Engaged Scholarship Research/Creative Activities Grants Program for Faculty

by | Apr 20, 2021 | Blog

Western Carolina University is an engaged member of the Engagement Scholarship Consortium (ESC). The ESC exists to work collaboratively to build strong university-community partnerships anchored in the rigor of scholarship, and designed to help build community capacity. Over the past five years our faculty (University Participants Program & Dr. Kelly Kelley), students (Student Democracy Coalition), and engaged work (mini-grant for faculty development) has been recognized nationally through the ESC.

A mini-grant ($5,000; 1-year) opportunity through the ESC to encourage engaged scholarship research/creative activities through faculty is now accepting submissions through May 7. ESC notes that conducting scholarship that is mutually beneficial for the university scholar and for the community is a topic of great interest to members of the ESC. To help facilitate this outcome for higher education faculty, ESC is accepting submissions now at: https://engagementscholarship.org/grants-awards/esc-grants-program/application-procedures-and-process.

Click here for additional information
Applications due: May 7, 2021

 

If you have any questions about ESC or about this grant opportunity, please reach out to Dr. Lane Perry (laneperry@wcu.edu).

Contributor: Dr. Lane Perry is Executive Director of the Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning at Western Carolina University.

Rubrics in Canvas

by | Apr 19, 2021 | Blog, Canvas, Feedback, Student Engagement

Rubrics can be used to grade assignments, discussions and quizzes in a course. 

Rubrics can be used to as an efficient way to evaluate assignments, quizzes and discussions with more effective and valuable individual feedback and expectation for students. 

 

Why You Should Consider Rubrics

Rubrics help instructors:

  • Provide students with feedback that is straightforward, focused and central to learning improvement.
  • Reduce time spent on grading; Increase time spent on teaching.
  • Promote student comprehension of assignment instructions and expectations so they can easily discern what to focus on rather than guessing “what the teacher wants to see.”
  • Streamline evaluation of rubric results to make informed adjustments to course content and material based on identified thematic gaps in student learning across a class.
  • Refine consistency in evaluation of student learning throughout an entire class as well as individual students.

Rubrics help students:

  • Sharpen their efforts on completing assignments and assessments that align with clearly defined expectations.
  • Self and Peer-reflection on their own learning to make informed adjustments and improvements to accomplish learning level and mastery.

 (Adapted from UC Berkely Center for Teaching & Learning – Evaluate Course-Level Learning – Rubrics)

It is important to note that rubrics used in Blackboard may look different in Canvas depending on the criteria and settings. Review the information provided in the knowledge base article “Do my rubrics in Blackboard migrate to Canvas?” 

How does this align to Canvas training materials?

Canvas logoPriming the Canvas: Module 2: “Designing a Canvas Course” & Module 12 “Teaching in the Virtual Classroom”

 

Additional Resources:

Our next article will highlight Canvas Implementation Core Integrations ; visit Canvas Blog to see all our Canvas articles. 

Online Equity Conference

by | Apr 15, 2021 | Blog

An international body of faculty are gathering next week to share and discuss strategies for increasing equity for all learners. There will be synchronous and asynchronous pathways for everyone to share what you are doing in your classes and at your institutions.

The first-time Online Equity Conference, hosted by the Peralta Community College (CA) district, is only a week away. The conference will take place virtually from April 21 to April 23, 2021 (see the new Equity Conference website for more details). They welcome equity-minded students, educators, staff and leaders who represent colleges, universities, non-profit organizations and vendors from all around the world. Their goals are 1) to increase the visibility of all efforts to increase learning equity in higher education and 2) to bring together institutions that want to share and adopt equitable practices for all online students globally.

REGISTRATION: Please register via their online form.

Conference participation will be FREE to make it accessible for everyone. Sessions will be spread throughout the day and recorded to accommodate busy schedules and global time zones. All you need to do is sign up!

Over 370 people are registered from across the U.S., as well as Grenada, Iraq, Ireland, New Zealand and more.

The conference will include three types of activities to mirror the scaffolded learning process from Peralta’s Online Equity Training:

  • Day 1 – LEARN – Participate in live and recorded PRESENTATIONS that share an equity strategy or equity initiative.
  • Day 2 – ANALYZE – Participate in live and asynchronous DISCUSSIONS about an equity topic.
  • Day 3 – BUILD – Participate in live WORKSHOPS focused on increasing equity in your classes or at your institution.

Canvas and Mobile Apps

by | Apr 14, 2021 | Blog, Canvas

One of the reasons that WCU chose Canvas was for the shift in student engagement and consumption of media using mobile devices.  The best way to design your courses is, of course, using your computer, but your students will appreciate efforts to make the course more engaging, immediate, and easy to access. 

Canvas has two apps for smart devices, the Canvas Student App, and the Canvas Teacher App. As an instructor, you will use the teacher app most of the time.  It will allow you to do many of the things that you can do in the full web-browser but will be more accessible. Pilot faculty report that using the Speed-grader function on their tablets is especially convenient. With the Teacher app you can keep track of the progress of your course and interact with students. 

Most instructors will also want to download the Canvas Student App if only for the fact that when the Teacher app is accessing a common element with both Apps, it will open the student app to give the most accurate representation of the student’s view. 

At WCU, the Panopto video storage and streaming platform is also integrated into Canvas and for full video functionality both you and your students should download the Panopto app. In the same manner downloading, installing, and logging into your Microsoft Outlook App, the Microsoft Teams App, and the Microsoft OneDrive App will add even more functionality to both of your Canvas Apps. 

Canvas Teacher App

Canvas Teacher App

Canvas ToDo List

Canvas ToDo List

Settings in the Canvas App

Settings

Canvas Speedgrader on IPad or Tablet

Canvas SpeedGrader on IPad or Tablet 

 

App Capabilities and Limitations 

With the Canvas Teacher App, You Can:

    • View Your Course Materials 
    • Email Students 
    • Email Photos and Audio Clips to Your Students from Your Phone
    • Do basic grading of Assignments, Quizzes, Tests and Discussions 
    • Add simple text pages to existing Canvas modules 
    • Create spontaneous non-graded group discussions 

Your students can use the App to:

    • Send and reply to course messages 
    • Record and submit short audio and video clips to discussions and assignments 
    • Attach files to discussions and assignments from devices and from OneDrive (if installed) 
    • Take quizzes (low stakes – will not work with Respondus Lockdown or Monitor)

Meeting students where they live often encourages deeper engagement with subject matter.

In Canvas you can encourage the use of mobile apps to help the students:

  • Remain engaged with your course and activities 
  • Get reminders of due dates and upcoming meetings 
  • Access course material in a variety of environments 
  • Remain more organized and use their time and resources wisely 

While the basic Canvas layout and the full use of Canvas tools like the calendar, the syllabus tool, and modules will help make your Canvas course more mobile friendly, there are ways to improve it more.  A travel or experiential learning class, for example, might want to adjust all the online material in such a way that it could all be accomplished on cell phones. 

Canvas has a special guide for optimizing courses for mobile work. 

We also urge faculty to use caution when using the app to build courses.  It is best to start on a full computer browser.  The app does not allow you to create quizzes or exams, to add graded discussions, to create a module or group, or to create or modify a rubric

DOWNLOAD APPS

Download and Install the Canvas Teacher App on Your Phone and/or Tablet – iPhone/iPad, Android
Download and Install the Canvas Student App on Your Phone and/or Tablet –– iPhone/iPad, Android
Download and Install the Newest Panopto App on Your Phone and/or Tablet – iPhone/iPad, Android
Download and Install the Newest MS Outlook App on Your Phone and/or Tablet – iPhone/iPad, Android
Download and Install the Newest Microsoft Teams App on Your Phone and/or Tablet – iPhone/iPad, Android

Encourage your students to download the Student App, the Panopto App, the Zoom and/or MS Teams App, and the OneDrive app for full functionality. 

Banerjee, Robert. The Effect of Mobile Apps on Academic Success. (2019, March 7). EdTech Digest. https://www.edtechdigest.com/2019/03/07/the-effect-of-mobile-apps-on-academic-success/

How does this align to Canvas training materials?

Canvas logoPriming the Canvas: Module 6 “Structuring the Course”

 

Additional Resources:

Our next article will highlight Rubrics in Canvas; visit Canvas Blog to see all our Canvas articles. 

How to Release Content Conditionally in Canvas

by | Apr 7, 2021 | Blog, Canvas, Help Your Students, Teaching with Technology

Would you like to require students to participate in a discussion, view a file, or some other prerequisite before moving forward in your Canvas course? Faculty who enjoyed Blackboard’s adaptive release tool will be pleased with what Canvas offers, as it’s easier to use, and more flexible. 

 You have multiple ways to release content conditionally: 

  • By date and time 
  • By requiring completion of another module, in its entirety 
  • By requiring students view a file, or mark it as done 
  • By requiring students participate in a discussion 
  • By requiring students to submit an assignment 
  • By requiring a performance threshold on a submitted assignment  

It’s recommended that you build a module or two before configuring the conditional release settings. However, we encourage you to experiment with the tool at any time, as it opens up ideas for how you can design and facilitate your course.   

 

To Get Started:  

Go into a Canvas course, navigate to your Modules page, and click the three dots, as shown below, to edit the module. The settings will appear on the page. 

Kebob menu

 Module Conditional Release Settings: 

edit module settings popup window

An Instructure-developed video provides a walk-through on setting up the settings. You’ll need to navigate to the two-minute mark for the demonstration on module settings.

When you set up prerequisite modules, students must complete a module before moving to the next module.

For each module, you can only set prerequisite modules that come before a specific module. You may need to reorder modules to create correct prerequisite availability.

Please note that you cannot prevent a student from accessing an upcoming module unless requirements have also been set for the prior modules. Requirements indicate the order that students are required to complete module items.

Note: You can only add prerequisites if you have added at least one module.

How does this align to Canvas training materials?

Canvas logoPriming the Canvas: Module 6 “Structuring the Course”

 

Additional Resources: 

Our next article will highlight Gradebook & Speedgrader; visit Canvas Blog to see all our Canvas articles.