Fall 2017 students to be inputted

Canvas, Blackboard instructors:

 

This is a heads-up that Fall 2017 students will be inputted into their courses tonight (Canvas) and overnight tonight (Blackboard). If you don’t want students to access your courses until the start of classes, keep your courses unpublished (Canvas) and unavailable (Blackboard).

 

Scott

Revised design in Canvas

Canvas instructors,

If you haven't already noticed, Canvas updated its design by enlarging its font and implementing new icons. To keep up on Canvas changes, you can always follow its release notes at

https://community.canvaslms.com/community/answers/releases/.

Scott

Canvas 1-day conference

American River College in Sacramento is hosting a 1-day Canvas conference called Can-Innovate on Monday, Aug. 14. The conference costs $20 and is supported by Canvas and the state’s Online Education Initiative. For more information, go to http://innovate.losrios.edu/.

 

Aug. 14 is Convocation Day for full-time LPC employees, so this is probably more pertinent to adjunct faculty.

 

Scott

Dropped students follow-up

Canvas instructors,

 

The issue with dropped students still showing in classes appears to have been solved by District ITS. Students who withdrew after the add period show as inactive in People. For those who started classes this week, you shouldn’t notice this until after the drop period. Students who dropped prior to NGR will simply disappear from your class.

 

Scott

Canvas Summer students

Canvas instructors,

 

District ITS has been alerted of an issue whereby dropped students are still showing as active in Canvas courses. This happened last semester and got fixed, so I’m assuming ITS will fix it soon.

 

Scott

Canvas improvements

Canvas instructors,

 

The interface for the VeriCite anti-plagiarism tool in Canvas has been updated and is available to use. VeriCite said it was updated “for improved ease of use, functionality, and accessibility.” To see the update in action, view a YouTube video about it. You can also read about it on VeriCite’s Canvas User Guide for instructors.

 

Canvas’ Assignments tool has been updated with a new viewer in the SpeedGrader that converts uploaded documents into a readable format and allows you to add comments. It works very similarly to the old viewer. Read more about the new viewer.

 

Scott

Blackboard Spring 2017 semester wrap-up

Blackboard instructors,

 

Hope your semester went well. To wrap up Spring 2017, please note the following:

 

1. Make sure you: a) archive your course, b) check the accuracy of your grades, c) archive your emails, d) download your Grade Center, and e) make your course unavailable to students when they no longer need access. If your Total column in the Grade Center is set to Calculate as a Running Total and display as a Percentage, please make sure your grades are accurate by either turning Calculate as a Running Total off or entering zeros for missing assignments. If you have hidden columns in which you entered points possible but did not score students, check that you have not included those points in the Grade Center calculations and have not made the columns invisible to students. If your points possible don’t look correct, make sure all visible columns are included in the calculations.

 

Also, there has been recent emphasis by accreditors and federal regulators to prove instructor-student contact in DE and hybrid courses, so archiving your emails has become increasingly important. More information, and instructions on the tasks above, can be found in the document “Closing your course”.

2. Once you determine that students no longer need access to your class, make it unavailable to them. To make the class unavailable, go to Control Panel - Customization - Properties, and for Make Course Available, click No, then click Submit.
   
   
3. Click here to view information on copying courses. Important: If you are using publisher materials and need to copy them into your new course, make sure you scroll down the Copy Course page, and under the heading Course Cartridge Materials, check the box. This is a very easy box to miss because it is located further down on the page from the rest of the checkboxes. Please make sure you check this box each time you copy a course. If you don't, your exams will be copied, but the pools that house the questions, do not.
   
   
4. Support: I will be gone May 26. Beginning the week of June 5 and finishing the week of July 31, the college will be closed on Fridays. I will be on vacation the week of July 3 and will also be gone July 24. We will have a new part-time support person in the Teaching and Learning Center beginning July 17.

 

Scott