Categories for James

Webex Breakout Rooms stylized to appear as a Kit Kat wrapper.

Webex Breakout Room Training

By James Bowles |

Webex has introduced breakout rooms! This workshop will cover the basics of setting up breakout rooms, leveraging new features for hosting, and more! The first sessions will be held:

  • Tuesday, September 29, 1:30pm – 2:30pm
  • Wednesday, September 30, 1:30pm – 2:30pm

See the CTL Calendar for meeting details and future sessions!

“Brake me off a piece of that Breakout Room!”

It starts with you! Let's reach 100% completion.

Help Reach the 100% Completion Goal!

By James Bowles |

Current Completion

Are you teaching an online course this summer? Complete the eLearning at MCC Canvas course! This brief course will expose you to the MCC eLearning expectations, online syllabus requirements, communication strategies, and more! Apply new knowledge to your online teaching practice.

Help us reach our goal of 100% completion for summer instructors!

Enroll NOW!

Summer 2020 Online Plan Banner. Masterpiece Canvas

SpeedGrader

By James Bowles |

Welcome to Masterpiece Canvas! In this episode we’ll be learning about how to use the Canvas SpeedGrader.

The SpeedGrader can benefit you in the following ways :

  • All student work remains in the course page. No more downloading all of your student’s assignments to your computer.
  • Student work is sorted by the student name and the name can be hidden for anonymous grading.
  • Grade from rubrics to quickly give students feedback based on their mastery of each criterion.
  • Give separate feedback to each student.
  • Annotate corrections directly on the students submitted paper.
  • Allow for mobile grading using the Canvas Teacher app on iOS and Android.
  • More!

Check out these handy Canvas Guides for accessing and how to use the SpeedGrader!

This video will also give you an additional overview of Canvas SpeedGrader.

Tips For Using The SpeedGrader

The following tips can help you get started with the SpeedGrader and improve your grading workflow.

You can learn more about the many things you can do with the Canvas SpeedGrader by visiting the Canvas Instructor Guides.

Masterpiece Canvas

Online Quizzes & Exams

By James Bowles |

Welcome to Masterpiece Canvas! In this episode we’ll be learning about the benefits of online quizzes and exams and how to implement them in Canvas.

Some of the advantages of creating online quizzes and exams include:

  • The ability to automatically randomize questions and possible answers.
  • The ability to set a time limit and give a specific number of attempts for the exam or quiz.
  • Instantaneous quiz or exam results for the students as well as the instructor providing rapid insight on opportunities for improvement.
  • Many different types of questions as well as types of quizzes (surveys, practice quizzes, and graded quizzes).
  • More!

Check out this handy Canvas Guide for creating an online quiz!

This video will also give you an additional overview of Canvas Quizzes.

Tips for online quizzes

The following tips can help you and your students be successful in completing and submitting online quizzes.

  • Create a low-stakes quiz to allow students to practice accessing quizzes and become familiar with the quiz interface. Check out the student guide for Taking an online quiz.
  • Setup a practice quiz to give your students an opportunity to check their knowledge on a topic. This type of quiz can be attempted multiple times. The practice quiz can show the correct answers after completion and guide students back to course content for additional learning.
  • Setup a graded quiz with a finite number of attempts for exams. You can also set a time limit for the exam to be completed.
  • Consider enabling the display one question at a time option for exams that build off previous questions.
  • Use a variety of question types (multiple choice, short answer, matching, etc.)
  • Be sure to check your questions for clarity, spelling, and grammar issues.
  • You can provide accommodations for students by using the Moderate this quiz button.

You can learn more about the many things you can do with online quizzes in Canvas by visiting the Canvas Instructor Guides.

Masterpiece Canvas

Accepting Assignments Online

By James Bowles |

Welcome to Masterpiece Canvas! In this episode we’ll be learning why accepting assignments online can be a valuable tool for us and how to setup your assignment in Canvas.

Accepting assignments online benefit us in the following ways:

  • Assignments are turned in to a single location.
  • The Learning Management System (LMS) manages due dates and flags late work.
  • The LMS automatically identifies the assignment author.
  • The LMS allows for online grading.
  • More!

Check out this handy Canvas Guide for Creating an assignment online and enabling online submission!

This video will also give you an additional overview of Canvas Assignments.

Tips for online assignments

The following tips can help you and your students be successful in completing and submitting online assignments.

  • Create a low-stakes assignment to allow students to practice submitting an assignment. Check out the student guide for submitting online assignments.
  • Be consistent with assignment naming and include academic language. For example Assignment 1: Informative Speech or Assignment 2: Persuasive Speech.
  • Be consistent with the assignment instructions. Include a description of the assignment and your expectations for full credit. A bulleted list is a very clear way to approach this.
  • Don’t put due dates in the assignment title nor the assignment instructions. Canvas has an additional field dedicated to the due date and will automatically notify students when assignments are approaching their due date.
  • Provide ample time for students to complete the assignment in a potentially new modality. This may be the first time your students are submitting an assignment online.
  • Consider permitting various forms of assignment submission like file uploads and video submission.

You can learn more about the many things you can do with online assignments in Canvas by visiting the Canvas Instructor Guides.

Road with stylized continuity of instruction. Design Safari

Design Principles

By James Bowles |

Upgrade your OER, documents, slide decks, and other content from good to great by identifying effective layouts, accessible content, and implementing proven design techniques.

When: Thursday, 11/30 OR Friday, 12/1​
Times: 4:30-5:30pm OR 1:00pm-2:00pm
Location: CTL AS-175

Sign up through Maricopa Learn keyword Design Principles.

Now is the Future

Now is the Future

By James Bowles |

Now is the Future

October 21, 2015 is the day Marty McFly goes to the future. To celebrate the future being the present, you are invited to visit the CTL to enjoy a screening of Back to the Future 2, popcorn, and some friendly discussion on how the CTL can help you professionally develop to improve your future! Get your self-lacing Nike high tops and hop in your DeLorean because where we’re going, we don’t need roads!

Where: CTL Lobby

When: 12:00pm – 2:00pm October 21, 2015

CTL Responsive Web Design

Be Our Guests

By James Bowles |

Hi Everyone! We would like to welcome you to the upgraded CTL website. “What’s new? It all looks the same.” you may ask. This is a complete overhaul of the website to a better, more mobile friendly design.  That’s right! Pull this website up on your smart phone, tablet, or simply resize this very window and get a customized version of the site targeted specifically to that device.  This is accomplished through the magic of a technique called responsive web design. Responsive means that the design will automatically respond to any screen size by adjusting itself accordingly.  As with any website overhaul there are always bugs that appear through the course of others using the site so please feel free to contact James Bowles with  issues with this site you may be experiencing or any general feedback on the site. Special thanks goes to 1140px CSS Grid for providing the system for the responsive design and to Andrew Kasian for tirelessly providing iPhone UI testing and feedback.  Enjoy!

-The CTL