Preliminary View of Canvas

Question

I am told that Canvas is very intuitive and if you easily navigated Bb that this new system will be easy to grasp.

My initial impression is that I will spend much time in the "Course Home Page" icon. This is where we post our weekly announcements, make weekly discussion board announcements (I usually welcome them to the new discussion week) and reply to student discussion posts.

Am I on the right track in my thinking?

When will our courses be posted so we can start placing information in the next term classes?

Thank you.

Lynn Parsons

Contributing Faculty

MSN Program, Nurse Executive Track

Lynn.Parsons@mail.waldenu.edu

Chris_Hofer · Accepted Answer

Hello there, @LynnParsons ...

Welcome to the Canvas Community and the world of the Canvas LMS (Learning Management System).

When will our courses be posted so we can start placing information in the next term classes?

This is a question that will be determined by your school's Canvas administrator and/or your school's Online Learning / eLearning / Distance Education department.  Canvas Community members do not have access to Walden University's Canvas environment or your course(s).

I am told that Canvas is very intuitive and if you easily navigated Bb that this new system will be easy to grasp.

My initial impression is that I will spend much time in the "Course Home Page" icon. This is where we post our weekly announcements, make weekly discussion board announcements (I usually welcome them to the new discussion week) and reply to student discussion posts.

Am I on the right track in my thinking?

When will our courses be posted so we can start placing information in the next term classes?

I'm not exactly sure what Walden University has set up for their Canvas courses.  For example, I do not know if you will be able to copy (import) content from a "master" course or a previous course into your own course...or if you will be creating content on your own to deliver to your students.  Generally speaking, the course "Home" page can be used as a welcome page for the course...or it could display all of the modules within your course to students as soon as they log in to your course (that's an option you can configure).  The content of your course is typically arranged via the "Modules" page.  You can add things like content pages, discussion topics, quizzes, and assignments.  You can arrange your modules by topic...so that everything is organized the way you want.

I highly recommend that you check out some video tutorials here in the Canvas Community and also on YouTube:

* Set Up Your Canvas Course in 30 minutes or Less
* Canvas LMS Tutorials for Online Teaching - YouTube - This is a playlist of Canvas video tutorials from Ashlee Espinosa that I highly recommend you take a look at.  She does a great job of walking you through many of the main components of Canvas ... and how to set up a course.  Well worth your time!

If you have specific questions, please let Community members know...we'll do our best to help answer any questions you have.  Good luck!!!

ShaneDeHorney · Accepted Answer

Hi Lynn,

Every institution is different, so your school will decide when your classes are posted. At my institution, our Canvas support team is separate from the IT team, so, for your school, you might want to ask your IT team if there is a separate team to contact or if they will be able to answer your questions about how the Canvas LMS is being administered at your school and when the shells/sandboxes will be available for you to start working in. At my school, faculty get access to each shell/sandbox for a live course about two months in advance.

There are so many different ways available for institutions to use as a course Home. The settings in Canvas allow you to choose what will be shown to students according to your personal preference or as designated by your institution. Many schools have a 'standard' that they want all courses to use. If your school recently started using Canvas, then you might be able to post whatever you want until they decide what the standard course needs to show for all students. At my school, it took several semesters until the admins decided how Home should be set but they still give us flexibility. At my institution, we use the Front page, where we post instructions to students about what we expect them to do when they enter the course, such as 'Click on Modules' and it's also where we give an overview of the course, and we use settings to show the most recent announcements. Most students spend the most time on the Modules, where content, discussions, and assessments are posted.

Hope that helps.