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Maximize the affordances of Canvas LMS tools

Here's the last set of tech task topics to explore in this training. Being familiar with a wide variety of Canvas tools and tricks helps us implement the criteria of the OEI Rubric and optimize the learning and teaching experience online.

The Task:

If any of the topics are new to you, explore the associated Canvas Guides to learn more. Then, put your new knowledge to use in your Sandbox to practice or, better yet - apply it in a current course!

Course Outcomes in eLumen

Yuba College instructors needs to provide data for their students' performance on SLOs each semester. This is done through eLumen. The YC Outcomes committee provides flex workshops to support this work. Here are a few of their resources to review.

YC Outcomes Committee Resource: How to Set Up SLOs in eLumen

YC Outcomes Committee Resource: How to enter SLO data in eLumen

YC Course SLOs Handbook

You might also be interested in how to use the Outcomes feature in Canvas to facilitate the process.

Canvas Guide: Create Outcomes for a Course

Add customized feedback to quiz answer choices

A benefit to using Canvas quizzes for formative assessment is the opportunity to provide students both immediate feedback on their understanding of material and progress toward objectives, and include instant personalized feedback to help them improve their performance. Rather than simply getting "right or wrong" feedback, students can get messages customized to their answer selection for auto-graded questions. It's a prime opportunity to ensure that the assessment is for learning, not just of learning.

Canvas Guide: How to create a Multiple-Choice Quiz (scroll to the section titled "Enter Feedback Text")

Assign assignments for Peer Review

Peer review is an effective way to bring student-to-student interactions into a course. It can provide scaffolding for students working toward larger, higher-stakes projects, writing assignments, speeches, etc. that have a big impact on final grades.

Canvas Guide: How to automatically assign peer reviews for an assignment

Alternatively, if you want a student to receive feedback from classmates on an assignment you might create a small group discussion and have them submit a draft of their work in an initial post. Then, instruct them to use discussion replies as the place for informal peer reviews to take place. (This will not allow for peer reviewers to formally mark the assignment rubric, but a copy of the rubric can be provided to support students in giving helpful, constructive feedback to peers.)

Use Canvas Quizzes for Surveys

There are numerous ways to build surveys, including Google forms and Microsoft forms. However, using the tools already in the LMS can make for a streamlined experience for students. Two OEI criteria related to surveys include A11: Gathering Anonymous Learner Feedback and C8: Student Self-Assessment Opportunities. Placed strategically within the semester, these types of surveys can have great benefits for both you and your students.

Canvas Guides:

How to create a survey in a course

How to view survey results

Grab and Adapt from Canvas Commons:

You can search or filter by institution name and type of item ("quiz") to find some examples posted by Yuba College (or YCCD) faculty
Here are two from the CVC Resources Modules
- A11: Anonymous Feedback SurveysLinks to an external site.
- C8: Self-Assessment - Example 1: QuizLinks to an external site.

Make an assignment Extra Credit

There are many pros and cons to providing extra credit opportunities in a course. If you do provide these opportunities, keep equity-minded practices in mind. The following guide of options for adding extra credit scores in your Canvas gradebook comes from the Canvas Community, as it's not an official feature of Canvas.

Canvas Guide: How to give extra credit in a course

BC Academic Technology Blog Post: How to Save Time with the Canvas Gradebook Part III (In addition to a video about assigning extra credit, the post also addresses topics such as dropping a low score)

Create and Use Quiz Banks

Questions banks allow you to organize all the questions for a quiz in a way that allows you to quickly pull questions from across a course into a single exam, such as a midterm. You can also create a question bank with a set of questions that address the same learning objectives. Then, use the question group feature available when creating a quiz to link to the bank and randomize questions students are given.

Canvas Guides:

How to create a question bank in a course

(Note: we do not have Canvas "new quizzes" available in our Canvas instance at this time. So any references you see in guides for new quizzes is not relevant to us - yet.)

Accessibility: Color & Images

Two important accessibility topics we haven't addressed yet are color contrast and meaning & alt text for images. While the accessibility requirements are the same for any course component, we chose to address them with the topic of assessments. We want to ensure that all assessment assignments, quizzes, etc. are accessible to all students. Examples of course materials that need to be carefully considered to be sure they meet ADA compliance are maps and graphs.

Specifically:

Color and contrast must be sufficient.
Color is not used alone to convey meaning.
Images have appropriate alt text descriptions.

Using the Pope Tech Accessibility Guide button on your pages and assignments will help identify any issues with these items.

Resources:

Read more about color.
Read more about alt text.
Bookmark an alt text Decision Tree
Read about alt text guidelines for charts, such as line graphs, Venn diagrams, pie charts, and more

Did you Know? Shawn Melton is our Yuba College DSPS alternate media specialist. If you have a need to use a lot of images for instruction and assessment in your online course, it will likely be good to meet to discuss examples and get guidance on making the material accessible.

Photo from Unsplash, "Cookie the Pom."