If you haven't already spotted the changes in this weekend's update, you'll be happy to know that the much-requested Student View is finally here!To enable the Student View from within your course, click on Settings and you'll see it at the top of the function buttons to the right. http://screencast.com/t/l9rUqO2DuB. Once you click on it, you will become a "Test Student" within your course and can access course content as a student would. To switch back to Instructor view, simply click on "Leave Student View" at the top. Go ahead, play with it, we know you've waited a long time! Oh how we missed the threaded discussion format in Blackboard, well it's here at last:  http://screencast.com/t/q2JNhNaHl . In fact, check out what the most recent iteration of the discussion forum looks like if you haven't used it lately…now you can 1) See your smiling face (avatars are in the new gradebook view too!), 2. Attached files line up right under the discussion in plain view, 3. Gives a … [Read more...]

Hello everyone. I wanted to update you on recent developments and progress made within Canvas on two specific issues that have frustrated us in the last few weeks. 1)   Course List a.     Your Course Lists have been cleaned up and should now show ONLY the current term and any groups/committees you are enrolled in as a member. b.     Your courses from the three previous terms (two that were imported from Blackboard and the past Fall term in Canvas) are available to you through your Past Enrollments. Click the View All Enrollments link located in the bottom right corner of the Course List for access. c.      Scheduled for the 2/18/12 release is the ability for ALL users to Customize their course list. That removes the criteria of having 12 or more courses before customization is available. Customization will allow you to hide any courses you don’t want showing. 2)   Conversations a.     It’s important to note that Instructure has designed the … [Read more...]

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 … [Read more...]

Do you spend your holiday break loading your content into next semester's course shell? Well now you won't have to! Spring 2012 courses and enrollments have now been uploaded in Canvas, so you can get a jump on your course prep and spend the holidays being merry. Of course, "some of us" are natural procrastinators. Don't despair. Canvas makes Copying Your Course Content from one semester to another a quick wink. Many of you provided great feedback this semester and we've got a few more tweaks to do. For those of you teaching multiple course sections, identifying which section you are working in from the breadcrumb trail will be resolved shortly. Watch for that change soon. However, cross-listing and combining courses is going to take some more time in a test environment, we've aiming for summer session on that one. So continue to send your requests if you need a manually-created combined course for Spring semester to either Pam Lowery or myself. The sooner the better! This … [Read more...]

Did you know you now have the ability to add your profile picture in Canvas as well as link an image to your UMW email address? In Canvas: 1) Go to your Profile page> select Files > select the Profile Picture folder > upload a pic of your choice  2) Return to  Profile > click on the empty avatar box next to your name > select the picture you just uploaded OR to link a "Gravatar" image to your UMW profile which shows up in Canvas as well as other UMW sites,  follow the directions here: http://technology.umw.edu/wordpress101/2011/10/12/personalize-your-people-search-get-a-gravatar/ Also in this weekend's Canvas updates, the ability to Customize the list of courses appearing in your navigation drop-down was added so you can now select which courses you'd like to show and hide the others. A feature many of you requested! Watch the screencast for directions and other information on the latest release … [Read more...]

It's been a strong start to the semester with 96% of UMW instructors using the Canvas LMS system for their course delivery. We've had some bumps along the way but we're headed in a good direction. I wanted to let you know that Instructure has created a new Help Center to better serve their community of users,  http://help.instructure.com . It's made up of three different components: Canvas Community (http://community.instructure.com) - In the community there is a 'listserv-like' forum called 'Ask a Question' that is moderated by Canvas experts called 'Coaches.' All of the community is invited to participate. It is open for subscription so you can keep a tab on the discussions that are happening in the community. Canvas Guides (http://guides.instructure.com) - Canvas Guides is a great new source for all the latest documentation on Canvas and replaces the wiki. You'll find guides for students, teachers and admins, along with some other miscellaneous … [Read more...]

Instructure will be hosting its first regional conference for Canvas users on October 27 in DC's National Harbor. This will be a great opportunity for you to meet the team behind Canvas and network with Canvas users from other east coast institutions that have adopted this new LMS. UMW will be featured as a success story in my presentation playfully titled by Mike @ Instructure..."no boss, no support, no time...but we have a Canvas T-shirt!'. Hope you can attend as I showcase the efforts of many that contributed to our successful implementation of Canvas as our new learning management system. - Lisa http://www.instructure.com/canvascon/  … [Read more...]