Welcome to Canvas for Beginners

COURSE INTRODUCTION: You don't have to be a Ninja Panda to use Canvas! Welcome to "Canvas by UEN", a Canvas Course created by the Utah Education Network to help new Canvas users get started.  This course was designed for teachers who are looking to modernize their classrooms with a Learning Management System to support a "Blended Learning" environment or teach an online course.  Since this is an open course on the UEN / Instructure public domain any one with the link to this course may enroll by clicking the "Join This Course" button at the top right side of this page

 The content from this course can be used as a self-paced class or presented by a UEN Instructional Technology Trainer.  Whether you're looking for a one day course, two day event, 3 hour workshop, or even a one hour presentation, UEN can customize the experience from this course to fit your school's needs.  Take a look at the infographic below for more information about the options.  A list of modules with descriptions can be found below the image.

Module 1: Introduction to the Canvas LMS
What is Canvas?  And why are we using it?  In this first hour of training we cover all the benefits of using an LMS to complement and extend teaching that is already happening in the face to face environment, and how to harness the power of Canvas to make the use of instructional technology easier and more effective.

Module 2: Canvas As A Communication Tool
It's not "one more thing", it's "the thing"... to make communication between teachers, students, and even parents MUCH easier.  In this portion of the training we will talk about how to customize Canvas notifications to work best for you, and then review features like the Canvas In Box and Calendar so that you can use just one tool, Canvas, to connect your learning community.

Module 3: Pedagogy of Online Teaching and Learning
Blended? Flipped? Distance Learning?  Every course in Canvas is unique.  During Module 3 you'll learn how you can use Canvas differently for different purposes and audiences.  Activities are available for teachers new to Canvas to work together and discuss best practices for teaching online.

Module 4: Creating A New Course in Canvas
Let's begin!  This is where we start building a course in Canvas and adjusting any special settings to meet the needs of our students.  This may be the shortest module in the course, but it's the most important because it's the first step towards teaching with Canvas.

Module 5: Creating Content in Canvas
Now that the course is built it's time to start adding pages and inserting content, files, and even multimedia.

Module 6: Engaging Students With Canvas
Once the new Canvas user is comfortable creating pages to share information with the online learner it's time to step it up a notch and start making activities that will allow your students to create and share.  First we will cover Discussions where users can share ideas and converse at their own time and pace.  Then we will dive into Assignments where Canvas users can start uploading file, images, weblinks, and more to turn in for quick and easy paperless grading.  In the next session more training with Assignments and Graded Discussions will cover how to connect these activities with Outcomes and Rubrics.

Module 7: Assessing Student Learning With Canvas
Feedback is key when assessing student learning, and Canvas let's you do it in real time with Speedgrader.  In this section of the course we will take new users step by step through Canvas Outcomes, Rubrics, and then demo the Speedgrader feature in Canvas.  For those schools and teachers using a "Mastery Based" program we can extend this portion of the course to cover the new "Learning Mastery Gradebook" feature in Canvas. Although many new Canvas users have already been introduced to Assignments and Discussions, we will also review these topics and show how to attach Outcomes and Rubrics to these activities.

Module 8: Canvas Quizzes & Surveys
No more paper. No more hours of grading. No more Scantron.  Canvas Quizzes virtually grade themselves allowing the teacher more time to teach while students get instant feedback.  This portion of the course can also be extended to show the steps necessary to using the Canvas Quiz Question Banks.

Module 9: Organizing Your Content In Canvas
Now that the new Canvas user is putting content online it's time to discuss the best ways to organize it for student access.  Here we will show a demo on how to give your course a simple and intuitive navigation system using Modules.  

Module 10: Gamification With Canvas
Learning Mastery, Badges, Like Buttons and More!  Let's take the impersonal and isolated experience of learning online and make it fun!

Next Steps with Canvas
By this time the Canvas user has explored almost all of the features of Canvas and is ready for more.  In this module we will add material to teach new features as they become available, links to tutorials, and information on running reports and administering a Canvas LMS instance.