Hi All,
Welcome back from the winter break! I wanted to share some helpful information about preparing your Canvas sites, Panopto scheduling information, and news about the remaining training opportunities on campus. There is a lot in this newsletter so let’s get started!
Before getting started I want to call out that next week’s workshop schedule has changed slightly. The details can be found in the workshop section below. I hope to see you there!
Name Coach Information
This is just a reminder that you can find your student roster with NameCoach information on your Canvas site. For those of you who don’t know, NameCoach is a service provided to help you learn how to properly pronounce your students’ names. There is a module in each of your Canvas sites that provides a list of student names, phonetic spelling, recording of their name, and preferred pronouns. We’re updating all of the Canvas courses to include this information and plan to be done by the early next week so if you don’t see the module yet it should appear over the next few days. You can view these instructions in case you need help finding the NameCoach module.
Canvas Course Prep
BC Law Canvas Template
In case you missed the news, over the last year, we’ve been working with the Center for Digital Innovation and Learning to come up with an easy-to-use, thoughtfully designed, and time-saving Canvas course template. Here are a few resources to help you get started.
- How to import the Law School templates
- How to edit the template homepage
- Full template tutorial
- Workshop recording on how to import and make use of the Canvas template
Canvas “Before You Publish” Checklist
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 to further enhance and prepare your Canvas site each semester.
Guides for common tasks
Setting up a syllabus only site – This video covers how to set up a bare-essentials Canvas site. If all you’d like to do is post your syllabus and make sure your students have access to it, then you can watch this video to learn how.
A quick guide on publishing all of Canvas’s content options – If you’ve ever been confused about whether something you’ve added to Canvas is published and available to your students this guide will help clear up any confusion. You can find more helpful tutorial videos on the BC Law Ed Tech YouTube page. You can also watch previously held workshops covering various Canvas and course-related topics here. I suggest starting with the troubleshooting FAQ video, as it covers the most common questions I receive each semester. There are timestamps in the description to take you immediately to the question you have. If I’ve missed anything let me know and I’ll create another video with your submitted questions.
Panopto Scheduling Information
Courses in Panopto-enabled lecture-capture rooms will be recorded automatically again this semester. There are a few important things to note about this process.
Your recordings are hidden from students by default. If you would like your students to be able to access your course recordings then you can update your course folder permissions to allow recordings to become available immediately after they are finished processing. Otherwise, you’ll need to make individual recordings available per request by your students.
Your recording schedule does NOT automatically update if you move to a different classroom. If you change rooms after the first day of classes you have to notify Newton MTS (daley@bc.edu) in order to move your recording schedules.
Other common Panopto tasks include:
- Sharing Panopto videos
- Editing Panopto recordings
- Check to see if your class recordings have been scheduled
As a reminder, the following classrooms have Panopto lecture-capture capabilities.
East Wing:
All East Wing classrooms are lecture-capture enabled.
Stuart Hall:
315, 401, 402, 408, 409, 411
Law Library:
LL300
If you teach in a room not listed above and would like to discuss methods for recording your classes I’d be happy to work with you.
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 11th, 12:15 pm – 1:45 pm NOTE: Time change!
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.
I want to introduce a new segment to the newsletter where I include some educational technology news around the internet. It could be about upcoming tools, technology, or novel pedagogical approaches. To kick things off I thought you might find this article from the TopHat education blog interesting. Dr. Pooja Agarwal, a cognitive scientist and professor at the Berklee School of Music, discusses some quick and easy ways to assist with knowledge retention in your courses. You can watch a free webinar that dives deeper into the topic at the bottom of the article if you’re interested.