55 Large class solutions with Miguel Garcia-Gosalvez — 01.30.2017

The January 30, 2017 Active Teaching Lab explored strategies for managing large classes in Canvas. Miguel Garcia-Gosalvez shared how he is able to manage a 400-student, 3-credit fully online course with over 40 assignments by using Canvas’s rubrics, automatic score calculation, audio assignments, infographics, peer-review, etc. to provide fast, meaningful feedback for his students. 

Takeaways

• Canvas is a different LMS. Just as it offers new opportunities, it also requires some adjustment in approaches and behaviors.
• Requiring students to turn on notifications allows instructors better options than using the class list to communicate with students.
• Tying all assignments to learning outcomes helps instructors structure their class, and helps students understand what and why they’re learning.
• Using rubrics can help students better understand assignment objectives, and also helps norm grading between TAs and instructors.
• View the session’s activity sheet for additional support materials.

Active Teaching Labs are held every Friday from 8:45-9:45am (and every other Monday from 12:30pm-1:30pm, see events calendar for dates) in room 120, Middleton Building.Check out the upcoming labs or read the recaps from past labs — or see them all in one place in our new  Active Teaching Lab eJournal (bit.ly/ATL-ejournal). To stay informed about upcoming Labs, check back to this website or sign up for regular announcements by sending an email to join-activeteaching@lists.wisc.edu.

UW-Madison is transitioning to Canvas as a single, centrally supported LMS, and will discontinue support for D2L and Moodle by 2018. Visit canvasinfo.wisc.edu for information and resources.

Watch Miguel’s story: