Over the next few weeks, the Digital Learning Team will be highlighting upcoming online trainings for Canvas and beyond! Check out the list below to find out what’s available next week, June 3rd through 7th.

Canvas Online Trainings

Title: Group Work & Collaboration
Date and time: Monday, June 3, 2019, at 12:00 PM EST
Register at: https://www.cysalesteam.com/instructure/event/group-work-collaboration-june-3-2019  

Title: Quiz Basics
Date and time: Tuesday, June 4, 2019 at 8:30 AM EST
Register at: https://www.cysalesteam.com/instructure/event/quiz-basics-june-4-2019

Title: Home Pages
Date and time: Wednesday, June 5, 2019 at 5:30 PM EST
Register at: https://www.cysalesteam.com/instructure/event/home-pages-june-5-2019

Title: Content Pages
Date and time: Thursday, June 6, 2019 at 8:30 AM EST
Register at: https://www.cysalesteam.com/instructure/event/content-pages-june-6-2019

Title: Outcomes & Rubrics for Instructors
Date and time: Friday, June 7, 2019 at 9:00 AM EST
Register at: https://www.cysalesteam.com/instructure/even t/outcomes-rubrics-for-instructors-june-7-2019

Badgr Online Trainings

Title: Demo Days: Getting Started with Badgr
Date and time: Wednesday, June 5, 2019 at 11:00 EST
Register at: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ecyjhl72RDe_H3ij7B_b0g

By Danea Manson, 4th Year Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Student at Georgia Tech 

One of my favorite parts about the transition from T-Square to Canvas has been the mobile app. Grades, assignments, files, and announcements have never been so easily accessible. With the Canvas app, I have real-time access to my courses to ensure that I am always on top of my schedule. Additionally, the Canvas app allows me to learn across multiple devices, picking up where I left off. Some of the features that I find most useful are:

1. To-Do List. Canvas automatically consolidates the due dates for my upcoming quizzes and assignments in all my courses into a single to-do list. Being able to view all my assignments in one place and in chronological order helps me plan for the week and allocate my time efficiently. 
2. Messaging. Canvas’s messaging platform is fully functional within the mobile app, which allows me to communicate on the go with classmates, TAs, and instructors. 
3. Submissions. Not only can I view all the course content from the mobile app, I can also actively participate in the course from my phone by submitting assignments, taking quizzes, and posting to the discussion board.  
4. Push Notifications. I get notifications every time files are added to my course, an announcement is made by the instructors, and grades are updated.  
5. Canvas Widget. With the Canvas widget, I can view my overall course grades at a glance without logging into the app just by swiping left to the Today View (iPhone).  

What I appreciate most about the Canvas app is that its interface is user-friendly; it’s intuitive and extremely easy to navigate. The Canvas app is so similar to the desktop view that the learning curve is minimal. 

By Dr. Michael Smith, Full Time Lecturer in Information Systems

I have keyed many questions into Canvas quizzes to create short quizzes, but that process would be tedious and slow for tests. Since I have many tests already created as Word documents, I sought a way to upload them into Canvas. However, Canvas cannot import directly from Word documents and I didn’t want to rekey so many questions, so I had to find a way to migrate questions from Word to Canvas, including images referenced in questions.   

Canvas accepts mass question uploads in several ways. A review of options and discussion on the topic led me to select the QTI .zip file upload method using the Respondus 4.0 exam authoring tool. Respondus 4.0 is the only program I have found that can convert questions in Word documents into QTI .zip files. The product is offered by the same company that makes the LockDown Browser. I spent $80 for a single-user license. A site license is also available. 

Before importing the questions into Respondus 4.0, they must be reformatted to indicate correct answers, among other possibilities, and saved as a .txt or .rtf file. The help system in Respondus 4.0 indicates how to accomplish these tasks for different kinds of questions.  

I find it useful to create titles for the questions, as that helps me group them later according to topic by sorting them in Respondus 4.0. Here is a sample MC question indicating title and correct answer. The title formatting is my own.  

TITLE:  GT History – mascots – Stumpy’s bear 
1.Which GT “mascot” was a gift from a defeated football rival? 
*a. Stumpy’s bear 
b. Sideways 
c. Burdell the Bulldog 
d. The original Ford Model A Ramblin’ Wreck 

Since I direct Canvas to scramble answers when it creates quizzes, I usually put the correct answer first just to make creating questions more regular. For the same reason, I must change answers such as “b and c” to answers that don’t depend on any specific answer order, since Canvas will order the answers when it generates the quiz for each student. If I didn’t scramble answers, I would not need to do these things. 

If a question refers to a graphic, that graphic must be uploaded into Respondus 4.0 and embedded in the question. If the same graphic is referenced in several questions, all can refer to the same image file. Respondus 4.0 provides an editor for doing fancy formatting of questions and placing images within them.  

Respondus 4.0 provides for the export of groups of questions into QTI .zip files, among other formats.   

In Canvas, the upload process is accessed through Settings | Import Course Content | Content Type = QTI .zip file. After having uploaded the questions into a bank linked to the appropriate Canvas course, I import them into a question group in a quiz.  

In my next post, I will write about managing questions in a quiz.   

By Matt Lisle, Director of Digital Learning Technologies at C21U

Around the same time that Georgia Tech implemented Canvas as its new learning management system, the new Faculty Grade Entry (FGE) module was introduced in Banner. This module makes it much easier for faculty to import and finalize grades in Banner. However, we needed to make a few minor improvements within Canvas to streamline the process.

Last Fall, we launched a pilot of a newly-developed “Banner Grade Publishing” tool created by my team in the Center for 21st Century Universities (C21U). Around 50 faculty members volunteered to try the new tool and provide feedback. We are taking those suggestions into account and will be rolling out version 2 of the grade publishing tool to all Canvas courses in the coming days. 

To access the tool, look for “Banner Grade Publishing” in the left-hand menu of your Canvas course. This tool exports your grades into a Banner-ready spreadsheet that can easily be imported into FGE. If you’re teaching a Canvas course in which you’ve combined multiple sections, you can export one spreadsheet and import it into each of your sections in Banner.

We hope to continue improving this process, and we have high hopes for some of the emerging standards coming out of IMS, including EDU-API. As our platforms continue to recognize and adhere to industry standards, this process can be streamlined even more.

As always, email us at canvas@gatech.edu if you have any questions about this new tool.

What is Respondus 4.0?

Respondus is an exam authoring tool used to create and manage exams, which can then be printed to paper or published directly to Canvas. Whether you are a veteran of online testing or relatively new to it, Respondus will save you hours on each project.

For more info, visit the Digital Learning Team’s Respondus page here.

Download Respondus 4.0 from OIT Software Distribution here.

(Please note: Respondus 4.0 is currently only available for Windows.)

What is LockDown Browser?

LockDown Browser is a custom browser that locks down the testing environment within Canvas. Used at over 1000 higher ed and K-12 institutions, LockDown Browser is the top choice of educators for securing online exams in classrooms or proctored environments.

How can I find out more or attend an online training?

Click the links below to access a variety of online training videos and webinars:

Video – LockDown Browser (Instructor Training)
Video – Respondus 4.0 (Create and Manage Content)
Instructor Training (Live Webinars) for LockDown Browser