The Law School Educational Technology Newsletter | November 23, 2022
Hello everyone!
This newsletter has several resources to help you prepare for the coming semester. You’ll find tips and resources for preparing your spring Canvas site, an overview of how to use the new Law School Canvas templates, a new way to schedule appointments using Google Calendar, as well as training and workshop opportunities to help you feel confident starting the coming semester. As always, these training sessions are open to the entire Law School community.
Spring 2023 Canvas Preparations
Law School Design Template
I’m happy to announce that this semester you will have access to use the new Law School Canvas templates! We announced the templates were coming earlier this semester but had to delay their release in order to finalize the design and documentation for their use. The idea behind the templates is to give you a nicely designed and cohesive Canvas homepage and, if you’d like, a more comprehensive set of starter materials to help you get up and running with your Canvas course each semester.
Training Videos
- How to find and import the Law School homepage design
- How to edit the homepage components of the Law School design
- Deep dive into editing the entire Law School template – Coming Soon!
There is also a Google Doc guide on how to use the template that you can use to get up and running. As always, if you have any questions or need help using the template you can reach out for help.
Spring Canvas Sites Are Ready!
Your spring courses are now available in Canvas. If you don’t see your course let me know and I can make sure you are added with the proper permissions. Aside from using the new Law School templates, you can check out the resources below for other common tasks for getting up and running with your Canvas sites each semester.
Guides For Common Tasks
Clean up your Canvas dashboard – If you’ve ever customized what courses appear on your Canvas dashboard you may need to update your course list for the current semester. You can hide old courses, and enable new courses to appear by following the instructions linked above.
A quick guide on publishing all of Canvas’s content options – If you’ve ever been confused about whether or not something you’ve added to Canvas is published and available to your students, this guide will help.
Use my “before you publish” guide as a reference as you’re preparing your Canvas sites for the coming semester. There’s a quick start guide that goes over the bare minimum you should do to get your course ready for the semester. There’s also a more in-depth guide that covers other common things you may need to do in order to further enhance and prepare your Canvas site each semester.
Ed Tech FAQ – I recorded a tutorial video with answers to several of the most common questions I get every semester. This is a good place to start if you have questions about the educational technology tools available to you. There are time stamps in the description to help you quickly find the information you’re looking for.
You can find more helpful tutorial videos on the BC Law Ed Tech YouTube page.
Google Workspace
Google just released a much-improved version of appointment slots in Calendar called “appointment schedules”. I think it’s pretty intuitive to set up and gives you some extra functionality that the appointment slots feature doesn’t have. Here are a few links to get you started. Check out the training opportunities below for a workshop on how to use the feature as well.
- Learn about appointment schedules in Google Calendar (The pros and cons over traditional appointment slots are helpful to read through)
- How to set up appointment schedules
There are other links on the documentation mentioned above that come in handy for learning how to use the feature as well. Happy appointment scheduling!
Winter Training Opportunities
Food is to be provided for those of you who attend in person. Please RSVP here so we can plan accordingly.
Canvas Templates
Where: Law Library 300 with virtual Zoom option
When: December 2nd, 12:15 pm – 1:45 pm
In this training session, you’ll learn how to import and make use of the BC Law Canvas templates for your current Canvas courses. You will learn how to find and import the template, get an overview of the various template components, what the best practices for Canvas course design are, and more! You will also have an opportunity to ask questions about your specific course setup and how to make the most of the template to suit your own needs. I’ll even touch on some of the advanced design tools components and break down how to use the module progress bar and the home page module navigation menu.
Creating Appointment Sign-ups
Where: Law Library 300 with virtual Zoom option
When: December 9th, 12:15 pm – 1:45 pm
There are several ways to create and share appointment signups to make meeting with you a cinch. This workshop will cover three ways to offer your meeting attendees options. You’ll learn how to create and use Canvas appointment groups specifically for class purposes. I’ll also cover general-purpose appointment signup options using Google Calendar. No extra accounts or software is needed! The first option is to use the new Google Calendar feature mentioned above, called appointment schedules. The other is to just use basic functionality built into Google Calendar. You’ll learn tips and tricks to make scheduling appointments a breeze.
Google Forms
Where: Law Library 300 with virtual Zoom option
When: December 16th, 12:15 pm – 1:45 pm
Google Forms are a great way to elicit feedback, conduct a survey, or even just ask a simple question. This workshop will teach you the ins and outs of setting up a Google Form. You’ll learn the basics of the question types, how to review responses, what you can use Google Forms for, how to send the form to recipients, how to collaborate with Google Forms and form responses and so much more.
Ed Tech, What is it good for?
Where: Law Library 300 with virtual Zoom option
When: January 10th, 12:15 pm – 1:45 pm
Unlike war, educational technology, when used appropriately absolutely has a place in the classroom. There are a lot of educational technology choices out there. When it comes to deciding what to integrate into your teaching it can be overwhelming. This workshop is meant to be an overview of the tools available to you at Boston College and how to get the most out of them. When should you reach for certain tools? What tools will be most useful to you? What will help you engage with your students? How can you streamline course content delivery and feedback to your students? All of these questions and more will be answered.
Poll Everywhere
Where: Law Library 300 with virtual Zoom option
When: January 13th, 12:15 pm – 1:45 pm
Poll Everywhere is the University’s personal response system of choice. It is an easy way to get to know your students through ice-breaker activities at the beginning of the semester, provide just-in-time teaching feedback for you as the semester progresses, use it as a method of taking attendance, and even as an informal or formal assessment tool. This workshop intends to show you some of the most common uses, tips for presenting polls in class, and general tips for getting the most out of your Poll Everywhere account.