You can use a variety of tools for online small group discussions. We have outlined solutions, rated them for the effort required, and identified key considerations.
You can use a variety of tools for online small group discussions. We have outlined solutions, rated them for the effort required, and identified key considerations.
You can use a variety of tools for online small group discussions. We have outlined solutions, rated them for the effort required, and identified key considerations.
LATIS consultatively supports researchers in the design, data collection, and analysis of surveys and experiments in the social and behavioral sciences, humanities, and arts.
OMS is the business owner of Qualtrics for the University and has a team of experts available to help bridge the gap between do-it-yourself and advanced level questionnaire design and survey programming.
Instructors can create course sites that are both usable and accessible to the widest range of students possible by organizing their course site with a landing page, modules, and a limited menu, plus following other
Instructors can create course sites that are both usable and accessible to the widest range of students possible by organizing their course site with a landing page, modules, and a limited menu, plus following other
Challenge
Working in small groups on activities and assignments can be beneficial even for "routine" tasks, as students have the opportunity to learn from and help one another.
Challenge
Working in small groups on activities and assignments can be beneficial even for "routine" tasks, as students have the opportunity to learn from and help one another.
Instructors often use classroom discussions to promote sharing and ideas about a subject matter. Sometimes, discussions can become rote and tedious, or engage only one or a few students and the instructor.
Instructors often use classroom discussions to promote sharing and ideas about a subject matter. Sometimes, discussions can become rote and tedious, or engage only one or a few students and the instructor.
Instructors often spend a majority of classroom time on lectures, leaving little time for other learning opportunities such as group discussion. Capturing content is one method to address this challenge.
Instructors often spend a majority of classroom time on lectures, leaving little time for other learning opportunities such as group discussion. Capturing content is one method to address this challenge.
If you plan to use online exams with Proctorio settings to assess and evaluate student learning, please be aware that the Proctorio tool may cause problems for international users.
If you plan to use online exams with Proctorio settings to assess and evaluate student learning, please be aware that the Proctorio tool may cause problems for international users.
Challenge
Creating videos for courses is time intensive and the process of creating, publishing and sharing your media with students can be overwhelming.
See how to design a high-quality survey by understanding when to use specific question types, how to write questions, and how to format and organize the survey.
Challenge
When using pre-assigned breakout rooms, specific guidelines must be followed to ensure students are routed to their designated Zoom breakout rooms.
Before using Apps and Desktops through AppsToGo to complete coursework, be sure you understand the following considerations to successfully use Apps for assignment completion.
When you use AppsToGo, you have many choices of where to save (or print) your work. These instructions will guide you through how to turn off the ability to save files to your computer's local hard drive.
This article describes how to log in to AppsToGo and access Apps after you have completed Step 1: Install Citrix Workspace (formerly Receiver) and Step 2: Link Your Google Drive in th
Security
By default, AppsToGo is designed to be secure and is password protected. It is recommended to save your work files to Google Drive or network-attached drive.
Instructions:
To access AppsToGo with Chrome Web Browser on Windows or Mac OS X, you will need to associate the AppsToGo session file with the Citrix application. You should only need to do this once.
AppsToGo provides a portal for users of Windows (mobile, phone, desktop), Mac (iPad/iPhone and OSX), and Android to connect to a collection of virtual Apps.
AppsToGo is a client virtualization service that allows you to use certain discipline-specific software (Apps) on your desktop, laptop or mobile device.
The Zoom for Canvas Integration allows you to start and join Zoom meetings from within Canvas. This article is for UMN faculty and staff who would like to use Zoom together with Canvas.
Each video uploaded to Kaltura through Canvas has an owner. As the media owner, use video permissions to determine individual levels of access to videos for collaboration.
There are multiple video layout options available for you as a host, co-host, and participant in Zoom.
Layout Options
There are 4 video layout options in Zoom:
Zoom provides several ways for meeting hosts to set up audio and for participants to join audio.
As a host, use this article to inform your meeting setup.
The HCC, or Health Care Component, is a group of faculty, students, or staff who work closely with private health information and are subject to a Business Associates Agreement (BAA) with Zoom to ensure HIPAA complian
As a meeting host, you can split your meeting participants into breakout rooms when scheduling the meeting. This can be useful if you already know how you want to split up your participants.
Use this feature if you want to let someone else host a meeting or webinar that you have scheduled. This may be helpful if you are out of the office or late to your meeting or webinar.
You do not need a webcam in order to join a Zoom meeting or webinar.
Without a webcam, you will not be able to transmit video. Things you will be able to do include:
Zoom can change the way you teach and interact with learners, by giving you the ability to hold online office hours with learners anywhere in the world on a one-time or recurring basis.
Host controls allow you as the host or co-host to control various aspects of the Zoom Meeting or Webinar, such as managing the participants.
Host controls include but are not limited to:
The host key is a 6-digit PIN tied to your Zoom account. It is not meeting-specific. You can use your host key to claim host privileges in the following circumstances:
Zoom has international dial-in numbers available for an extensive and growing list of countries throughout the world. Participants from abroad can join UMN-hosted Zoom meetings or webinars via telephone if they canno
You can use Zoom on a computer through a web browser. This lets you use some of Zoom's features without downloading plug-ins or software. However, the web client has limited features.
Breakout Rooms allow you to seamlessly split your Zoom meeting into separate sessions for small group discussion, and then bring those sessions back together to resume the large group meeting. As the meeting host, yo
Zoom offers optimized screen sharing of a full screen video clip. This setting increases the frame rate of the screen share while playing the clip, so that the playback appears more smooth for remote participants. T
Your Personal Meeting Room is the virtual meeting room that is permanently reserved for you. You can start an instant meeting there at any time, or schedule it for future use.
If you are hosting a webinar and want attendees to take a survey or be taken to a specific webpage afterward, you can specify a Post Webinar Survey URL. Webinar participants will be prompted to take a
If your camera is displaying upside down or sideways in Zoom on your Windows PC, you can rotate the camera in your settings until it is oriented correctly.
Synchronous class sessions, in which everyone logs in to a web conferencing system at a pre-scheduled time, are one way to create engagement and foster community in your fully online courses.
Content chunking, for instructional design, is the strategy of breaking up content into shorter, bite-size pieces that are more manageable and easier to remember.
Content chunking, for instructional design, is the strategy of breaking up content into shorter, bite-size pieces that are more manageable and easier to remember.
Good audio is critical to your elearning success. You might be a great instructional designer and create the most engaging courses possible. But it all falls apart if the audio quality in your course is not ve
In a recent study, researchers identified the design factors that were most valued by participants in terms of promoting an engaging online learning experience.
In a recent study, researchers identified the design factors that were most valued by participants in terms of promoting an engaging online learning experience.
The best discussions keep everyone active, either by sharing or thinking. Even those students who rarely, if ever, contribute can still participate in other ways.
The best discussions keep everyone active, either by sharing or thinking. Even those students who rarely, if ever, contribute can still participate in other ways.
Canvas Guides is the online documentation site for students, instructors, instructional designers, parents, and learning management system (LMS) admins.
You can add a grading scheme to an assignment. You can use search for grading schemes created by your institution or you can create a new grading scheme.
Group sets house the different groups within a course. Once you have created a group set, you can manually create groups in the set or automatically create groups in the set.
If you want to create the same event multiple times for a course, you can create a recurring event. Recurring (or repeating) events creates multiple copies of the event every day, week, or month.
If you cannot find a rubric you want to use in your Canvas course, you can create a new rubric. Once you create a rubric, the rubric is saved in your course for future use.
You can add a rubric to a graded Canvas discussion to help students understand expectations for the discussion and how you intend to score their replies.
You can create appointment groups in the Scheduler. Appointment groups create a block of time where students can meet with you. Students can sign up for appointment times in their own calendars.
When you create an assignment, you can choose to add an external app (LTI tool) as a submission type. External apps must be added in your Canvas course before they can be added to an assignment.
A Canvas event is a non-graded Canvas activity. Events you create on the Calendar will not appear on the Assignments page or in the Gradebook. But they will show up on the Syllabus page and student calendars.
There are many places where you can find Apps to use in your courses. You can add external apps in the Canvas App Center, the Edu App Center, or through vendor-provided tools.
If you allow students to reply to announcements, you can also allow students to like replies in an announcement. If an announcement allows liking, users will see a Like icon within each announcement reply.
Once you have filtered student enrollments or sections in your Gradebook, you can arrange the Gradebook columns by assignment name, due date, points, and modules. You can also resize and manually arrange columns.
When you create a peer review assignment with automatic peer reviews, Canvas will assign peer reviews to students automatically once they have submitted their own assignment.
You can change your Course Home Page to reflect one of five layout options: the Recent Activity Dashboard, Pages Front Page, the Course Modules, the Assignment List, or the Syllabus.
You can create an online assignment that embeds a document directly from your Google Drive folder. Accepted assignment types are Google Documents, Spreadsheets, and Slides.
As an instructor, you can create a discussion for your Canvas course. This article outlines a variety of options to choose from to customize a discussion.
You can start a new collaboration using Google Docs in Canvas. Google Docs allows you to add up to 50 users per collaboration, and all users can view and edit a document at the same time.
You can use Google Drive to create a collaboration with a Google Document, Spreadsheet, or Presentation. You can select individual users, groups, or both as part of a collaboration.
You can use Microsoft Office 365 to create a collaboration with a Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file. You can select individual users, groups, or both as part of a collaboration.
You can add your own questions to your quizzes in Canvas. You can create various types of quiz questions. Individual questions can also be added to question groups.
You can create assignment shells from the Canvas Calendar. Assignment shells are placeholders for the assignment until you fill in the assignment details.
Columns in the Canvas Gradebook are only created by adding an assignment in Canvas. If you need to create a column in the Gradebook to use for manual grading, you can create a No Submission or On Paper assignment.
Self sign-up groups allow users to choose the group they want to be in as part of a group set. You can also limit the number of members who can sign up for each group.
If you are the course instructor or the creator of a collaboration, you can delete the collaboration from Canvas. Deleting the collaboration only removes access to the collaboration in Canvas.
You can disable comments for announcements and have that setting applied to every announcement throughout the entire course. However, you can also choose to close announcements on a per-announcement basis.
You can duplicate an assignment in your Canvas course. When an assignment is duplicated, the word Copy is added to the end of the assignment name. The copied assignment defaults to an unpublished status.
Once you have created a group set, you can edit it at any time. Editing a group set allows you to change the group set name, create self sign-up groups, and assign a student group leader.
After the first time you take roll call, Canvas automatically creates an assignment for Roll Call Attendance and adds a column to the Gradebook. By default, attendance is worth 100 points.
You can change the date of an Event or Assignment by clicking on the Event or Assignment or by dragging and dropping the Event or Assignment to a different date.
Most likely you will use the SpeedGrader to enter grades. The grades will appear in the Gradebook when you are done. However, you can manually enter and edit scores in the Gradebook.
As needed, you can use the Gradebook to excuse a student from an assignment, discussion, or quiz. You can also excuse a student from a group assignment.
In some cases, instructors may wish to hold student grades until all assignments have been graded, and then release grades to all students at the same time.
You can use a CSV file to upload changes to the Gradebook. You can upload information for existing assignments, or you can also use a CSV file to create new assignments in the Gradebook.
You can upload SCORM ZIP files as assignments, discussions, or quizzes in your Canvas course. SCORM is a technical standard for many e-learning products and is often used to create course content.
You can use a Notes column in the Gradebook to keep track of extra information in your course, such as SIS IDs or just general student notes. The Notes column is not visible to students.
As an instructor, you can control which links appear in Course Navigation. Canvas includes a set of default Course Navigation links that are shown by default and cannot be renamed.
As an instructor, you can create, edit, and delete rubrics in your Canvas course. Rubrics are used as grading criteria for students and can be added to assignments, quizzes, and graded discussions.
You can move or reorder modules after you've created them. You can manually drag and drop the module, or you can use the Move To option, which is also accessible for keyboard users.
The Canvas newsletter has expanded its focus to include not only need-to-know updates about the Canvas platform, but other topics relating to teaching and learning with technology.
You can view all your course announcements in the Announcements Index Page. As an instructor, you can also create announcements and modify announcement settings.
Assignments in Canvas can be used to challenge students' understanding and help assess competency by using a variety of media. Assignments include Quizzes, graded Discussions, and online submissions (i.e.
The Inbox is a messaging tool used to communicate with a course, a group, an individual student, or a group of students. You can use the Inbox to communicate with other people in your course at any time.
The Chat tool can be used for real-time conversation with course users. Any user in the course can participate in a chat conversation and view all chat content.
When self sign-up is enabled for a group, instructors are unable to prevent students from switching groups. However, as an instructor, you can turn off the self sign-up at any time.
A moderated assignment supports up to two provisional grades and one moderator grade. However, provisional grades are not included in the Gradebook and are only visible to moderators in the Moderate page.
Leaving an Assignment unpublished allows it to remain in a draft state. Unpublished assignments are invisible to students and excluded from grade calculations.
A common feature in Canvas is the gray or green icon that indicates whether or not an item is published and thereby visible to students. This article covers how to publish/unpublish a module in a course site.
You may be able to remove section enrollments within your course Settings in Canvas. Removing an enrollment removes all associated coursework and grades from the course.
Additional learning tools, sometimes called learning apps, external tools or LTI's, can be added on to Canvas to extend the core functionality and features of the system. The decision to inte
Once a reviewer grades a moderated assignment, the grade appears in the Moderate page as a provisional grade in the appropriate reviewer column. An assignment supports up to two provisional grades from reviewers.
You can run reports to review attendance data for your students. This report is sent to your email, where it can be downloaded as a comma separated value (CSV) file.
You can set the format for a course in Course Settings. Course format shows whether the course is intended to be an on-campus course, a online course, or a blended course.
You can subscribe to the Calendar Feed using Outlook 2013 on your desktop. The calendar feed will contain events and assignments from all of your Canvas calendars.
The quiz tool in Canvas is used to create and administer online quizzes and surveys. You can also use quizzes to conduct and moderate exams and assessments, both graded and ungraded.
You can import ZIP files to Canvas through Files or Course Settings. Through Course Settings, you must upload the ZIP file to an existing folder in Files.
You can import courses, modules, assignments, quizzes, discussions, pages, or files to Commons. Imported resources will retain their original published or unpublished status.
The Settings navigation link is where you can easily update and see the different users and sections, and you can also modify the navigation of your course.
You can view all your course assignments on the Canvas Assignments Index page. As an instructor, you can also add assignment groups, create an assignment, and modify assignment settings.
The Calendar is a great way to view everything you have to do for all your courses in one place. You can view calendar events by day, week, month, or agenda list.
The Collaborations Index Page allows you to create collaborations for users in your course. You can create new collaborations, edit existing collaborations, and delete collaborations.
The Global Navigation Menu is located on the left side of every page in Canvas. Global Navigation links provide quick access to frequently used Canvas features.
There are different icons and colors in the new Gradebook. Depending on how you grade assignments (manually or otherwise), you will see different icons or colors.
Modules control the entire flow of your course and its content. As an instructor, you can add modules, add items to a module, and manage module settings.
The Syllabus in Canvas makes it easy to communicate to your students exactly what will be required of them throughout the course in chronological order.
The sidebar contains the To Do list and other sections that help you know what assignments and events are coming up in all of your courses. The sidebar includes specific items for instructor and student roles.
The sidebar contains the To Do list and other sections that help you know what assignments and events are coming up in all of your courses. The sidebar includes specific items for instructor and student roles.
A paper from ScienceDirect on Using online collaboration applications for group assignments. You may be prompted to log into the UofM Library system to gain access to this research paper.
You can view a course the same way that your students view your course through Student View. Enabling Student View creates a Test Student in your course.
Differentiated Assignments is a Canvas feature that lets you create different due dates and availability dates for assignments, quizzes, and discussions.
Group files include uploaded assignment submissions, files for projects, and other group-related items. By default, each group has 50 MB of storage space in Canvas.
You can weight final grades based on Canvas assignment groups. Selecting this option assigns a weight to each assignment group, not the assignments themselves.
Canvas provides an integrated system for class discussions, allowing both instructors and students to start and contribute to as many discussion topics as desired.
Modules allow instructors to organize content to help control the flow of the course. Modules are used to organize course content by weeks, units, or a different organizational structure.
Pages store content and educational resources that are part of a course or group but don’t necessarily belong in an assignment. Pages can include text, video, and links to files and other course or group content.
The Calendar in Canvas is a global feature, meaning users can see all courses assignments and events in one place. Calendars can be filtered by selecting or deselecting courses in the sidebar.
Scheduler is a Calendar tool that creates appointment groups within a course or group. Students can sign up for a time slot within the appointment group.
Outcomes allow the administration and faculty to track mastery in a course. Users can import Account, State, and Common Core Standards into an account and course.
EligibilityIT computer labs are available to University of Minnesota students.Current registration is required for fall and spring semester access.Summer registration or registration in
The central message of this book is that there ways of creating learning experiences that can sufficiently impact the outcomes for students and instructors.
We provide service and support for collegiate instructional facilities/computer labs. Commitments are made to customers and end-users involving service, standardization of technology and processes, security, etc.
View and adjust due-dates for every graded assignment, quiz, and discussion for your entire Canvas course site by using the due-date modifer in Multi-Tool, a part of the Design Tools package integrated within Ca
View and adjust due-dates for every graded assignment, quiz, and discussion for your entire Canvas course site by using the due-date modifer in Multi-Tool, a part of the Design Tools package integrated within Ca
Learn how to use the Multi-Tool, part of the Design Tools package integrated within Canvas that provides additional tools for streamlining the creation of course sites, with this video.
Learn how to use the Multi-Tool, part of the Design Tools package integrated within Canvas that provides additional tools for streamlining the creation of course sites, with this video.
This online book shares the stories of those who are using the principles of Integrated Course Design; you will learn "how different people are applying these ideas in multiple contexts and what happens when they do."
The purpose of this page is to promote the design and administration of online exams that inhibit cheating and prevent the unauthorized distribution of exam materials by use of effective practices in the following are
This tutorial familiarizes faculty and staff with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the importance of protecting a student’s educational record.
Get support information for common issues educators and students have when using Flipgrid, a cloud-based, video student engagement and assessment tool.
Get support information for common issues educators and students have when using Flipgrid, a cloud-based, video student engagement and assessment tool.
Short article from 9to5 Google on how the use of Google Drive app within a hangout has been removed. Now users are to use the chat box for sharing any Google Driv items.
Web page from Google with information on how to start a Google Video Call (Hangout), including how to set up your computer and computer browser in advance.
You can easily communicate with your family and friends through Hangouts in Gmail. You can make phone calls, have face-to-face video calls, and share photos.
The key is to design tasks that are truly collaborative, meaning the students will benefit more from doing the activity as a group than doing it alone.
The key is to design tasks that are truly collaborative, meaning the students will benefit more from doing the activity as a group than doing it alone.
To be effective, online curricula illustrating communication behaviors need face-to-face interaction, individual role play with feedback and discussion.
Learning Tools, also known as learning apps, external tools, or LTI apps, can be added on to Canvas to extend the core functionality and features of the system. UMN has a variety of
Learning Tools, also known as learning apps, external tools, or LTI apps, can be added on to Canvas to extend the core functionality and features of the system. UMN has a variety of apps already integrated and ready f
Library Media Services provides comprehensive course support for the integration of media assignments into teaching and publishes related case studies.
Find resources for educators who enable in Canvas the online homework, tutorial, and assessment learning materials designed to accompany textbooks published by Pearson Education.
The use of discussion forums as a vehicle for learning is based on the pedagogical tenets of collaborative learning theory, which call for collaboration between participants, experimentation, and open inquiry.
The use of discussion forums as a vehicle for learning is based on the pedagogical tenets of collaborative learning theory, which call for collaboration between participants, experimentation, and open inquiry.
The Qualtrics license grants the University of Minnesota permission to use the software solely for University purposes, and expressly prohibits use by third parties.
How to setup and use REEF Polling by i>clicker so that you can use your laptop, smart phone, or tablet to answer questions in class and review the material afterwards.
Learn about ResponseWare on the Turning Technologies site. It can be used with any web-enabled device and allows participants to view and respond to interactive questions.
Student media assignments engage students in course content and provide opportunities for reflection and deeper learning. See examples from the College of Education + Human Development.
A Website that provides survey-related resources to the University of Minnesota community, including links to technologies supported on campus and information about best practices and community groups.
Irene Duranczyk, Associate Professor in the College of Education and Human Development, describes her use of an iPad tablet and Swivl to bring the dynamics of a face-to-face course to an online student during Fall 201
This LinkedIn Learning video shows how to use the calendar to invite others to the meeting, and activate video chat to see each other along with other features.
In this paper two collaborative activities are explored, namely a simple Case Study (moderate level of structuredness) and the Case Study joint with the Jigsaw (higher level of structuredness).
Before Your Meeting or Webinar
Set up Registration.
For public events, set up a Zoom registration page. People with a valid email will receive an email with the link to the event.
This guide walks you through how to gain access to virtual apps available through AppsToGo, the University of Minnesota's Application Delivery Infastructure.
This self-help guide takes you through the basic process of building a Canvas course site from the ground up, starting with creating and linking content, building assessments, and cho
This self-help guide will help anyone who presents at, schedules, or supports online meetings and webinars through Zoom. To learn more about using Zoom for online office hours or smaller meetings, check out
The College of Biological Sciences (CBS) and their Academic Technology team are one of the first units this summer to start the adoption of Canvas at the University of Minnesota.
The College of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS) is making a big move from Moodle to Canvas this spring. Along the way, they are finding things to learn and like about the new platform.
With one of the biggest jumps in Canvas usage from fall to spring semester, The University of Minnesota Crookston is taking big steps towards the full adoption of Canvas.