Showcase Courses

Listed below are a few selected courses that successfully make use of various Canvas features to facilitate teaching and learning. They also serve as examples of a few different ways that a Canvas course can be organized. Click on the course title link, and log-in with your CNetID and password to view these sample showcase courses as a student.
Polsky Center logo

Polsky Center I-Corps Program (Fall 2016)

Instructors

  • Starr Marcello, Executive Director, Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
  • Meghan Kinney, Associate Director, Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation

About the Course

In the Polsky Center I-Corps Program, students learn how to test the commercial potential of their research and ideas. Students work in teams throughout the quarter: they attend 4 workshop sessions, which consist of lectures, team presentations, and guest speakers; they complete individual and group homework assignments; and they conduct and record interviews with industry experts and potential “customers.”

 

Notable Course Characteristics

  • Notice how clearly the modules page delineate what needs to be done by whom (individual or group) and when for each workshop. The consistency of organization makes it easy for students to find course material and assignments.
  • The course navigation includes only the necessary items. It is clear where one should go to find the information they need. Limiting the number of navigational choices means students spend less time choosing navigational items, make fewer trial-by-error attempts, and get to the course content faster.
  • The course heavily uses Google docs, spreadsheets, and other document templates for collaborative work. Canvas’s interface makes it very easy to link to these files with a few clicks.
  • The Canvas group workspace has a built-in file repository that allows group members to share files easily, without the need for instructors to set up external file sharing services and provision access.

Canvas Features Used

  • Announcements: Communicate easily with students
  • Assignments: Where students see the requirements of the assignments and “hand-in” their homework
  • Gradebook: Instructor keeps track of student progress and grades
  • Groups: A workspace for group members to collaborate, share files, and discuss topics
  • Modules: Repository of course materials organized by workshop session
  • Syllabus: Display course syllabus and list of assignments due dates

Quotes

  • Meghan Kinney, instructor, “Canvas is an incredible tool because it helps us stay organized and keep our students on track. It’s so nice to have everything in one place.”
  • Student, “This is such an easy interface to learn, and the course makes so much sense when I read the syllabus and look through the modules.”

Greek 10100 (Autumn 2015) Introduction to Attic Greek -1

Instructor

Kate Agnew, Graduate Student, Department of Classics

About the Course

Introduction to Attic Greek-1 is the first quarter of the introductory level ancient-Greek language sequence. By the end of the year-long sequence, students are expected to have a confident knowledge of standard Attic Greek, experience reading ancient texts of various different kinds, and some familiarity with the scholarly tools that will help them continue to improve their understanding of Greek. The class meets 3 times a week. Students are evaluated according to their participation, homework, weekly quizzes, midterm, and final exam grades.

 

Notable Course Characteristics

  • Good use of the Syllabus page, which tabulates class topics, all assignments and quizzes by due dates – a handy list for students.
  • Students can participate in an extra-credit grammar wiki using content Pages: students writes a grammar review page on a particular grammatical topic (e.g. articles, first declension nouns) for mid-term review to earn extra credit. Students sign up to do a topic, instructor create content page that allows student to edit, student write content, and instructor reviews.  Pages make use of tables, colored text, and the Greek alphabet.
  • Canvas supports many different languages. Instructors and students can simply type the language they are using into the Canvas interface, so long as their keyboard/input settings are set to the appropriate languages.

Canvas Features Used

  • Announcements: Communicate easily with students
  • Assignments:  List of everything students need to complete (from attendance to reading to grammar exercises to quizzes, midterm and final exam) by due date.
  • Course Calendar: Instructor entered each class meeting with a concise list class meeting topics (Class: Quiz 1, adjectives, adverbs) into the course calendar so that they are included in the Assignments Summary section on the Syllabus page and also appears on students’ course calendars — one stop agenda view to find out what to study when.
  • Discussion board: There’s one discussion board for each homework exercise for students to peer-review/discuss translations.
  • Gradebook:  Instructor and students keep track of progress and grades. Students can even project their final grades using Canvas’ What-If Grades feature.
  • Pages: Course home page links to the Grammar Wiki pages for easy access.
  • Syllabus: Display course syllabus and list of assignments due dates.
Apollo and black bird, from a tomb in Delphi. Archaeological Museum of Delphi, Inv. 8140, room XII. (Wikipedia Commons)
CoEDTA anion 3D from Wikipedia

Chem 10100 Introductory General Chemistry I*(Fall 2016)

Instructors

Dr. Britni Ratliff, Collaborative Learning in Chemistry (CLiC) Director, Senior Lecturer, and Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies, Department of Chemistry

About the Course

Introduction to General Chemistry-I is the first quarter of the introductory level General Chemistry sequence. The sequence is a systematic introduction to chemistry for beginning students in chemistry or for those whose exposure to the subject has been moderate. Apart from one discussion session per week and a laboratory component, special emphasis on scientific problem-solving skills is made through two additional structured learning sessions per week devoted to quantitative reasoning.

The Autumn 2016 course is an example of a flipped-classroom course, where students watch instructional videos and answer in-video questions before attending Monday, Wednesday, and Friday-sessions, where they practice problem-solving skills in pairs with Dr. Ratliff. On Tuesday and Thursday-sessions, students work on problems sets in small groups with their TAs.

After completing Chem 101 and Chem 102, students will join other general chemistry students in Chemistry 11300 – the third quarter sequence of Comprehensive General Chemistry.

Notable Course Characteristics

  • The module pages clearly delineate what needs to be done each week–videos, class problems, and problem set (homework)–in reverse chronological order. Dr. Ratliff releases modules a few days ahead of each week and the reverse chronological order reduces the amount students need to scroll before getting to the relevant course material. The consistency of organization using headings makes it easy for students to find course material and assignments.
  • Lecture videos are organized into topics for each class meetings. They are embedded into Content Pages so that students know how many videos and in what sequence they should watch them without needing to leave Canvas.
  • Lecture videos have strategically placed “in-video” quiz questions to help students check their understanding.
  • The course navigation includes only the necessary items. It is clear where one should go to find the information they need. Limiting the number of navigational choices means students spend less time choosing navigational items, make fewer trial-by-error attempts, and get to the course content faster.

Canvas Features Used

  • Syllabus: Display course syllabus and list of assignments
  • Modules: Guide students through weekly course materials
  • Announcements: Communicate with students
  • Content Pages: Lecture videos for each class meetings are embedded onto a Content Page so that students can watch them in the proper sequence without having to leave Canvas.
  • Lecture Videos: In-video quiz questions help students reflect and assess their understanding of the content.

*Note: Problem sets, answer keys, and other course material in this course have been replaced. But you will still be able to see how Dr. Ratliff structured the course.