Spotlight on: Student Engagement

We’ve gathered informative articles, videos, and solutions for keeping students engaged in on ground, online, and hybrid courses in this spotlight.

Students who are curious, interested, or inspired are said to be engaged in their learning. In on ground classes, instructors often rely on visual cues to determine student interest levels, but there’s many other techniques that work no matter where you are teaching. Creating well organized courses that contain frequent check-ins and personal feedback are just three techniques that promote student engagement in any modality. Canvas can make these techniques simple to implement.

Organize with Homepage and Modules

A well organized course keeps students focused on learning, not on figuring out what to do or where to go. Two simple ways to implement this in Canvas are by:

creating informative homepages &
organizing your materials into modules.

Help in under two minutes: Chosing a Homepage in Canvas

Here's a 2 minute overview on choosing homepages in Canvas:

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In our Homepage Pedagogical Workshop you'll identify the different types of homepages available in Canvas and determine which type will best suit your course.

For a more in-depth look at how modules organization can improve course design, watch this workshop from the UM3D 2022 Summer Institute.

Check-in with Announcements

Announcements can build community and keep your students on track. Use them at least once a week in online and hybrid courses so students know you are present and interested in their class.

Top 5 ways to use announcements:

build excitement
introduce or connect topics
highlight current events
display extra credit/tutoring opportunities
remind people of upcoming assignments or milestones

Help in under 2 minutes: Creating an Announcement in Canvas

Here's a 2 minute overview on creating announcements in Canvas:

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Read how one instructor uses announcements to give narrative shape to his courses.

Give Meaningful Feedback

Providing students with meaningful feedback helps them to not only better understand content but to understand their own thinking and learning processes as well. Meaningful feedback has been shown to greatly enhance learning and improve student achievement. Use feedback in grading assignments via Speed Grader, or in discussion posts by replying or summarizing responses.

Good feedback:

contains a positive message. A positive message provides encouragement. Start with something positive before discussing areas to be improved.
contains a specific message. Take the time to provide your learners with information on exactly what they did well, and what may still need improvement. "Good job!" is not enough. What, specifically, was good?
contains personal information. Include examples from students' work so they know you have read it and that the feedback is personal to their work.
helps the students to see the connection between the course and their lives. In your feedback, you can apply real-world examples to their work or as examples for them to follow.
is timely. Feedback is most effective when it is given immediately rather than a few days, weeks, or months later.
addresses the learner's advancement toward a goal. Orient feedback around a specific achievement that students are working toward.
involves learners in the process. Give students access to information about their performance. If your course has rubrics, use them for assessment and feedback.
uses the right media. You can write your feedback or provide it via a short video

Harness the Power of Canvas for Feedback

Every month you have multiple opportunities to master Canvas. This month we’re focusing on training opportunities that will help improve student engagement.

Canvas Gradebook & Speed grader: In this training, learn how to use Gradebook to easily view and enter grades for students and Speed grader to quickly evaluate individual student assignments and group assignments.

Canvas Assignments/ Discussion Training: Learn how to use assignments for online submissions (i.e. files, images, text, URLs, etc.) to challenge students' understanding and assess competency using a variety of media. You'll also see how to best use Rubrics to set up custom or outcome-based assessment criteria for scoring.

Sign up for these and other Canvas training opportunities now!