THIS IS NOT THE CURRENT EDITION OF THE OAT UPDATE
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New Announcements
Reminders
Browse all OAT Updates
New Announcements
Update to Canvas "New Quizzes" Time Line
As previously announced by OAT and Instructure, June 1, 2024 had been set as the deadline by which all Canvas quizzes must use the New Quizzes "engine". However, in light of the continuing challenges getting the new quiz tool up to parity with the existing Classic quizzes, and also adding the promised new features, Instructure has announced they are no longer enforcing any firm time line regarding New/Classic quizzes. Instead, a formal "end of life" has been eliminated completely from the status of Classic quizzes, and the tool will remain available from Instructure, alongside New Quizzes.
What this means for Stan State
New Quizzes is currently available as a choice in our system whenever a quiz/test/exam is created (see figure, right). Moreover, some faculty are choosing to use New Quizzes currently because it meets their needs. It was enabled in January 2021 back when all clients were expected to transition at some point. Using New Quizzes is not a requirement; nor will it be a requirement in the foreseeable future.
Given the various engineering and usability issues that still exist with New Quizzes, OAT's strong recommendation is to choose the Classic quizzes engine, especially for new Canvas instructors. This can even be set as a course preference from the Quiz Engine dialog screen.
That said, OAT has no plans to disable New Quizzes as an option for those who want to continue using it. Any such decision about the availability of either quiz engine would need to involve discussion with relevant stakeholders, such as the Academic Technology and Learning Committee.
User support for New Quizzes also definitely exists. As usual, simply contact oatsupport@csustan.edu or open a chat/phone support session with Canvas from the Help menu.
More information about New Quizzes
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"Yep, there's a tool for that!": Tech Tool Overview December 7
Prepping Winter and Spring courses? Join OAT staff on Wed., Dec. 7 from 2:00-3:30 pm as we introduce (or maybe reintroduce) you to a variety of tech tools that are available to meet your pedagogical needs, regardless of course modality.
The workshop will include brief overviews of tools in the these categories, followed by a Q&A session.
1. Recorded Lectures
- Zoom + Panopto - Hold a meeting of one with a PPT slide deck and record to the Zoom cloud. Cloud recording is automatically transferred to Panopto where it can be trimmed and the link added or embedded anywhere in Canvas.
- Panopto - Edit your lecture video to add quiz questions throughout to reinforce student understanding of content (graded or ungraded).
- VoiceThread - Build a multi-slide, multi-media lecture with voice or video commentary. Students record questions or comments on any slide or can even be allowed to add slides.
2. Collaborations
- Hypothes.is - Annotate course readings socially. Provide question prompts around specific passages to gather responses or let students highlight/annotate their own interests.
- Padlet - Create a "board" that everyone adds a virtual note to. Highly visual. Good for brainstorming or reporting results of an activity.
3. Presentations
- Discussions Plus - Students create a thread within a discussion topic that can contain text, videos, images, etc. Threads organized in a gallery view. Posts and replies can have separate due dates to track progress. Gradable in Canvas.
- Folio - Students create a repository/portfolio of assignment files to showcase their growth over the semester. Folios can receive text comments from others.
- GoReact - Students create and upload a video of their presentation and receive detailed feedback via a custom marker library.
- VoiceThread - Students build a presentation shell and add videos and images to each slide, and record audio or video comments solo or in groups. Presentations can be made available in a class "gallery" for peer feedback via voice or video.
Register to Attend
Register for the meeting to receive automatic reminders and the meeting recording, even if you can't attend!
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Reminders
Hypothes.is + JSTOR
OAT recently enabled the direct JSTOR connection inside Hypothes.is. Now, when creating a social annotation activity, instructors can chose to link directly to the stable URL of any article in JSTOR. This step eliminates the need to figure out how to download and host the PDF yourself - just keep the article in JSTOR and let Hypothes.is do the rest!
What is Hypothes.is? Review the training and faculty panel held Oct. 5 for more information.
Step 1: Find the article in JSTOR and copy the "Stable URL"
Locate your article as usual. Open the article and locate the "Stable URL" shown on the lower left side of the page (indicated). Copy the URL (ctrl-C).
Step 2: Choose JSTOR in the Hypothes.is settings
Next, create a new Hypothes.is activity in Canvas (whether as an ungraded item in a module or as an assignment) and select JSTOR as the source for the document your students will be annotating.
Step 3: Insert Stable URL
Finally, paste the Stable URL you acquired in Step 1 into the box and click the "proceed" arrow to the right. This will generate a preview of the article, and from there you can continue with the rest of the assignment configuration.
Have questions about this or anything else related to Hypothes.is? Contact Glenn Pillsbury for help.
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Canvas: Create Non-Academic Course Shells
Instructors in Canvas now have the ability to create their own non-academic course shells for conducting university business. These shells typically are for departments or programs that need to use some of the features of Canvas to organize and share materials. While students can be added as users to these shells, the shells are not to be used for any kind of academic work by students by replacing or attempting to augment existing official course shells. Students cannot create shells.
To create a non-academic Canvas shell, open your Dashboard and click the button on the right to "Start a new course". Type a name for the course and it will be ready instantly. There is no need for any additional configuration or approval before it can be used. These shells are not actively monitored by OAT.
If you have questions about this new feature, please contact oatsupport@csustan.edu.
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Canvas: Removing Previous Instructors from Rosters
Has your teaching assignment changed? If you are no longer listed as the instructor or a course or section in PeopleSoft, please contact oatsupport@csustan.edu and ask to be removed from the Canvas roster for the prior course. Currently, changes to the instructor-of-record field in PeopleSoft are not automatically reflected in Canvas so that any previously assigned instructors are removed from the course roster (only added). Remaining on the previous roster when courses begin means you'll receive notifications about the course, and students may also be confused about whom to contact.
Removing you from a previous course is very easy to do, but it must be requested first!
OAT and OIT have begun working on a solution to automate these removals, but there is no ETA for delivery at this time.
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Ed Tech Tool Spotlight: VoiceThread
An ed tech fixture on campus since 2012, VoiceThread has helped make online classes more engaging and humanized. Part discussion board, part presentation tool, VoiceThread enables students and instructors to display media files and talk about them. In Spring 2022, users spent almost 75,000 hours with the tool and recorded almost 49,000 comments!
Read more about VoiceThread at Stan State.
What is a VoiceThread?
A VoiceThread is a collection of slides (akin to a PowerPoint file), with each slide holding some kind of content, such as an image, or a series of pages from a PDF file, or a video file. Interaction comes in the form of voice and video comments that users record in the margins of each slide of the VoiceThread. While recording, users can also annotate/doodle on the slide to emphasize what they're talking about.
How can VoiceThread be used in a course?
Here are some common ways instructors have incorporated VoiceThread into their pedagogy.
From simpler to more complex:
- Course icebreaker activity: Students introduce themselves to the class using voice or video.
- Syllabus overview: Instructor records a page-by-page overview of the course syllabus. Students are encouraged to ask questions via the commenting tool.
- Weekly lecture: Instructor designs a VoiceThread with slides and other media as part of course lecture. Students are encouraged to ask questions on any slide via the commenting tool.
- Class discussion: Instructor offers 3-4 discussion prompts in a VoiceThread (one slide for each prompt). Students record posts and replies on the slide of their choosing.
- Feedback on student submissions: Instructor assigns students to create a VoiceThread and upload a writing assignment file as the slide content. Instructor records voice comments and annotates each slide/page.
- Individual presentation gallery: In fully online courses, instructor assigns students to design and deliver a culminating presentation using VoiceThread. Final slide contains a discussion prompt related to the topic created by the student. All students then peruse the 'gallery' of class presentations and respond to the prompt slides.
- Group presentations: Student groups collaborate on the creation of a common VoiceThread. The link to the group VoiceThread is submitted into a Canvas assignment and also shared in a standard Canvas discussion forum. All students then peruse the links and watch the presentations.
Can VoiceThreads be graded in Canvas?
Yes! VoiceThread is an External Tool that can be connected to a Canvas assignment. Once initiated in Canvas, there are three assignment types that VoiceThread offers.
- Watching: students must watch a VoiceThread and all comments. This is automatically graded upon completion.
- Commenting: students must make a minimum number of comments in a VoiceThread. These are manually reviewed by the instructor and assigned a grade.
- Creating: students upload materials to build their own VoiceThread. Optionally, these VTs can be shared in a gallery viewable by the whole class. These are manually reviewed and assigned a grade.
Contact Glenn Pillsbury to learn more about Voicethread!
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2022-23 Faculty Ambassadors for Canvas
This year, OAT is again sponsoring the FAC program, which makes experienced Canvas instructors available to each college, as a supplement to OAT staff. Instructors may find it more helpful to work with other instructors in their general discipline on questions related to Canvas, and are encouraged to contact these individuals.
2022-23 Ambassadors
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Accessible PDFs
Supercharge accessibility scores for your Canvas courses!
Now that the Fall semester is rapidly approaching, now is the perfect time to have our Document Remediation team make your PDF files accessible.
- Were your PDFs created by scanning printed pages?
- Is the image quality of your PDFs less than ideal? (e.g., skewed pages, handwritten notes)
- Is the PDF your only copy of the content?
If your answer is yes to any of the above questions, the PDFs are a perfect fit to submit to our Document Remediation team.
- Submit a document remediation work order: Select "Accessibility Work Request" in the Request Type drop-down menu, and "Make my document accessible for me" in the Service Type section
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