105 Orientation Template with Greg Konop and Tim Paustian – 02.28.2018

In the February 28, 2018 Active Teaching Lab, Greg Konop from Online Course Production discussed the background in the genesis of a Canvas course template, and Tim Paustian from the Department of Bacteriology shared his experience creating an online orientation with the Canvas templates. See the session’s activity sheet to experiment with templates yourself.

Takeaways

• The JumpStart self-paced technology course provides a useful staring place to get familiar with teaching online.
• Templates provide a structure and even a checklist of often-overlooked but helpful features to include for students (and combat Blank Canvas Paralysis for teachers).
• Good structure helps decrease information overload for students.
• The templates demonstrated in the session will be improved upon throughout the 2018 spring semester, but a beta version can be exported from the sandbox courses linked on the activity sheet. 
• Blueprint courses are another option for streamlining Canvas course creation. See the Active Teaching Lab on Canvas Blueprint with Daniel Pell for more information.
• Lots of alternative resources for Canvas course templates are readily available. Check out Dartmouth Sample Courses and Design Options for even more ideas.

Video

Active Teaching Labs are held Fridays from 8:30-9:45am in room 120, Middleton Building (1305 Linden Dr.) as well as some Wednesdays from 12:30-1:30pm in room 302 Middleton Building. Check out upcoming Labs or read the recaps from past Labs.

Similar to the Active Teaching Labs, Active Teaching Exchanges feature instructors sharing their teaching experiences with tools and techniques, but provide more time for discussion without the hands-on investigation time. Exchanges are are held Thursdays from 1-2pm in room 120, Middleton Building. See the full calendar of both events. Stay informed about upcoming Labs and Exchanges by signing up for regular announcements by sending an email to join-activeteaching@lists.wisc.edu.