February 2015 COSS FCAT Bulletin

February 2015 COSS FCAT Bulletin

The College of Social Sciences Faculty Consultant for Academic Technology Canvas site is specifically designed to serve the needs of the COSS faculty and programs. Visit https://sjsu.instructure.com/courses/1077576 for guides, tips, strategies and tutorials on using Canvas and integrating technology into your classes.

FCAT Ted M. Coopman  <ted.coopman@sjsu.edu> in Communication Studies is available for one-on-one or group consultations and workshops in-person, via Skype, or through email.  

Remember - Canvas Feature Updates
Canvas features are constantly updated and improvements and fixes pushed out to users. You can check recent updates by checking the Canvas Release Notes page: http://tickets.instructure.com/forums/337224-product-release-notes - for a quick video overview of the latest updates visit http://vimeo.com/117854653 Links to an external site.

News for February

Using Canvas Workshops for all COSS Students (with time for Q&A)
HGH 229 - The COMM Center
Wednesday, Feb. 11 - 1:30 to 2:30
Thursday, Feb. 12 - noon to 1

I am running two workshops exclusively for students covering notifications, file storage, embedding media, checking grades, and creating discussion boards. These are open to all COSS students but space is limited and is on a first-come-first-serve basis. If you want a Canvas workshops or drop-in for your own students, let me know. For a collection of informational links you can post for students (so they can do it themselves!) check out the Important Student Guides page.

Extra Credit!
Students love extra credit! It can be a great way encourage desired behaviors (like posting early) or reward exceptional extra effort. It is easy to set-up. Check out the Extra Credit overview guide: http://guides.instructure.com/m/4152/l/78195-how-do-i-give-my-students-extra-credit and Building Extra Credit right into Rubrics without Screwing up your Point Spread. 

Featured Features

Numbers Edition!

Quiz/Exam Stats
Fine tune your questions and instruments using Quiz Statistics (select a quiz, then choose Quiz Statistics on the right). Too much time, too little, too easy, too hard? Average score, time spent, and standard deviation for the entire assessment. For each question see how many were correct, selected each answer, and a discrimination index (if applicable).  Also, you can see a quiz log for each student down to time spent, each action, and if the student left the quiz (http://guides.instructure.com/m/4152/l/295598-how-do-i-view-a-quiz-log-for-a-student).

Sure, but do you have data to support that?

What are Course Statistics?
Share with your students what you have observed in terms of their participation online
Identify the dates and times of days the course is most frequently visited by your students
Identify which pages are most frequently visited by your students

Where can I find statistics about when students are accessing the course?
Get information on access by specific students, what, when, and how long.

Where can I find statistics on file storage?
Use  a lot of media or big files? Find out where you stand (everyone gets 500MB per class)

Where can I find statistics about online interactions with my students?
Track you interactions with specific students via Canvas features and messaging.

Analytics

The basics: How do I view Analytics for a course? and What are Analytics for my course?

What will Analytics tell me about my course?
Activity allows the instructor to see when students view a page or participate in the course.
Assignments allows the instructor to view if students submit the assignment on-time, late, or not at all.
Grades use a box and whisker plot to show the distribution of grades in the course.

How do I view Analytics for a student?

What will Analytics tell me about my student?

Articles of Interest

Stereotype Threat - Self-Stereotyping that Negatively Impacts Student Performance Download Stereotype Threat - Self-Stereotyping that Negatively Impacts Student Performance

Brief article from the NEA Higher Education Advocate on how we can be our own worse enemy and what to do about it.