Announcement

Educational Technology/Canvas Update

Dear Colleagues:

As the summer comes to an end and we prepare together for the upcoming academic year, we wish to take this opportunity to welcome you back to TROY. The start of the year is always an exciting time.  We are looking forward to a rewarding semester ahead, and wish to take this opportunity to share with you some updates to the Canvas Learning Management system.

• Non-scoring Rubric (Instructor)- Rubrics can be created without point values to create a non-scoring rubric. This feature promotes learning engagement by helping students focus on assignment feedback instead of point values.


• Gradebook- Optional (Instructor) The New Gradebook is a beta feature that allows instructors to view an improved version of the Gradebook. This feature makes grading more flexible and intuitive and elevates the Gradebook user experience. The new gradebook includes all the current gradebook features.


• Card Sorter (Instructor & Student) - Allows the rearrangement of course cards on the Canvas Dashboard by dragging and dropping the course tile to its new location.


• Dashboard- To Do List View (Instructor & Student)- The Dashboard includes an option to view all course tasks in a list format. In addition to displaying automatically populated graded items on the “To Do” list, the redesigned view allows instructors to add non-graded items to the “To Do” list and students to add their own items to the “To Do” items.


• Scheduler (Instructor & Student)- The scheduler feature has an updated interface and improved functionality. Instructors can create a “Scheduler Appointment Group” as a new tab in the Add Event window. Students can find appointments with the Find Appointments button in the Calendar sidebar and display an appointments window.


• Moderated Grading Excused Assignment Exemptions (Final Grader & Graders)- Only final graders can excuse students from assignments in SpeedGrader.


• Respondus Monitor User Interface (Instructor)- The dashboard has a fresh new look that includes a “Review Priority” scoring system (Low, Medium, High) that provides instructors an easy way to identify exam sessions that require deeper scrutiny. Power users of Respondus Monitor were notified about the upgrade to the feature and training has been scheduled. The link to training www.respondus.com/webinars/.


• Turnitin Plagiarism Framework (Instructor)- allows any Canvas created assignment to be reviewed for plagiarism. It streamlines the grading process by allowing the Turnitin Similarity Index for a student’s submission to be accessed via Canvas SpeedGrader and Gradebook. Instructors can also allow students to submit multiple files for a single assignment with each file being analyzed by Turnitin. A training session has been scheduled for Faculty on August 16th @ 10 am. This session will be recorded and available for those that are unable to attend training. Power users of Turnitin were notified about the upgrade to the feature and training has been scheduled.  The link to the training session is https://turnitin.zoom.us/j/359340839


• Camtasia 2018 (Instructor)-Camtasia has released a new version that includes brand new assets, theming, and performance improvements. For a closer look at all the new features that Camtasia 2018 offers, click this link.
  
  Unlocking these new features in Camtasia requires an update to the latest version. To request the most recent version, please submit a helpdesk ticket at helpdesk.troy.edu, selecting the category “Teaching & Learning” >> “Learning Management Systems”>> then “Camtasia.” A canvas support technician will contact you to take care of your request. The update for Canvas will require a LogMeIn remote session and no more than 10 minutes of your time.

This is an exciting time at our University, and we are incredibly grateful to each of you for your contributions and extraordinary commitment to our students. For additional information and/or assistance with any Canvas features, please feel free to contact us at helpdesk.troy.edu, selecting Submit Helpdesk Ticket>>Teaching & Learning>> Learning Management Systems>> Canvas for Faculty/Staff. We look forward to hearing from you!