Category: Assessment and Grading

Mind Over Monsters: An Interview with Author Sarah Rose Cavanagh on Compassionate Challenge

March 27, 2024 by Sarah Rose Cavanagh, Cheri Madewell

Read an interview with Sarah Rose Cavanagh, keynote speaker at the 2024 Teaching and Technology Summit. Researcher and author Sarah Rose Cavanagh opened the Ball State March 21-22 Teaching and Technology Summit with “Hope in a Time of Monsters: Supporting Student and Faculty Mental Health with Compassionate Challenge.” In the following post, Cheri Madewell, director of […]

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Dispel Your Hidden Curriculum with Transparent Assignment Design

February 7, 2024 by Cheri Madewell

Identify easy ways to incorporate Transparent Assignment Design in your course. Thinking back on my first online courses I developed in Blackboard over a decade ago, the assignment instructions and other context that I provided were fairly minimal. I didn’t recognize that my learners needed more. I was primarily focused on the content. As a […]

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Upgrade Your Canvas Quizzes with a Stimulus Question

January 17, 2024 by Dan Jones

Create media-rich quizzes that are more engaging using the new Stimulus question type. Pop Quiz: Which Quiz Looks More Engaging, A or B? As seen in the examples above, adding media (images, photos, videos, audio files, diagrams, or charts) to a quiz question in Canvas can help you clarify concepts, provide context to questions, and engage […]

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Lessons Learned from the ACUE Course in Effective Teaching Practices

October 18, 2023 by Eva Grouling Snider

Read reflections from Ball State faculty who completed ACUE’s Course in Effective Teaching Practices. Beginning in 2020, the Division of Online and Strategic Learning has supported a group of Ball State faculty, selected through an application process, to complete ACUE’s Course in Effective Teaching Practices. Delivered asynchronously through Canvas, this course engages faculty in content […]

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How I Brainstorm New Courses

October 4, 2023 by Sarah Ackermann

Learn how brainstorming your next course topic like a big adventure can shift your mindset and set you, and your learners, up for meaningful success. As a person who loves traveling, I often compare course development to planning my next big trip. I plan a travel schedule to make sure I get from point A […]

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Transparent Ambiguity in Assignment Design

September 27, 2023 by Eva Grouling Snider

How can we both challenge and support students through our assignment design? Learn how careful planning of information, tools, and support can help students navigate uncertainty and solve complex problems. Assignment design frameworks often emphasize that assignments should be clear (such as Transparent Assignment Design), or that they should be real (such as Authentic Assessment). […]

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Reducing the Grading Workload for Low-stakes Assignments with the Set Default Grade Tool

September 13, 2023 by John Carter

Learn how to use the Set Default Grade feature in Canvas’s Gradebook to lighten the grading workload. Whenever a new semester or academic year rolls around, I always find myself thinking about how I get work done and how I can most efficiently approach the grading in the weeks and months ahead of me. With […]

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Utilizing Canvas for Collaborative Learning

September 6, 2023 by Shane Lanning (they/them)

Learn about Canvas tools for facilitating meaningful group work in your class. One of the first articles I wrote for the Teaching Innovation Blog was about students’ shared frustrations for collaborative learning and how we might overcome some of the challenges that group work presents in our classrooms. In that piece, I explained that despite […]

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Less Worry, More Learning: How Ungrading Has Changed My Student Experience

January 25, 2023 by Shane Lanning (they/them)

Read about how ungrading in a graduate class changed the author’s experience and helped them center their own reasons for taking the course. The Teaching Innovation Team offered a summer book club for faculty in which we read Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead). In its literal sense, ungrading is […]

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New in Canvas: Organize Your Grades with Enhanced Gradebook Filters

November 2, 2022 by Eva Grouling Snider

Frustrated by your Canvas Gradebook? This new feature can help you organize your grades to see exactly what you need to see when you need to see it. Frequent, low-stakes, formative assessments are good teaching practices in all classes, online and in-person. Assessments such as activities, weekly quizzes, peer reviews, scaffolded assignments, reflections, and group […]

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