To ensure the structure of each online course is consistent, it is imperative that your course fits within the proper guidelines and includes the main requirements. This section will provide the basic guidelines to follow when preparing your course.
Online courses are courses in which the instructional interactions between the instructor and student do not occur in the same place or at the same time in which instruction is delivered, primarily through the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS).
You are expected to include a variety of course materials to support/supplement the textbook and class activities. These should include your lectures, study guides, PowerPoints, etc. You can also use publisher-provided PowerPoints for the text you are using, but these do not fulfill the requirement to have your own lectures in the class. It is acceptable to have some of these delivered as text-based documents, but you should also incorporate other visual/audio tools. These could include your short video lectures, YouTube videos, images/graphics, etc.
You are required to have the ASU-Beebe-approved homepage found in Canvas Commons. The modules should be clear and concise. Content should be organized, current and contain descriptive titles. Older materials, such as the previous semester's syllabi, schedules, etc., should be deleted or made unavailable to students. You should include objectives for each module in a module overview page. You can find several templates that the Office of Distance Education has provided in Canvas Commons. Follow the Canvas course checklist each term.
Tip: Since your online students do not have the opportunity to see you face-to-face, creating an introductory video to introduce yourself, the course and how to navigate is a great thing to add to your homepage. Your video should be one or two minutes.
Course modules are how you provide structure, organization and navigation in your course. Once you create the Canvas modules, you should add any readings, lectures, assignments, interactions, etc. within the modules. This makes it easy for students to know what they are supposed to do and what is due.
First Module
A “start here” module, as one of the first items, provides students with an easy place to begin the course. This module should include an instructor introduction course introduction, and be used to point students to the syllabus and other items that need to be reviewed or addressed.
The first module should include the following:
Syllabus Quiz: Distance education will provide you with the syllabus quiz. You will need to set the requirements, dates and prerequisites.
Self-Introduction Discussion: This is a good way to encourage your students to get to know each other and start interacting. You could also ask them to post a video instead.
Q&A Discussion Board: This can be used throughout the term as a place for students to ask questions and review answers.
Canvas Pages
When creating a page, the "rich content editor" at the top has several editing features. You can edit text and insert images, videos, etc., in every area of Canvas where you are able to add text. You can add a video to a discussion or an equation to a quiz. The toolbar there will work in just the same way. Add your Canvas pages in the appropriate module.
Create your assignments, discussions and quizzes in Canvas, then pull them into each module. When you create graded assignments, this creates your columns in the gradebook. You can decide whether you want them to submit an assignment in Canvas or a paper assignment that they will turn in onsite during class. If you want a column in the gradebook to manually enter a grade and expect no submission, you can also create a non-submission assignment.
PowerPoints, PDFs and Word documents can be added in the files section, embedded in pages or added directly in modules.
Online courses are courses in which the instructional interactions between the instructor and student do not occur in the same place or at the same time in which instruction is delivered, primarily through the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS). Student-to-student interaction, instructor-to-student interaction and content-to-student interaction are the three most important interactions in the online environment.
Activities should be provided that encourage all three types of interactions. Examples are discussions, blogs, groups, games, etc. You do not want to incorporate all of these into the class, just one or two. You need to provide activities that promote learning within the course. You can also require assignments, research papers or projects to be submitted to you within Canvas using an assignment.
Keeping students engaged is very important and can be difficult in an online environment. If this is your first time teaching in an online class, I recommend you use discussions since it is probably the easiest to manage. However, discussions need instructor direction and feedback for them to be successful, so be sure to participate in the discussions. Much of the instructor-to-student and student-to-student interaction occur within the discussion forums.
Announcements: You should post one to two announcements a week. You can post reminders for upcoming assignments, share current events or information, or even a video that you recorded to review the homework assignment.
Grading: Make sure you have a reasonable turn-around time for grading and be sure to provide quality feedback.
Video Lectures: This creates a great opportunity for students to get to see and hear you. It often helps students to see and hear the information presented, as it makes the content more interesting. Videos appeal to different learning styles and can help create motivation. If you do not want to record yourself, then I encourage you to find some videos online that can be used in your course. Remember, they must have closed captioning or a transcription.
In Canvas. you can quickly monitor your students’ progress through a course. Canvas offers a number of tools to make this easy.
Course Analytics can be used to evaluate student activities, submissions, grades and participation.
Accessing Course Analytics can be accessed on the homepage of your course. Click "view course analytics" in the right-hand navigation.
Analytics Beta is a new feature in Canvas and provides useful information. You can use this tool to view grade analytics, content analytics and participation information.
Access Analytics Beta by enabling analytics beta in the course navigation.
Once you set up a successful course, you can copy and reuse it for the next semester. Once you import it into your new course, you will need to adjust due dates and date-specific content, such as the syllabus, pages, modules or titles that include dates.
Import and Export: Use the export directions when exporting an old course. An old course does not show the SIS ID in the settings anymore. If you do the export in Chrome, click on "new export," and it will show it at the bottom of your screen. Do not open it, as it will be in your downloads folder. Then go to the new course you want to import it into and complete the import directions. When you go to find your file to import, click the downloads folder and select the file to open.
Copy SIS ID and Import: Use copy SIS ID and import directions when copying a course with a SIS ID still visible in the course settings. Go to the Canvas course with the content you want to be imported into a blank course shell. Click on settings in the course navigation menu. Highlight the course SIS ID, right-click and click copy. The SIS ID is a unique identifier for your course.
Go to the course that needs content imported. Click the settings tab on the course navigation menu and click “import course content” on the right-hand side of the page. Next, select the “copy a canvas course” option from the course type drop-down box. Then paste the SIS ID of the course containing the content needing to be transferred into the search box.
The course name should appear in a drop-down menu below the search box. Click on the course name. The course’s name will now appear in the search box. Click “all content” under the content area to import everything. Then click “import.” The content will be imported into the blank course. It may take several minutes to 24 hours for the course to copy over, depending on the amount of content within the course.