Newsletter Archive - Edition 6

Canvas Reminders

• For faculty teaching in Spring Quarter and have multiple of the same courses, if you are wanting to merge your courses for easier editing, please email us at eLearning@seattlecolleges.edu ASAP. Please include the course names and item numbers.

• Students will be added to Spring Quarter Canvas shells by March 21^st.

End of Quarter Checklist

Canvas courses are automatically concluded and added to the Past Enrollments section of your course list--at the very bottom. If you’re looking for a past course, check your full list of courses in Canvas.

Courses are concluded a week after the last day of the quarter. It’s easier to complete these tasks before your course is completed.

1. Export a copy of your grade book

You can download a copy of your Canvas grade book so that it will be easier to access student grades. It's also a good idea to occasionally back up your grade book throughout the term. While Canvas is a very reliable system, no system is infallible.

Canvas exports your grade book to a .csv (comma-separated values) file, which should be readable by almost any spreadsheet application.

If you do export your grade book, make sure to store your copy in a secure, FERPA-compliant location. Citrix meets these requirements. How do I download scores from the Gradebook?

2. Export a copy of your course

You can still copy a concluded course into a new course shell, but no system is infallible. Exporting and saving a copy of your course will save you potential frustration should anything unforeseen happens to the online copy of your course. How do I export a Canvas course?

3. Gather copies of sample work

If you would like to be able to use outstanding student submissions as examples in future courses, you should first get the express written permission of the students. Then download or cut and paste copies of the sample work. Make sure to retain a copy of the written permission with a copy of the sample work as part of your personal records outside of Canvas.

4. Decide how you will handle any incompletes

Students will no longer have access to submit assignments once a course concludes, but they can still access assignment prompts and can submit work to you via an attachment to a Canvas email (or plain old email). Many incomplete requirements can be managed in relatively low-tech ways.

If you have activities which must be completed in Canvas (e.g., complex quizzes or tests), or want students to submit through Canvas contact us at eLearning@seattlecolleges.edu

Regular and Substantive Feedback

The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) enacted rules in 2021 that require all online courses, for which students may use Title IV funds (aka Federal financial aid), to “ensure that there is regular and substantive interaction between students and instructors.” DOE has the authority to review distance learning offerings at colleges and universities that receive federal funds and have done so in Washington State. The following resource offers more explanation of the rules and the definitions provided by DOE: Background: Definitions of Distance Education and Correspondence Courses by SUNY.

Beyond these legal requirements, regular and substantive interaction is key for success in online and hybrid classrooms. Interaction is a natural part of the face-to-face classroom and when switching to online or hybrid we need to make a more purposeful effort toward incorporating regular and substantive interaction.

Ensuring regular and substantive interaction is also an issue of equity and inclusion. Joe Bandy at the Center for Teaching at Vanderbilt writes “Online teaching can restrict the interpersonal interactions necessary for building trusting and accountable learning communities in which students can feel more belonging and care. It can limit the hands-on, interactive, and problem-based learning that many student groups prefer, particularly those who are underrepresented in the academy. It also can require higher levels of self-directed learning skills, as well as technological resources and self-efficacy, that students do not share equally. This, in turn, can lead to significant engagement and performance gaps…” For students taking fully online classes that have little to no interaction with peers and, most importantly, instructors, can feel isolated and grow uncertain, which then can impact their success, and this is especially true for students that have been marginalized.

When designing your course consider these strategies to increase your regular and substantive interaction:

• Communicate openly to your students via Canvas and email and make sure interaction and communication expectations are outlined in the course introduction and syllabus, for example: how can they contact the instructor and how can they communicate with each other?

• Send regular course announcements that both highlight deadlines and organization of the class but also provide support as you would at the start of an in-person class, for example: reviewing what was covered the week prior, commenting on the class is going, etc.

• Reach out to students directly that are struggling or who you are not seeing very present in interactions like discussion boards.

• Have space in your online space that allows students to connect to each other for purposes of connecting, like a social discussion board. Instructors should also participate in those discussions and check in with how students are doing.

• Giving regular and substantial feedback on assignments is where key learning can happen for students and where you can address individual struggles. Make sure the feedback is in-depth and shows that you have interacted with the work and are pushing for improvement and learning.

Zoom Polling

With the end of the quarter right around the corner, I thought it might be useful to learn how to create a poll in Zoom to share with your class about what areas of study they found the most interesting during the quarter.

Before you start a poll, you want to make sure your Zoom settings are enabled correctly. So, go to your Zoom profile at zoom.us/profile. Once signed into your account, go down to Settings and click on it.

Once in the Settings area, click on In Meeting (Basic) to advance you down the webpage (1). Look for Meeting Polls/Quizzes and make sure they are enabled (2). To create new advanced polls/quizzes, be sure to have “Allow host to create advanced polls and quizzes” checked (3).

You do not really need to have option 3 checked, but it is wise too, so you have more choices in creating more engaging polls/quizzes in the future. By checking option 3, you get the ability to create polls/quizzes that include single choice, multiple choice, drop down, matching, short answer, long answer, rank order and fill-in-the-blank questions. So, I recommend checking it. Also be sure your Zoom application is up to date to take advantage of these new options.

So, to create a new poll, go back to your Profile, go to your main navigation on the left and click on Meetings. Once in Meetings, go to Personal Room, then click on Polls/Quizzes. Once in the Polls/Quizzes area click on + Create, to create a new poll.

You will see a popup.

Let us choose Poll, we will examine Advanced Polls and Quizzing in a future Tech Tip.

Then, click on save. Your poll has been created and is ready to use in your class.

You should still be on the Polling/Quizzing page and able to see a list of the polls you have created. Be sure the poll you want to use in your class is activated and the ones you do not want to use are deactivated.

Once in your Zoom meeting with your class, just click on the Polls/Quizzes to deploy your poll!

Be sure click on “Launch” for your students to see the poll.

Once launched, the “Launch” button will turn into a “End Poll” button. Once the poll is ended, the “End Poll” button will turn into a “Share Results” button. To end the polling activity, simply exit the popup window.

I hope you find that the polling feature adds some extra engagement to your classes! In a future Tech Tip, we will look at Advance Polling and Quizzing.