Student View of Assignment Feedback in Canvas

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Canvas has several ways to provide student feedback on assignments they have submitted online. Faculty can provide text comments as well as use the SpeedGrader and Crocodoc annotation tools to markup submitted papers with additional feedback and comments. If using TurnItIn, faculty can use Grademark to annotate and comment on student assignments.

When students need to view feedback, it’s important that they know where to go in Canvas in order to view ALL feedback, not just text comments entered on the initial assignment grade screen. In order for student’s to view ALL feedback provided by the instructor, they should follow these steps:

  1. Log into the course and click on the ‘Grades’ link.
  2. Find the assignment and click the assignment name.
  3. Click on ‘View Feedback’ to view all feedback including comments and any additional annotated comments made on the submission.

View and share the video below with your students for more details about the student view of assignment feedback.

Effective Strategies for Online Disscussions in Your Course

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Planning Your Online Course v2 -Giulia ForsytheOnline discussions can serve as a great opportunity for your students to reflect on the ideas presented in your course and allow them a safe place for challenging academic discourse. This blog post shares a few starting points for thinking about the format of your discussions, the roles students can play in the discussion space, and ways you can assess and incorporate the online discussions back into your face-to-face class. Illustration by Giulia Forsythe

Continue reading →

Grading and Providing Feedback in Canvas

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The Canvas gradebook has many features that are useful for providing feedback on various types of assessments and assignments.

In the following video, we will review how to grade assignments, provide feedback (comments) as well as how to provide annotated feedback (mark-up and comments) using the SpeedGrader.

gradebook screen

Whenever you create a new graded assignment, you will get a corresponding column in your gradebook[1]. Use the cells [2] in the grade book to input grades for your assignments. All assignments must be entered as points but you can change how the students see the grade in their gradebook (e.g. percentage, letter grade, etc.) or you can ‘Mute‘ the column so students won’t see the grade at all (you can always ‘unmute’ or reveal the grades to students later.)

You can provide feedback and comments on an assignment by clicking on the comment icon [3] in the corner of a gradebook cell. Comments are great for short notes and questions. Students can respond to your comments, and the conversation can continue for the duration of the course. The comment will appear on the Dashboard, on their “Grades” pages, and in the comment stream of the SpeedGrader display for the assignment.

Canvas has a tool called SpeedGrader which lets you quickly preview, comment and/or annotate a student’s assignment submission. Using the SpeedGrader and the Crocodoc toolbar, you can mark-up and add comments. NOTE: If you use the SpeedGrader, make sure you tell your students to click on the ‘View Feedback’ link when they view their submission grade in order to see ALL annotations and comments made on their assignment.

If the assignment being graded is a TurnItIn assignment, you can access the TurnItIn Originality score and report by clicking on the TurnItIn score icon [4] in the gradebook. Once you view the TurnItIn Originality report, you can use the TurnItIn Grademark tools to provide annotated comments and feedback.

 

Creating and Editing your Faculty Profile on www.stedwards.edu

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Faculty, have you created or updated your faculty profile?

The faculty profiles on www.stedwards.edu are intended to be flexible and allow for you to accurately showcase your professional academic career and highlight unique achievements. This profile framework was developed in conjunction with St. Edward’s University faculty (full time and adjunct) in late 2014 and early 2015.

As faculty, you are responsible for the accuracy of your own information and maintenance of your profile. You may access your profile at anytime. You may also access the faculty profile guide with instructions on how to update your profile. Note: It is important to get an official St. Edward’s University photo taken by Marketing for your faculty profile. Please contact marketing to see when the next photo session will take place.

Website Goals

The current version of the St. Edward’s University website was launched to the public in July 2015. In Fall of 2014, the following goals were established as the guiding principles for the web presence. It is critical to keep these goals in mind as new content is added.

  • Goal 1. Increase awareness of the St. Edward’s brand and enhance the reputation of St. Edward’s as an intellectual and scholarly center.
  • Goal 2. Increase quality and number of students in all academic programs.
  • Goal 3. Establish a website that provides a consistent user experience for internal and external stakeholders to gather information and execute tasks quickly and efficiently.

How Often Should I Update Content?

Any outdated or incorrect content can and should be updated regularly. However, it is recommended that your profile be refreshed every 6 to 12 months.

For Help

Please contact:

 

Integrating Digital Material from the Library into your Course

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8137660881_846c3012f6_qInspired by this Friday’s presentation “Killing the Course Pack: New Methods for Providing Access to Course Readings” co-sponsored by The Center for Teaching Excellence, Instructional Technology and the Munday Library, we wanted to share some information to assist you in integrating digital supplemental course material (and course reserves) into your Canvas or Blackboard course. Photo Credit: Mariusz Kluzniak’s Lincoln’s Inn Library. Continue reading →

Receiving Copies of Announcements and Messages in Canvas

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Are you posting announcements in Canvas and are not sure if your students saw them?  Do you send messages to students through Canvas, but you don’t know if that message was sent out?

Canvas uses Notifications to push copies of Announcements and Messages to faculty and students.  If you want to receive copies of your announcements or messages to your St. Edward’s email you can set a notification to do that.  All messages and announcements are automatically saved as part of the course, but it may be helpful to see when a message is delivered and what the formatting looks like.  Be aware that students can change their notification preferences so they may be receiving text messages on their phone rather than email notifications.

To add a notification for instructor generated announcements or messages

  • Go to Settings in the upper right corner next to your name
    Personal_settings

 

  • Click on Notifications from the left menu
  • In your list of notifications, set up email notifications by selecting ASAP–by clicking on the checkmark icon, next to the “Announcements Created By You” and “Conversations Created by Me”. These notifications are delayed by one hour in case an instructor makes additional changes, which prevents you and your students from being spammed by multiple notifications in a short amount of time. Note: Each set notification preference will automatically apply to all of your courses. They cannot be set individually.

If you have additional questions about notifications or using Canvas, please contact Instructional Technology at instcom@stedwards.edu.

Grading in Canvas with Multiple Student Submissions

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How do instructors grade multiple submissions of assignments in Canvas? How do students view assignments that have been graded with the SpeedGrader or with Turnitin’s GradeMark?

How do students view multiple attempts in Canvas?

In Canvas, students can always submit multiple times to an assignment until the due date (Note: Quizzes only allow one attempt by default). However, students can only view their most recently added submission to an assignment. This means that all previous submissions to the assignment are not available to students, including feedback that instructors have provided through SpeedGrader or Turnitin’s GradeMark.

Tips for grading assignments in Canvas

 In all cases, the last submission by the student is the one that should be graded with either SpeedGrader or Turnitin’s GradeMark.  Only comments added to the last submission in SpeedGrader or GradeMark will appear to the student when they check Grades.  Even if you add SpeedGrader comments and/or GradeMark comments to the first submission, the student will only see the comments on the last submission.
  • When you set up your assignment, in addition to the due date, you should set an ending “Availability Date”.  Set this date to be the absolute last day you will accept papers, even late papers.  This can also be set to be the same as the Due Date. Once the availability date has passed students can no longer submit new attempts.  For example:
    • Paper One is Due October 20th at 11:59 pm
    • The ending Availability Date is set to October 22nd at 11:59 pm
      • Students who submit papers after October 20th at 11:59 pm up until October 22nd at 11:59 pm will have their papers marked as “Late” in Grades.
      • Students will not be able to submit at all after October 22nd at 11:59 pm.
      • You can safely grade papers after October 22nd at 11:59 pm, because students will no longer be able to submit new attempts.
  • We recommend checking for multiple submissions and making sure you are only grading the latest submission. In the SpeedGrader you will see the most current submission listed, but you can also click on the menu to see all of the student’s submissions.
    multiple_submissions2
  • If you are using SpeedGrader or GradeMark, you may want hold off on grading until after the ending availability date so there are no additional submissions. You should set the availability dates so the end availability date/time is before you start grading.
  • If you have paper assignments in which multiple drafts are to be graded or commented on, you can make multiple assignments.  For example, if you have Paper One with 2 drafts and a final paper, you would create 3 assignments–Paper 1-Draft 1, Paper 1 – Draft 2 and Paper 1 – Final.  You can create the Draft assignments as graded assignments worth zero points and it will still create the column in the gradebook. With this method you can comment on the paper using either SpeedGrader or GradeMark and the student will see all of the comments.
  • Use the Comments field in the SpeedGrader to direct students to view their feedback in Turnitin or to remind them that they need to click on the View Feedback button to review the comments on their work.
    multiple_submissions3

The students sees their graded assignment and feedback by clicking on their assignment under “Recent Feedback” or “Grades”. If they click on Recent Feedback they will see your comments, their grade and the Turnitin icon, if the assignment included a Turnitin report.
multiple_submissions4

 

 

 

 

If you have additional questions about using Canvas or Turnitin, please contact Instructional Technology at instcom@stedwards.edu.

Freshmen are Mobile, Social, and Always Connected

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Results of the 2015 Freshmen Technology Survey are in and they confirm that our first year students are indeed part of Generation Z: Connected from Birth.  We surveyed incoming students during the summer orientation session and received over 500 responses.

Mobile

Devices and phones students are bringing to campusStudents can access the internet anywhere they can get a signal.

  • 99% of students responding reported that they would bring a smart phone to campus
  • 91% are bringing a laptop
  • 41% are bringing tablets

Social

Students use the internet to connect with information but even more to connect with each other, increasingly over video.

  • 90% use the web for social media
  • 66% use FaceTime
  • 50% use Skype

Top Social Media?

The two leading social media tools–Snapchat and Instagram–focus on instantaneous, impermanent communication.

  • Snapchat: 82%
  • Instagram: 81%
  • Facebook: 69%
  • Twitter: 59%

While our students are comfortable using technology for socializing and accessing information, they are less practiced at using it for creation, academic purposes, and productivity.  As this year’s first-year students make the transition to college, we–their instructors and university staff–will need to help them partner with technology to create, to solve problem, and to manage their personal and academic projects.

What’s Next?

When asked what new technologies most interested them, the clear winner was 3D printing at 57%, with wearable tech (like the fitbit) coming in at 51%.  Looks like those TLTR pilots are coming just in time.

What new technologies most interest students

Full Results

See full results of our 2015 Freshmen Technology Survey in our infographic, created by SEU Senior Elyssa Turner.  Questions covered include how students prefer to communicate with instructors, as well as how they take notes, write papers, and keep to do lists: FreshmanTechSurvery_2015_finalupdate

Freshman Technology Survey Infographic Thumbnail

Click the image for larger version

 

And compare this year’s answers with those from last year: 2014 Freshman Technology Survey

Communicating with Your Students in Canvas

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inbox

Sending email messages to your students

Canvas has a Conversations system that allows you to message students.  Students receive notifications of those messages based on their notification preferences.  By default, everyone’s notification of a new conversation message is via their St. Edward’s email.  To open Conversations, click on the “Inbox” link in the upper right corner, next to your name.

115 – Conversations Overview from Canvas LMS on Vimeo.

Students can choose whether or not they want to receive e-mails notifications of the Message/Conversation sent to them in Canvas.  They could, potentially, choose not to receive any e-mails at all and receive all communications via text message, for example.  Also, users can choose the frequency of those e-mails, text messages, etc. (Right away, Daily, Weekly, Not at all).

  • If your course is not published, students will not receive a notification of an announcement or any other messages from Canvas.
  • Students who have not accepted their course invitations will not receive any notifications from Canvas.
  • Even if the course is published and students have accepted their course invitations, they will only receive notifications according to how they have set their notification preferences in their personal settings.

All Canvas Messages are stored in Canvas so they are part of the course record. Below are links to helpful Canvas resources on using the Conversation system.

Announcements

Instructors can send out announcements to their class via the Announcements tool. Students will be notified according to their notification preferences.

By default students can comment on Announcements, just as they can in a discussion.  Once you have created an Announcement, you can close the Announcement to comments, by clicking on the gear icon to the right of the Edit button.

How to make an announcement: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-1807

519 – Announcements Overview from Canvas LMS on Vimeo.

Canvas Tips and Tricks to start off your Semester

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Publish your Course

Faculty have you Published your course in Canvas? Now that you have worked on your Canvas course, you need to publish it. The only way Publish students can view your course materials in Canvas is to publish your course. To publish your Canvas course click on your Home button on the top left and then click on Publish under Course status on the top right of your canvas course window. The grey publish cloud will turn to a green Published button and the cloud will have a checkbox.

canvaspublished

Favorite your Courses to View from the Courses Menu

You also have the option to favorite your frequently viewed courses you use over the course of the semester. To favorite your course click on the Courses drop own menu and select “View all and Customize” View all and CustomizeThen you will see a list of all your courses listed. Click on the grey star to turn it yellow and that course will be a favorite. Once the stars next to the courses are selected, you will see those from the Courses drop down menu. Favorite a Course

Rename Your Course to add the Semester

By default all courses in Canvas are named with the convention of Course Code-CourseNumber-Section.  For example, CISC-1301-01.  Canvas associates each class with a Term (Fall 2015) but does not display that term as part of the name.  If you teach the same course several semesters you may find it difficult to distinguish between courses when sending messages to your students or combining class sections.

To append the term to a course

  • Click on “Settings” in your course menu.
  • The first field in Settings is “Course Name.”  We suggest adding the term to your course name, for example, CISC-1301-01-FA2015, to make it easy to distinguish your current course in a list.
  • Click on “Update Course Details” to save.

Have your Students Set up their Personal Notifications

At the start of the semester, we recommend that you remind your students to set their personal notification settings in Canvas. This will allow them to choose what types of notifications they receive from their courses. For example, they could choose to add their cell phone number to be able to be notified via text message. They will just need to go to Settings and then click on “Add a Contact Method” to be able to add their cell phone number. Next, the students may click on Notifications on the left and then set their notifications they want to receive, such as announcements, grades, etc.

To learn more about Canvas visit our Canvas Training Center.