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Canvas 104 ­ Collaboration and Analytics Announcements

From the Home page within your course, click on the New Announcement button on the right side. Once you create and save the announcement, it will reside in the Announcements section of the course and be listed in the Home page’s Recent Activity section. Students and faculty can also create announcements within student groups. In Group Navigation, click the Announcements link.

Add Announcement in Group Home Page

You can also add an announcement in the Group Home Page by clicking the Add New Announcement link.

Conversations (Inbox) The compose message icon creates a new window in the middle of your screen. You can send a message to one person, such as your instructor, or multiple people in your course. Note: Currently you cannot message users in multiple courses. In the Courses drop­down menu, select the course where you want to send your message. You can filter your courses by current favorite courses, more courses, concluded courses, and groups.

Add your recipient in the To field. You can type the recipient's name in the To field, or you can use the Course Roster.

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When you start typing an individual's name in the To field, Canvas will automatically populate matching names.

Send Message In the subject line field [1], enter a subject line for your message. If you are sending your message to multiple recipients, but you do not want each student to see who else was included in the message, click the Send individual messages checkbox [2]. If your message includes over 100 recipients, this checkbox will be selected by default. In the message field [3], type your message. All content is sent in plain text. Note that if you include a URL in your message, the URL will automatically become a clickable link after you send the message.

If you want to include an attachment or media file, click the attachment or media file icons [4]. When you are finished, click the Send button [5]. Student Groups: Groups are like a smaller version of your course and are used as a collaborative tool where students can work together on group projects and assignments. As an instructor, create groups to:

Set up student group configurations at the course level for assignments and in­class work, both graded and ungraded.

Facilitate semester­long projects so that students can communicate and iterate on documents together. Facilitate student­run study groups within courses or at the account level.

Within Groups, instructors can:

View all activity within all the groups within their course, including groups created by students View all created groups within the course Create a new group set and create subgroups automatically or manually Clone group sets Assign students to subgroups automatically or manually (see below) Assign group leaders to each group Allow students to sign up for their own groups Move students into different subgroups Create group collaborations

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Create Groups Automatically: 1. In Course Navigation, click the People link. 2. Click on + Group Set. 3. Name your new group by typing in the Group Set Name

field. Under Group Structure, select the Split students into ___ equal groups radio button.

4. Type the number of groups you want to create in the Split students into equal groups field [1].

5. If you want to automatically assign a student group leader, click the Automatically assign a student group leader checkbox [2].

6. To create the group set, click the Save button [3].

Note: Groups will be automatically named based on the group set name.

Create Groups Manually:

1. In Course Navigation, click the People link.

2. Click the View User Groups button or an existing group set.

3. Confirm you have created all the groups for this group set. If you need more groups, you can create additional groups manually.

4. In the Unassigned Students section, find the student you want to add to a group [1]. Click the student's name and drag it to the group [2]. You can also click the student name add icon and select the group name.

To move students to another group, expand the group and find the student you want to move. Click the student's name and drag it to another group.

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Discussions for Groups A group discussion assignment creates an identical discussion topic in each group category. When students reply to the discussion topic they do so within their group environment, which is linked to the course from which the assignment was created. Note: You will need to create group sets and groups before setting up a group discussion assignment.

1. In Course Navigation, click the Discussions link. 2. Click the Add Discussion button. 3. Create Group Discussion 4. Enter your topic title in the topic title field. 5. Use the Rich Content Editor to format your content. 6. Create a Group Discussion by clicking the This is a

Group Discussion checkbox. Note: If you want to make the Group Discussion graded, click the Graded checkbox [4]. Even though this is a group

discussion, student submissions will be graded individually.

Set Group Set

Click the Group Set drop­down menu to select which group should complete the group assignment. Note: You will need to create group sets and groups before setting up a group discussion assignment. If you select New Group Category in the drop­down menu, Canvas will generate the New Group Set dialog to create a group.

5. Save and Publish

If you are ready to publish your discussion, click the Save & Publish button [1]. If you want to create a draft of your discussion and publish it later, click the Save button [2].

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View Discussion View the discussion. A Teacher or TA will see links to each group. Click the group name to open the group discussion and view replies to the topic.

Student View of Discussion When students open the discussion, they will be taken to the Discussions page within their specified project group to complete the assignment. Chat The Chat tool in Canvas allows students and teachers to interact in real time.

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View Course Chat Chat is a course tool that is available to all students in the course. Chats cannot be limited to specific students. Instructors can use the chat tool to allow students to contact them when online, create virtual office hours, conduct group discussions

or study sessions. All users in the course can also access the chat history. Note: Chat comments cannot be deleted. To use Chat:

1. Click on Chat from the course navigation. If you don’t see Chat, be sure to enable it by clicking on the course Settings button, going to Navigation and enable the Chat feature there.

2. When you enter the chat room, you immediately join the chat. Chat discussion appears in the content window.

View Sidebar In the sidebar, you can view the names of course users in the chat [1]. A user must be actively viewing the chat tool to appear in the list. (If you want to participate in Chat but want to perform other tasks in Canvas at the same time, you can open Chat in a new window.) If you want Chat to create a sound alert when a new chat message appears, click the New Message Alert checkbox [2]. If you want to view the chat history, click the History link [3]. The history will open in a new window. 3. Send Chat

To send a chat message, enter your message in the chat window. Then click the Send button.

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Conferences (Big Blue Button) Conferences are primarily used for virtual lectures, virtual office hours, and student groups. They can also be used to demonstrate technologies or troubleshoot technology issues online.

View Conferences Conferences makes it easy to conduct synchronous (real­time) lectures for all of the students in your course. Conferences allows you to broadcast real­time audio, video, demo applications on your desktop, share presentation slides, or demo any online resources. Currently, Canvas integrates with BigBlueButton. Note: BigBlueButton can accommodate approximately 50 users in a conference at one time. A conference will remain active on Big Blue Button as long as one person is part of the conference room. When the last person leaves, the conference will conclude and all files and chats will be removed.

When would I use Conferences? Use Conferences to:

Connect with your students for online office hours or special study sessions designed to help them prepare for a test.

Connect with your colleagues for professional development webinars. Practice presenting online. Students can set up practice presentations in their student Groups. Invite special guests to your classroom by adding them as a student or observer to your course. Broadcast a live event or lecture to the students that can't be onsite. You can also record your conferences so students can view them at a later date.

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How do I use the Conference Index Page?

Conferences are grouped in two parts: New Conferences [1] and Concluded Conferences [2]. Both always display the name [3] and the description [4] of the conference.

Note: Students can only view conferences to which they have been invited.

New Conferences: New Conferences are either ready to start [1], or in progress [2] where invited participants can join. Note: Students cannot join a conference until you have started it.

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Concluded Conferences:

Once a conference has ended, it will be displayed in Concluded conferences. Concluded conferences show the date of the conference [1]. Canvas will display the length of the conference [2]. The length of the conference is indicated in hours:minutes (e.g. 0:18 is 18 minutes). The View button will not appear until the conference has been rendered for playback. Depending on the length of your conference, this process may take several hours [3]. Note: Recordings are automatically deleted 14 days after the conference ends. Video tutorial (Big Blue Button): https://youtu.be/J9mbw00P9W0 Analytics Analytics evaluate individual components of a course and evaluate student performance. Course Analytics takes a three pronged approach to creating substantive data for Canvas users.

Justification focuses on system reports and how the system is being used. Intervention looks to predict at­risk students and how to meet their needs. Learning focuses on learning outcomes, the effectiveness of the teaching style, and the division of time

between students achieving competence and those falling behind. In Course Analytics, there are four main sections:

1. Activity allows the instructor to see when students view a page or participate in the course. 2. Submissions allows the instructor to view if students submit the assignment on­time, late, or not at all. 3. Grades use a box and whisker plot to show the distribution of grades in the course. 4. Student Analytics shows page view, participations, assignments, and current score for every student

in the course. To view your Course Analytics, go to your course Home page. Click on the Course Analytics button on the right side. The following user actions will generate analytics course participation:

loads a collaboration to view/edit a document joins a web conference posts a new comment to a discussion

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creates a wiki page submits a quiz (student) starts taking a quiz (student) submits an assignment (student) update a calendar event's settings or description (instructor) updates an assignment's settings or description (instructor)

View Submissions Analytics

Each bar is an assignment. To view the grade details, hover over the bar. The details include the assignment title, the due date (if there is one) and the percentage of late and on time submissions. The green segment indicates how many students submitted the assignment on time. The yellow segment indicates how many students submitted the assignment late/past due. The red segment indicates how many students have not submitted the Assignment. Note: The bars will only extend to the edge of the graph, even if there is an assignment or quiz that extends beyond the calendar. There will be a note above the graph explaining there are assignments outside of the course start and end dates.

View Grades Analytics

Each bar is one assignment. Grades Analytics shows the instructor the median and highs and lows of the scores for an Assignment. To view the grade details, hover over the bar. It will give you the high, median, and low score, as well as the points possible for the assignment. The thin whisker extends from the lowest score to the highest score. The thicker bar extends from the 25th to 75th percentile, with the median marked.

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View Overview of Student Analytics

The overview of the student Analytics allows the instructor to see all the students [1] in the course plus how many page views [2] they have, how much they have participated [3] in the course activities, whether or not they have submitted assignments [4], and their current score percentage [5]. The analytics table is paginated so you can view more students if you continue to scroll on the page. Student Analytics show you how well a particular student is doing in your course. To view analytics for a student, click the student's name. Quiz Statistics You can view quiz statistics for quizzes that have been published and have at least one submission. You can also download comma separate value (CSV) files to view Student Analysis or Item Analysis for each quiz question. For more detailed information about item analysis limitations and calculations, please refer to the Item Analysis PDF. For optimum course performance in the Canvas interface, quiz statistics are only valid for quizzes under 100 questions or 1000 attempts. For instance, a quiz with 200 questions will not generate quiz statistics. However, a quiz with 75 questions will generate quiz statistics until the quiz has reached 1000 attempts. Results greater than these maximum values can be viewed by downloading the Student Analysis report and viewing the CSV file. Results greater than these maximum values can be viewed by downloading the Student Analysis report and viewing the CSV file.

1. In Course Navigation, click the Quizzes link. 2. Click the title of the quiz you want to open. 3. Click the Quiz Statistics link.

Note: Quiz Statistics will not be available until at least one student has completed the quiz.

View Statistics By default, the quiz summary shows statistics for all sections including the quiz average score, high score, low score, standard deviation (how far the values are spread across the entire score range), and average time of quiz completion. To view quiz statistics for a section, click the Section Filter drop­down menu. The quiz summary chart is interactive; users can focus on a specific segment of the chart by selecting a range with their cursor, such as viewing the number of students who scored between 0 and 50 percent.

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If a student had multiple assignment attempts, you can view past attempts in SpeedGrader. Quiz stats will only display the kept score for the student (highest score or latest score).

View Question Breakdown You can view a breakdown of each question in the quiz. Toggle the expand button to expand or collapse all details for all quiz questions.

View Expanded Question Breakdown Each question displays answer bars relating to the percentage of each answer choice. You can hover over the answer bars to see the percentage and number of students in the tooltip. Expanding the question shows the exact percentage of each answer below the answer bars with the exact answer choices from your students. You can also click the respondents link to view the names of the students who chose each specific answer.

View Discrimination Index Quiz statistics for True/False and Multiple Choice quiz questions include an item discrimination index, which attempts to look at a spread of scores and reflect differences in student achievement. This metric provides a measure of how well a single question can tell the difference (or discriminate) between students who do well on an exam and those who do not. It divides students into three groups based on their score on the whole quiz and displays those groups by who answered the question correctly. Lower discrimination scores (in red) are scored +0.24 or lower; good scores (green) are +0.25 or higher. An ideal discrimination index shows students who scored higher on the quiz getting the quiz question right, students who scored lower on the quiz getting the quiz question wrong, and students in the middle range on either side. A discrimination index of zero shows all students getting the quiz question right or wrong. View Distribution Scaling Quiz statistics for Fill­in­Multiple Blanks, Multiple Dropdowns (often used for Likert Scale questions), and Matching questions are animated to distinguish between answer choices. When each answer is selected, the bars in the answer distribution chart are scaled according to the answer response. More Resources: Managing Your Online Class: http://facdev.e­education.psu.edu/teach/manage For Students ­ Communication in Canvas: https://community.canvaslms.com/videos/1127 References: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC­4131 Much of the content in this handout was adapted from the Canvas Doc Team’s Canvas Guides