Week 6 Blog - Thoughts on creating on Canvas

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Prompt: What has gone well? What has challenged you? What feedback have you received? What feedback have you given? What have you learned from the process of developing instruction in an LMS?

Developing a whole course online, using the LMS Canvas has been something I have been doing a lot of lately.  My district just recently  switched from no required LMS, to Canvas.  Now everybody has to have their courses created and put through the Canvas LMS.  

It was a very large learning curve at first, even though I thought it wouldn't be for me as I had been using google classroom much more than most of peers were.  I thought I already had the whole online class creation thing down, but I struggled at first.  The biggest process for me was creating something in Canvas that made my life easier at once it was done.  Creating an assignment is simple, but creating an assignment that has built in reteach moments, and grading was something I had to learn how to do. Watching videos and just playing with the LMS was the biggest help that I received.   

Most of the feedback and advice I have given to others over the course of creating things is mostly the KISS strategy.  Keep It Super Simple.  Having a clear path that the students will be able to recognize will help you in the long run.  Also it's been helpful to teach the students how you want them to learn, with using examples and videos to show them the expectations you have for the rigor of the class.  There is a lot more writing in my class now than there was in person, so building the expectation of what kind of writing I was looking for was helpful.  

Knowing the LMS better as a whole has been the most helpful thing in developing for it.  Knowing what it can do (like link grades, or upload things from blackboard into a test format) is very useful, but only once you know it's there.  I've very excited about the Big Blue Board on Canvas once that comes out and is proven to be a virtual meet up alternative.  

Developing in an LMS really has forced me to plan more before I really get in there and start working with things.  Knowing what I want to accomplish, and how to build it with-in the framework of the LMS, allows me to move faster and more succinctly when developing material for the course.  

I am really enjoying getting to know Canvas through this assignment.  Doing the whole course like this gives me an idea of when I am repeating too many similar type of assignments.  I want to be able to vary them up more and give my students different ways to prove mastery of a subject.   

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