Institute for Faculty Development

Advancing teaching excellence at Vanguard University through culturally-responsive teaching

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Instructurecon 2022

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On July 14th this year, I had the opportunity to attend InstructureCon 2022, an event organized by Instructure, the maker of Canvas. This is a one-day free virtual learning event for educators and edtech users featuring keynote addresses by well-known thought leaders Simone Giertz and Adam Grant.  It was difficult to choose between the more…Read More

Seven Ways to Future-Proof Your Courses in Canvas

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As I get ready for the semester to start, there are several things I’m thankful that I did the last time I taught this class. However, I am frustrated with my ‘past-self’ for not being very kind to my ‘future self’ in one particular instance. When I taught this class before, I created graphics that…Read More

Changes are Coming to Canvas

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There are changes coming to the Canvas LMS. This post provides an overview of what’s coming in terms of: the new gradebook, analytics, and quizzes. It also shares about an event coming up that will provide an overview of the changes and an opportunity to have your questions answered. New Gradebook (switches over for everyone on 01/18/20;…Read More

Canvas Imaginings

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I was fortunate to be able to attend the Canvas LMS conference for the second time this year. This year, it was once again held in Keystone, Colorado. The entire town pretty much gets taken up by both higher education and K-12 people who want to learn more about Canvas, Arc, and other educational technology…Read More

Save Time Grading with SpeedGrader

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One of the things I have come to appreciate about Canvas is how often I discover new ways to make learning more effective for our students. Recently, I came across a number of ways to save time grading, which really made me see how much Canvas’ SpeedGrader really lives up to its name. New Resource:…Read More

An Option for Running Multiple Chats at Once

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A couple of our education faculty were used to the ability to have multiple live chats occurring in their undergraduate courses, when we used to be on the Moodle Learning Management System (LMS). This method meant that instead of having a group of 20 students trying to all type to one another at the same…Read More

Canvas Possibilities for Non-Techies

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This July I had the privilege of attending InstructureCon (a.k.a. Canvas Conference) along with fellow Vanguard faculty Bonni Stachowiak and Naomi Kasa. This conference centered around our learning management system, Canvas. Since this conference was more tech than pure academia, it was incredibly fun to feel a different vibe. The theme of the conference was…Read More

Trying to get your students to read the textbook? Canvas can help!

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Having difficulty getting your students to read the textbook? Welcome to the club! Sometimes as professors, we ask questions from the assigned reading only to be greeted with blank stares around the classroom. It is common knowledge that college students may not be reading their assigned materials or are only briefly skimming through the chapters.…Read More

Creative Uses of Canvas

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I’m planning on starting a video series on Canvas called: Show Us Your Course, in the coming weeks. I think it will be a great way to share what we’re discovering about Canvas, together, as most of us teach with it for the first semester. In the meantime, I thought it might be fun to share…Read More