Canvas Faculty Support

Beginning in June 2023, the IDT team selects one faculty member from the ranks of our Canvas early adopters or with whom we collaborate in other matters to "spotlight" for their commitment to technology-supported instruction, active learning, innovation, or similar efforts. 

June 2023 - Dr. Alper Kayaalp, Assistant Professor of Industrial and Organizational Psychology in the College of Human Sciences and Humanities (HSH)

July 2023 - Dr. Jennifer Fritz, Professor of Behavior Analysis in the College of Human Sciences and Humanities, completed Quality Matters' online course, Applying the Quality Matters Rubric (Higher Education).

August 2023 - Dr. Jeff Lash, Associate Professor of Geography in th College of Human Sciences and Humanities. Dr. Lash has been very helpful throughout the first round of Canvas early adoptions, regularly providing suggestions and asking questions that enable our IDT team to better serve all Canvas users in the long run.

The IDT team will email a "What's Up with Canvas" document to all UHCL faculty/staff every other Thursday through Junary 2024. Links to all of those documents will also be posted below.

• Thursday, September 7, 2023

September Face-to-Face Canvas Training Recap

Canvas dispatched one of its trainers (Helen Wilson) to UHCL to provide several introductory sessions and four more advanced offerings during this week. Although attendance was low, those who attended the sessions (including several IDT team members) reported that Helen's training was beneficial and praised her training abilities!

Dr. Kathleen Garland, a senior lecturer for the Environmental Management program in the College of Business, was among those who shared her positive experience in the training. Dr. Garland reported that within the first few minutes of the Understanding Canvas Assignments Session, she had already learned something new and very useful! She also praised Helen's ability to teach to the different Canvas experience levels of training participants within each session. The IDT team thanks Dr. Garland for her feedback and for her ongoing participation as a member of our FA23 Canvas Early Adopter Cohort! 

October Face-to-Face Canvas Training Opportunities

We are working out a schedule for Helen Wilson to return to campus in October for another round of training sessions, primarily the three-hour session for novice Canvas users. Per a request made in the most recent Faculty Senate meeting, at least one of those dates will be a Friday.

Once we have a finalized October Canvas training calendar, we'll announce dates, times, and topics in this newsletter, on this Canvas faculty Support page, and in the IDT team's every other week "What's Up with Canvas?" email to current faculty.

Other Canvas Overview/Introduction Training Options

• 100% Online Asynchronous: The online Canvas training for faculty (Growing with Canvas) should already be available to you in Canvas. If you don't see the training in your Canvas Dashboard, please email our team at IDT@uhcl.edu and we'll add you ASAP.
• COMING SOON! 100% Online Video-Based Asynchronous: Faculty will watch a series of videos that included embedded activities and questions. The content and length of the combined video sessions will align with that of the current In Person/Face-to-Face introductory course. 
• In Person/Face-to-Face: In addition to the September sessions listed previously, OIT's Instructional Design and Technology (IDT) team plans to coordinate a second round of vendor-provided in-person training sessions in October 2023.
• Online Synchronous: Beginning in mid-October, IDT staff will begin offering some online synchronous Canvas trainings via Zoom, Teams, or Echo360 Live.

Dates, times, and topics for October face-to-face and online synchronous sessions will be posted in our newsletter and on UHCL's Canvas Faculty Support webpage as they become available.

Other Intermediate/Advanced Training Options

• Canvas Training Portal On-Demand Training Courses: Built into the Canvas Help area for faculty users is a Canvas Training Portal. It currently contains only a handful of short Canvas-based tutorials. However, the two primary ones are very worthwhile, and the IDT team is currently evaluating updating UHCL's Training portal licensing to include more similar on-demand lessons for faculty. To learn how to access these resources, please review the Current and Upcoming Canvas Training Options section of the IDT team's September 20, 2023 online newsletter. We've provided step-by-step access instructions under the Speaking of More Training Options...heading.

• [Online Lesson] Before You Migrate Courses From Blackboard to Canvas...
• [Document] Blackboard to Canvas Import Guide
• [Video] Canvas Manual Migration Demo - Part 1 [9:38]
  [Video] Canvas Manual Migration Demo - Part 2 [8:33]
• [Document] Canvas Faculty Cheat Sheet
• [Video] Vendor Video Tutorial: Cross-Listing Overview (Instructors)
• [Document] Instructor Guide: How do I cross-list a section in a course as an instructor?

In addition to the Online Canvas Training for Faculty already available to our early adopters, the IDT team offered the following topic-specific sessions in a hybrid format (in-person or online attendance options) during the week of April 10, 2023. These sessions were intended both for early adopters and those who are not yet using Canvas but want to learn more about the system.

• Canvas Course Design Essentials: Creating Engaging and Interactive Courses
• Canvas 101: A Beginner's Guide to Navigating and Managing Courses in Canvas
• Promoting Active Learning in Canvas: Strategies and Tools for Engaging Students
• Maximizing Student Learning with Effective Assessment and Grading in Canvas: A Guide to Quizzes, Assignments, and Rubrics
• Integrating Canvas with Third-Party Tools: What You Need to Know
• Canvas Analytics and Reporting: Understanding Student Performance and Engagement
• Creating Accessible Online Courses: Best Practices for Inclusive Learning in Canvas Part 1
• Promoting Active Learning in Canvas: Practical Strategies for Adjunct Instructors
• Enhancing Collaboration and Communication in Canvas: A Comprehensive Guide to Discussions, Announcements, and Group Assignments
• Improving Accessibility in Online Courses: Using the Ally Tool in Canvas Part 2

The IDT team creates short "crash course" videos for the many tools we support. Shown below are those we've generated for our new learning management system, Canvas. If you would like to see a "crash course" video on a specific Canvas topic, please email your  request to IDT@uhcl.edu. We'd love to create a new tutorial for you!

• Crash Course - Canvas Copy Course to Course [4:04] / Document Version
• Crash Course - Canvas SU23 Semester Offerings [6:41] / Document Version
• Crash Course - Content Copy from Bb to Canvas [5:59]
• Canvas Tutorial - Creating a Page for Bb Legacy YouTube Video [3:53]
• Canvas Tutorial - Adding a Landing Page [9:15]
• Crash Course - Canvas "First Look" [6:07]
• Crash Course - Articulate and Canvas: Better Together! [7:26]
• Crash Course - Zoom in Canvas [6:32]
• Crash Course - Respondus LDB and Monitor (Canvas) [6:18]
• Crash Course - Respondus Exam (Canvas) Part 1 [5:57]
• Crash Course - Respondus Exam (Canvas) Part 2 - New Test [5:44]
• Crash Course - Canvas Folio [2:28]
• Crash Course - UHCL Canvas Template [4:03]
• NEW! Crash Course - Turnitin First Look! [2:36]
• NEW! Crash Course - Canvas Collaborations with O365 [4:33]

Quickly access individual interactive articles from our Articulate-based newsletters via the hyperlinks below.

From Blackboard to Canvas

• Before You Migrate Courses From Blackboard to Canvas...
• Preparing for Canvas: Moving Videos out of Blackboard
• Preparing for Canvas: Decrease Blackboard Course Size
• Student Accommodation: Canvas vs. Blackboard

Canvas Basics

• Faculty Canvas Support Options
• Canvas Basics Part 1 - Course Navigation Links
• Canvas Basics Part 2 - Understanding Modules
• Canvas Course Design Essentials: Creating Engaging and Interactive Courses
• Utilizing Modules in Canvas
• Adding and Creating Items in Modules
• About the UHCL Canvas Template
• Student-Student and Instructor-Instructor Communication in Canvas
• NEW! Changing the Canvas Course Nick Name

Intermediate Canvas

• Exploring a Canvas Tool (Roll Call)
• The Canvas Chat Tool: Another Way to Communicate with Students
• Optimize Your Course with the Canvas Syllabus Summary Tool
• Canvas Basics: Adaptive Releases
• Using the Ally Tool to Make Your Canvas Course Accessible
• Creating a Rubric in Canvas
• Student Video Submissions in Canvas
• OneDrive - Canvas Integration: NOW LIVE!
• NEW! Promoting Student Collaboration: Canvas Collaborations with O365
• NEW! Using Canvas Surveys to Improve Student Learning
• NEW! Turnitin: Live in Canvas Next Week!

Advanced Canvas

• Canvas New vs. Classic Quizzes
• Canvas Assignment Weighted Groups
• Investigating Canvas Test Bank Conversion Methods
• Using Microsoft Office 365 Collaborations
• Peer Review Assignments in Canvas

Student Resources

• Canvas: Student Help Resources!
• Canvas: Student Checklist for Online Technology Readiness

Through training, documentation, and consultation, the Instructional Design and Technology (IDT) Team supports faculty in identifying, evaluating, and implementing instructionally appropriate software tools to deliver and support face-to-face, hybrid, and fully online learning. We also provide ongoing technical support for university-approved applications and tools for web-based teaching and learning, thereby facilitating the creation and maintenance of easily navigable, well developed, accessible, high-quality web-based instructional environments for our users – the faculty, staff, and students of University of Houston-Clear Lake. Please see our team's blog for more information.