Add STEM Content to the Rich Content Editor in Canvas

 

If you're a STEM instructor, you know it can be difficult to add mathematical or scientific notations in Canvas. ESU, however, has recently enabled a product called EquatIO in the Rich Content Editor (RCE) in Canvas, allowing users to input a wide range of STEM figures into anything in Canvas that uses the RCE. 

While the version within Canvas is the free version with slightly more limited features, the full version is available for free as a Chrome extension. 

Check out the video from TextHelp that demos EquatIO and shows how and where you can use it!

Upcoming Training Events Calendar

 

Learning Technologies is constantly adding new educational technologies to their stable of products (most recently Perusall and Hypothes.is) and updating and adding features to old favorites (Microsoft Immersive Reader, Canva, Vimeo, etc.) 

There's also training opportunities for things like OER, Canvas, Camtasia, a Digital Teaching Symposium, and so much more. But where can you find all of these trainings?

Learning Technologies' website has a section called Upcoming Training Events and can be found at https://bit.ly/2Y7dan9 This Google Calendar lists all of the upcoming trainings, webinars, and online conferences you can take advantage of to add enrichment to your online courses. 

New opportunities will be added weekly, so make sure to check back often!

Changes to Microsoft Immersive Reader: An Increase in Accessibility

 For those who aren't familiar, Microsoft Immersive Reader is an accessibility feature within Canvas that allows users to enhance their reading experience by improving accessibility and boosting reading comprehension. It is currently only possible to be enabled at the administrator level. 

Starting on September 29th, 2021 this feature can now be enabled by each user, including students, under User Settings. This will allow users who want to utilize the Immersive Reader to do so at their discretion. 

Canvas Updates for September 1st 2021

Back in June 2021, Canvas debuted a redesign of their discussion board. Learning Tech rolled out this redesign but then was made aware that the redesign was lacking certain features of the classic discussion board, most importantly the ability to add rubrics. 

On September 1st Canvas is pushing out an update to the redesign that will include rubric functionality for all discussion boards. At this point, if you would like to try out the redesign, Learning Tech would be happy to help you enable it! 

As a reminder, the redesign includes:

For individual discussion topics, the interface has been expanded for maximum space and ensure responsive views.

The following modifications have been made to the page:

• The toolbar has been moved to the top of the discussion thread. 
• Newest replies display at the top of the first page instead of the bottom of the last page.
• Users can sort replies from newest to oldest, or oldest to newest.
• Users can also quickly move to the top of the discussion topic at any time. 

Examples of both the old and new discussion board threads are shown below:

 

Canvas Updates for August 2021: The Enhanced Assignment Experience

 There have been some big upgrades to the assignment experience within Canvas. Let's dive in!

Updated Submission Tracker

The new tracker takes much less space, allowing students to have a larger landscape for completing their assignment. The previous "pizza tracker" took a large amount of space and was distracting to users as it would shrink and expand when the student was scrolling. Also, in its minimized form, it was difficult for students to determine the status of their submission. 

With the newly updated tracker, the information is included next to the attempt and assignment information and remains available in the same format so students know where they are in the submission process and what step is up next. 

The new submission tracker looks like this:

Updated Rubric Placement

In the initial work for this project, rubrics added to an assignment were included in a separate tab. The view has been updated to include the rubric as part of the assignment details so that students can simply scroll to view the rubric and their work. 

Given that rubrics provide critical information regarding the expectations for an assignment, it is important that students can easily view them and refer back to them as needed when completing their assignment. The new placement provides a more intuitive flow and when needed, students can collapse the rubric in order to maximize their work space. 

Also, when a student returns to the assignment to view feedback, the rubric will remain in the same location and default open with any scores and comments left by the instructor made visible to the student.  

Moved Feedback to Comment Tray

Feedback is a critical part of the learning process. Students should not have to hunt for feedback from their instructors; nor should instructors feel that they must create videos that walk students through how to find feedback, which is an unfortunate reality that we've heard, especially within our traditional assignment submission flow. 

To help students get the most out of the feedback provided, feedback has been moved from the separate comments tab and into the comment tray. This allows students to view feedback alongside their work and the scored rubric so that they can fully understand the feedback and make decisions about how they might improve. 

Submission Type Selection Updated from Dropdown to Icons for Each Option 

The new icons look like this:

Respondus Lockdown Browser for Chromebooks

After being in beta testing, Respondus has finally released the final version of their Lockdown Browser for Chromebooks. This extension makes both the Lockdown Browser and Respondus Monitor available on Chromebooks. 

To install Respondus LDB on a Chromebook:

1. Log into the Chromebook and start the Chrome browser.

2. Log into Canvas using a student account, and navigate to the exam that requires LockDown Browser. 

3. Select the link for downloading and installing LockDown Browser.

4. From the Chrome web store, select “Add to Chrome” to install the LockDown Browser Extension.

After you have completed these steps, you will be able to take your exam through Respondus. 

 

Social Annotations: ESU's Hypothes.is Trial

ESU is piloting a trial of the social annotation service Hypothes.is for Fall 2021. Hypothes.is is an online tool designed to allow for collaborative annotation across the web. It can be used to annotate web pages, PDFs and EPUB files.

How can I use Hypothes.is?

There are actually a number of ways Hypothes.is can be used, but we've integrated it into Canvas so that students and faculty can use it without having to create a Hypothes.is account.

Once enabled, faculty can create annotation assignments for content pages they have uploaded. The Hypothes.is LMS app brings discussion directly to course content by enabling students and teachers to add comments and start conversations in the margins of their texts. Collaborative annotation engages students more deeply in course readings and lets faculty glimpse students' insight into the material.

 

How do I set up a Hypothes.is assignment?

 

Using the Hypothesis app within Assignments allows some additional functionality over creating Module Items. Instructors can assess student work in SpeedGrader, assign the reading/annotating to a particular Canvas Group and also set due dates or dates of availability for the Assignment. 

1. Navigate to your Assignments page and click the “+ Assignment” button

2. Scroll down to the Submission Type field

Note: some users may have to click a More Options button to see this field.

3. From the drop-down menu, choose External Tool and click Find.

On the next screen, you will be able to create an Hypothesis-enabled reading by linking to a publicly-viewable page or document, choosing a file from Google Drive, or selecting a file from your Canvas file repository.

4. You will be returned to the Configure External Tool screen

Notice that the URL text box is now populated.

If you’d like to have the document open in a new tab, allowing for more room for the text and annotations, click Load This Tool in a New Tab.

Click Select.

5. Optional: Edit the Assignment name, instructions, due dates, and any other settings you wish to change

You can come back and do this step later if you want.  

6. Scroll down and click Save or Save & Publish

You will see your Hypothesis-enabled reading listed on the Assignments page. When your students click on the Assignment, the web page or document will open with Hypothesis enabled and scoped to your automatically-provisioned private group.

Learning Technologies has a more in-depth tutorial available at https://bit.ly/3j3kjfP