During our long stretch of remote teaching, we have tried a
number of tools and strategies to continue to teach inspiring and
transformational classes. Some of us have recorded our lectures and
posted them using AggieVideo, and most of us have depended upon Zoom for
synchronous lessons. But no matter what strategies we have used to
connect with students or augment our captured lectures, all of us
continue to depend upon UC Davis Canvas, our learning management system,
to teach effectively at UC Davis.
For the November 19th noon Faculty Forum,
we highlighted ways we have taught effectively and innovatively with
Canvas. Because these forums are purposefully unstructured, we invited all
attendees to come with Canvas tool innovation or discovery stories to
share, and the conversation unfolded from there.
In preparation for this forum, or to reflect on their own teaching, faculty were invited to consider answering some of these questions:
- How does the organization of my Canvas site reflect my
goals for the class? What design principles do I keep in mind? Do I use
Modules? Pages? Files?
- How do my students use Canvas to interact with each other, either in response to an assignment or independently of me?
- How do (or might) ungraded surveys help my students express
their hopes or concerns regarding my class? How and how often do I take
the pulse of my students, and thus shape lessons or review sessions to
target their areas of concern or enthusiasm?
- When teaching synchronously or face to face, do I use slide
decks? When and how do I make such slide decks available to my students?
To what extent do my strategies concerning posting course content
affect attendance and participation in my classes?
- How do I use media? Are the images, audio, and video that I
share created by me, adapted from the work of colleagues, or found on
the web, thus perhaps taking advantage of my students’ love of topical
media, such as memes and New Yorker cartoons?
