The theme of this year’s Institute – Learning Together, Wherever – highlights our focus on using the tools of our LMS to facilitate active learning for our students wherever they, or we, may be.
What this self-paced, facilitated online training includes:
Who can do it and When
The course will be open in Canvas from May 11th – June 26th and all faculty are encouraged to participate. Participants can do the full training for a certificate of completion, take part in the Summer Institute Competition for prizes, or complete only the parts of the course they choose.
No pre-registration is required. A link for self-enrollment will be emailed to all faculty on Monday, May 11th. Participants can begin the course at any time during the training period. The entire course has an estimated completion time of 8-10 hours.
Use this link to self-enroll at any time: https://albright.instructure.com/enroll/RWJWRY
Getting started with Canvas is easy with our one-hour Quickstart webinar. Please sign up for a date and time using the QuickStart to Canvas Form.
Then, use the directions in Canvas 101 to retrieve from Moodle any materials and gradebooks you may need to keep for future use.
Albright will transition from Moodle (our current learning management system) to Canvas in May 2020. Designed by students and teachers to be easy to learn and use, Canvas will give us a lot of new features to enhance student success.
We know faculty will have questions as the transition progresses. We’ll answer as many of them here as we can. If there’s something you want to know about Canvas, send your question to TeamCanvas@albright.edu.
Q: When are we moving to Canvas?Traditional day classes starting in Summer I and later will be offered in Canvas. In our School of Professional Studies, classes with a start date in May or later will be in Canvas. Access to Moodle will end on May 25th. Please complete faculty training so you will be ready for Canvas.
Q: Who’s guiding the transition?The Canvas Implementation Team is co-chaired by Laura DePue, Director of Teaching and Learning, and Lennie Amores, Assistant Professor of Spanish. Members include Nick Wernicki, Dean of SPS, Dorothy Hoerr and Karen Rodgers, LMS Administrators, and faculty Wendy Bartkus, Soma Ghosh, Elizabeth Kiester, Mark Lomanno, Stephen Mech, and Lawrence Morris.
Q: How is Canvas different from Moodle?The main differences are organization and speed. In Canvas, courses are organized into Modules, not weeks. This makes it easier for students to navigate to exactly the content they need. Canvas is also faster for faculty to use. You’ll find it’s fast and easy to set up a course or make changes.
Q: How do I access Canvas?On the Albright website, go to the Faculty/Staff tab. In the left column, you’ll see Canvas in the alphabetical list of links.
Q: When and how will faculty get Canvas training?Training starts with a one-hour webinar called Canvas Quickstart. Please sign up for a date and time using the QuickStart to Canvas Form. Once you have completed the training, you will be enrolled in Canvas 101: Getting up to Speed, a supplement to the training with the resources you need to move over your content from Moodle and build in Canvas.
Q: When will students be told about Canvas?The first students using Canvas in the School of Professional Studies have already received communications from DSI and their instructors. All SPS students will be notified by the end of May. Traditional day students will receive emails before the spring semester ends telling them about the transition to Canvas and advising them to download any needed materials out of Moodle.
Q: How will students receive Canvas training?A student training course called How to Use Canvas is currently available to SPS students. It will be rolled out to students in summer classes in the coming weeks. Later in the summer, it will be made available to all students, current and incoming.
Q: When will the first classes be taught in Canvas?Several classes in the School of Professional Studies will begin in Canvas in May. All Summer I classes and beyond will be in Canvas.
Q: How will I access my course evaluation results?Our course evaluation system, Evaluation Kit, is a free-standing platform. You’ll continue to access it from Moodle until May 25th. After that, you’ll access it from Canvas. Nothing will change in the evaluation system: you’ll just get to it from a different place.
Q: Will Kaltura videos, H5P activities, and online textbooks I have in my Moodle course work in Canvas?They will. Any of those features in your Moodle course will work just the same in Canvas.
Q: Will quizzes and question banks move to Canvas?Any quizzes or question banks in Moodle will come over to Canvas just fine. The quizzes will be the same as they were in Moodle; all the questions in the quiz banks will be available.
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Progress Highlights from Team CanvasJan 6 – the Canvas Implementation Team met for the first time and established our framework for the transition: Run. Grow. Transform. Jan 24 – communication group sent first Canvas Express to all faculty Jan 27 – we were introduced to our Customer Success Manager at Canvas Feb 3 – team leadership met with our Canvas Project Consultant to establish timelines and procedures Feb 19 – team members completed their Canvas Quickstart I training Mar 2 – training for faculty teaching in the summer began Mar 17 – Canvas course template completed; training for all faculty began May 7 – Canvas training opened for students in the School of Professional Studies |
