Welcome back everyone. Spring 2012 is here despite the falling snow!
In 2011, Instructure’s Canvas LMS was created and UMW became one of their early adopters. In fact, we are FIRST in Virginia! To view a recap of their launch year, watch Matt “The Canvas Community Guy” as he highlights features of the product:
What’s coming in 2012? There’s a new look for the Gradebook! Instructure is phasing out the current gradebook for one that provides better performance. Opt-in to the NEW Gradebook by simply clicking on “Try out the new gradebook” located in the upper-right corner of your gradebook. You can toggle between the two views for now, but expect it to eventually default to the new look once beta-testing is done. We’ll also see changes that allow for more customization features from icons to API integration of third-party tools. Additionally, Instructure continues to work on their Analytics project which will allow for a more granular look at a student’s performance and improvements to Conversations and Calendars are on their “to-do” list. I’ll keep you updated as new and improved features and functionality arise.
What’s new for Canvas at UMW? DTLT will be launching a Canvas Learning Network and we’d like to invite YOU to participate. Details soon.
A few reminders as you prepare your courses:
1) Are you teaching more than one section of the same course and would like to have them combined into ONE course? Just send an email to either Pam Lowery or myself for assistance with that task ASAP.
2) If you’d like to copy over the content from a previous course to the current one, follow these directions – Copying Course Content
3) Conclude your Fall 2011 course. This removes it from both you and your students’ ever-growing Course list. You can still access your course by viewing your past courses history. Directions: Conclude A Course
4) Publish your course once your content is loaded. Your students will automatically receive a notification that the course is available once published. Directions: Publish A Course
If you need assistance or discover something not working as expected, let me know.
Have a great semester!
Lisa
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