Encourage Robust Online Discussions

Student discussion forums are a core element of your online course.  To enable a robust online asynchronous conversation, we recommend you "Allow threaded replies" when developing your discussions [as shown below] so students can interject their responses to each other at each step of the conversation.

Create a Discussion

Create your discussion by utilizing the following options:

1. Enter your topic title in the topic title field. 
2. Use the Rich Content Editor to format your content. 
3. Create a threaded replies by clicking on the Allow threaded replies checkbox. 
4. Save your Discussion.

View Threaded Discussions

By implementing Threaded Discussions you will see when a student replies to another student's reply. A blue dot [1] indicates a new reply, and a white dot [2] indicates an unread reply. Click the Gear icon [3] to select one of the following options in the drop-down menu:

• Click the Go To Topic link to return to discussion post or comment you replied to. 
• Click the Edit the reply link to edit your response. 
• Click the Delete the reply link to delete your response. 
• Note: Graded discussions will also include an Open in SpeedGrader link to grade the discussion replies.

View Collapsed Replies

By hovering over the reply, you can collapse all replies [1] and expand all replies [2] to make the Discussion easier to manage. Or you can collapse and expand a single thread by hovering over the thread [3]. Click the Reply link to reply to the main discussion [4]. You can also reply to any other post in the thread by clicking the reply arrow.


The details for these features have been sourced from Canvas’ User Guides. Please feel free to contact us (online@baypath.edu) for any questions you may have about using Canvas for your Bay Path class.

Viewing Embedded Media in your Canvas Classroom

Are you seeing media pop-up alerts when using Canvas? This may have something to do with your web browser settings. Canvas works with most web browsers; it works especially well with Chorme or Firefox. If you find that your are not able to view embedded media or web pages, if you are seeing pop-up alerts, or if you are attempting to use the media comments within your Canvas course and having troubles, you may need to do one of two things:

• switch the browser you are using -or-

• make some modifications to your browser security policy-as shown below.

Pop-up indications, while annoying, mean you may need to adjust your privacy settings.

Some embedded media may be viewed by your browser as "unsafe" or "unauthenticated". You might also need to make the following adjustments in your browser to view the media:

Chrome Security:

Google Chrome verifies that the website content you view is transmitted securely. If you visit a page in your Canvas course that is linked to insecure content, Chrome will display a shield icon in the browser address bar. You can choose to override the security restriction and display the content anyway by:

1. clicking the shield icon and then
2. clicking the Load unsafe script button.

Chrome Media Permissions:

Chrome has its own media permission within the browser. To use your computer camera and microphone within any Canvas feature, you might have to approve two permissions:

1. Allow access to Canvas via Adobe Flash Player Settings [1]. This prompt appears in the center of the video and audio pop-up windows, or the center of the browser if you are accessing Conversations.
2. Allow access to Canvas via Chrome's media permission settings [2]. This prompt appears just below the address bar. Click the Allow button.

Firefox Security:

Firefox verifies that the website content you view is transmitted securely. If you visit a page in your Canvas course that is linked to insecure content, Firefox will display a shield icon in the browser bar [1]. You can choose to override the security restriction and display the content anyway by clicking the shield icon, clicking the Keep Blocking drop-down menu [2], and selecting the Disable Protection on This Page option [3].

While they may be cumbersome at times, these browser settings are in place to protect your computer. By making these adjustments above, you will be able to select which sites are allowed to display content that is deemed "unauthenticated".

The details for understanding how Canvas works with different browsers have been sourced from Canvas' User Guides. Please feel free to contact Online Learning online@baypath.edu or call 413.565.6880 for any questions you may have about using Canvas for your Bay Path class.

Canvas course list unmanageable?

Now that we've been using Canvas for a couple years, chances are that you may have a rather long list of courses in your Canvas "My Courses" list.  You may have worked on past search committees, been part of a departmental group, or had a course development site created to allow you build course content outside of a "live" Canvas classroom. These Canvas sites may still be listed and may be making it hard to find your current courses quickly in the menu. Did you know that Canvas gives you some easy ways to manage your course list so that you only see the courses you want to see in your Courses menu?

When you hover your mouse pointer over the Courses menu at the top of the screen in Canvas, your My Courses list appears.  Note that there are a couple options here.  At the bottom of the list in the lower right is a "View all courses" link.  If you click on that link, you'll see a list of all the courses you have access to in Canvas, including course sites from previous semesters and any future courses that are in the system. They will be grouped with section headings - My Courses for current courses, Past Enrollments for past courses, and Future Enrollments for upcoming (unpublished) courses.  This link gives you access to see any of the courses you have had access to at any time since we started using Canvas.

Because you can go back and view all your courses through the "View all courses" area, it's a good idea to customize your My Courses list under the Courses menu so you only see the courses you need to access during a particular session or semester.  When viewing your My Courses list, click on "Customize" in the upper right and you'll see a list appear on the right (shown below).  You can check or uncheck them to select what appears in your My Courses list.  If you have access to a Canvas course that has been created for other purposes, such as a search committee or other group, you can uncheck those when they are no longer needed.  This gives you full control over what appears in your Courses menu, so you can set it up however you'd like and still be able to access any other courses through the "View all courses" link when you need them.

UPDATE! New Canvas Conversations available on 9/14!

Instructure has been working hard on improving the Canvas experience for us and the upcoming change to the "Conversations" tool is a testament to that fact!  The latest redesign aims to make it easier for students and faculty to communicate with each other within Canvas.

Please Note:  The new Conversations is an opt-in feature. To try the new Conversations after 9/14, click the question icon and select the Try New Conversations option.  You will be able to switch back to the old view using a similar process.

To learn more about the updates to the "Conversations" tool, including how to search and reply to important messages and compose new messages, check out Canvas' Beta Release Notes.  Remember, this new feature won't "go-live" until September 14th!

The details for these new features have been sourced from Canvas’ User Guides and Product Release Notes.  Please feel free to contact me (ptestori@baypath.edu) for any questions you may have about using Canvas for your Bay Path class.

It's that time of year again...

As we approach the start of a new academic year, I'm sure you're all thinking about your upcoming classes and possibly new ways to reach your students using technology.  Whether you're teaching online or on campus, there are many ways you can use technology to reach your students.  Here are some cool suggestions from an article from THE Journal.

Create a short video - The COL has consistently recommended that faculty record a welcome video for their online courses. Welcome videos can easily be recorded directly within Canvas or uploaded into Canvas if you use other software to create them.  These videos help students get to know you and what to expect from class.  But have you thought about having students create videos for class projects? Students can easily upload videos into Canvas, too, so it's very easy for them to submit their work. This is fun project that keeps students engaged in learning.

Podcasting - Creating podcasts is another way you can engage your students with multimedia technology. You can use them in your teaching, and you can have students produce their own podcasts.  If you're using iPads in your classroom, there are many apps to use for recording audio.

Creating Infographics - You've probably seen infographics online - we've shared a few here on this blog before...  Infographics are a great way to visually display information, often statistical data.  They can also be fun to create.  I created one for a recent conference presentation on orientations for online students using Piktochart, a site that provides limited free access and more sophisticated features for a fee.  Creating an infographic can be a great assignment for students - it's a fun way for them to be creative and display the results of their research.

Using screencasts to explain things - Screencasting is the term for recording what is on the screen of your computer and narrating it to make a video.  These videos are a great way to demonstrate how to do something on a computer.  Screencasts can be made with many free and low cost software applications.  I use Snagit for recording quick screencasts.  Snagit is inexpensive with educator pricing, and the company that makes it also has a free version with reduced functionality, Jing.  You can also record screencasts using Tegrity, a software solution supported by the ITS department. Contact them to get information about training and access to Tegrity.  Want to do screencasts on your iPad? EdTechTeacher has a great list of recommended screencasting apps. You can make screencasts to provide instructional content to your students, or you can ask your students to create and share their own screencasts.

As the new academic year approaches, remember that the COL is available to support online faculty and students in the use of Canvas and other instructional technologies for online education. Did you know that the Center for Online Learning is now part of Academic Affairs? This summer our team became part of the Division of Research and Academic Resources and we're looking forward to working with our new team to provide more exciting professional development opportunities and support services for all our online faculty! We are still located in the lower level of Deepwood Hall with the ITS department to allow us to work closely with the Tech Support Center team to ensure the best technology-related support for online faculty and students.  The new COL office space is amazing - if you haven't seen the newly renovated Technology Suite in the lower level of Deepwood, please stop by and visit us sometime! We look forward to seeing many of you back on campus soon!