Weekly Canvas Tidbit
Sara Shaffer - KCS Canvas Lead Team
Hello all! As most of you know, I'm the D-B EXCEL representative for the district's Canvas Lead Team. Part of my responsibility is to train each of you on how to use Canvas effectively in your classroom. We will have time during our Professional Learning on Fridays but I thought it would be great to send you a weekly tidbit to introduce you to one element of Canvas at a time. Then, we can cover more information during whole group of Fridays. Please let me know if you have any questions about Canvas or any of the information I send out in the weekly tidbits.
Calendar & Scheduler
This week our tidbit focuses on the Calendar and Scheduler in Canvas. We have been discussing our schedule for the new facility as well as student planners so I thought it would be beneficial to learn about these great features in Canvas.
Within the calendar instructors and students can keep track of assignments, grades, syllabus items, quizzes, etc. All of these items are automatically synced with the course calendar when they are added to the course.
Another great feature within the calendar is the scheduler. Scheduler is a calendar tool that creates appointment groups within a course or group. The scheduler can be used for students to sign up for times to meet with instructors (similar to office hours). Students can see what times the instructor is available, sign up for a time slot, then it will appear on the calendars. This will also cut down on back and forth communication when trying to schedule a meeting or conference with a student. I think this feature will be very beneficial to us with our flexible scheduling and giving students the opportunity to approach us for help in a more efficient way.
Below I have included some tutorial videos for the calendar and scheduler features. First is the calendar overview for the instructor, then an overview of the scheduler, and last is the calendar from the student prospective.
Within the calendar instructors and students can keep track of assignments, grades, syllabus items, quizzes, etc. All of these items are automatically synced with the course calendar when they are added to the course.
Helpful tips about the calendar:
- The Calendar is used for reminding students of graded Assignments with specific due dates. To provide students with detailed descriptions of how synchronous class time will be used, consider using Pages or customizing the Course Home Page.
- The Calendar automatically syncs with other features in Canvas, such as Assignments, Syllabus, and Grades, so if you create, change, or delete the due date of an Assignment on the Calendar, it will show up in all the others and vice versa. You can change dates easily by dragging and dropping assignments from one date to another.
- The Calendar in Canvas is a global feature, meaning you can see all of your assignments from all of your courses in one place. If your Calendar becomes too crowded, you can filter the number of events listed on your Calendar by selecting or deselecting courses in the Sidebar.
- The Calendar is designed to display up to 10 calendars at any given time. To help manage user calendars, courses customized in the courses drop-down menu as a favorite course will always be listed at the top of the user’s calendar list in the calendar sidebar.
Another great feature within the calendar is the scheduler. Scheduler is a calendar tool that creates appointment groups within a course or group. The scheduler can be used for students to sign up for times to meet with instructors (similar to office hours). Students can see what times the instructor is available, sign up for a time slot, then it will appear on the calendars. This will also cut down on back and forth communication when trying to schedule a meeting or conference with a student. I think this feature will be very beneficial to us with our flexible scheduling and giving students the opportunity to approach us for help in a more efficient way.
Instructors can use Scheduler to:
- Create office hours
- Schedule TA sessions
- Schedule lunches
- Assign presentation times
- Host Student-Teacher conferences (students could also bring a parent or guardian)
- Host other appointments
Below I have included some tutorial videos for the calendar and scheduler features. First is the calendar overview for the instructor, then an overview of the scheduler, and last is the calendar from the student prospective.
528 - Calendar Overview
Using Scheduler in Canvas Calendar
221 - Calendar
Do you have suggestions for topics covered in the Canvas Tidbits?
If so, there is a discussion board in our DBE Canvas course where you can leave suggestions for topics covered or you can email me your suggestions!
Need Help?
Anytime that you have a question, concern, or problem with Canvas they are there to help! We have Canvas support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! Simply click the "Help" button from the menu going down the left hand side of the screen. From there you can choose from the following help options:
1.) Chat with a Canvas representative
2.) Call their help hotline
3.) Search the Canvas guides
4.) Report a problem
5.) Ask the Canvas community
6.) Submit a feature idea
Take advantage of this wonderful resource!
1.) Chat with a Canvas representative
2.) Call their help hotline
3.) Search the Canvas guides
4.) Report a problem
5.) Ask the Canvas community
6.) Submit a feature idea
Take advantage of this wonderful resource!
Ms. Shaffer
Email: sshaffer@k12k.com
Website: www.dbexcel.k12k.com
Location: DB-EXCEL, Myrtle Street, Kingsport, TN, United States
Phone: 423-378-2185
Twitter: @Shaffer_DBEXCEL