Ross Mann

CANVAS LMS TUTORIAL

i. OVerview

During the initial closures of the Covid-19 pandemic, I was amazed at how quickly my child’s school teachers transitioned to the new LMS selected by the school district, rapidly switching from Google Classroom to a much more elaborate platform, Canvas. As I recognized how much work goes into converting all of ones classes to a new LMS (and I had an entire summer to transition to a new LMS!), I found myself imagining what lessons I would have found helpful when I was initially called on to begin using the system. I first developed this concept course during my UC-Irvine E-Learning/ Instructional Design Certificate program.

• Audience: Primary school educators who were called on to rapidly transfer their face to face courses and lesson plans into online, hybrid lessons during the with limited guidance or training on the best practices in E-Learning.

• Responsibilities: Needs Analysis, Curricular Design and Project Mockup.

• Tools Used: PowerPoint for Storyboarding and Mockup with additional Graphics and Images.

ii. THE PROBLEM

School districts around the country and the world were forced to close for the final months of the 2019-20 school year due to the rapid spread of Covid-19. However, most primary school teachers had little experience with with many of the vital functions of E-Learning that were required to communicate lessons and assess student progress during the extended closures. K-12 teachers around the world would require a concise, engaging introduction to the best practices of Hybrid Learning, Virtual Instructor-Led Training, and online / LMS based Assessment tools.

iii. tHE SOLUTION

It was determined that micro-learning modules (short, self guided, asynchronous lessons) incorporating brief video lessons and reinforcement assessment exercises that allowed learners to expanding their abilities on their own, limited time were the best model. A group of lessons would be developed addressing elements including:

• The best practices in Hybrid and Blended Instruction

• Creating Courses and Course Materials in Canvas LMS

• Importing existing instructional material into Canvas courses

• Engaging students as a Virtual Instructor-Led Training and E-Learning

• Designing effective Assessments in Canvas without resorting to the same multiple choice formats that have left students unengaged for generations.

IV. tHE development process

A. I produced a text and image-based outline addressing the Course Objectives and identifying which lessons and assessments would be developed.

C. I completed the lessons in PowerPoint, identified or created appropriate media for each lesson and developed interactive self-assessments including a branching scenario.

V. THE RESULTS

• This course was intended to provide Teachers with the tools required to transfer their engaging lessons onto Canvas, providing asynchronous access. This allows the teachers to focus their time on their vital daily tasks of assessing student progress and making certain that their online lessons were easy to follow and clear for all of their students.

• A final project (a first Canvas Course) would provide students the opportunity to Contrast their old LMS and Canvas, as well as to Implement the course lessons themselves.

• This course could provide an even greater ROI if it were simply incorporated into existing on-boarding experiences for new teachers or by being published along with other CE lessons for existing teachers.

Some Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that could be used to measure the effectiveness of this unit include:

1. Final Course Assessment Scores, measuring understanding.

2. Time for each learner to publish their course syllabi in Canvas.

3. Time for each learner to publish their first Class Assessment in Canvas.

4. Measuring student retention and performance via standardized achievement test scores.

Ross Mann, E-Learing, Instructional Design, Learning Experience Designer

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