Learning management systems are essential tools in the teaching toolbox, but they all need a period of getting used to. Whether you’re a technophile or technophobe or somewhere in-between, getting to know your LMS will help you and your students take advantage of the teaching and learning potential it can offer.
Canvas
The Canvas LMS is currently used for courses participating in the postgraduate.futures initiative. It has a clean, uncluttered look but don’t let that fool you. It has plenty of functionality to get your head around. If you’ve found yourself staring at your screen, trying to remember how to embed that pdf, create that assignment or publish that page, then you’re not alone! To help you in those darkest hours, the postgraduate.futures team have developed a suite of how-to videos tackling common questions. You can find the videos on the UTS Canvas staff community* which you will have access to when you get access to Canvas LMS. The UTS staff community is a support resources and an important source of information for Canvas users. Your students will also have a community site with helpful resources.
How-to videos for your know how…
- Search is the latest Canvas feature we have added to Canvas and allows users, students and staff, to search keywords within a course or across courses they have access to.
- How-to videos also include assignment help which include: create assignments with rubrics, grade in Canvas SpeedGrader, use Canvas rubrics on a Turnitin assignment. and There are videos which will help you through the creating and grading assignments:
- And there are videos on how to jazz up your course by embedding resources and publish it when you’re ready!
Check out the videos, if only to giggle at my 5 minutes of fame!
*Not to be confused with the vendor run Canvas Community, also a great place for help resources (especially the guides!).