Canvas LMS Program Introduction Training Northwest Allen County Schools Fort Wayne, Indiana Created by Jason Corah (CM), Modified 02/16 by Seth Slater (Curriculum Coordinator) Northwest Allen County Schools 2016
Goal Teachers will be able to create and manage their own course within Canvas. Teachers will understand basic features of Canvas, including using modules, creating pages, creating assignments, and publishing for student access.
What is Canvas? Learning Management System (LMS) Software for e-learning Replaces My Big Campus My Big Campus discontinued by LightSpeed Systems at the end of the 2015-2016 school year Alternative to Moodle Has many of the same features as Moodle with some additional features added A good combination of the features of both MBC and Moodle.
How to Access Canvas Two ways to get to website nacs.instructure.com www.nacs.k12.in.us, click on Staff or Students, then select Canvas from menu on left. Login ID information: Use your current District Username and password
Tour of Features Students and Teachers see similar options. Top Menu Bar: Home Button, Courses, Grades, Calendar, Commons, Profile, Inbox, Settings, Help Menu Side Menu Bars: Activities and Assignments
Top Menu Bar Courses Course sections are auto-populated from Power School Student enrollments will change as updated in PowerSchool Also have option to create your own course Practice setting up a class Clubs, sports or professional development Enrollments do not change automatically We can also pull in course content from Moodle in a pretty seamless fashion.
Sections Found within Courses pull-down menu Can Cross-List the different sections of common courses into a single Canvas course page. Only sections without added content should be cross-listed, as this will result in the deletion of student content, quiz results, etc 6 th Science Section 1 Section 2 Find more information here: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/doc-3044 Student A Student B Student C
Top Menu Bar Calendar Events Track what assignments need to be completed when Drag/Drop feature If you change an assignment on the calendar it will change everywhere else Global feature, so you can see all of your assignments at once (great for students) Find more information here: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/doc-2617
Top Menu Bar Grades Teachers: link to the gradebook Students: link to their own grades Can use this to Post grades to PowerSchool Recommend that this be hidden (does not import grades from PowerSchool, only sends them) Grades here likely will not be the same as grades shown in PowerSchool
Top Menu Bar Settings Options to set up notifications and profile Students and Teachers have all of these options
Left-Menu Bar: Course Settings Course Details Can change many settings on the course File storage is limited, but you can ask for an increase Check out the More Options at the bottom Navigation Can move pages around to hide/disable them from students Recommend moving: Grades, Files, Attendance, Conferences, and Chat Available apps to have installed to your course; Play with these as you set up your own course.
Left-Menu Bar: Home Page (Course) Several options to set it to: Activity Stream, Course Modules, Course Syllabus, Assignment List
Left-Menu Bar: Syllabus Allows for a course-description to be included with the Canvas page. Shows a chronological list of assignments given throughout the course. This is a Home Page option Very reflective of content in a college course; May be useful for K12 teachers as an informational page, for parents and students, providing details about the course, grading methods, class guidelines, etc.
Left-Menu Bar: Announcements Communicate with your students about course activities and post interesting courserelated topics Can allow or block student comments Find more information here: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/doc-1801
Left-Menu Bar: People Shows the current list of members in a course Can add additional members here and change permissions Add other teachers on this screen to allow them to work within your course Can also group students from this screen
Left-Menu Bar: Modules Organize content and control flow of course Add files, pages and activities to create a logical course progression Can control access using four options Completion criteria Access by Date Pre-Requisites Order (force them to go through each item in order) Find more information here: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/doc-2808
Left-Menu Bar: Assignments Assess how well students are achieving course Outcomes Set up online submissions that can be quickly graded and commented on in the SpeedGrader Grade online as well as student work submitted "on-paper" Create differentiated assignments for sections Set up peer reviews Grade Discussions, either by the whole class or student groups Open Quizzes for a limited amount of time Record attendance Create ungraded activities that align with course Outcomes Find more information here: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/doc-2614
Adding Rubrics Set up custom or outcome based assessment criteria for scoring Seamlessly incorporated into SpeedGrader for one-click scoring and commenting. Rubric scores are automatically entered into the Canvas gradebook Rubrics can be added to assignments and discussions. Find more information here: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/doc-2867
Left-Menu Bar: Discussions Help students start thinking about an upcoming Assignment or class discussion. Follow-up on a conversation or questions that began in a face-to-face classroom. Test student comprehension of important points made in class. Debate contradictory ideas. Brainstorm different approaches to a class problem. Find more information here: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/doc-3188
Left-Menu Bar: Quizzes Challenge student understanding and assess comprehension Can be used to create Surveys Can be graded or ungraded Rubrics can be utilized to score essay responses, short answers, and other question types. Find more information here: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/doc-2889
Left-Menu Bar: Conferences Great for: Virtual lectures Virtual office hours Student groups Potential for elearning (50 participants, max) Students cannot create Conferences Information is not saved in a conference Recommended to be hidden until it will be used for class. Find more information here: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/doc-1952
Left-Menu Bar: Chats Similar to Conferences, Chats allow for elearning, Real Time collaboration and discussion Chat histories cannot be deleted (currently) and are available to all course users. Any user can create a Chat (including students) Recommended to be hidden until it will be used for class. Find more information here: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/doc-2624
Left-Menu Bar: Pages Put content and other resources that are part of your course but don t belong in an assignment Can include text, video and links to files Even link to other pages Can allow editing by students so that they can build a class wiki (tracks ALL edits) Find more information here: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/doc-1916
Left-Menu Bar: Files Every file that has been uploaded to the course is kept here Recommend that this screen be hidden just to prevent students from accessing a file early
Left-Menu Bar: Outcomes Can assign standards and other objectives on this screen to be tracked within the course Our state standards are already uploaded Can create additional standards/goals aligned with Rubric scoring or quiz results. Recommended to be hidden until it will be used for class. Find more information here: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/doc-1899
Publishing Don t forget to publish your course! Students cannot see or access content in Unpublished courses. We can also publish/un-publish course modules, files, discussions, pages, assignments, etc Use this as a means of managing your course progress.