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Tuesday Tip

Welcome to College of the Canyons Online Education Tip of the Week, where we bring you small ideas in short videos that can make a big impact in your courses!


Communication Tips

  • Did you know, Canvas has a feature that allows you to display course announcements at the top of your course home page? This makes it much easier for students to read (and avoid missing) the important information you have to share. Watch this short video to learn how to enable this feature in your course, and ensure students using the Canvas mobile app don’t miss out on your important messages.

    Length: 1:24

    Video Transcript

    Learn More with this Canvas Guide:

  • Did you know that at College of the Canyons, students, faculty and staff can easily change their chosen name to display across all COC accounts? This short video provides the simple steps and recommendations for changing names through self-service and Canvas, and a tip for ensuring that names are consistent between the course roster and the Canvas gradebook.

    Length: 1:45

    Video Transcript

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  • Did you know Canvas provides an easy way to message groups of students based on their submission status or performance on a particular assignment? This is a great way to gently nudge students who haven’t submitted their work yet, or provide kudos to students who did a great job. Watch this short video to see how to easily send assignment-specific messages to students through the Canvas gradebook!

    Length: 1:27

    Video Transcript

    Learn More with this Canvas Guide:

  • Canvas announcements are a great way to communicate with your students and provide timely reminders and updates. Did you know you can schedule your announcements ahead of time to be posted on the day and time of your choosing? Watch this short video to learn how to use this feature, which can be used to pre-schedule announcements for the whole semester, or to delay posting for a few minutes while you double check your announcement for accuracy.

    Here’s another tip: If you choose a unique time to schedule your announcements, like 12:03 instead of exactly 12 o’clock, it can avoid the appearance of automation and give a more personalized feel to your messages 😊

    Length: 0:49

    Video Transcript

    Learn More with this Canvas Guide:

  • Have you tried out Canvas Studio’s video captioning yet? If not, now’s a great time to check it out. The Studio tool is built right into Canvas, and recent updates have made it easier than ever to get your videos captioned, and include an improved experience for students to engage with your video content.

    Watch this short video to learn more!

    Length: 2:21

    Video Transcript

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Course Design Tips

  • Your home page can be an important and effective communication tool to welcome students and provide direction and easy access to your course content. In this short video, see how to create multiple homepages with details and links relevant to what's happening at that point in the semester. It’s easier than you think!

    Length: 1:31

    Video Transcript

     

    Learn More with these Canvas Guides:

  • This week we’re talking about the Canvas navigation menu. A streamlined navigation menu helps minimize confusion for students and provides easy access to course content. Since most of your content is (hopefully) available to students via the modules, there’s no need to clutter the navigation menu with links to items like ‘pages’ and ‘files’, or tools students won’t be using in your class. Watch this short video to learn how to customize your course navigation.

    Length: 1:38

    Video Transcript

     

    Learn More with this Canvas Guide:

  • This tip is here to bring you some help with …. Accessibility! Introducing the Pope Tech tool that allows you to easily check your Canvas pages and assignments to make sure they are properly formatted and accessible to all your students. Watch this short video to learn more!

    Length: 0:56

    Video Transcript

     

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  • Did you know that you can turn any Canvas page into a to-do item so it shows up on students’ Canvas To-Do lists and Calendar, just like Assignments do? This can be helpful if you want students to complete a task by a certain date, but don’t want it to appear in the gradebook. Watch this short video to see how it’s done!

    Length: 0:57

    Video Transcript

     

    Learn More with this Canvas Guide:

  • Broken links in Canvas courses can be frustrating for students and time consuming for instructors to identify and correct. The Link Validator tool in Canvas makes it easier to identify broken links in your courses and fix them before students ever know there was a problem. Watch this short video to see how the Link Validator works and how to get started correcting the links that are identified.

    Length: 1:58

    Video Transcript

     

    Learn More with this Canvas Guide:

Assements, Grading & Feedback Tips

  • Did you know rubrics can improve student performance and streamline your grading and feedback? They can provide clear instructions and expectations for students, and make grading faster and easier for you! In this short video, you’ll find three quick tips for using rubrics effectively in Canvas.

    Length: 2:04

    Video Transcript

     

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  • Did you know you can enable a notes column in the Canvas Gradebook to track information and notes for yourself about your students? This feature can be useful in reminding yourself of important things you might learn about students throughout the semester. You can also use this in conjunction with a getting to know you survey (found in the Online Ed Template course)! Watch this short video to learn more.

    Length: 1:19

    Video Transcript

     

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  • We all know the importance of providing thoughtful feedback to support student learning. Looking for an easy way to store and reuse your frequently used comments for feedback? Look no further than the Canvas Comment Library! Store and select your favorite comments for feedback in the Gradebook, which not only speeds up the grading process, but ensures students receive your rich, thoughtful feedback regularly. Watch this short video to learn more.

    Length: 1:49

    Video Transcript

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  • Providing extra credit opportunities can be a great way to incentivize students to dig deeper into a subject, participate in an event, or engage with you or fellow students. Creating extra credit opportunities in Canvas is easy! Watch this short video to see several different ways you can add extra credit activities to your Canvas course, and check out this guide to learn more:

    Length: 1:20

    Video Transcript

     

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  • Have you noticed the new Emoji’s that are now available to you in the Canvas Gradebook and Speedgrader comments fields? Watch this short video to learn ways to use emojis in Canvas and how to easily turn this feature on or off in your Canvas course settings!

    Length: 1:36

    Video Transcript

     

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  • Canvas surveys can help you gather information about your students and their feedback on your course activities and assignments. You can create a graded survey to give students points for completing the survey, while keeping the survey responses anonymous. But, once your students participate in a survey, how do you access and use all that great data? Watch this short video to see how to easily view survey results for graded surveys from the quiz details page or in Speedgrader! 

    Length: 1:17

    Video Transcript

     

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  • Did you know that you can adjust the time and number of attempts for individual students taking exams in Canvas? You may find the need to do this for students who require special accommodations, or for students who experience technical issues while taking a quiz. Watch this short video to learn how!

    Length: 1:55

    Video Transcript

     

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  • In this short video you’ll see how to adjust your Canvas SpeedGrader settings to make your time spent grading in Canvas more efficient.

    Length: 1:10

    Video Transcript

     

    Learn More with these Canvas Guides:

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  • Have an idea or suggestion for an upcoming Tip of the Week? Please let us know! Email us at online@canyons.edu