Category: Index

I didn’t do a blog index last weekend (it was my birthday, whoo-hoo), but here’s an updated index with the new posts in bold that I’ve added since the last index.

I’ve also been crossposting in different areas of Canvas since I finally figured out that the totally private University of Oklahoma area is not visible in any way to the rest of the Community. I’m glad I finally figured that out; maybe someday the OU Community will come to life, but now I know I need to put my attention elsewhere; contributions to a totally private group like that unfortunately don’t benefit the larger Community in any way.

So, here is a complete blog index, and over at Canvas, I’ll just post a list of the latest posts:

CanvasLIVE: Possible Topics

• Flickr Albums in Canvas. Using the Files trick for using dynamic Flickr photo albums in Canvas Pages and in Discussion Boards too!
• CanvasLIVE Brainstorming. This is just a braindump of all tricks and strategies that I could share through CanvasLIVE.
• CanvasLive: Getting Started. This is my new blog to support the work I will be doing for the CanvasLIVE presentations.
• Excited about CanvasLIVE (thank you, Stefanie!). I am excited that my next Canvas project is going to be doing some demos for CanvasLive.

Canvas Class Announcements

• The Sidebar Never Sleeps: Live Content 24/7. This is a guided tour of the dynamic content in my daily blog announcements sidebar.
• More on Embedded Blogs (or Sites). Some advantages to using the iframe method for embedding content in Canvas.
• Blissfully Blogging Announcements in Canvas. A description of my class announcements blog plus details about embedding blogs in Canvas.
• The Power of Random Cats. I used random cats to promote growth mindset in my Canvas announcements blog.
• New Countdown Widget on Homepage. I created a new “__ days left in the semester” widget for my Canvas announcements blog.
• Maati Baani in my Canvas Homepage. I like to share videos with students via my Canvas announcements blog… and Maati Baani is great for my India class.

Grading and Going Gradeless

• More Visible Learning, NOT More Visible Grades #TTOG. My take on the new Student Context Card and the benefits of going gradeless.
• The Tyranny of the Percentage: Part 1. In which I learn that I cannot assign letter grades at semester’s end based on my students’ total points.
• The Tyranny of the Percentage: Part 2. In which I research past feature requests related to serious limitations in the Canvas Gradebook.
• The Tyranny of the Percentage: Part 3. In which I vent my frustration with numeric-based grading, the only kind that Canvas supports.
• Feature Request: Text Fields in Gradebook. In which I make a Feature Request, only to learn the Feature Request process has been put on hold.
• Points-Based Grading: Cumulative, Not Punitive. My philosophy of grading is driven by student choice and forward progress.
• Points-Based Grading: Student Gradebook Declarations. Students record their work in the Canvas Gradebook on their own by means of “Declarations.”
• Canvas Hack: Repeated Quiz Content. For recurring Gradebook Declarations each week, I remote-host the content: Canvas meets POSSE.
• Points-Based Grading: Choices, not Zeroes. I am glad that in the Canvas Gradebook a blank really is a blank, not a zero.

Widgets and Other Dynamic Content

• The Power of Randomizers… Everywhere. Weaving dynamic content into otherwise static content pages.
• Canvas: Curation and Distributed Content. This is a post of curation and distribution, using Freebookapalooza as an example.
• Random/Daily Discussion Prompts. I documented how to use a randomizing widgets inside a Canvas discussion board as a prompt.
• Martin Luther King Canvas Widget. This is a widget I created in honor of the Martin Luther King Day holiday.
• The Power of a Student Project Archive. A randomizing widget gives my students access to hundreds of past student projects.
• Widgets to Awaken Curiosity. I will be able to use all my new/updated widgets to prompt my students’ curiosity this semester.
• Progress at the Canvas Widget Warehouse. I got a lot done at the Widget Warehouse over winter break!
• Widget Warehouse Update. I’ve added some new widgets, plus a Widget Catalog to keep track of them all.
• New Canvas Course: Laura’s Widget Warehouse. I’ve created a public Canvas course for sharing my Canavs-friendly javascript widgets.
• Become a Javascript Wizard: HTTPS is the key. You can use the power of HTTPS to display javascript content in Canvas.

Posts about Students and Student Voices

• Mid-Semester Evaluation and Feedback. There are the reflection and feedback activities my students complete during Week 8.
• Update on New Google Sites: Happy!. An update on the new Google Sites: my students are really like this!
• More Student Voices from Fall 2016. A steady stream of blog posts kept me well informed about student use of Canvas in my classes!
• Student Tech Support for Canvas. Based on student feedback, these are the Canvas features I am supporting and promoting: Calendar, Notifications, Profile, and Mobile App.
• Student Voices about Canvas. These are the results of my Fall 2016 mid-semester student survey, with lots of advice from students for instructors using Canvas.
• Time Management Brainstorms. I got some big ideas from an ILED studio session on helping students with time management.

Posts about Faculty and Faculty Voices

• Marketing and Community. One marketing email does not a Community make.
• Faculty Survey … Faculty Voices. I hope the results of this survey will be shared so that we can learn from each other.
• Big Canvas News for Spring. Instead of being opt-in for Spring, we are going to be opt-out. I hope this blog can be useful for faculty who will start using Canvas.
• Moving from Marketing to Conversation. In addition to student voices about Canvas, we need faculty voices too.

Thoughts about Canvas and about LMSes

• Thoughts about the Canvas Outage. Big thanks to Canvas for the excellent communication during the AWS-related outage.
• Introduction for a Canvas Training Course. This is an introduction I wrote for a Canvas training course (closed course), and I crossposted it here.
• The LMS and its Ecosystem. The LMS is just one tool in a technology ecosystem, and it’s good idea to know your ecosystem #BeforeYouLMS.
• The LMS and Its Dis-Contents. Looking at the advantages of publishing on the open Internet and the disadvantages of the LMS.
• How Instructors (Don’t) Use the LMS. These are my thoughts on the Blackboard study showing limited (VERY limited) use of LMS features by instructors.

CanvasLive: Growth Mindset / Feedback Cats

• CanvasLIVE: Planning the Mindset Cats. This is a plan for a growth mindset / cats widget presentation (still some work to do here).
• Diigo-in-Canvas. Using Inoreader, I can display live Diigo content in Canvas; these are feedback resource examples.
• Notes. Blog RSS in Canvas.. I’ve been working on Inoreader RSS documentation for Canvas; these are “feedback cat” examples.
• CanvasLIVE with Janie Ruddy: Feedback! These are my notes and comments on Janie’s feedback presentation. I need to do feedback cats!

Twitter4Canvas Mini-Course

• CanvasLIVE: Planning Twitter4Canvas. I’ve sketched out the presentation for Twitter4Canvas (streamlined with help from the Community!).
• Learning about / with Twitter: Hashtags. The advantages and disadvantages of Twitter hashtag widgets (in honor of #DressLikeAWoman).
• Twitter4 Canvas blog has launched! I have started publicizing the Twitter4Canvas project, and I’m also making ready-to-use widgets!
• Twitter for Class Content: My Top 5 Strategies. This is a summary of how/why I use Twitter for my classes.
• Twitter4Canvas: Good things come in fives. This is my rough sketch for a 5-step workshop approach for Twitter widgets in Canvas via OU Create.
• Twitter4Canvas: Getting Started. I’ve decided to launch a new Canvas project: a mini-course in using Twitter in Canvas.
• Twitter4Canvas: I’m excited about this! More thoughts on how this mini-course will take shape.
• Twitter4Canvas v. Canvas Twitter App. A comparison of a real Twitter widget and the (seriously limited) Canvas Twitter App.
• Twitter in Canvas and the Occasional Hashtag. This is the post that prompted me to come up with the mini-course.

Spring 2017 Reports

• Friday… and what a great week! Good news about Google Sites and other events in my week of teaching online.
• Friday: Spring Classes Begin … in the Snow. The first day of Spring 2017: I open the classes early for students who want to get a head start.
• Power of API | Power of Community. I was so grateful for James Jones’s API script to globally update all my class assignment dates: wow!

Openness, Sharing, and Connectedness

• Canvas for Everyone: Connecting and Sharing. With Canvas you can create all kinds of shared spaces for student success; it’s not just about courses.
• Open: It’s the Canvas Difference. This post in praise of open was prompted by Keegan’s great Camp Canvas and also a video meet-up with the crew at CSU CI.
• Connectedness. This is my grateful response to Jesse Stommel’s blog post about Creative Online Educators.
• Open Content: Resources, not Courses. A warning about the dangers of putting content into LMS course spaces.
• Go Open with Canvas. Canvas, unlike D2L, has some open options, which is my main interest in our switch from D2L to Canvas.
• Canvas for Open Syllabuses. Canvas makes it easy to open up your syllabus so students and other faculty can learn about the class.

Blogs and Blogging

• Keep Calm and Love the Randomness. This is how I create random responding groups for my classes each week.
• Inoreader and Tracking Blog Comments. This is how I keep up with my students’ commenting on each other’s blogs.
• Building My Student Blog Network with Inoreader. As students set up their blogs for the new semester, I subscribe to them with the Inoreader feed reader.
• Inoreader: How I Manage Incoming Blog Posts. As students blog, Inoreader automatically sorts, files, and tags the posts based on content.
• A Blog Network for Class Content. This post explains the network of blogs that I use for all the different types of content in my classes.
• Friday Thoughts re: Online Presence. Blogs are great for building online presence; the LMS is not.
• Fall Semester: Blog Success. The Fall semester is over, and having this new blog is one of my semester’s successes.

Teaching Writing

• Writing-Enhanced Curriculum Canvas Minicourse. I am really glad that I got to participate in this online learning opportunity, and it would have been even better with more faculty participants. Writing: it’s a topic that can and should be something we all have a lot to say about!
• WEC Minicourse, Day Two. I really appreciated the emphasis on low-stakes, creative approaches in this day of the course.
• Engagement, Creativity, and Non-Conformity. Yes, I believe in creative non-conformity in both teaching and learning.
• Writing yesterday. Writing today. Some thoughts after the presidential election.

Some Practical Canvas Advice

• Use the Canvas “Grace Period.” Having a two-deadline option in Canvas allows me to create a grace period for all assignments (D2L did not).
• Keep Canvas Modules Current. It just takes a minute to keep your module list up-to-date. I make it a weekly routine!
• Use a Course Image. Instead of a (boring) colored block, you can choose to display an image on your Dashboard course card.
• Course Images and Flickr. Not sure what image to use? You can choose your course card image by searching Flickr inside Canvas!
• Think Before You Link: Creating a Canvas URL. To create continuity from semester to semester, you can create a URL for each course you teach.

And here is one of this week’s Growth Mindset Cats:

Take some time to reflect.
 

In all the busy-ness of the past couple of weeks, I forgot to do an Index post last week. And now… I am indexing not just this blog, but also my Twitter4Canvas blog and CanvasLIVE Playground blogs. I am clearly having too much fun with this! 🙂

The posts new to this index are marked in bold, and there are also “latest posts” from all three blogs in the sidebar.

CanvasLIVE

• CanvasLIVE Brainstorming. This is just a braindump of all tricks and strategies that I could share through CanvasLIVE.
• CanvasLive: Getting Started. This is my new blog to support the work I will be doing for the CanvasLIVE presentations.
• Excited about CanvasLIVE (thank you, Stefanie!). I am excited that my next Canvas project is going to be doing some demos for CanvasLive.

CanvasLive: Growth Mindset / Feedback Cats

• CanvasLIVE: Planning the Mindset Cats. This is a plan for a growth mindset / cats widget presentation (still some work to do here).
• Diigo-in-Canvas. Using Inoreader, I can display live Diigo content in Canvas; these are feedback resource examples.
• Notes. Blog RSS in Canvas.. I’ve been working on Inoreader RSS documentation for Canvas; these are “feedback cat” examples.
• CanvasLIVE with Janie Ruddy: Feedback! These are my notes and comments on Janie’s feedback presentation. I need to do feedback cats!

Twitter4Canvas Mini-Course

• CanvasLIVE: Planning Twitter4Canvas. I’ve sketched out the presentation for Twitter4Canvas (streamlined with help from the Community!).
• Learning about / with Twitter: Hashtags. The advantages and disadvantages of Twitter hashtag widgets (in honor of #DressLikeAWoman).
• Twitter4 Canvas blog has launched! I have started publicizing the Twitter4Canvas project, and I’m also making ready-to-use widgets!
• Twitter for Class Content: My Top 5 Strategies. This is a summary of how/why I use Twitter for my classes.
• Twitter4Canvas: Good things come in fives. This is my rough sketch for a 5-step workshop approach for Twitter widgets in Canvas via OU Create.
• Twitter4Canvas: Getting Started. I’ve decided to launch a new Canvas project: a mini-course in using Twitter in Canvas.
• Twitter4Canvas: I’m excited about this! More thoughts on how this mini-course will take shape.
• Twitter4Canvas v. Canvas Twitter App. A comparison of a real Twitter widget and the (seriously limited) Canvas Twitter App.
• Twitter in Canvas and the Occasional Hashtag. This is the post that prompted me to come up with the mini-course.

Widgets and Other Dynamic Content

• Canvas: Curation and Distributed Content. This is a post of curation and distribution, using Freebookapalooza as an example.
• Random/Daily Discussion Prompts. I documented how to use a randomizing widgets inside a Canvas discussion board as a prompt.
• Martin Luther King Canvas Widget. This is a widget I created in honor of the Martin Luther King Day holiday.
• The Power of a Student Project Archive. A randomizing widget gives my students access to hundreds of past student projects.
• Widgets to Awaken Curiosity. I will be able to use all my new/updated widgets to prompt my students’ curiosity this semester.
• Progress at the Canvas Widget Warehouse. I got a lot done at the Widget Warehouse over winter break!
• Widget Warehouse Update. I’ve added some new widgets, plus a Widget Catalog to keep track of them all.
• New Canvas Course: Laura’s Widget Warehouse. I’ve created a public Canvas course for sharing my Canavs-friendly javascript widgets.
• Become a Javascript Wizard: HTTPS is the key. You can use the power of HTTPS to display javascript content in Canvas.

Spring 2017 Reports

• Friday… and what a great week! Good news about Google Sites and other events in my week of teaching online.
• Friday: Spring Classes Begin … in the Snow. The first day of Spring 2017: I open the classes early for students who want to get a head start.
• Power of API | Power of Community. I was so grateful for James Jones’s API script to globally update all my class assignment dates: wow!

Openness, Sharing, and Connectedness

• Canvas for Everyone: Connecting and Sharing. With Canvas you can create all kinds of shared spaces for student success; it’s not just about courses.
• Open: It’s the Canvas Difference. This post in praise of open was prompted by Keegan’s great Camp Canvas and also a video meet-up with the crew at CSU CI.
• Connectedness. This is my grateful response to Jesse Stommel’s blog post about Creative Online Educators.
• Open Content: Resources, not Courses. A warning about the dangers of putting content into LMS course spaces.
• Go Open with Canvas. Canvas, unlike D2L, has some open options, which is my main interest in our switch from D2L to Canvas.
• Canvas for Open Syllabuses. Canvas makes it easy to open up your syllabus so students and other faculty can learn about the class.

Canvas Class Announcements

• Blissfully Blogging Announcements in Canvas. A description of my class announcements blog plus details about embedding blogs in Canvas.
• The Power of Random Cats. I used random cats to promote growth mindset in my Canvas announcements blog.
• New Countdown Widget on Homepage. I created a new “__ days left in the semester” widget for my Canvas announcements blog.
• Maati Baani in my Canvas Homepage. I like to share videos with students via my Canvas announcements blog… and Maati Baani is great for my India class.

Blogs and Blogging

• Keep Calm and Love the Randomness. This is how I create random responding groups for my classes each week.
• Inoreader and Tracking Blog Comments. This is how I keep up with my students’ commenting on each other’s blogs.
• Building My Student Blog Network with Inoreader. As students set up their blogs for the new semester, I subscribe to them with the Inoreader feed reader.
• Inoreader: How I Manage Incoming Blog Posts. As students blog, Inoreader automatically sorts, files, and tags the posts based on content.
• A Blog Network for Class Content. This post explains the network of blogs that I use for all the different types of content in my classes.
• Friday Thoughts re: Online Presence. Blogs are great for building online presence; the LMS is not.
• Fall Semester: Blog Success. The Fall semester is over, and having this new blog is one of my semester’s successes.

Thoughts about Canvas and about LMSes

• Introduction for a Canvas Training Course. This is an introduction I wrote for a Canvas training course (closed course), and I crossposted it here.
• The LMS and its Ecosystem. The LMS is just one tool in a technology ecosystem, and it’s good idea to know your ecosystem #BeforeYouLMS.
• The LMS and Its Dis-Contents. Looking at the advantages of publishing on the open Internet and the disadvantages of the LMS.
• How Instructors (Don’t) Use the LMS. These are my thoughts on the Blackboard study showing limited (VERY limited) use of LMS features by instructors.

Posts about Students

• More Student Voices from Fall 2016. A steady stream of blog posts kept me well informed about student use of Canvas in my classes!
• Student Tech Support for Canvas. Based on student feedback, these are the Canvas features I am supporting and promoting: Calendar, Notifications, Profile, and Mobile App.
• Student Voices about Canvas. These are the results of my Fall 2016 mid-semester student survey, with lots of advice from students for instructors using Canvas.
• Time Management Brainstorms. I got some big ideas from an ILED studio session on helping students with time management.

Posts about Instructors

• Faculty Survey … Faculty Voices. I hope the results of this survey will be shared so that we can learn from each other.
• Big Canvas News for Spring. Instead of being opt-in for Spring, we are going to be opt-out. I hope this blog can be useful for faculty who will start using Canvas.
• Moving from Marketing to Conversation. In addition to student voices about Canvas, we need faculty voices too.

Teaching Writing

• Writing-Enhanced Curriculum Canvas Minicourse. I am really glad that I got to participate in this online learning opportunity, and it would have been even better with more faculty participants. Writing: it’s a topic that can and should be something we all have a lot to say about!
• WEC Minicourse, Day Two. I really appreciated the emphasis on low-stakes, creative approaches in this day of the course.
• Engagement, Creativity, and Non-Conformity. Yes, I believe in creative non-conformity in both teaching and learning.
• Writing yesterday. Writing today. Some thoughts after the presidential election.

Some Practical Canvas Advice

• Use the Canvas “Grace Period.” Having a two-deadline option in Canvas allows me to create a grace period for all assignments (D2L did not).
• Keep Canvas Modules Current. It just takes a minute to keep your module list up-to-date. I make it a weekly routine!
• Use a Course Image. Instead of a (boring) colored block, you can choose to display an image on your Dashboard course card.
• Course Images and Flickr. Not sure what image to use? You can choose your course card image by searching Flickr inside Canvas!
• Think Before You Link: Creating a Canvas URL. To create continuity from semester to semester, you can create a URL for each course you teach.

Grading with Canvas

• The Tyranny of the Percentage: Part 1. In which I learn that I cannot assign letter grades at semester’s end based on my students’ total points.
• The Tyranny of the Percentage: Part 2. In which I research past feature requests related to serious limitations in the Canvas Gradebook.
• The Tyranny of the Percentage: Part 3. In which I vent my frustration with numeric-based grading, the only kind that Canvas supports.
• Feature Request: Text Fields in Gradebook. In which I make a Feature Request, only to learn the Feature Request process has been put on hold.
• Points-Based Grading: Cumulative, Not Punitive. My philosophy of grading is driven by student choice and forward progress.
• Points-Based Grading: Student Gradebook Declarations. Students record their work in the Canvas Gradebook on their own by means of “Declarations.”
• Canvas Hack: Repeated Quiz Content. For recurring Gradebook Declarations each week, I remote-host the content: Canvas meets POSSE.
• Points-Based Grading: Choices, not Zeroes. I am glad that in the Canvas Gradebook a blank really is a blank, not a zero.

And here is one of the growth mindset cats from this week:

Don’t stop! Just keep going!

 

Welcome to the fifth Blog Index post of 2017! My focus this past week was adding new ready-to-use Twitter4Canvas widgets, which was so much fun. This coming week, I’ll be brainstorming some ways to share some of these materials in a way that will make sense for CanvasLIVE! 🙂

This week’s posts are in bold up towards the top of the index; I don’t have as many new posts here because I have been focusing on those ready-to-use Twitter widgets, which you can see here: Ready-To-Use Twitter4Canvas.

CanvasLIVE

• Excited about CanvasLIVE (thank you, Stefanie!). I am excited that my next Canvas project is going to be doing some demos for CanvasLive.

Twitter4Canvas Mini-Course

• Learning about / with Twitter: Hashtags. The advantages and disadvantages of Twitter hashtag widgets (in honor of #DressLikeAWoman).
• Twitter4 Canvas blog has launched! I have started publicizing the Twitter4Canvas project, and I’m also making ready-to-use widgets!
• Twitter for Class Content: My Top 5 Strategies. This is a summary of how/why I use Twitter for my classes.
• Twitter4Canvas: Good things come in fives. This is my rough sketch for a 5-step workshop approach for Twitter widgets in Canvas via OU Create.
• Twitter4Canvas: Getting Started. I’ve decided to launch a new Canvas project: a mini-course in using Twitter in Canvas.
• Twitter4Canvas: I’m excited about this! More thoughts on how this mini-course will take shape.
• Twitter4Canvas v. Canvas Twitter App. A comparison of a real Twitter widget and the (seriously limited) Canvas Twitter App.
• Twitter in Canvas and the Occasional Hashtag. This is the post that prompted me to come up with the mini-course.

Canvas Class Announcements

• Blissfully Blogging Announcements in Canvas. A description of my class announcements blog plus details about embedding blogs in Canvas.
• The Power of Random Cats. I used random cats to promote growth mindset in my Canvas announcements blog.
• New Countdown Widget on Homepage. I created a new “__ days left in the semester” widget for my Canvas announcements blog.
• Maati Baani in my Canvas Homepage. I like to share videos with students via my Canvas announcements blog… and Maati Baani is great for my India class.

Blogs and Blogging

• Keep Calm and Love the Randomness. This is how I create random responding groups for my classes each week.
• Inoreader and Tracking Blog Comments. This is how I keep up with my students’ commenting on each other’s blogs.
• Building My Student Blog Network with Inoreader. As students set up their blogs for the new semester, I subscribe to them with the Inoreader feed reader.
• Inoreader: How I Manage Incoming Blog Posts. As students blog, Inoreader automatically sorts, files, and tags the posts based on content.
• A Blog Network for Class Content. This post explains the network of blogs that I use for all the different types of content in my classes.
• Friday Thoughts re: Online Presence. Blogs are great for building online presence; the LMS is not.
• Fall Semester: Blog Success. The Fall semester is over, and having this new blog is one of my semester’s successes.

Thoughts about Canvas and about LMSes

• Introduction for a Canvas Training Course. This is an introduction I wrote for a Canvas training course (closed course), and I crossposted it here.
• The LMS and its Ecosystem. The LMS is just one tool in a technology ecosystem, and it’s good idea to know your ecosystem #BeforeYouLMS.
• The LMS and Its Dis-Contents. Looking at the advantages of publishing on the open Internet and the disadvantages of the LMS.
• How Instructors (Don’t) Use the LMS. These are my thoughts on the Blackboard study showing limited (VERY limited) use of LMS features by instructors.

Spring 2017 Reports

• Friday: Spring Classes Begin … in the Snow. The first day of Spring 2017: I open the classes early for students who want to get a head start.
• Power of API | Power of Community. I was so grateful for James Jones’s API script to globally update all my class assignment dates: wow!

Widgets and Other Dynamic Content

• Martin Luther King Canvas Widget. This is a widget I created in honor of the Martin Luther King Day holiday.
• The Power of a Student Project Archive. A randomizing widget gives my students access to hundreds of past student projects.
• Widgets to Awaken Curiosity. I will be able to use all my new/updated widgets to prompt my students’ curiosity this semester.
• Progress at the Canvas Widget Warehouse. I got a lot done at the Widget Warehouse over winter break!
• Widget Warehouse Update. I’ve added some new widgets, plus a Widget Catalog to keep track of them all.
• New Canvas Course: Laura’s Widget Warehouse. I’ve created a public Canvas course for sharing my Canavs-friendly javascript widgets.
• Become a Javascript Wizard: HTTPS is the key. You can use the power of HTTPS to display javascript content in Canvas.

Openness, Sharing, and Connectedness

• Open: It’s the Canvas Difference. This post in praise of open was prompted by Keegan’s great Camp Canvas and also a video meet-up with the crew at CSU CI.
• Connectedness. This is my grateful response to Jesse Stommel’s blog post about Creative Online Educators.
• Open Content: Resources, not Courses. A warning about the dangers of putting content into LMS course spaces.
• Go Open with Canvas. Canvas, unlike D2L, has some open options, which is my main interest in our switch from D2L to Canvas.
• Canvas for Open Syllabuses. Canvas makes it easy to open up your syllabus so students and other faculty can learn about the class.

Posts about Students

• More Student Voices from Fall 2016. A steady stream of blog posts kept me well informed about student use of Canvas in my classes!
• Student Tech Support for Canvas. Based on student feedback, these are the Canvas features I am supporting and promoting: Calendar, Notifications, Profile, and Mobile App.
• Student Voices about Canvas. These are the results of my Fall 2016 mid-semester student survey, with lots of advice from students for instructors using Canvas.
• Time Management Brainstorms. I got some big ideas from an ILED studio session on helping students with time management.

Posts about Instructors

• Faculty Survey … Faculty Voices. I hope the results of this survey will be shared so that we can learn from each other.
• Big Canvas News for Spring. Instead of being opt-in for Spring, we are going to be opt-out. I hope this blog can be useful for faculty who will start using Canvas.
• Moving from Marketing to Conversation. In addition to student voices about Canvas, we need faculty voices too.

Teaching Writing

• Writing-Enhanced Curriculum Canvas Minicourse. I am really glad that I got to participate in this online learning opportunity, and it would have been even better with more faculty participants. Writing: it’s a topic that can and should be something we all have a lot to say about!
• WEC Minicourse, Day Two. I really appreciated the emphasis on low-stakes, creative approaches in this day of the course.
• Engagement, Creativity, and Non-Conformity. Yes, I believe in creative non-conformity in both teaching and learning.
• Writing yesterday. Writing today. Some thoughts after the presidential election.

Some Practical Canvas Advice

• Use the Canvas “Grace Period.” Having a two-deadline option in Canvas allows me to create a grace period for all assignments (D2L did not).
• Keep Canvas Modules Current. It just takes a minute to keep your module list up-to-date. I make it a weekly routine!
• Use a Course Image. Instead of a (boring) colored block, you can choose to display an image on your Dashboard course card.
• Course Images and Flickr. Not sure what image to use? You can choose your course card image by searching Flickr inside Canvas!
• Think Before You Link: Creating a Canvas URL. To create continuity from semester to semester, you can create a URL for each course you teach.

Grading with Canvas

• The Tyranny of the Percentage: Part 1. In which I learn that I cannot assign letter grades at semester’s end based on my students’ total points.
• The Tyranny of the Percentage: Part 2. In which I research past feature requests related to serious limitations in the Canvas Gradebook.
• The Tyranny of the Percentage: Part 3. In which I vent my frustration with numeric-based grading, the only kind that Canvas supports.
• Feature Request: Text Fields in Gradebook. In which I make a Feature Request, only to learn the Feature Request process has been put on hold.
• Points-Based Grading: Cumulative, Not Punitive. My philosophy of grading is driven by student choice and forward progress.
• Points-Based Grading: Student Gradebook Declarations. Students record their work in the Canvas Gradebook on their own by means of “Declarations.”
• Canvas Hack: Repeated Quiz Content. For recurring Gradebook Declarations each week, I remote-host the content: Canvas meets POSSE.
• Points-Based Grading: Choices, not Zeroes. I am glad that in the Canvas Gradebook a blank really is a blank, not a zero.

And here is one of the growth mindset cats from this week:

What can I learn next?  

Welcome to the fourth Blog Index post of 2017! This weekend I really focused on finishing up the tutorials at the Twitter4Canvas project, and I am really happy about how that is going. I will have to write up a post about that tomorrow. 🙂

This week’s posts are in bold up towards the top of the index:

Twitter4Canvas Mini-Course

• Twitter for Class Content: My Top 5 Strategies. This is a summary of how/why I use Twitter for my classes.
• Twitter4Canvas: Good things come in fives. This is my rough sketch for a 5-step workshop approach for Twitter widgets in Canvas via OU Create.
• Twitter4Canvas: Getting Started. I’ve decided to launch a new Canvas project: a mini-course in using Twitter in Canvas.
• Twitter4Canvas: I’m excited about this! More thoughts on how this mini-course will take shape.
• Twitter4Canvas v. Canvas Twitter App. A comparison of a real Twitter widget and the (seriously limited) Canvas Twitter App.
• Twitter in Canvas and the Occasional Hashtag. This is the post that prompted me to come up with the mini-course.

Canvas Class Announcements

• Blissfully Blogging Announcements in Canvas. A description of my class announcements blog plus details about embedding blogs in Canvas.
• The Power of Random Cats. I used random cats to promote growth mindset in my Canvas announcements blog.
• New Countdown Widget on Homepage. I created a new “__ days left in the semester” widget for my Canvas announcements blog.
• Maati Baani in my Canvas Homepage. I like to share videos with students via my Canvas announcements blog… and Maati Baani is great for my India class.

Blogs and Blogging

• Keep Calm and Love the Randomness. This is how I create random responding groups for my classes each week.
• Inoreader and Tracking Blog Comments. This is how I keep up with my students’ commenting on each other’s blogs.
• Building My Student Blog Network with Inoreader. As students set up their blogs for the new semester, I subscribe to them with the Inoreader feed reader.
• Inoreader: How I Manage Incoming Blog Posts. As students blog, Inoreader automatically sorts, files, and tags the posts based on content.
• A Blog Network for Class Content. This post explains the network of blogs that I use for all the different types of content in my classes.
• Friday Thoughts re: Online Presence. Blogs are great for building online presence; the LMS is not.
• Fall Semester: Blog Success. The Fall semester is over, and having this new blog is one of my semester’s successes.

Thoughts about Canvas and about LMSes

• Introduction for a Canvas Training Course. This is an introduction I wrote for a Canvas training course (closed course), and I crossposted it here.
• The LMS and its Ecosystem. The LMS is just one tool in a technology ecosystem, and it’s good idea to know your ecosystem #BeforeYouLMS.
• The LMS and Its Dis-Contents. Looking at the advantages of publishing on the open Internet and the disadvantages of the LMS.
• How Instructors (Don’t) Use the LMS. These are my thoughts on the Blackboard study showing limited (VERY limited) use of LMS features by instructors.

Spring 2017 Reports

• Friday: Spring Classes Begin … in the Snow. The first day of Spring 2017: I open the classes early for students who want to get a head start.
• Power of API | Power of Community. I was so grateful for James Jones’s API script to globally update all my class assignment dates: wow!

Widgets and Other Dynamic Content

• Martin Luther King Canvas Widget. This is a widget I created in honor of the Martin Luther King Day holiday.
• The Power of a Student Project Archive. A randomizing widget gives my students access to hundreds of past student projects.
• Widgets to Awaken Curiosity. I will be able to use all my new/updated widgets to prompt my students’ curiosity this semester.
• Progress at the Canvas Widget Warehouse. I got a lot done at the Widget Warehouse over winter break!
• Widget Warehouse Update. I’ve added some new widgets, plus a Widget Catalog to keep track of them all.
• New Canvas Course: Laura’s Widget Warehouse. I’ve created a public Canvas course for sharing my Canavs-friendly javascript widgets.
• Become a Javascript Wizard: HTTPS is the key. You can use the power of HTTPS to display javascript content in Canvas.

Openness, Sharing, and Connectedness

• Open: It’s the Canvas Difference. This post in praise of open was prompted by Keegan’s great Camp Canvas and also a video meet-up with the crew at CSU CI.
• Connectedness. This is my grateful response to Jesse Stommel’s blog post about Creative Online Educators.
• Open Content: Resources, not Courses. A warning about the dangers of putting content into LMS course spaces.
• Go Open with Canvas. Canvas, unlike D2L, has some open options, which is my main interest in our switch from D2L to Canvas.
• Canvas for Open Syllabuses. Canvas makes it easy to open up your syllabus so students and other faculty can learn about the class.

Posts about Students

• More Student Voices from Fall 2016. A steady stream of blog posts kept me well informed about student use of Canvas in my classes!
• Student Tech Support for Canvas. Based on student feedback, these are the Canvas features I am supporting and promoting: Calendar, Notifications, Profile, and Mobile App.
• Student Voices about Canvas. These are the results of my Fall 2016 mid-semester student survey, with lots of advice from students for instructors using Canvas.
• Time Management Brainstorms. I got some big ideas from an ILED studio session on helping students with time management.

Posts about Instructors

• Faculty Survey … Faculty Voices. I hope the results of this survey will be shared so that we can learn from each other.
• Big Canvas News for Spring. Instead of being opt-in for Spring, we are going to be opt-out. I hope this blog can be useful for faculty who will start using Canvas.
• Moving from Marketing to Conversation. In addition to student voices about Canvas, we need faculty voices too.

Teaching Writing

• Writing-Enhanced Curriculum Canvas Minicourse. I am really glad that I got to participate in this online learning opportunity, and it would have been even better with more faculty participants. Writing: it’s a topic that can and should be something we all have a lot to say about!
• WEC Minicourse, Day Two. I really appreciated the emphasis on low-stakes, creative approaches in this day of the course.
• Engagement, Creativity, and Non-Conformity. Yes, I believe in creative non-conformity in both teaching and learning.
• Writing yesterday. Writing today. Some thoughts after the presidential election.

Some Practical Canvas Advice

• Use the Canvas “Grace Period.” Having a two-deadline option in Canvas allows me to create a grace period for all assignments (D2L did not).
• Keep Canvas Modules Current. It just takes a minute to keep your module list up-to-date. I make it a weekly routine!
• Use a Course Image. Instead of a (boring) colored block, you can choose to display an image on your Dashboard course card.
• Course Images and Flickr. Not sure what image to use? You can choose your course card image by searching Flickr inside Canvas!
• Think Before You Link: Creating a Canvas URL. To create continuity from semester to semester, you can create a URL for each course you teach.

Grading with Canvas

• The Tyranny of the Percentage: Part 1. In which I learn that I cannot assign letter grades at semester’s end based on my students’ total points.
• The Tyranny of the Percentage: Part 2. In which I research past feature requests related to serious limitations in the Canvas Gradebook.
• The Tyranny of the Percentage: Part 3. In which I vent my frustration with numeric-based grading, the only kind that Canvas supports.
• Feature Request: Text Fields in Gradebook. In which I make a Feature Request, only to learn the Feature Request process has been put on hold.
• Points-Based Grading: Cumulative, Not Punitive. My philosophy of grading is driven by student choice and forward progress.
• Points-Based Grading: Student Gradebook Declarations. Students record their work in the Canvas Gradebook on their own by means of “Declarations.”
• Canvas Hack: Repeated Quiz Content. For recurring Gradebook Declarations each week, I remote-host the content: Canvas meets POSSE.
• Points-Based Grading: Choices, not Zeroes. I am glad that in the Canvas Gradebook a blank really is a blank, not a zero.

And here is one of the growth mindset cats from this week:

Do not go where the path may lead;
go instead where there is no path,
and leave a trail.

(Growth Mindset Cat)

Welcome to the third Blog Index post of 2017! Week 1 in my classes went wonderfully, and I also came up with an exciting new Canvas project: a mini-course in using Twitter with Canvas. Details below.

This week’s posts are in bold:

Twitter4Canvas Mini-Course

• Twitter4Canvas: Getting Started. I’ve decided to launch a new Canvas project: a mini-course in using Twitter in Canvas.
• Twitter4Canvas: I’m excited about this! More thoughts on how this mini-course will take shape.
• Twitter4Canvas v. Canvas Twitter App. A comparison of a real Twitter widget and the (seriously limited) Canvas Twitter App.
• Twitter in Canvas and the Occasional Hashtag. This is the post that prompted me to come up with the mini-course.

Thoughts about Canvas and about LMSes

• Introduction for a Canvas Training Course. This is an introduction I wrote for a Canvas training course (closed course), and I crossposted it here.
• The LMS and its Ecosystem. The LMS is just one tool in a technology ecosystem, and it’s good idea to know your ecosystem #BeforeYouLMS.
• The LMS and Its Dis-Contents. Looking at the advantages of publishing on the open Internet and the disadvantages of the LMS.
• How Instructors (Don’t) Use the LMS. These are my thoughts on the Blackboard study showing limited (VERY limited) use of LMS features by instructors.

Blogs and Blogging

• Building My Student Blog Network with Inoreader. As students set up their blogs for the new semester, I subscribe to them with the Inoreader feed reader.
• Inoreader: How I Manage Incoming Blog Posts. As students blog, Inoreader automatically sorts, files, and tags the posts based on content.
• A Blog Network for Class Content. This post explains the network of blogs that I use for all the different types of content in my classes.
• Friday Thoughts re: Online Presence. Blogs are great for building online presence; the LMS is not.
• Fall Semester: Blog Success. The Fall semester is over, and having this new blog is one of my semester’s successes.

Spring 2017 Reports

• Friday: Spring Classes Begin … in the Snow. The first day of Spring 2017: I open the classes early for students who want to get a head start.
• Power of API | Power of Community. I was so grateful for James Jones’s API script to globally update all my class assignment dates: wow!

Widgets and Other Dynamic Content

• Martin Luther King Canvas Widget. This is a widget I created in honor of the Martin Luther King Day holiday.
• The Power of a Student Project Archive. A randomizing widget gives my students access to hundreds of past student projects.
• Widgets to Awaken Curiosity. I will be able to use all my new/updated widgets to prompt my students’ curiosity this semester.
• Progress at the Canvas Widget Warehouse. I got a lot done at the Widget Warehouse over winter break!
• Widget Warehouse Update. I’ve added some new widgets, plus a Widget Catalog to keep track of them all.
• New Canvas Course: Laura’s Widget Warehouse. I’ve created a public Canvas course for sharing my Canavs-friendly javascript widgets.
• Become a Javascript Wizard: HTTPS is the key. You can use the power of HTTPS to display javascript content in Canvas.

Openness, Sharing, and Connectedness

• Open: It’s the Canvas Difference. This post in praise of open was prompted by Keegan’s great Camp Canvas and also a video meet-up with the crew at CSU CI.
• Connectedness. This is my grateful response to Jesse Stommel’s blog post about Creative Online Educators.
• Open Content: Resources, not Courses. A warning about the dangers of putting content into LMS course spaces.
• Go Open with Canvas. Canvas, unlike D2L, has some open options, which is my main interest in our switch from D2L to Canvas.
• Canvas for Open Syllabuses. Canvas makes it easy to open up your syllabus so students and other faculty can learn about the class.

Posts about Students

• More Student Voices from Fall 2016. A steady stream of blog posts kept me well informed about student use of Canvas in my classes!
• Student Tech Support for Canvas. Based on student feedback, these are the Canvas features I am supporting and promoting: Calendar, Notifications, Profile, and Mobile App.
• Student Voices about Canvas. These are the results of my Fall 2016 mid-semester student survey, with lots of advice from students for instructors using Canvas.
• Time Management Brainstorms. I got some big ideas from an ILED studio session on helping students with time management.

Posts about Instructors

• Faculty Survey … Faculty Voices. I hope the results of this survey will be shared so that we can learn from each other.
• Big Canvas News for Spring. Instead of being opt-in for Spring, we are going to be opt-out. I hope this blog can be useful for faculty who will start using Canvas.
• Moving from Marketing to Conversation. In addition to student voices about Canvas, we need faculty voices too.

Teaching Writing

• Writing-Enhanced Curriculum Canvas Minicourse. I am really glad that I got to participate in this online learning opportunity, and it would have been even better with more faculty participants. Writing: it’s a topic that can and should be something we all have a lot to say about!
• WEC Minicourse, Day Two. I really appreciated the emphasis on low-stakes, creative approaches in this day of the course.
• Engagement, Creativity, and Non-Conformity. Yes, I believe in creative non-conformity in both teaching and learning.
• Writing yesterday. Writing today. Some thoughts after the presidential election.

Canvas Class Announcements

• The Power of Random Cats. I used random cats to promote growth mindset in my Canvas announcements blog.
• New Countdown Widget on Homepage. I created a new “__ days left in the semester” widget for my Canvas announcements blog.
• Maati Baani in my Canvas Homepage. I like to share videos with students via my Canvas announcements blog… and Maati Baani is great for my India class.

Some Practical Canvas Advice

• Use the Canvas “Grace Period.” Having a two-deadline option in Canvas allows me to create a grace period for all assignments (D2L did not).
• Keep Canvas Modules Current. It just takes a minute to keep your module list up-to-date. I make it a weekly routine!
• Use a Course Image. Instead of a (boring) colored block, you can choose to display an image on your Dashboard course card.
• Course Images and Flickr. Not sure what image to use? You can choose your course card image by searching Flickr inside Canvas!
• Think Before You Link: Creating a Canvas URL. To create continuity from semester to semester, you can create a URL for each course you teach.

Grading with Canvas

• The Tyranny of the Percentage: Part 1. In which I learn that I cannot assign letter grades at semester’s end based on my students’ total points.
• The Tyranny of the Percentage: Part 2. In which I research past feature requests related to serious limitations in the Canvas Gradebook.
• The Tyranny of the Percentage: Part 3. In which I vent my frustration with numeric-based grading, the only kind that Canvas supports.
• Feature Request: Text Fields in Gradebook. In which I make a Feature Request, only to learn the Feature Request process has been put on hold.
• Points-Based Grading: Cumulative, Not Punitive. My philosophy of grading is driven by student choice and forward progress.
• Points-Based Grading: Student Gradebook Declarations. Students record their work in the Canvas Gradebook on their own by means of “Declarations.”
• Canvas Hack: Repeated Quiz Content. For recurring Gradebook Declarations each week, I remote-host the content: Canvas meets POSSE.
• Points-Based Grading: Choices, not Zeroes. I am glad that in the Canvas Gradebook a blank really is a blank, not a zero.

And in the spirit of Twitter, here’s a great infographic from @SylviaDuckworth:

Crossposted at OU Canvas Community.

Welcome to the second Blog Index post of 2017! I had a great “Week 0” with the soft start to my classes, and classes start officially this coming Tuesday, after the Martin Luther King Holiday. Best wishes for the new semester, everybody!

This week’s posts are in bold:

Thoughts about Canvas and about LMSes 

• Introduction for a Canvas Training Course. This is an introduction I wrote for a Canvas training course (closed course), and I crossposted it here.
• The LMS and its Ecosystem. The LMS is just one tool in a technology ecosystem, and it’s good idea to know your ecosystem #BeforeYouLMS.
• The LMS and Its Dis-Contents. Looking at the advantages of publishing on the open Internet and the disadvantages of the LMS.
• How Instructors (Don’t) Use the LMS. These are my thoughts on the Blackboard study showing limited (VERY limited) use of LMS features by instructors.

Blogs and Blogging

• Building My Student Blog Network with Inoreader. As students set up their blogs for the new semester, I subscribe to them with the Inoreader feed reader.
• Inoreader: How I Manage Incoming Blog Posts. As students blog, Inoreader automatically sorts, files, and tags the posts based on content.
• A Blog Network for Class Content. This post explains the network of blogs that I use for all the different types of content in my classes.
• Friday Thoughts re: Online Presence. Blogs are great for building online presence; the LMS is not.
• Fall Semester: Blog Success. The Fall semester is over, and having this new blog is one of my semester’s successes.

Spring 2017 Reports

• Friday: Spring Classes Begin … in the Snow. The first day of Spring 2017: I open the classes early for students who want to get a head start.
• Power of API | Power of Community. I was so grateful for James Jones’s API script to globally update all my class assignment dates: wow!

Widgets and Other Dynamic Content

• The Power of a Student Project Archive. A randomizing widget gives my students access to hundreds of past student projects.
• Widgets to Awaken Curiosity. I will be able to use all my new/updated widgets to prompt my students’ curiosity this semester.
• Progress at the Canvas Widget Warehouse. I got a lot done at the Widget Warehouse over winter break!
• Widget Warehouse Update. I’ve added some new widgets, plus a Widget Catalog to keep track of them all.
• New Canvas Course: Laura’s Widget Warehouse. I’ve created a public Canvas course for sharing my Canavs-friendly javascript widgets.
• Become a Javascript Wizard: HTTPS is the key. You can use the power of HTTPS to display javascript content in Canvas.

Openness, Sharing, and Connectedness

• Open: It’s the Canvas Difference. This post in praise of open was prompted by Keegan’s great Camp Canvas and also a video meet-up with the crew at CSU CI.
• Connectedness. This is my grateful response to Jesse Stommel’s blog post about Creative Online Educators.
• Open Content: Resources, not Courses. A warning about the dangers of putting content into LMS course spaces.
• Go Open with Canvas. Canvas, unlike D2L, has some open options, which is my main interest in our switch from D2L to Canvas.
• Canvas for Open Syllabuses. Canvas makes it easy to open up your syllabus so students and other faculty can learn about the class.

Posts about Students

• More Student Voices from Fall 2016. A steady stream of blog posts kept me well informed about student use of Canvas in my classes!
• Student Tech Support for Canvas. Based on student feedback, these are the Canvas features I am supporting and promoting: Calendar, Notifications, Profile, and Mobile App.
• Student Voices about Canvas. These are the results of my Fall 2016 mid-semester student survey, with lots of advice from students for instructors using Canvas.
• Time Management Brainstorms. I got some big ideas from an ILED studio session on helping students with time management.

Posts about Instructors

• Faculty Survey … Faculty Voices. I hope the results of this survey will be shared so that we can learn from each other.
• Big Canvas News for Spring. Instead of being opt-in for Spring, we are going to be opt-out. I hope this blog can be useful for faculty who will start using Canvas.
• Moving from Marketing to Conversation. In addition to student voices about Canvas, we need faculty voices too.

Teaching Writing

• Writing-Enhanced Curriculum Canvas Minicourse. I am really glad that I got to participate in this online learning opportunity, and it would have been even better with more faculty participants. Writing: it’s a topic that can and should be something we all have a lot to say about!
• WEC Minicourse, Day Two. I really appreciated the emphasis on low-stakes, creative approaches in this day of the course.
• Engagement, Creativity, and Non-Conformity. Yes, I believe in creative non-conformity in both teaching and learning.
• Writing yesterday. Writing today. Some thoughts after the presidential election.

Canvas Class Announcements

• The Power of Random Cats. I used random cats to promote growth mindset in my Canvas announcements blog.
• New Countdown Widget on Homepage. I created a new “__ days left in the semester” widget for my Canvas announcements blog.
• Maati Baani in my Canvas Homepage. I like to share videos with students via my Canvas announcements blog… and Maati Baani is great for my India class.

Some Practical Canvas Advice

• Use the Canvas “Grace Period.” Having a two-deadline option in Canvas allows me to create a grace period for all assignments (D2L did not).
• Keep Canvas Modules Current. It just takes a minute to keep your module list up-to-date. I make it a weekly routine!
• Use a Course Image. Instead of a (boring) colored block, you can choose to display an image on your Dashboard course card.
• Course Images and Flickr. Not sure what image to use? You can choose your course card image by searching Flickr inside Canvas!
• Think Before You Link: Creating a Canvas URL. To create continuity from semester to semester, you can create a URL for each course you teach.

Grading with Canvas

• The Tyranny of the Percentage: Part 1. In which I learn that I cannot assign letter grades at semester’s end based on my students’ total points.
• The Tyranny of the Percentage: Part 2. In which I research past feature requests related to serious limitations in the Canvas Gradebook.
• The Tyranny of the Percentage: Part 3. In which I vent my frustration with numeric-based grading, the only kind that Canvas supports.
• Feature Request: Text Fields in Gradebook. In which I make a Feature Request, only to learn the Feature Request process has been put on hold.
• Points-Based Grading: Cumulative, Not Punitive. My philosophy of grading is driven by student choice and forward progress.
• Points-Based Grading: Student Gradebook Declarations. Students record their work in the Canvas Gradebook on their own by means of “Declarations.”
• Canvas Hack: Repeated Quiz Content. For recurring Gradebook Declarations each week, I remote-host the content: Canvas meets POSSE.
• Points-Based Grading: Choices, not Zeroes. I am glad that in the Canvas Gradebook a blank really is a blank, not a zero.

And here’s one of the growth mindset cats from last week’s posts:

I need space to question and to explore.

Crossposted at OU Canvas Community.

Welcome to the first Blog Index post of 2017! I’ve marked new posts below in bold.

Spring 2017 Reports

• Friday: Spring Classes Begin … in the Snow. The first day of Spring 2017: I open the classes early for students who want to get a head start.
• Power of API | Power of Community. I was so grateful for James Jones’s API script to globally update all my class assignment dates: wow!

Widgets and Other Dynamic Content

• The Power of a Student Project Archive. A randomizing widget gives my students access to hundreds of past student projects.
• Widgets to Awaken Curiosity. I will be able to use all my new/updated widgets to prompt my students’ curiosity this semester.
• Progress at the Canvas Widget Warehouse. I got a lot done at the Widget Warehouse over winter break!
• Widget Warehouse Update. I’ve added some new widgets, plus a Widget Catalog to keep track of them all.
• New Canvas Course: Laura’s Widget Warehouse. I’ve created a public Canvas course for sharing my Canavs-friendly javascript widgets.
• Become a Javascript Wizard: HTTPS is the key. You can use the power of HTTPS to display javascript content in Canvas.

Openness, Sharing, and Connectedness

• Open: It’s the Canvas Difference. This post in praise of open was prompted by Keegan’s great Camp Canvas and also a video meet-up with the crew at CSU CI.
• Fall Semester: Blog Success. The Fall semester is over, and having this new blog is one of my semester’s successes.
• Connectedness. This is my grateful response to Jesse Stommel’s blog post about Creative Online Educators.
• Open Content: Resources, not Courses. A warning about the dangers of putting content into LMS course spaces.
• Go Open with Canvas. Canvas, unlike D2L, has some open options, which is my main interest in our switch from D2L to Canvas.
• Canvas for Open Syllabuses. Canvas makes it easy to open up your syllabus so students and other faculty can learn about the class.

Posts about Students

• More Student Voices from Fall 2016. A steady stream of blog posts kept me well informed about student use of Canvas in my classes!
• Student Tech Support for Canvas. Based on student feedback, these are the Canvas features I am supporting and promoting: Calendar, Notifications, Profile, and Mobile App.
• Student Voices about Canvas. These are the results of my Fall 2016 mid-semester student survey, with lots of advice from students for instructors using Canvas.
• Time Management Brainstorms. I got some big ideas from an ILED studio session on helping students with time management.

Posts about Instructors

• Faculty Survey … Faculty Voices. I hope the results of this survey will be shared so that we can learn from each other.
• Big Canvas News for Spring. Instead of being opt-in for Spring, we are going to be opt-out. I hope this blog can be useful for faculty who will start using Canvas.
• Moving from Marketing to Conversation. In addition to student voices about Canvas, we need faculty voices too.
• How Instructors (Don’t) Use the LMS. These are my thoughts on the Blackboard study showing limited (VERY limited) use of LMS features by instructors.

Teaching Writing

• Writing-Enhanced Curriculum Canvas Minicourse. I am really glad that I got to participate in this online learning opportunity, and it would have been even better with more faculty participants. Writing: it’s a topic that can and should be something we all have a lot to say about!
• WEC Minicourse, Day Two. I really appreciated the emphasis on low-stakes, creative approaches in this day of the course.
• Engagement, Creativity, and Non-Conformity. Yes, I believe in creative non-conformity in both teaching and learning.
• Writing yesterday. Writing today. Some thoughts after the presidential election.

Canvas Class Announcements

• The Power of Random Cats. I used random cats to promote growth mindset in my Canvas announcements blog.
• New Countdown Widget on Homepage. I created a new “__ days left in the semester” widget for my Canvas announcements blog.
• Maati Baani in my Canvas Homepage. I like to share videos with students via my Canvas announcements blog… and Maati Baani is great for my India class.

Some Practical Canvas Advice

• Use the Canvas “Grace Period.” Having a two-deadline option in Canvas allows me to create a grace period for all assignments (D2L did not).
• Keep Canvas Modules Current. It just takes a minute to keep your module list up-to-date. I make it a weekly routine!
• Use a Course Image. Instead of a (boring) colored block, you can choose to display an image on your Dashboard course card.
• Course Images and Flickr. Not sure what image to use? You can choose your course card image by searching Flickr inside Canvas!
• Think Before You Link: Creating a Canvas URL. To create continuity from semester to semester, you can create a URL for each course you teach.

Grading with Canvas

• The Tyranny of the Percentage: Part 1. In which I learn that I cannot assign letter grades at semester’s end based on my students’ total points.
• The Tyranny of the Percentage: Part 2. In which I research past feature requests related to serious limitations in the Canvas Gradebook.
• The Tyranny of the Percentage: Part 3. In which I vent my frustration with numeric-based grading, the only kind that Canvas supports.
• Feature Request: Text Fields in Gradebook. In which I make a Feature Request, only to learn the Feature Request process has been put on hold.
• Points-Based Grading: Cumulative, Not Punitive. My philosophy of grading is driven by student choice and forward progress.
• Points-Based Grading: Student Gradebook Declarations. Students record their work in the Canvas Gradebook on their own by means of “Declarations.”
• Canvas Hack: Repeated Quiz Content. For recurring Gradebook Declarations each week, I remote-host the content: Canvas meets POSSE.
• Points-Based Grading: Choices, not Zeroes. I am glad that in the Canvas Gradebook a blank really is a blank, not a zero.

And here’s one of the growth mindset cats from last week’s posts:

I like to learn.
What’s YOUR superpower?

Crossposted at OU Canvas Community.

I’ll probably be blogging only a little and perhaps not at all in the coming two weeks, so I decided to do another blog index post to let stand as the 2016 Round-Up. I’ll see you back here in 2017!

I also have to say that I’m very pleased at how this turned out: I started blogging here in Week 10 of the semester, and it’s been a big help to me in reflecting on the semester and getting ready for Spring. Even better: next semester, I’ll have a blog in place right from the start to report on how things are going and brainstorm about how to make things go even better! 🙂

New posts are in bold:

Widgets and Other Dynamic Content

• Widget Warehouse Update. I’ve added some new widgets, plus a Widget Catalog to keep track of them all.
• New Canvas Course: Laura’s Widget Warehouse. I’ve created a public Canvas course for sharing my Canavs-friendly javascript widgets.
• Become a Javascript Wizard: HTTPS is the key. You can use the power of HTTPS to display javascript content in Canvas.

Openness, Sharing, and Connectedness

• Open: It’s the Canvas Difference. This post in praise of open was prompted by Keegan’s great Camp Canvas and also a video meet-up with the crew at CSU CI.
• Fall Semester: Blog Success. The Fall semester is over, and having this new blog is one of my semester’s successes.
• Connectedness. This is my grateful response to Jesse Stommel’s blog post about Creative Online Educators.
• Open Content: Resources, not Courses. A warning about the dangers of putting content into LMS course spaces.
• Go Open with Canvas. Canvas, unlike D2L, has some open options, which is my main interest in our switch from D2L to Canvas.
• Canvas for Open Syllabuses. Canvas makes it easy to open up your syllabus so students and other faculty can learn about the class.

Posts about Students

• More Student Voices from Fall 2016. A steady stream of blog posts kept me well informed about student use of Canvas in my classes!
• Student Tech Support for Canvas. Based on student feedback, these are the Canvas features I am supporting and promoting: Calendar, Notifications, Profile, and Mobile App.
• Student Voices about Canvas. These are the results of my Fall 2016 mid-semester student survey, with lots of advice from students for instructors using Canvas.
• Time Management Brainstorms. I got some big ideas from an ILED studio session on helping students with time management.

Posts about Instructors

• Faculty Survey … Faculty Voices. I hope the results of this survey will be shared so that we can learn from each other.
• Big Canvas News for Spring. Instead of being opt-in for Spring, we are going to be opt-out. I hope this blog can be useful for faculty who will start using Canvas.
• Moving from Marketing to Conversation. In addition to student voices about Canvas, we need faculty voices too.
• How Instructors (Don’t) Use the LMS. These are my thoughts on the Blackboard study showing limited (VERY limited) use of LMS features by instructors.

Teaching Writing

• Writing-Enhanced Curriculum Canvas Minicourse. I am really glad that I got to participate in this online learning opportunity, and it would have been even better with more faculty participants. Writing: it’s a topic that can and should be something we all have a lot to say about!
• WEC Minicourse, Day Two. I really appreciated the emphasis on low-stakes, creative approaches in this day of the course.
• Engagement, Creativity, and Non-Conformity. Yes, I believe in creative non-conformity in both teaching and learning.
• Writing yesterday. Writing today. Some thoughts after the presidential election.

Canvas Class Announcements

• The Power of Random Cats. I used random cats to promote growth mindset in my Canvas announcements blog.
• New Countdown Widget on Homepage. I created a new “__ days left in the semester” widget for my Canvas announcements blog.
• Maati Baani in my Canvas Homepage. I like to share videos with students via my Canvas announcements blog… and Maati Baani is great for my India class.

Some Practical Canvas Advice

• Use the Canvas “Grace Period.” Having a two-deadline option in Canvas allows me to create a grace period for all assignments (D2L did not).
• Keep Canvas Modules Current. It just takes a minute to keep your module list up-to-date. I make it a weekly routine!
• Use a Course Image. Instead of a (boring) colored block, you can choose to display an image on your Dashboard course card.
• Course Images and Flickr. Not sure what image to use? You can choose your course card image by searching Flickr inside Canvas!
• Think Before You Link: Creating a Canvas URL. To create continuity from semester to semester, you can create a URL for each course you teach.

Grading with Canvas

• The Tyranny of the Percentage: Part 1. In which I learn that I cannot assign letter grades at semester’s end based on my students’ total points.
• The Tyranny of the Percentage: Part 2. In which I research past feature requests related to serious limitations in the Canvas Gradebook.
• The Tyranny of the Percentage: Part 3. In which I vent my frustration with numeric-based grading, the only kind that Canvas supports.
• Feature Request: Text Fields in Gradebook. In which I make a Feature Request, only to learn the Feature Request process has been put on hold.
• Points-Based Grading: Cumulative, Not Punitive. My philosophy of grading is driven by student choice and forward progress.
• Points-Based Grading: Student Gradebook Declarations. Students record their work in the Canvas Gradebook on their own by means of “Declarations.”
• Canvas Hack: Repeated Quiz Content. For recurring Gradebook Declarations each week, I remote-host the content: Canvas meets POSSE.
• Points-Based Grading: Choices, not Zeroes. I am glad that in the Canvas Gradebook a blank really is a blank, not a zero.

And here’s one of the Growth Mindset Cats from this week:

Do things you’ve never done before.

 Crossposted at OU Canvas Community.

Here is the round-up of the posts at this blog so far, which marks the start of Laura’s Widget Warehouse and also the end of my battle with the Canvas Gradebook (the Gradebook won, sad to say).

New posts are in bold:

Widgets and Other Dynamic Content

• New Canvas Course: Laura’s Widget Warehouse. I’ve created a public Canvas course for sharing my Canavs-friendly javascript widgets.
• Become a Javascript Wizard: HTTPS is the key. You can use the power of HTTPS to display javascript content in Canvas.

Grading with Canvas

• The Tyranny of the Percentage: Part 1. In which I learn that I cannot assign letter grades at semester’s end based on my students’ total points.
• The Tyranny of the Percentage: Part 2. In which I research past feature requests related to serious limitations in the Canvas Gradebook.
• The Tyranny of the Percentage: Part 3. In which I vent my frustration with numeric-based grading, the only kind that Canvas supports.
• Feature Request: Text Fields in Gradebook. In which I make a Feature Request, only to learn the Feature Request process has been put on hold.
• Points-Based Grading: Cumulative, Not Punitive. My philosophy of grading is driven by student choice and forward progress.
• Points-Based Grading: Student Gradebook Declarations. Students record their work in the Canvas Gradebook on their own by means of “Declarations.”
• Canvas Hack: Repeated Quiz Content. For recurring Gradebook Declarations each week, I remote-host the content: Canvas meets POSSE.
• Points-Based Grading: Choices, not Zeroes. I am glad that in the Canvas Gradebook a blank really is a blank, not a zero.

Openness, Sharing, and Connectedness

• Fall Semester: Blog Success. The Fall semester is over, and having this new blog is one of my semester’s successes.
• Connectedness. This is my grateful response to Jesse Stommel’s blog post about Creative Online Educators.
• Open Content: Resources, not Courses. A warning about the dangers of putting content into LMS course spaces.
• Go Open with Canvas. Canvas, unlike D2L, has some open options, which is my main interest in our switch from D2L to Canvas.
• Canvas for Open Syllabuses. Canvas makes it easy to open up your syllabus so students and other faculty can learn about the class.

Canvas Class Announcements

• The Power of Random Cats. I used random cats to promote growth mindset in my Canvas announcements blog.
• New Countdown Widget on Homepage. I created a new “__ days left in the semester” widget for my Canvas announcements blog.
• Maati Baani in my Canvas Homepage. I like to share videos with students via my Canvas announcements blog… and Maati Baani is great for my India class.

Some Practical Canvas Advice

• Use the Canvas “Grace Period.” Having a two-deadline option in Canvas allows me to create a grace period for all assignments (D2L did not).
• Keep Canvas Modules Current. It just takes a minute to keep your module list up-to-date. I make it a weekly routine!
• Use a Course Image. Instead of a (boring) colored block, you can choose to display an image on your Dashboard course card.
• Course Images and Flickr. Not sure what image to use? You can choose your course card image by searching Flickr inside Canvas!
• Think Before You Link: Creating a Canvas URL. To create continuity from semester to semester, you can create a URL for each course you teach.

Posts about Students

• Student Tech Support for Canvas. Based on student feedback, these are the Canvas features I am supporting and promoting: Calendar, Notifications, Profile, and Mobile App.
• Student Voices about Canvas. These are the results of my Fall 2016 mid-semester student survey, with lots of advice from students for instructors using Canvas.
• Time Management Brainstorms. I got some big ideas from an ILED studio session on helping students with time management.

Posts about Instructors

• Big Canvas News for Spring. Instead of being opt-in for Spring, we are going to be opt-out. I hope this blog can be useful for faculty who will start using Canvas.
• Moving from Marketing to Conversation. In addition to student voices about Canvas, we need faculty voices too.
• How Instructors (Don’t) Use the LMS. These are my thoughts on the Blackboard study showing limited (VERY limited) use of LMS features by instructors.

Philosophy of Teaching

• Engagement, Creativity, and Non-Conformity. Yes, I believe in creative non-conformity in both teaching and learning.
• Writing yesterday. Writing today. Some thoughts after the presidential election.

And here’s one of the Growth Mindset Cats from this week:

Obstacles teach you to leap higher.

Here is the round-up of the posts at this blog so far, with a new category to reflect the focus of last week’s posts: Grading with Canvas.

New posts are in bold:

Practical Canvas Advice

• Use the Canvas “Grace Period.” Having a two-deadline option in Canvas allows me to create a grace period for all assignments (D2L did not).
• Keep Canvas Modules Current. It just takes a minute to keep your module list up-to-date. I make it a weekly routine!
• Use a Course Image. Instead of a (boring) colored block, you can choose to display an image on your Dashboard course card.
• Course Images and Flickr. Not sure what image to use? You can choose your course card image by searching Flickr inside Canvas!
• Think Before You Link: Creating a Canvas URL. To create continuity from semester to semester, you can create a URL for each course you teach.

Grading with Canvas

• Points-Based Grading: Cumulative, Not Punitive. My philosophy of grading is driven by student choice and forward progress.
• Points-Based Grading: Student Gradebook Declarations. Students record their work in the Canvas Gradebook on their own by means of “Declarations.”
• Canvas Hack: Repeated Quiz Content. For recurring Gradebook Declarations each week, I remote-host the content: Canvas meets POSSE.
• Points-Based Grading: Choices, not Zeroes. I am glad that in the Canvas Gradebook a blank really is a blank, not a zero.

Canvas Content

• Become a Javascript Wizard: HTTPS is the key. You can use the power of HTTPS to display javascript content in Canvas.
• The Power of Random Cats. I used random cats to promote growth mindset in my Canvas announcements blog.
• New Countdown Widget on Homepage. I created a new “__ days left in the semester” widget for my Canvas announcements blog.
• Maati Baani in my Canvas Homepage. I like to share videos with students via my Canvas announcements blog… and Maati Baani is great for my India class.

Posts about Students

• Student Tech Support for Canvas. Based on student feedback, these are the Canvas features I am supporting and promoting: Calendar, Notifications, Profile, and Mobile App.
• Student Voices about Canvas. These are the results of my Fall 2016 mid-semester student survey, with lots of advice from students for instructors using Canvas.
• Time Management Brainstorms. I got some big ideas from an ILED studio session on helping students with time management.

Posts about Instructors

• Big Canvas News for Spring. Instead of being opt-in for Spring, we are going to be opt-out. I hope this blog can be useful for faculty who will start using Canvas.
• Moving from Marketing to Conversation. In addition to student voices about Canvas, we need faculty voices too.
• How Instructors (Don’t) Use the LMS. These are my thoughts on the Blackboard study showing limited (VERY limited) use of LMS features by instructors.
• Connectedness. This is my grateful response to Jesse Stommel’s blog post about Creative Online Educators.

Philosophy of Teaching

• Engagement, Creativity, and Non-Conformity. Yes, I believe in creative non-conformity in both teaching and learning.
• Writing yesterday. Writing today. Some thoughts after the presidential election.

Canvas and Openness

• Open Content: Resources, not Courses. A warning about the dangers of putting content into LMS course spaces.
• Go Open with Canvas. Canvas, unlike D2L, has some open options, which is my main interest in our switch from D2L to Canvas.
• Canvas for Open Syllabuses. Canvas makes it easy to open up your syllabus so students and other faculty can learn about the class.

And here’s one of the Growth Mindset Cats from this week’s posts: