This guide provides instructors at UW-Superior with resources that support your teaching, both in person and online, with a focus on the use of the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS) in the UW-System Digital Learning Environment (DLE). This guide includes foundational resources used in the 2020 Superior Learning Experience that we’ve updated and revised due to ongoing changes in the UW System DLE.
The Getting Started resources include:
This one page guide has active web links to guide you to the essential content within this Teaching Using Canvas online resource. Completing the list of activities on this sheet will help prepare you for one of our CLIC Canvas Basics hand-on training sessions or for individualized professional development one-to-one training with one of our instructional designers. Once downloaded, this document will guide you through a "fast-track" series of training resources on the Canvas basics.
UW-Superior prides itself on excellence in teaching and learning. Our many instructors and staff members are mission-driven to foster intellectual growth and career preparation. There is no limit to the creativity and innovation that members of the UW-Superior community bring to developing curriculum, choosing and making their instructional materials, and creating learning experiences, assignments, and projects.
The below set of standards are also a product of this innovative community. They were inspired by nationally-accepted standards (such as Quality Matters and Canvas Checklist 2.0) and refined by UW-Superior instructors and instructional designers focused on Creating excellent student learning experienced regardless of learning modalities. The below standards are shaped by five Key Values and ask course designers at UW-Superior to:
The instructional support professionals at UW-Superior aim to empower instructors and staff members to grow their expertise and creativity as teachers – able to leverage teaching technologies to enhance their instruction. Therefore, when a course is designed using the standards, instructors will have the technology, resources, and guidance they might want, including on-demand, personalized, one-to-one support. Additionally, the standards are accompanied by explanation, context, and links to resources throughout. There are no surprises in the review process: we aim to articulate each standard, explain clearly its purpose, and we will support you in implementing them in your course design.
If you are new to Canvas and would like to learn the basics we invite you to self-enroll in our "Canvas Basics Online Course" which provides an overview and video reviews of the main Canvas features that you will work with as an instructor.
Steps for getting enrolled into the online course:
The Canvas application will open to the Dashboard screen with the course tile on the dashboard. Select the course tile to open the course.
If you are ready to get started right now by viewing a selection of video tutorials, visit our Canvas Basics Video page. We have collected a series of 8 short video into a convenient location for viewing these Canvas basics videos in under 30-minutes.
The following links provide access to additional support resources beyond the UW-Superior Canvas instructor support team:
Along with the resources complied here there are many other great professional development resources available to UW-Superior Instructors including those listed below:
If you need assistance designing your course in Canvas or deciding how to best utilize the Canvas tools available, please reach out to our Instructional Support Team via this online form. We will respond as soon as possible or schedule a consultation appointment as needed.
Our instructional support form is also useful if you have questions about the larger Digital Learning Environment, including Kaltura and web conferencing tools.
This work "Teaching Using Canvas" is a derivative of "Designing and Teaching for Impact in Online Courses" by Indiana University, used under CC BY-NC SA 4.0. "Teaching Using Canvas" is licensed under CC BY-NC SA 4.0 by the Markwood Center for Learning, Innovation & Collaboration.
