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Backward Design

September 24, 2021
Backward design is, as the name suggests, a process for designing curricula, courses, and lectures by working backwards from big-picture learning goals. The concept, introduced by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe (2005), suggests that instructors create assessments, activities, and course content that are explicitly aligned with the broader learning goals of the unit. This is different from the traditional content-driven approach to learning design, which focuses on course content first and only secondarily tries to align that content with learning goals.

Navigating Late Policies Online

November 03, 2022
Late submissions can raise thorny questions for online instructors. While studies show that students who submit assessments before the due date receive higher than average grades, as many as 70% of college students identify as procrastinators (You, 2015, p. 64). Despite instructor attempts to create a manageable workload and motivate students to submit assignments on time, it is inevitable that procrastination, combined with the competing obligations of online students, will result in occasional late submissions. When preparing for an upcoming term, then, it is a good idea to share a late policy that clearly communicates your expectations for student submissions (Santelli et al., 2020, p. 38).

Using Hotspots

September 24, 2021
A unique way to share information, images with hotspots offer online learners the opportunity to interact with course content. Learners can click or hover on particular parts of an image and receive pop-ups giving them more information. Hotspots represent information in a particular context; thus, they fulfill the multimedia principle—use words and graphics rather than words alone—and the contiguity principle—align words to corresponding graphics (Clark & Mayer, 2016).

Navigating Canvas New Analytics

December 29, 2022
At the end of 2019, Canvas rolled out New Analytics, a new version of their former analytics tool, Course Analytics. By Canvas' own description, New Analytics retains the core functionality of Course Analytics while offering a simplified user experience. In this post we share our recommendations for leveraging New Analytics to support students.

LMS Analytics: Supporting Your Students With Data

December 29, 2022
With the help of tools like Canvas New Analytics, faculty can leverage learning management system (LMS) data to hone their instructional techniques and improve their online students' experience. In this piece, we provide an introduction to learning analytics in online higher education and detail some analytics best practices.

Creating Learning Objectives

September 24, 2021
Learning objectives help inform students about what they will learn and how they will be assessed. Objectives are meant to align with course expectations. Therefore, any assigned exercises should be guided by the course’s specific learning objectives. Everything in the course should work together to ensure students master the course objectives.

Problem Based Learning

September 27, 2021
Problem Based Learning is a teaching method used to facilitate student knowledge acquisition. This teaching method is often confused with Project Based Learning, which centers on students applying knowledge. The focus of Problem Based Learning is students acquiring the knowledge. Since the two methods use the same acronym, they are easily confused, but have different objectives for students.

Basic Editing in Canvas

September 24, 2021
To edit a page in Canvas, simply click on the “Edit” button. Each page contains a variety of editing tools, similar to those found on most word processing programs. The Rich Content Editor applies the principles of a WYSIWIG editor (What You See is What You Get) and uses icons to illustrate the functions. You may also hover over an icon to confirm its function.

Updating Your Syllabus

September 24, 2021
Over time, you may want to make changes to the syllabus of a course. The syllabus documents are saved in the “Files” area (1) of the course. To preserve the integrity of the document, the Word document is located in the “Instructor Only” folder (3) and the PDF is found in the “Documents” folder (2) so it is visible to students.