Canvas Training Workshop
In late October 2018, almost 20 UFCD faculty and staff completed Canvas training at the Health Science Center. Eliot Tordoff from UF Academic Technology’s Training Division designed a hands-on, interactive session which allowed participants to practice elements of course design. He tailored the session for UFCD faculty and explored common ways in which we can use Canvas to better serve our students.
The session focused on basics like course navigation and settings, assessment methods, assignment design and quizzes. He also shared helpful details like how to set up assignment weights in your gradebook, how to group students for peer-learning assignments, and how to create peer-review assignments.
Tordoff wove course design best practices throughout the session. Some important tips when creating a Canvas course include:
• Student-Centered Design: Think about your course from a student perspective.
“Design your online course/content with ease of navigation for the students in mind.”
• Help students remember your content: Organize material into small, logical chunks or “modules.”
“The modules tab is a great way to organize all the content into smaller, more manageable chunks. It also is useful for your students to see the progression of the course, and layouts the expectations.”
• First impressions matter: Create a welcoming homepage.
One option is to “incorporate a recipe-style list of to-do's, which can help students organize themselves and their workflow.”
• Engage students with regular communication.
• You can create a “welcome to the course” message to go out to students at the beginning of the semester.
• “Gradebook messages are a great way for you to monitor your students’ progress in specific assignments and tasks. Within the Gradebook, you can contact students by adding comments about their specific assignment submissions.”
• “The chat feature may be an excellent way to communicate with your students, as it is less formal and may be more convenient for your students as the format and layout seems very similar to platforms in which they usually communicate with friends.”
Partnering with UF Academic Technology’s Training Division was a great way to bring basic Canvas training to our college. We really appreciated the session that Tordoff created for our faculty and staff. The Office of Education hopes to offer future Canvas training sessions on more advanced topics like an in depth session on building Canvas quizzes.