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 […]
Learn why and how to use a GIF as your Canvas course card, welcoming students to your course with some fun and flair. When students access their Canvas dashboard, your course shows up as one card among many. Your course card image is the only part on the main dashboard you can customize to make […]
How many of you cringe at the thought of planning one more ice-breaker activity for the start of the school term? I think we can all agree that it’s important to set the right tone at the start of the class, and for students to get to know each other right away for meaningful learning […]
Arguments for a particular length of instructional videos miss the mark: engaging video can be any length, from less than a minute to more than an hour. If you listen to the commonly accepted wisdom, every instructional video would be a TED Talk: polished production values and a strict 10-15-minute time limit. In a previous […]
Explore how a gamification for learning experience in one online course fostered empathy and communication skills. I’m not a gamer, but I have always been curious and intrigued by the possibilities of gamification for learning or games-based learning. In this blog, I share what a gamification for learning experience taught me about the power of […]
Learn about an alternative way of using Canvas discussion boards to create resources students can refer back to and use. In this post, I outline one of my early struggles with discussion boards and how that struggle led to me wondering how else I could use a discussion board to get the biggest pedagogical bang […]
Your students are likely going to be using ChatGPT no matter what–but how they learn to use ChatGPT can make or break if it helps or hinders their learning. AI has been steadily evolving and becoming more commonplace in our everyday lives. However, the explosion in popularity of the chatbot ‘ChatGPT’ has raised many questions […]
Learn about a simple tweak to your video scripts that can increase how many students engage with your instructional videos. You spend hours developing an instructional video – preparing the script, adjusting lighting, recording multiple takes, and trimming and combining. You put it up on your course site for students, then check back in after […]
Canvas Discussions Redesign offers instructors the ability to create anonymous spaces for student engagement that might otherwise be stifled by social pressure. Anonymity is a tricky pedagogical tool. On one hand, it can encourage learners to engage more honestly. While on the other hand, we have this sense that anonymous responders will seize the opportunity […]
Examine data from students about smartphone usage and consider how this affects the place of smartphones inside and outside the physical classroom space. In a previous post, I advocated for taking a “mobile-first” approach to course design, offering 10 teaching practices that benefit students accessing your course from mobile devices. In this post, I want […]
