Tag Archive: conversations

Inspire Learning this Fall

By Helice Agria | August 3, 2015

Fall is Almost Here! Are you ready to Inspire Learning?

The Mesa Community College Center for Teaching & Learning is offering a variety of learning opportunities this fall. Attend these informative and hands-on sessions that will help you discover the best in teaching and learning through Canvas, build a foundation for success from day one and engage students in a vibrant and universal classroom community. Get ready to inspire learning this fall at MCC!

View the full Fall 2015 Start-Up Guide Book.

Check our calendar for updates.

A Registration System Designed to Track Your Growth:

CTL sessions use HRMS (Time & Labor) for our registration system. The system allows for an up-to-date attendance system that integrates with your employee record and allows for wait-lists for busy sessions. Each opportunity has a unique course and session number to make it easy to identify and register for. Please feel free to contact us, ctl@mesacc.edu, if you have any questions or concerns about how to register with this system.

Registration Instructions HRMS (formerly HRMS)

Session Opportunities August 10 – August 21

Inspired by Teaching & Learning in Canvas

10 Steps to Getting Started in Canvas
Canvas is the Learning Management System of choice at the Maricopa Community College District. Did you know that Canvas can benefit any course format – face-to-face, hybrid and online? Learn how to communicate with your students, post course materials/ syllabus, set-up assignments and grades within Canvas in just 10 easy steps. Great for anyone interested in teaching and learning with Canvas.

Pick from the following sessions:
Monday, August 10, 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
HCM Course #001839, Session #0016; CTL AS Building – Room 175; Register Now

Tuesday, August 11, 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
HCM Course #001839, Session #0017; CTL AS Building – Room 175; Register Now

Thursday, August 13, 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
HCM Course #001839, Session #0018; CTL AS Building – Room 175; Register Now

Assessing Learning & Giving Effective Feedback in Canvas

In this hands-on session participants will get a brief introduction to Grades (SpeedGrader and Crocodoc), Rubrics, Discussions, Quizzes, and the Assignments features in Canvas including strategies on how to use them effectively to assess and provide feedback on student work. Review the options available in Canvas to help you know how well your students are learning in your courses. Great for new Canvas users or those interested in learning more about the assessment features.

Tuesday, August 11, 1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
HCM Course #001699, Session #0010; CTL AS Building – Room 175; Register Now

What’s New in Canvas? Personalized & Social Learning!

Explore the new features and updates to our learning management system, Canvas. From Differentiated Assignments to the New Community and “Liking” Discussions to Anonymous Peer Review, join us for a session dedicated to all things new in Canvas! Great for current Canvas users or new users looking to review Canvas features. (Note: Not a getting started session).

Pick from the following sessions:
Tuesday, August 11, 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
HCM Course #001826, Session #0008; CTL AS Building – Room 175; Register Now

Thursday, August 13, 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
HCM Course #001826, Session #0010; CTL AS Building – Room 175; Register Now

Monday, August 17, 4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
HCM Course #001826, Session #0009; CTL AS Building – Room 175; Register Now

Becoming a Canvas Genius! Supporting Learners in Canvas

“Have you tried turning it on and off again? Have you switched browsers? Are you sure it is plugged-in?” If you have found yourself asking any of these questions then you know that one of the many roles we play as faculty is that of technical support. In this session we will explore ways to acclimate students to the Canvas LMS through orchestrated activities, relevant resources and clear/salient instructions. Walk away with tools, tips and tricks to be a Canvas Genius! Great for current Canvas users or new users looking to review Canvas features. (Note: Not a getting started session).

Wednesday, August 12, 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
HCM Course #002360, Session #0001; CTL AS Building – Room 175; Register Now

Let’s Talk! Communicating Effectively in Canvas

Communicating with students can be a challenge. In this session participants will learn how leverage Canvas as powerful tool for more effective and streamlined communication. First, learn how to send, receive and manage messages in Canvas using the Conversation Inbox & Notifications. Then widen your scope by incorporating Announcements, Discussion, Chat and more! There are just so many ways to say “good communication” in Canvas. Great for new users or those looking to review the communication tools in Canvas.

Thursday, August 13, 1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
HCM Course #002359, Session #0001; CTL AS Building – Room 175; Register Now

The A, B & 4Cs of Learning Outcomes in Canvas

Ready to start measuring the MCC 4Cs or learning objectives in general? Discover how Canvas Outcomes allows faculty to enter institutional outcomes, course competencies and learning objectives to monitor student academic progress. Participants will learn to enter Outcomes and then align and grade Assessments (Quizzes, Assignments and graded Discussions) using rubrics. The session will also review the MCC’s 4C’s Scoring Guidelines and discuss effective practice for connecting and monitoring these outcomes. Great for current Canvas users or new users looking to review Canvas features. (Note: Not a getting started session).

Thursday, August 20, 3:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
HCM Course #002358, Session #0001; Library – Room 144; Register Now

Inspired Productivity

Getting Started with Google – Mail a& Calendar

Attend this session to have hands-on assistance in using the MCCCD Google Mail and Calendar systems. Learn the basics to effectively communicate and organize your work schedule! Great for new employees and those looking for a refresher on the MCCCD Mail & Calendar systems.

Pick from the following sessions:
Monday, August 10, 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
HCM Course #001718, Session #0014; CTL AS Building – Room 175; Register Now

Wednesday, August 12, 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
HCM Course #001718, Session #0015; CTL AS Building – Room 175; Register Now

Inspired Design

Easy Accessibility Check-Up with the CTL

Make your course more accessible with just a few simple best practices. In this session participants will view our accessibility resource for faculty and the WAVE Tool for checking online resources. Discover ways to make your course user friendly for all your students using universal design techniques. Great for all faculty.

Pick from the following sessions:
Wednesday, August 12, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
HCM Course #001798, Session #0007; CTL AS Building – Room 175; Register Now

Friday, August 21, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
HCM Course #001798, Session #0008; CTL AS Building – Room 175; Register Now

Inspired from Day One

Building a Learning-Centered and Interactive Syllabus

In this session we will explore how to construct a syllabus that not only conveys the required MCCCD/MCC policies and procedures of the class, but introduces students to the goals of the learning process in an engaging way. Discover how to build an interactive syllabus that focuses on meaningful expectations, learning objectives and provides students with the resources to be successful from day one. Great for all faculty.

Pick from the following sessions:
Friday, August 14, 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
HCM Course #001201, Session #0015; CTL AS Building – Room 175; Register Now

Friday, August 21, 2:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
HCM Course #001201, Session #0016; CTL AS Building – Room 175; Register Now

Humanizing Your Course with Presence, Empathy & Awareness

Online learning systems and education technology tools have made it easier for us to be efficient in teaching and learning. Using auto-feedback features, and systematic announcements we can manage our classes and our learners to maximize our output. But what is the net effect of this efficiency model? In this session we will discuss facilitation and design practices that can re-humanize our courses to both strengthen the learning community and increase student success and retention. Great for all faculty.

Monday, August 17, 9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
HCM Course #002306, Session #0002; CTL AS Building – Room 175; Register Now

3D Retention Strategies

The first few weeks of class can be rough for students. In this session we will explore a simple model that will help reveal dropout warning signs while learning proactive intervention strategies. Discover how you can collect and review key Data indicators, Develop an engaging community and use Dialog (communication/feedback) to keep all your students on the path to completion. Great for all faculty.

Friday, August 21, 10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
HCM Course #002118, Session #0002; CTL AS Building – Room 175; Register Now

Inspired Resources

Out of the Box! MCC’s Getting Started Module

The MCC Getting Started Module is designed to provide Mesa Community College faculty with the basic elements necessary to effectively welcome students to a course and connect them with valuable resources. Based on the Quality Matters rubric and the work of the MCC eLearning Committee, this module is a duplicative template that contains best practice ideas, resources and activities for a variety of course formats and needs. Come to this informative session to review the module and learn how to modify it for your course(s). Great for all faculty.

Pick from the following sessions:
Friday, August 14, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
HCM Course #002255, Session #0002; CTL AS Building – Room 175; Register Now

Monday, August 17, 2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
HRMS Course #002255, Session #0003; CTL AS Building – Room 175; Register Now

MCC’s Video Toolbox

Looking for assistance with video? Look no further. Come to this session to see our new MCC Video Toolbox, carefully packed with everything you need to create stunning and content rich videos that will help your learners reach their educational goals. Great for all faculty interested in video production.

Monday, August 17, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
HCM Course #002313, Session #0002; CTL AS Building – Room 175; Register Now

Behavior Assessment & Disability Resources at MCC

Join MCC’s Dean of Student Services, Meredith Warner, as she discusses behavior assessment inside (and outside) the classroom and Disability Resource Services at the college. Through real-MCC examples participants will learn about the diversity of student concerns and needs on our campus. Walk away with hands on tools to more effectively manage your classroom and ensure the safety of all learners while helping them reach their educational goals. Great for all faculty.

Monday, August 17, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
HCM Course #002257, Session #0002; CTL AS Building – Room 175; Register Now

Introducing Adobe Connect

Adobe Connect is the premier resource for online live classroom and web conferencing solutions for eLearning and business applications and it is now available at MCC! Adobe Connect’s comprehensive product provides a safe platform for virtual real-time instructional and non-instructional presentations with features such as: screen and file sharing, video/audio capture, mobile device support, session recording, live polling and more! Learn more about Adobe Connect features, best use cases and how to request a session. Great for faculty and staff interested in live conferencing.

Friday, August 21, 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
HCM Course #002361, Session #0001; CTL AS Building – Room 175; Register Now

Inspired Support

New Adjunct Orientation

New Adjunct Faculty Orientation is designed to welcome new Adjunct Faculty to teaching at Mesa Community College. Orientation includes a welcome by President Dr. Pan and Interim Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. Yohe. This session will cover all the little and big things you need to know about being an Adjunct Faculty Member. Don’t miss the opportunity to meet fellow faculty members, discover success strategies for starting the semester off right (including syllabi creation), and learn about the crucial support systems available to you and your students at MCC.

Saturday, August 15, 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
HCM Course #001830, Session #0005; CTL AS Building – Room 175; Register Now

It’s Your CTL – Personal PD Information Session

A new space and a new face for Professional Development opportunities at the MCC Center for Teaching & Learning. Stop by to learn about our services including the new Professional Development request process where we help connect you to learning opportunities that will meet your needs. Discover how we can create tailor-made self-help materials/references, custom sessions/workshops and provide consultation services for your program or project. It’s all here! It’s your CTL!

Friday, August 21, 12:00 p.m. – 12:30 p.m., AS Building – Room 175
No registration required!

CTL Open Labs

Drop in during any time of the open lab to access resources and help with Canvas or building/planning your course! CTL Staff will be available to answer questions as you work on your classes to get started for the semester. Handouts and computers are available so that you can come in and work and ask questions as you go.

Southern & Dobson CTL, AS Building
Saturday, August 15, 9:00 a.m. – 12 noon
Monday, August 17, 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Friday, August 21, 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Red Mountain, Palo Verde Building, Instructional Support Office
Monday, August 31, 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Thursday, September 3, 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

View the full Guide Book

Questions? Call the CTL 1-7331.
For a full description of the sessions visit the CTL Calendar, ctl.mesacc.edu/events/calendar.

Protect Your Assets Brown Bag Discussion Cyber Security

Tips and Tricks for Cyber Security Revealed

By Helice Agria | October 23, 2014

Be CyberSecure!

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month. This month is designed to engage and raise awareness of important cyber security issues in an effort to limit risk in the digital age.

Throughout this month MCCCD has been sponsoring activities and events to make the district aware of important security concerns.

Join the Discussion at MCC

Stop.Think.Connect. Learn how to Secure Your Assets with MCC’s Director of IT Security Planning, Jeremy Kurtz, who will introduce the “Tbird Top Ten” cyber security tips. An important session for all MCC employees.

Co-hosted by College Technology Services and the Center for Teaching & Learning.

Wednesday, October 29, 12:00 – 1:00 p.m., Brown Bag Session
AS175, Center for Teaching & Learning Lab Room; AS Building – Southern & Dobson Campus [Please Bring your own lunch.]

RSVP

Come alone OR bring your team.

Questions or Concerns?
Contact the MCC Center for Teaching & Learning
Email: ctl@mesacc.edu
Telephone: (480) 461-7331

Call for Proposals! 3rd Annual Canvas Conversations

By Helice Agria | September 12, 2014

Mark Your Calendar & Join the Conversation

Please plan to join us for the 3rd Annual Canvas Conversations event on Friday, November 7, 2014 from 9 am to 3 pm at Scottsdale Community College. This event is open to all Maricopa faculty and staff. This all day event will focus on all things Canvas. Opportunities for everyone – from beginner to advanced! Participate in:

Roundtables
Hands-on workshops
Show and tell
Dialog with colleagues

Registration will open soon! Check the MCLI web site for details!

Submit a Proposal to Present at the Conference

We know you are doing awesome work in Canvas; please consider sharing your ideas and expertise by submitting a proposal today! Proposals are due by 11:59 pm Sunday, October 19, 2014.

Starting the Fall 2014 Semester with Canvas

By Helice Agria | August 19, 2014

Canvas User Update: Fall Start-Up

Important Canvas Notices

Course Copy: The course copy process continues to improve in functionality. Now you can more easily select items that you want to copy from a course, rather than deselect content. Don’t forget to use the Adjust Events and Due Dates option to save yourself time. Please note it can take up to 2 hours for copies of courses from one semester to another to be completed (size and traffic determine speed). Feel free to leave the copy page or logout of Canvas while the copy is being made. Additionally, pay close attention to any error notices at the end of the copy process. Review any alerts reported (posted notice in the import history) and take corrective action. Errors will most often be related to broken links or empty pages. Please see our copy guidelines to get you started.

Publish Course Items: Publish any quizzes, assignments, discussions, content pages or modules that should be visible to students prior to publishing your course. Publishing the course will not publish items within the course that are still in “draft state”. Learn more about the draft state in the recent update section below.

Course Publish: Don’t forget to publish your course to make it available to students. To publish the course find the publish notice dialog box on the course home page. Select Publish and follow the screen prompts. Once a course is published you can continue to make changes and updates as needed. Courses cannot be unpublished once students have submitted work to the course. Directions for publishing courses.

Special Tools & Publisher Integration Changes:Due to recent changes to several of our special integrations in Canvas including ShareStream, Pearson and McGraw Hill you may to re-integrate these tools to ensure that they are working properly. For Pearson integrations users will need to use themaricopa.instructure.com log-in to access Pearson materials. If you are using one of these products, contact the MCC Center for Teaching & Learning atctl@mesacc.edu OR (480) 461-7331 for additional details.

Canvas Update Cycle

Canvas is on a 3-week update-release cycle. The next beta (preview) release is on 8/25, production notes will follow on 9/2 with the release and documentation to follow on 9/6.Follow the release schedule on the Canvas Updates Calendar.

View More Notices

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TechTalks 2014 at SCC

By Helice Agria | January 14, 2014

Register Now for the 2014 TechTalks at SCC

Friday, January 24 – Scottsdale Community College Performing Arts Center

8:30am – 12:30pm

TechTalks 2014 will feature a series of live, 18-minute, presentations about technology and the learning/teaching process with the end result being a morning of inspiring, entertaining, and touching stories with the power to change student success outcomes. The format will be similar to the highly acclaimed TED Talks. Presented by SCC’s Instructional Strategic Technology Advisory Committee and sponsored by Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction.

Register at:
http://mcli.maricopa.edu/techtalksFor more information contact: lisa.young@scottsdalecc.edu or call 480-423-6222

Canvas User Updates December 2

By Helice Agria | December 2, 2013

Important Notices

End of Semester Best Practices

In order to ensure a smooth, end of the semester, if you are utilizing Canvas for grading, please consider following these best practices based on the district processes for handling enrollments in Canvas.

Important Note: Withdrawn student data, downloading of data, and sending of messages is not available after final grades have been entered in SIS.

Before entering grades in SIS

Archive Grades – Download your gradebook to CSV to archive it locally on your computer or flash drive (Click on Grades > Click on the Gear symbol > Click on Download to CSV)
Gather Data – Download any course surveys, quizzes or exam results to archive them locally on your computer or flash drive (Click on Quizzes > Select the Quiz > Click on Quiz Statistics > Select the download option of Student and/or Item Analysis)
Final Communications – Send end-of-course messages to students if desired

After entering grades in SIS

End Course – You can leave your course “as is” and it will automatically go into a read-only mode for students. They will no longer be able to submit assignments or communicate with the class. If you prefer, you can also end your course (Settings > End Course). We DO NOT recommend concluding your course as it becomes inaccessible to you and you cannot un-conclude it.
Course Copy – Get ready for Spring by copying your courses. Navigate to the Spring 2014 course > Settings and then follow the Course Copy Instructions.
Locking Content – Regardless of whether you end your course or not, if you don’t want students to view assignments, quizzes and materials after the course is over, we suggest locking items using the availability features within each tool. Enter a date far in the future – 1/1/2020 for example) to keep the contents locked. Locking Modules.
Clean Your Inbox – Archive your Fall messages in your Conversation Inbox so that you can start the Spring semester with a clean slate. Archiving Conversations.
Customize Your Course Menu – Remove your Fall classes from and add your Spring courses to your course drop-down menu. Customize Course Menu.

Internet Explorer Update

Internet Explorer 11 was released in November 2013. Canvas supports the two most recent versions of each of the major browsers, however for IE9 the support will be extended through May 2014. After May 24, 2014, Canvas releases will not be tested to ensure that new features work and over time, those using Canvas in IE 9 will experience more and more difficulties. Additionally some upcoming “new” features may not be supported at all in IE 9 even before the May deadline. We recommend leaving IE 9 as soon as possible. Review the list of supported browsers in the Canvas Guides.

Canvas Update Cycle

Canvas is on a 3-week update-release cycle. The beta release notes for this next cycle were available on 11/25, production notes were available as of 12/02 with the release and documentation to follow on 12/07. For information about Canvas updates follow the release page.

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Canvas User Updates November 19

By Helice Agria | November 19, 2013

Important Notices

Check Your Course Deadlines!

Most of the United States observes a custom know as Daylight Savings Time. Software is often adjusted to account for these changes, making it easier for course information to transition when the clock does. In Arizona we do not observe Daylight Savings Time and this can be a challenging exception when programming software. Currently users have been experiencing a change in times throughout Canvas where time deadlines are concerned. Users may experience issues with assignment due dates, release deadlines, module locks and other time specific operations within Canvas.

What is happening?
Deadlines may shift by 1 hour earlier then scheduled. This will most likely occur during a course migration/copy process from Fall to Spring when using the Adjust Events and Due Dates Feature. It may also occur when creating assignments with deadlines past March 10.

What is Canvas going to do about it? When will it be fixed? This is not acceptable!
Canvas is aware of the issue and their engineers are working on it. There is currently no ETA for the fix, but we are continuing to follow-up and monitor the issue to make sure it is resolved quickly.

What should I do?
For now it’s simply a matter of making sure the dates and times are correct and fixing those that displaying the wrong date/time manually. Any adjustments made to the incorrect deadlines should remain fixed and you should not experience additional time changing issues. If you need assistance with this process, please contact the MCC Center for Teaching & Learning at ctl@mesacc.edu.

Time to Transition to the New Calendar

Canvas will be slowly removing support for the old calendar. This means that you may experience issues with dates appearing wrong on the old calendar even when you make adjustments. Learn more:

Old vs. New Calendar Overview

Video Tutorial: Using the New Calendar

Chrome 30 Blocks Mixed Content

Chrome has recently updated their security to block mixed content. This means that unsecured multimedia content within Canvas will not display without user action. Learn how to allow blocked content .To keep up with all the latest browser updates visit the Canvas Browser Support Guide. This guide will be continuously revised and is a great resource to share with students.

Canvas Update Cycle

Canvas is on a 3-week update-release cycle. The beta release notes for this next cycle were available on 11/25, production notes will follow on 12/02 with the release and documentation to follow on 12/07. For information about Canvas updates follow the release page.

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Canvas User Updates September 23

By Helice Agria | September 25, 2013

Important Notices

Try the New Canvas Conversations

Canvas has released a New Conversation Inbox to make it easier for students and instructors to communicate as easily and intuitively as possible. The New Conversation is a beta feature that you can opt into. To try the new interface, from the question mark on the far right side of the inbox, choose Try New Conversations from the menu.

The new interface is cleaner and clearer to navigate behaving more like email. Some of the new and improved features are:

a new composition window in the middle of your screen
course labels for messages to filter recipients by course
subject lines for messages
message search by user name
quicklinks to compose or sort from messages
customizable course drop down menu to organize inbox messages

See these Canvas Guides for basic conversation help:
Inbox organization.
Compose a new message.
Filter messages.

Canvas Update Cycle

Canvas is on a 3-week update-release cycle. The beta release notes for this next cycle were available on 9/23, production notes will follow on 9/30 with the release and documentation to follow on 10/5. For information about Canvas updates follow the release page.

Recent Updates

Group Assignments

Managing Group Assignments has just gotten easier. When downloading a group assignment, Canvas will download ONLY one copy of each group submission. In addition the assignment file name will include the group name making it easier to identify. Comments and re-uploads of group assignments will be sent to each member of the group making it more efficient to provide valuable feedback. These group assignment options do not apply if instructors choose to assign grades to each student individually.

Quick Reference on using the Canvas Group Feature.
Downloading assignments from Canvas.

Quiz Regrade
Instructors can now edit quiz questions and tell Canvas to update grades for students who have already taken the quiz. When changing the answer on a multiple choice or true/false quiz question for quizzes in progress, instructors will have one of four additional options:

Award points for both corrected and previously correct answers (no scores will be reduced)
Only award points for the corrected answer (some students’ scores may be reduced)
Give everyone full credit for this question
Update question without regrading

Canvas Conferences – Recording Feature Available!

Canvas now offers a free tier of BigBlueButton conference hosting to all customers. As part of this plan, conferences can be recorded and will be available for 14 days after the conference is completed. This free conference tier also provides users with the latest features of BigBlueButton which include:

Recording of all activity in a session
Simplified interface for users
Layout manager to easily switch layouts
Text tool for whiteboard

Learn more about Canvas Conferences in the Canvas Guides:
What are Conferences?
Creating Conferences.
Recording Conferences.

Upcoming Features Preview

Grade One Question at a Time

Instead of grading quizzes student-by-student, instructors will be able opt to grade quizzes by quiz question. This will make it easier in grading essay and short answer quiz questions when the rest of a quiz is self-grading. This new feature will be the first of several planned improvements to SpeedGrader™. Question grading will be an opt-in feature. Learn more about this and other upcoming features.

To try question grading and other upcoming features, login to the MCCCD Canvas Beta Environment at http://maricopa.beta.instructure.com with your MEID and MEID Password.

Remember that the Beta environment is where Canvas tests out new features without interfering with the production or live software. If the tests go well the features are added to the production version of Canvas. You can interact with your course in Beta to see how upcoming changes may look and feel when released in production.

Did You Know?

New Canvas Tutorials Available

Canvas has released some new and exciting training videos.

New Instructor Videos
The Instructor overview course video is designed for people who are new to Canvas and want to get started. The concepts are presented in the order that new users often have questions about.
Student Videos
Canvas is continuing to update the student orientation video series this week. Look for one or two new videos everyday.

Canvas Guides

Canvas continues to expand its library of online guides for assisting students and instructors with Canvas features. The guides are organized by feature for example Assignments, Quizzes, Conversations, etc. Topics are presented as common questions and a search feature makes it easy to find a guide on a particular subject. The guides include both written step-by-step instructions as well as illustrations. The topics are broken down into manageable bite size lessons.

Best Practice Tip: Include a link to relevant student guides throughout your course to help students with “just in time” support. For example, in a discussion topic include the link to the relevant student guide that assists them in posting discussion replies.

Here is a quicklink to the Canvas Guides:
Student Guides
Instructor Guides
Video Guides

You will also find mobile phone and tablet guides for instructors and students.

Canvas Learning Opportunities

CanvasLIVE

CanvasLIVE is a free webinar series designed to give Canvas users additional training and an opportunity to share their knowledge with the community. Each session includes a brief tutorial on a Canvas tool or feature, focused demonstration, and a short Q&A with Canvas experts.

Upcoming Sessions:

10 Things Instructors Should Know About Assignments, Thursday, September 26 9:00am MDT (Register)  Canvas assignment activities (a.k.a. graded activities) can come in the form of quizzes, discussions and assignments. When creating assignments for your class, you have many options from which to choose. This session will address the 10 things you should know about assignments. Facilitator: Biray Seitz, Instructure

Open Q & A on Assignments, Thursday, September 26, 2:00pm MDT (Register) This session is a Q & A related to assignments. A Canvas trainer will address any questions related to the assignment tool in Canvas. Facilitators: Canvas Trainers

4 Ways Rubrics Can Enhance Student Feedback, Tuesday, October 15, 9:00am MDT (Register)  Rubric is an assessment tool for communicating expectations of quality. They are a way to set up custom or Outcome-based assessment criteria for scoring. This session will address ways to set up and administer rubrics in your course in an effort to enhance student feedback. Facilitator: Biray Seitz, Instructure

Webinars are open to everyone. Click here to see all upcoming CanvasLIVE sessions.

MCC Learning Opportunities

Mark your calendar for our 2nd Annual Fall Tech & Teach week October 21 – 25, 2013. The Fall Tech & Teach fest is a week of activities to support teaching & learning at MCC. The week will consist of sessions, discussions and other events that address excellence in education, technology, teaching and learning.

MCC Center for Teaching & Learning How-To Documents – Review our helpful how-to guides including Getting Started with Canvas in 10 Steps.

Canvas User Updates September 3, 2013

By Helice Agria | September 1, 2013

Important Notices

Firefox 23 Update – Issues with Mixed Content

Mozilla recently released Firefox 23 (FF23). This version of Firefox includes new rules and features related to displaying mixed content. Canvas is served securely, using https. But users can embed or link to things hosted outside of Canvas and delivered via an unsecure (http) connection. (Note: “unsecure” does not mean that the content is “bad” or “dangerous” to you or your students, it is just unsecure information that does not require authentication, etc.).

What does this mean? When a user running FF23 visits a Canvas page with mixed content FF23 prevents unsecure content from displaying. For example, this could effect a video or digital tool that you embedded in a page or a link to a website that you added to a module.

What can I do about it? How to I help students find missing content? Users can tell FF23 to allow unsecure items to run or show. On visiting a page, all active unsecure content is disabled and a small shield icon in the address bar will alert the user to the presence of unsecure content. To view this content, click the shield icon followed by the Keep Blocking drop-down menu and choose Disable Protection on This Page. All content will subsequently load and the usual yellow warning sign indicating mixed content will be displayed in its place. Learn more. Users can also use Chrome or Safari as alternative browsers.

Canvas Update Cycle

Canvas is on a 3-week update-release cycle. The next beta release notes are available on 9/3, production notes will follow on 9/9 with the release and documentation to follow on 9/14. For information about Canvas updates follow the release page.

Recent & Upcoming Changes

Currently Released – Canvas Mobile 2.0

Canvas has just released an update to both the Android and iOS mobile device applications. The apps have been redesigned in an effort to supportusers to complete an entire course on a mobile phone. This includes support for critical features such as Modules and Quizzes. Additionally both apps received an interface update making it easier to access, navigate and interact with courses on the go. Download the Canvas by Instructure app in iTunes or the Google Play store.

Preview 9/14/2013 Release – Conversations Re-Design

The Conversation Inbox is getting an overhaul to make it easier for students and instructors to communicate as easily and intuitively as possible. The new interface will be cleaner and clearer to navigate behaving more like email. Some of the new and improved features will include:

a new composition window in the middle of your screen
course labels for messages to filter recipients by course
subject lines for messages
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Canvas Training

Canvas learning opportunities are available throughout September.

Mesa Community College Learning Opportunities

Collaborative Presentations, Projects and Storytelling with VoiceThread VoiceThread makes an every day slide show in to interactive collaborative course materials. Learn how to use this amazing tool inside Canvas to tell content stories, generate lively discussions, debate topics and more.

Thursday, September 5, 10:30am – 12:00pm, Room 175 AS Building Southern & Dobson Campus; COURSE #001800, Session #0004

Tips & Tricks for Managing Your Courses in Canvas In this session we will discuss strategies for managing the Canvas Inbox, as well as tips for getting the most out of the Canvas organizational tools to keep your courses on target all semester.

Thursday, September 5, 3:30 – 4:30pm, Room 175 AS Building Southern & Dobson Campus; COURSE #001964, Session #0002

Collecting & Reflecting on Learning in Canvas In this session we will explore the different types of ePort assignments and how easily students can store, track, reflect on and share their learning using the Canvas ePortfolio Tool.

Monday, September 9, 9:00 – 10:30am, Room 175 AS Building Southern & Dobson Campus; COURSE #001843, Session #0003

The 3 C’s: Collaboration, Chat & Conferencing in Canvas Explore the interactive features in Canvas that can bring a dynamic, high-touch learning environment to any class.

Monday, September 9, 5:30 – 7:00pm, Room 175 AS Building Southern & Dobson Campus; COURSE #001768, Session #0005

View our full calendar for more sessions.

Online Resources, Tutorials & Guides

Check out the Instructure “Keep Learning Blog”. The purpose of this blog is to “engage as much of the education and technology communities as possible, by hosting relevant articles and encouraging fruitful interactions amongst practitioners and thinkers throughout the world”. Articles are provided by educators and technologists worldwide.

Canvas 101 is an open enrollment course that will walk you through the basics of setting up a new course in Canvas. To enroll, simply click on the “Join this course” button on the Course Home Page. There is no facilitator, but it is a good series of self-paced exercises.

MCC Center for Teaching & Learning How-To Documents – Review our helpful how-to guides including Getting Started with Canvas in 10 Steps.