Clean Up Course Menu to Only Show Items You are Using

Go under your course settings and remove all the items that are not necessary.

Settings>navigation then pull items down below the line so they don't show up for the student.

Modules
Grades
Announcements
People

are generally all you will need for your online course.  Remember: assignments and discussions will show up in the course modules even though they have been removed from the left side navigation menu.

Online student success modules.

The Engagement & Learning department created a learning module to assist students in being successful in the online environment. You may view the module before adding it into your course. 

[To-Do] Add this module into your course(s):

1. Open your browser and get into Canvas.
2. Click on the Canvas Commons Link
3. Search for “LWTech Online Student Success” (if many appear, look for the one authored by Sally Heilstedt)
4. Click on the LWTech Online Student Success Tile
5. Check the courses you want to import the module into then click the Import into Course button
6. The module will appear in your course Modules.

Please contact eLearning@lwtech.edu for any technical support in importing this module.

Establishing a discussion and response criteria.

Purpose of Establishing Communication & Interaction Expectations

There are so many options for communicating  and interacting online, that it would be helpful for students to know how you prefer to be contacted, how to interact with peers, and how often they should be checking in to Canvas and other related course learning activities. This can help create a sense of structure and certaintly about how to work within the online environment.

[To-Do]

1. Establish your communication and interaction expectations. (examples below)
2. Communicate to your students about these Communication and Interaction Expectations at the beginning of your course in several areas. For example: send in and email, post in Start Here module, add them into your Syllabus).

Example Expectations

• Be clear about how and when you plan to check for questions from them.
• Set established office hours.
• Set established times you will check into your course for communications.
• Let students know how you prefer them to contact you for questions or concerns. Do you prefer email? or would you like to set up -one-on-one Zoom meetings if they want to go over something with you? or, will you hold drop-in Zoom office hours during established times? 
• What is your turn-around time for getting back to them?  Will you get back to them within 24 hours? or is it  within 36 hours but M-F only?  
• Let them know how often you will use the Announcements feature. (Will you post announcments at regular intervals, such as at the beginning of each week? Every 3 days?) You can use announcements (as at least one form of communication) to communicate what they should be working on that week, and any changes that have been made to any of the class activities. 
• You could also have a Discussion topic built in to your modules for for each week (or per learning unit). Examples: after a lecture or learning activity, post a few questions for the students to respond to or reflect upon.   

Establishing realistic timeframes and boundaries: Sometimes there is an expectation from students  that since it is online you will be available to them 24 hours a day 7 days a week. This is not realistic. This learning format may be very new to them, and so expectations around turnaroud communcation time is important to communicate to them about. Set some boundaries for yourself so you aren't checking your course too often. Just as an example, you could set a scheduled time to check into your course for communications M-F between noon and 2p. 

Communication Tool Options

• Inbox in Canvas 
• LWTech Email
• Phone (Please do not give your personal phone number out. If you do have a college extension, you can work with IT to have that forward calls to your phone.)
• Zoom (group or one-on-one meetings)
• Discussion boards
• Announcements

As stated above, communicate which tools you will be using in your course for communications, and your guildelines for when and how you will be using them with your students.

General Questions

Purpose of These Discussions

There are several reasons to create these particular two discussion areas, 1) General Questions and 2) Introductions.

First, it gives students the chance to get to know each other in the Introductions discussion. Taking a class online can feel lonely and isolating at times, so helping to foster the feeling of community can help them realize they are all in this course together, and possibly help them forge new connections to feel a sense of community. 

The General Questions area can be a place to answer general questions as they come in, so you are only answering that question once. (Let's say you have the same question coming at you from several students, you can say, "Oh, that's a great question, I answered that in the General Questions discussion are in our Start Here module, please check for the answer there. Other students had the same question, so thank you for asking it, too.")

[To Do] Create these two discussion areas in your Start Here Module: 

• Create a discussion titled: General Questions? -  Example directions: Post any general questions you have about the course here. If you have the question, chances are another person will have the same question, so this helps to be able to answer general questions about this class so all can see the answer replies. 
• Create another discussion titled Introductions - Example directions: Please introduce yourself to the rest of the class. You can type in your introduction or you can use Studio to create a video introduction and embed it in your reply to the discussion. Let us know what interests you in the program you are in, and what you plan to do after you complete it. Also, feel free to let us know about your hobbies and interests! 
  • Some instructors try to encourage this type of connection building by making this an actual graded assignment. This Introductions discussion is a good way for them to experience replying (for possibly their first time ever) to a discussion post, and being successful with using this tool in a low-stakes setting.

(You of course can be more creative with the actual title and directions for each discussion.)

Create these discussions in the Getting Here module.

Canvas How-to's

You may refer to the Instructor Canvas Guides (Links to an external site.) for step-by-step how-tos on creating a discussion  (Links to an external site.)and adding it to your module area. (The purpose of this course is to provide online course design basics, and does not explictly include Canvas how-tos, as there are other resources for Canvas use.)

Course Overview Video

Purpose of Video of Course Overview

A course overview video gives you a chance to show students around in your course, so they know how you've organized it. This will help them understand why you've structured the course the way you have, and how they can best navigate through it.  

Ideas of things to share in Course Overview video

• provide a tour of your Canvas course
• provide a brief overview of your Syllabus

After you create this Course Overview video in Studio, embed it on the Welcome Page in the Start Here Module.

Canvas How-to's

You may refer to the Instructor Canvas Guides (Links to an external site.) for step-by-step how-tos on editing and adding a picture to your profile and embedding a Studio video on page. (The purpose of this course is to provide online course design basics, and does not explictly include Canvas how-tos, as there are other resources for Canvas use.)

Create Welcome Video - Post in Start Here Module

Purpose of Creating Welcome Video

The welcome video may be the first time they are seeing you. It is important to establish that you are excited about the subject you teach, and are there to support students in their learning. Repetition is good and sharing information you've shared elsewhere (in this case, the welcome page) is okay!

Ideas of things to share in Welcome Video:

• why you love to teach,
• why you love the subject you teach, (exude excitement! it will come through your teaching)
• how you are committed to  supporting student learning
• add in a bit about you professionally (background) and personally (kids? pets? hobbies?), while staying professional.

This professional video profile conveys that you are a human, too, with interests and passion outside of the classroom. This is vital so that students can connect to you as a real person behind the technology.

After you create this video in Studio, embed it on the Welcome Page in the Start Here Module.

Canvas How-to's

You may refer to the Studio Guides course for step-by-step how-tos on creating and embedding a Studio video on a page. (The purpose of this course is to provide online course design basics, and does not explictly include Canvas how-tos, as there are other resources for Canvas use.)

Start here Module

Purpose of Creating a Start Here Module

A Start Here or Getting Started module is a place you can send your students prior to the start of the class to communicate and prepare them to be successful. 

If you click on Modules in the navigation links of this course, you'll notice again that there was a Start Here module. 

Items to include in Start Here module:

• Create a Welcome Page
  • Include information about yourself and how to best communicate with you if they need support. (do you prefer email? phone? Zoom meetings one-on-one?).
  • Provide an overview of what is in the Start Here Module and why each is so important.
• Create and add a Welcome Video (create Video with Canvas Studio)
  • In the video you may be repeating much of what you conveyed on the welcome page. Show enthusiam about the subject they will be learning. Share with them how this course can apply to their program/life so they get WHY it's important to be in this course. Be yourself and be positive and encouraging. (Again, nice for them to see you as a human behind the course.)
• Create a Canvas + Syllabus Overview video providing a quick tour of your Canvas course, maybe also showing programs they may be using, do a quick overview of your syllabus, etc. 
• Create a link to your Syllabus and also to any textbook or learning material resources.
• This Start Here module could also include an Introductions discussion, so that students can get to know one another. 

Remember to keep videos 10 mins or less.  (Tech Tip: If you are creating several videos in a row, turn your computer off and then back on between every few videos ou create. This will clear the memory buffer. Otherwise you may experience a slow-down when uploading/captioning your videos.)

Canvas How-to's

You may refer to the Instructor Canvas Guides (Links to an external site.) for step-by-step how-tos on create a module (Links to an external site.) and add items (Links to an external site.) to it. (The purpose of this course is to provide online course design basics, and does not explicitly include Canvas how-tos, as there are other resources for Canvas use.)