New BrainPop Features!!!!

Mr. Geiman

New BrainPOP Features: Pause Points & Immersive Reader!

Pause Points

BrainPOP pause points are now LIVE! These screenshots show the new interactive way to watch BrainPOP videos – pause points! As of now, their top 50 most watched videos include interactive questions. Each screenshot (pictured below) shows a variation of the pause points feature.

Immersive Reader

Pause points may be more limited, but Immersive Reader has come to all Quizzes! Students can now have questions from Quizzes read aloud to them with a click of a button! 

BrainPop Pause Feature

December Canvas Updates

Mr. Geiman

Discussions

Settings Menu Terminology Adjustments

The Discussions Settings menu includes several terminology adjustments for both teachers and students. This change aligns with Discussions terminology and also prepares for future Discussion enhancements. In the Discussions Settings menu, the Edit Discussion Settings title has been renamed to Discussion Settings.

In the list of menu options, references to post have been renamed to reply or replies.

Discussions Settings Menu

 

Gradebook

Settings Sidebar Adjustment

The Gradebook Settings Menu has been adjusted to a sidebar. This change aligns consistency with other menus in Canvas. When the Gradebook Settings Icon is selected, the content displays as a sidebar instead of a new window within the browser. No Settings functionality has been affected.

The Late Policies and the Grade Posting Policy tabs display by default. The Final Grade Override tab only displays if the feature is turned on for the course. If available, the feature will be available in the Course Settings Feature Preview tab.

 

Settings

Course Settings Publish Buttons

Course Publish and Unpublish buttons display in the Course Settings page. This change allows courses to be published from either the Course Settings page or the Dashboard.

In the Course Details tab, the top of the Course Settings sidebar includes the course Publish and Unpublish buttons. Courses can be published and unpublished from either the Dashboard or Course Settings.

When a course includes graded submissions, the course can no longer be unpublished and the buttons will be removed from the page.

Course Settings Publish/Unpublish Buttons

Canvas Quiz Printer

Mr. Geiman

The Canvas Quiz Printer provides a simple way to print off a quiz from Canvas. Below are the links and instructions on how to add this extension to Chrome as well as how to use it.

  1.  Click this link and Add to Chrome the extension to Chrome.

    Chrome Web Store

 

  1. Once you have added the extension to Chrome you will navigate to the quiz from within Canvas and click on the print icon to the right of the URL bar.

    Chrome Extension

  2. A new page will open with your quiz ready to be printed off.

Picture of what is printed from Canvas Picture of what is printed from Canvas

Canvas Quiz & Test Features

Tim Leister

There are a variety of options when creating a quiz in Canvas. To view the full list of options, go to Canvas Community page, “What options can I set in a quiz?”

Here is a brief summary of the important quiz features in Canvas from that page:

  • Shuffle Answers [1]: You can shuffle (randomize) answersquiz options
  • Shuffle Questions: You can shuffle (randomize) questions. To learn how to create a question group that randomizes questions within a quiz, go to Canvas Community page –  “How do I create a quiz with a question group to randomize quiz questions?“
  • Time Limit [2]: You can choose to set a time limit by entering the number of minutes students have to complete the entire quiz. Timed quizzes begin once a student begins the exam and do not pause if the student navigates away from the quiz. If no time limit is set, students will have unlimited time to complete the quiz.
  • Allow Multiple Attempts [3]: You can allow students multiple attempts on a quiz.
    • Recent Quiz Score —You can choose whether to keep the highest score, latest score, or average score of all attempts. By default, Canvas will keep the highest score unless this setting is changed.
    • Allowed Attempts —You can allow multiple attempts and limit the number of attempts. The default dashes represent unlimited attempts.
  • Show One Question at a Time [7]: You can show one question at a time and you can choose to lock questions after answering.
    • Lock Questions — This option means that students cannot return to the previous question once it has been answered.
  • Access Code – You can require an access code to take the quiz/test.

 

Here is the complete FAQ instructor guide to Canvas quizzes

Canvas Student View Button

Tim Leister

The Course Settings page includes the Student View button, which allows users with instructor-based roles to view the course with the student perspective. Individual buttons have also been placed at the top of most course pages, which provides quick Student View access for the specific page. (from Canvas Release Notes)

Canvas new student view button

In the Home Page, the Student View button has been removed from the sidebar and replaced with the smaller button at the top of the page, since the Home Page can be viewed by students. The Student View button does not display in pages that are not visible to students, such as the Course Settings page.

If an instructor clicks the Student View button from a page or other location that has been hidden to students, such as in Course Navigation, the page redirects back to the home page. (from Canvas Release Notes)

To learn more about Canvas Student View, visit the How do I view a course as a test student using Student View? instructor guide page.

Adding Tabs to a Canvas Page

Tim Leister

Canvas pages are built using the same HTML code that is used to design many web pages on the internet. Canvas Instructors have ability to customize the HTML code of their Canvas course pages. A clear and concise instructional design page format can be created by adding tabs to a Canvas page.

This is a more advanced use of Canvas, but can be done with a basic understanding of HTML. Below is a screenshot example of Canvas page tabs in GS Middle School Teacher, Christina Jirele’s Canvas course. She has added tabs for each day of the week and has found it helps simplify the location of her course content for her students.

C Jirele Tabs in Canvas

Watch the video below from the “Canvas Queen” to learn the steps to add code in the HTML editor. Here is a Google Doc that contains the HTML Editor Canvas Codes used in these video. The second video shows how color can be added to those same tabs.

Video – Canvas HTML Editor – Creating Tabs #1

Video – Canvas HTML Editor – Creating Colored Tabs #2

 

The New Canvas Rich Content Editor

Tim Leister
The Canvas New Rich Content Editor (RCE) will be enabled globally in all Canvas courses in January 2021. To give Garden Spot Teachers time to become familiar with the new format over the Winter Break, the new RCE will be enabled for all Elanco Canvas courses on Tuesday, December 22nd. The new RCE update has been a course ‘opt in’ feature for Canvas instructors for over a year, but will now be a forced update in all Canvas course.

new RCE

The New Rich Content Editor includes the content area, the menubar, and the toolbar.

  • In the content area, you can add and preview the page content [1].
  • In the menubar, you can use the menu options to format the page content [2].
  • In the toolbar, you can format text [3]; insert links, images, media, and documents [4]; open external tools [5]; format paragraphs [6]; clear formatting [7]; add tables [8]; and insert an equation [9]. When content in a browser window is long enough to require a scroll bar, the toolbar is fixed at the top of the browser window. (from Canvas Community)

In preparation for this change, please visit this Rich Content Editor UI Overview page which shows the new locations of the editor features and watch the 2-minute new RCE Canvas screencast below.

Rich Content Editor: Interface Enhancements (2020-01-18 Screencast) from Instructure Canvas Community on Vimeo.
  • Some notable differences include:
    • Toolbar contains one row instead of two and expands to the full width of the browser
    • The content sidebar only displays when linking to other parts of Canvas, accessing Canvas files, or accessing uploaded media
    • Toolbar menus are grouped by common icons and interactions
    • Image and media additions include drag and drop; images include an Unsplash search and content auto-scaling

Canvas Updates – Fall 2020

Tim Leister

Several updates have come, or are coming, to our instance of Canvas. Some of the updates may already be noticeable to instructors, while others may not. Below is a summary of three of these updates: Recent History, the new Rich Content Editor, and Notifications.

  • Global Navigation Menus now include a Recent History link. This History link displays the most recent pages viewed in Canvas up to the last three weeks. Page content is displayed by title. – From Canvas Release Notes
Recent History Link in Global Navigation

Global Navigation: Recent History (2020-10-17 Release) from Instructure Canvas Community on Vimeo.
  • New Rich Content Editor Overview – On January 15, 2021 the new Rich Content Editor (RCE) toolbar will be automatically updated in all Canvas courses.
    • Notable differences include:
      • Toolbar contains one row instead of two and expands to the full width of the browser
      • The content sidebar only displays when linking to other parts of Canvas, accessing Canvas files, or accessing uploaded media
      • Toolbar menus are grouped by common icons and interactions
      • Image and media additions include drag and drop; images include an Unsplash search and content auto-scaling
    • For a full overview of the new Rich Content Editor, visit this Canvas Release Notes page.
    • If teachers would like to get accustomed to the new Rich Content Editor, they can enable it in their Canvas course by going to course Settings > Feature Options > enable RCE Enhancements.  Here’s an image that shows how to enable this coming feature.
new toolbar

Rich Content Editor: Interface Enhancements (2020-01-18 Screencast) from Instructure Canvas Community on Vimeo.

 

  • Notification Preferences Updates – The user-level Notifications page has been updated to match the design of the course-level Notifications page. This page includes a banner reminding users that account-level notifications apply to all courses. Additionally, for the Grades notification, the Send Scores in Emails option has also been added as a course-level notification preference. Notifications for individual courses can be changed within each course and override user account notifications. – From Canvas Release Notes
notividation

Notifications: Notification Preferences Interface Updates (2020-10-17 Release) from Instructure Canvas Community on Vimeo.

 

 

Elanco Zoom Updates – November 2020

Tim Leister

A few Elanco Zoom reminders and updates:

Zoom Recording using MEETS

A reminder that “Automatic recording” has now been set to allow teachers the flexibility to turn it on. Visit the Updated Zoom Web Conferencing Default Settings post from October to learn more.

Using the CirQlive’s Media Enhanced Education & Training Suite (MEETS) in Canvas, teachers’ Zoom recording are available to students. However, students or teachers need to first click on the “Check for Recordings” button, and then there is about a 15 minute delay before the recordings can be viewed. This is currently in place to prevent the system from being overloaded. The company is working on removing this delay and making it work instantly.

check for recordings in Zoom meetings

 

Passcodes for Recordings

The default setting is to “Require passcode to access shared cloud recordings“. If teachers want to remove the passcodes for their Zoom recordings, they can go to your Elanco Zoom account settings at https://zoom.us/profile/setting and click on the Recording tab (see image below).

passcodes for recordings can be disabled

For more information on how to manage cloud recordings, including view, delete, and share the video, audio, transcript, and chat files, visit the Managing Cloud Recordings page of the Zoom Help Center.

Zoom Resources: