Designing a Canvas course requires careful consideration of how to make video content engaging, accessible, and sustainable over time. One highly effective strategy is content chunking , which not only enhances student learning but also streamlines the process of creating, editing, and reusing instructional materials. What Is Content Chunking? Content chunking involves dividing instructional material into shorter, more manageable segments that are easier for students to process and retain. This method has proven particularly effective in online and hybrid learning environments when it comes to video. Research shows that student engagement is highest when videos range between 6 and 15 minutes. In contrast, a 45‑minute video lecture can feel overwhelming and discourage active participation. While most lessons require more than six minutes to cover essential concepts, chunking allows instructors to distribute content across multiple concise videos. These can either be built sequentiall...

  Overview The University has recently added three new FeedbackFruits tools to its academic technology ecosystem: Interactive Document , Interactive Video , and Interactive Audio . This blog post shares how three instructors used these tools to actively engage their students with course materials and with their peers. In today's diverse educational landscape, traditional lectures and static readings often fall short. Many instructors continue to look for innovative ways to deliver content and facilitate meaningful student interaction with that content. If this sounds familiar, read on to see how FeedbackFruits interactive tools can be used to create dynamic, highly engaging learning activities. Interactive Documents: Transform Readings into Dynamic Conversations If you would like your students to move beyond passively reading assigned texts, the Interactive Document tool can help you turn reading assignments into collaborative workspaces, fostering accountability and deeper com...

In this blog post, Katy Guthrie , Teaching Assistant Professor in the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Sciences (CFANS), shares her insights on using FeedbackFruits Peer Review to enhance student engagement and learning. Her experience provides valuable perspectives for other educators looking to enrich their teaching practices with technology-driven solutions. FeedbackFruits (FbF) offers a suite of academic technology tools that supports a variety of peer learning activities. The University is currently licensing four FbF tools , integrated in Canvas, that support self-assessment, peer review, and group member evaluation. Peer Learning Strategies: Efficient and effective Professor Guthrie is a strong advocate for teaching students how to provide constructive feedback on their peers' writing. FbF makes it seamless for her to integrate peer feedback activities into her classes. She particularly values the FbF Peer Review tool in her writing-intensive courses, where stude...

As a University of Minnesota instructor, you have likely heard about the new accessibility requirement for course materials outlined by the Department of Justice in their clarifications on Title II of the ADA : all content in course sites with student enrollment–such as academic courses, professional development sites, or resource sites your department created– must be digitally accessible by April 2026. This new requirement comes at a time in education where instructors are busy on multiple technological fronts (can we have a blog post without mentioning AI?). Yet here we are at another intersection of technology and teaching. This intersection brings about good for all learners. Research shows that making content accessible helps all of your students, not just those who use adaptive technologies to access content. While the task to meet the April 2026 deadline may seem overwhelmingly large, academic technology staff and the Office for Digital Accessibility are breaking it down in...

Overview Academic Technology Support Services (ATSS) and the Office for Digital Accessibility (ODA) tested the usability of the Canvas: Remove Course Content article text and video with UMN instructors. Participants identified three key findings: time commitment, rationale, and archiving. The project team addressed the findings by making targeted changes to the article. Usability partnership & study process For this study, the Canvas: Remove Course Content article was selected for two reasons:  instructors and staff are preparing to meet the April 2026 digital accessibility deadline ATSS had heard from the academic technology community that some instructors are confused about removing vs. deleting content from a Canvas course With the University of Minnesota Usability Services team, our project team developed a focus question to guide our study: What motivates people to improve the accessibility of their course? We then determined the criteria for participant recruitment, ...

This post summarizes the September 2024 Explore Generative AI tools: Microsoft Copilot and Zoom AI Companion session facilitated by ATSS . During the session, ATSS consultants presented an overview of the two AI tools, Microsoft Copilot and Zoom AI Companion - available to all UMN faculty, staff, and students - and explored use cases. Key Takeaways Our session goals were to: Understand the basics of Microsoft Copilot and Zoom AI Companion Explore how both platforms can be used in education through examples and use cases Zoom AI Companion What is Zoom AI Companion? Zoom AI Companion is a University-vetted opt-in suite of AI tools that enhance the in-meeting and post-meeting experiences. Meeting hosts (i.e., instructors) can generate: In-Meeting Questions Meeting Summary Smart Recording How is it used? By default, the Zoom AI Companion is set to OFF; users can change their Zoom settings to opt in. AI Companion works best if you are logged into your UMN Zoom account ; it does poorly if...

Academic Technology Support Services (ATSS) partnered with Instructure , the parent company of Canvas, to conduct a usability study on some of Instructure’s most recent updates to the Canvas Discussion tool. The study aimed to understand user experiences to implement changes and/or improve training.  Usability partnership & study process Since 2015, the University of Minnesota academic technology teams have conducted usability studies to understand how instructors and students use different learning technologies. This work is carried out with internal and external stakeholders such as University of Minnesota academic technology leadership, the academic technology community , and our learning technology vendors. For this study, the Canvas Discussions tool was selected for two reasons: Instructure was redesigning the tool, and it’s used in approximately 25% of University of Minnesota academic courses as shown in the graph below. Discussions are heavily used in those courses: as o...

This post summarizes the August 2024 Canvas Gradebook Set-up session facilitated by Academic Technology Support Services (ATSS). During the session, ATSS consultants presented an overview of getting started with the Canvas Gradebook and its settings, discussed streamlining grading throughout the semester, and shared resources for advanced tips and tricks. Key Takeaways The role of the Canvas Gradebook in addressing access and inclusion Challenges facing students: academic stress, student mental health, transparency, anxiety about grades and class performance Challenges facing instructors: burnout, grading and time commitments, transparency in grading practices and assessments, ungrading We do not intend to imply that simply using the Canvas Gradebook will single-handedly eliminate the previously mentioned issues. However, we bring them to think about a small change that could be taken to set yourself and your students up for a semester with more ease.  Canvas Gradebook settings A...

The process of submitting final grades can be daunting. This post breaks down the grade submission process into discrete steps and provides guidance for each step of the way. Step 1: Check the grading scheme The grading scheme is the breakdown of percentages and letter grades and is used to calculate grades that students see in the Canvas gradebook. The default grading scheme in Canvas sites differs from the UMN Letter Grade Scheme. For example, the UMN Grade Scheme has an “A” at 93-100% whereas the default Canvas scheme has an “A” at 94-100%.  You may have already set the grading scheme at the start of the semester, so if you change it at the end, notify students as their grades may change from what they have been monitoring.  The first minute of the following video shows how to check/set the grading scheme in your Canvas course (the rest of the video shows Steps 2, 3 & 4). Step 2: Update gradebook scores All empty/blank grades need a score or another value like “EX” for ...

In a “flipped classroom” students get the course lecture or learning material before they come to class. Then, classroom time presents an opportunity to engage students in new ways. This strategy is one of many active learning strategies to more fully engage students in course materials.  We ( ATSS ) had the opportunity to talk with Victor Barocas about his experience “flipping” his classes. Professor Barocas, who teaches in the College of Science and Engineering, began by flipping a new class he was scheduled to teach in 2018. The experiment worked wonders. Today, he is working on flipping his third course because this method of teaching has elevated his students' learning and his own satisfaction as a teacher. Read edited excerpts from our interview below. What does your flipped classroom look like? Students watch a recorded video lecture before class. For the recorded video lecture, I talk for 15 - 20 minutes about the concept and then do a problem. Every video for my class ...

The Canvas team often fields questions about how to store sensitive files in a Canvas course. Maybe you have an answer key that you will share with students once they complete an assessment but you don't want that answer key to circulate among all students in the course. Canvas is not an ideal platform for hosting sensitive files. By default, course files are visible and accessible to all users, so placing restrictions on files plays against Canvas's nature. Combine that with a feature that is often misunderstood (Only Available with Link), and you can easily expose files to students unintentionally. Below are gotchas around restricting files and folders to students in Canvas and recommendations for regulating access to sensitive files. Only Available with Link You can place a restriction on a file so that it is only available to students who have the link. This only works in a very narrow context: the actual Files tab in your Canvas course. There, students will not be able t...

The University of Minnesota recently enabled the use of Zoom Whiteboard, a new tool for visual collaboration.  Key features of Zoom Whiteboard provides a large canvas to write, draw, mark up images, insert sticky notes, and connect ideas using lines and shapes  offers space for spontaneous, dynamic writing and annotation combines the collaborative functions and shareability that many of us are accustomed to from tools like Google Drive The Creating and Collaborating with Zoom Whiteboard video demonstrates how to create a Whiteboard and share it with others: Inclusive and Accessible Practices with Zoom Whiteboard Whiteboards are inherently a visual tool so they are an inequitable medium for people with low to no vision. As of this time, people who use screen readers are unable to contribute to Zoom Whiteboards on their own due to technical barriers with the tool. As additional layers, such as sticky notes, images, and text comments, are added to a Whiteboard, it is challenging...

Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) is celebrated around the world annually on the third Thursday of May. The event aspires to raise awareness of the importance and impact of accessibility, share our progress, and renew our commitment to cultivating inclusion.  “Amplifying Accessibility” was the theme for the University of Minnesota’s second systemwide GAAD event held on May 18, 2023, which had more than 460 registrants from all five system campuses, other higher education institutions, and organizations around the country. The event engaged participants in conversation and sparked thinking and learning about amplifying accessibility with sessions that are relevant to everyone’s work in teaching and learning. Program Recap and Video Recordings This year's event included three separate tracks with nine sessions on a variety of topics, as well as a keynote  by Lydia X. Z. Brown on disability justice action in higher education. Lydia is an activist, writer, and adjunct ...