Friday, July 14, 2017

Loving Canvas LMS!: New Training Courses - Collaboration & Quick-Start Guide

Many colleges, universities, and training organizations are moving away from the learning management system they have used for years and are adopting Canvas.

Canvas, which is a learning management system, can also be considered a virtual learning environment (VLE) because offers cloud-based hosting and can integrate with a number of cloud applications, such as Google applications (Docs, Drive, Sheets, Slides), Microsoft 365 applications, and media hosting (YouTube, for example). In addition, Canvas encourages webinars (live and archived) by building in Big Blue Button.

Also, Canvas offers free hosting to instructors who can create their own courses (which are, in effect, MOOCs if they catch on) and offer them through Canvas’s portal.

Canvas is not as flexible as Moodle, and it does not have as many built-in templates as Moodle’s Virtual Learning Environment competitor, MoodleCloud, but it does offer remarkable simplicity.
In addition to making collaboration very easy, the SpeedGrader function in Canvas is a huge hit with students and instructors alike.

That said, changing to a new LMS can be daunting, even if you are very familiar with Blackboard, D2L, Moodle, as well as the commercial solutions.

Easing the pain of transition was one of my main goals of putting together training courses.  I also really wanted to help unlock the joy of discovery, unleashed creativity, and productive collaboration which is possible with Canvas.

Rather counter-intuitively, I started with Collaboration with Canvas.  I wanted to help students, instructors, and administrators jump in and explore the many ways in which Canvas facilitates collaboration.

People learn from each other. Moodle has long made a discussion / forum-focused approach the cornerstone of connectivist / connectionist learning theory.  Canvas embraces this approach, as people can easily share and collaborate on documents and presentations in order to create group projects and portfolios.  Also, Canvas makes it possible to use the discussion board as a blog and to subscribe to it via RSS feed.

Canvas for Collatoration
Canvas for Collaboraiton
 At any rate, I explored these and many other ways to collaborate in Canvas for Collaboration, which is a 6-unit, 30 module course:
  • How Canvas works for many different applications
  • Canvas and collaborative activities for academic applications
  • Group editing best practices
  • Using Canvas for event planning
  • Using Canvas for building a product with distributed team members
  • How to collaborate to demonstrate learning goals and compliance
  • How to assess the end products of collaborations
  • Collaborating using different types of media
  • Compliance training
Quick Start Guide for Collaboration
Quick-Start Guide for Canvas
Then, I backed up a bit and created a 6-unit, 30 module course on getting started in Canvas. Entitled Quick Start Guide for Courses in Canvas, https://www.packtpub.com/game-development/quick-start-guide-courses-canvas-video, the objective is to provide all you need to create great courses in Canvas.

This course is a practical guide filled with examples. It covers the basic and advanced concepts of Canvas. Every recipe is as simple as possible without compromising creativity.

In this course, you can
  • See the best way to plan and design an online course
  • Discover the unique features of Canvas and how to use them
  • Get to know the best way to organize content
  • Understand how to incorporate multimedia
  • Know how to use Canvas’ social media features
  • Make sure that students achieve their learning goals and objectives
  • See different forms of assessment in Canvas
  • Use Canvas’ features to motivate and encourage students
I truly enjoyed creating the courses, and I hope that taking them and participating in them is as enjoyable for the learner.


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