Fill out the caption request form.

Provide a Transcript

How do I provide a transcript to accompany my lecture?

1. Write a script for your lecture

   • If you have a slide deck with photos or graphics, incorporate a description of each visual into your lecture script and call out the most important aspects. 

2. Record your lecture following your script. Your script can then be used to revise captions and as a transcript of your video. 

3. Upload your video to one of the following:

   • Canvas My Media (recommended): Your video will be automatically captioned. 

     • Review and edit the captions for grammar and spelling errors.

   • YouTube: 

     • Upload the video file and share with your students. 

     • Add captions to the video using your lecture script.

4. Post your script (transcript) to the same place where you are sharing the related video.

• Create accessible Google Slides presentations.

• Create accessible Microsoft PowerPoint presentations.

• Create accessible Microsoft Word documents.

• Create accessible Google Docs.

• Create accessible PDFs.

Note: Tables in documents are not accessible without additional steps. 

Record a Slide Presentation

1. First, create your presentation slides and develop your speaking notes. 

2. Next, record your slides while also recording your lecture narration using ScreenPal. (formerly Screencast-o-matic) The finished product will be a video.

   • Download and set up ScreenPal recorder.

   • Record using ScreenPal.

     • Launch ScreenPal desktop app.

     • Click the red Record button.

     • If you want to record your voice and the slides, click Screen on the Record settings panel. 

     • If you want to record your voice, slides, and face, click Both on the Record settings panel. 

     • If you want to record just your voice and face, click Webcam on the Record settings panel.

     • Choose Fullscreen from the Size drop-down on the Record settings panel or adjust the portion of the screen to be recorded by clicking and dragging the corners of the dashed line that indicates the area to be recorded.

     • Click the red Rec button on the mini-toolbar (usually in the lower left).

   • Additional tutorials

   • Video Editing tutorials

   • Be sure to consider accessibility needs of students who may rely on captions. See the section of this page on Accessible Videos. 

3. Share your video with students using one of these methods.

   • Share using Google Drive by uploading the finished video into your Google Drive and sending the Share link to students via email.

   • Share by using Kaltura in your Canvas site. Kaltura provides YouTube-like features plus student viewership statistics for instructors. 

     • Upload videos to Kaltura.

     • Add a Kaltura video to a Canvas site.

Need some info on recommended recording practices?  Check out Presentation and Screen Recording Best Practices

There are a variety of tools that allow for screen recording.  The Digital Education and Innovation team recommends a combination of ScreenPal, Kaltura MediaSpace and Canvas to accomplish this.  While three tools are involved, the process is straightforward and has considerable benefits (automatic captioning, unlimited storage and Canvas integration to name a few.   

Recordings can also be completed via a Zoom session.  Keep in mind these recordings need to be saved to your local device and then uploaded to Kaltura MediaSpace for captioning. 

How to Record a Video Lecture

Use Zoom 

1. Prepare for your meeting in advance.

   • Check your audio/video settings and system requirements.

   • Install the desktop version of Zoom.

   • Schedule/Share the Zoom meeting with your students.

   • Test your video/audio.

   • Practice with Zoom before meeting with students.

2. How to Schedule a U of M Zoom Meeting

3. How to Host a U of M Zoom Meeting

4. Share your screen.

5. Mute/Unmute your participants.

6. How to Participate in a U of M Zoom Meeting

7. Student Guide to Presenting in Zoom

8. Engage your audience with polls.

9. Instructions for Preassigned Breakout Rooms

10. Recommended Settings for U of M Zoom

Record and Caption

How do I record a video and have it automatically captioned?

1. Record your lecture (see Replace Lectures or Presentations)

   • If you will have a slide deck with images and graphs, on-screen text (like a title or question prompt), or other visuals, incorporate a description of each visual into your recording and call out the most important aspects. 

2. Upload your video to Canvas My Media (Kaltura). Your video will be automatically captioned.

3. If you are not utilizing a Canvas course site, you can upload your videos to Kaltura Media Space. Your video will be automatically captioned.

4. Review and edit the captions for grammar and spelling errors.

5. Our team can provide captions to videos for CEHD courses.

1. Upload your video to Kaltura MediaSpace.

2. Add cehdvid@umn.edu as a collaborator.

3. Fill out the caption request form.

Provide a Transcript

How do I provide a transcript to accompany my lecture?

1. Write a script for your lecture

   • If you have a slide deck with photos or graphics, incorporate a description of each visual into your lecture script and call out the most important aspects. 

2. Record your lecture following your script. Your script can then be used to revise captions and as a transcript of your video. 

3. Upload your video to one of the following:

   • Canvas My Media (recommended): Your video will be automatically captioned. 

     • Review and edit the captions for grammar and spelling errors.

   • YouTube: 

     • Upload the video file and share with your students. 

     • Add captions to the video using your lecture script.

4. Post your script (transcript) to the same place where you are sharing the related video.

Recording a video that is simply the instructor speaking, without use of slides, can be accomplished using Kaltura and Canvas.  The following directions describe this process. 

Create an Instructional Video Without Presenting Slides