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 ...

Co-authored by Lauren Marsh (ATSS) and Mary Jetter (CEI).  Are you wondering how and when your students should use generative AI? Are you exploring how to harness generative AI to augment your teaching? Many instructors are asking these questions as they contemplate using generative AI in their courses. Recently, the Emerging Technology Faculty Fellows were asked to try an experiment following these steps: Review resources that address the appropriate use of GenAI, for example, Appropriate Use of ChatGPT and Similar Generative AI Tools .  Then consider the web resource Advancing Meaningful Learning in the Age of AI,  which provides a revised version of Bloom’s taxonomy intended to help instructors evaluate and make changes to course assignments or assessments in light of GenAI.  Identify a single assignment from your course. Break the assignment into a series of sequential tasks. For each task, consider the following prompts: Decide whether or not students cou...

Similar to professionals in many fields, ATSS staff members are in the process of exploring generative AI tools to support our work as instructional designers and academic technologists.  Note: ATSS does not endorse the use of NOLEJ or any other tool that is not supported by the central Office of Information Technology. This blog post is part of an ongoing investigation of generative AI tools and their uses in teaching and learning.  We recently delved into the NOLEJ platform to investigate how it might be used with materials from instructional development sessions facilitated by our team.  The guiding questions we used for our exploration included: What are the platform’s privacy and terms of use, and how do they inform what content we would upload? What types of content can be uploaded, and what can be done with it? How might this platform enhance our professional development offerings? How might this platform inform our instructional design workflow/practice? Too...

 Navigating the digital landscape of higher education can be both exciting and daunting. Recognizing this challenge, staff from University Libraries and academic technology departments across the University of Minnesota system provide knowledge about start-of-semester tasks and course planning assistance to incoming and returning instructors and TAs through the Canvas Clinic. The Canvas Clinic is held at the start of each semester and provides one-on-one personalized assistance for instructors and TAs. Topics include setting up course sites, creating activities and assessments, and integrating media or other course resources into Canvas. Participation at the Canvas Clinic is typically higher during the fall semester. The chart below depicts the number of participants over the past five academic years. Key Features One-on-One Support: Instructors talk through their questions individually with knowledgeable staff.  Technical Troubleshooting: Recognizing that technology can disr...

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...

In November 2023, Academic Technology Support Services (ATSS) conducted focus group sessions with University of Minnesota (UMN) undergraduate and graduate students. The goals of the sessions were to: understand students’ level of awareness about Generative AI,  understand how students perceive the acceptable use of Generative AI for their academic courses, and learn how, if at all, students would like to be involved with shaping how Generative AI is used in education and shaping policies. Process In partnership with the Office of Information Technology (OIT) Usability Services team, ATSS team members: established the project goals determined recruiting criteria for participants and  defined discussion points to drive the conversations.  During the focus group sessions, the project team served as observers and documented their observations. After all sessions had been completed the team reviewed the issues and analyzed them to determine how they might inform strategies, p...