March 2015 COSS FCAT Bulletin
March 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
News for March
Join the COSS Innovators Team
The College of Social Sciences is forming a faculty learning community dedicated to discussing and developing the innovative use of technology and pedagogy in traditional, hybrid, and online environments. Share your expertise and passion with like-mined peers. Sound interesting? Contact FCAT Ted M. Coopman <ted.coopman@sjsu.edu>
Using Ted Talks in your Classes
https://sjsu.instructure.com/courses/1077576/pages/using-ted-talks-as-course-content-+-some-examples
TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less).TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages.
Checkout the Using Ted Talks in your Classes Links to an external site.page on the COSS FCAT site for examples of uses a selection of interesting Ted Talks. Students love these short, informative, and high quality videos and they make great additions to your regular content for almost any subject.
Adventures in Writing from Stanford
http://online.stanford.edu/course/adventures-writing?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Stanford%2520Online&utm_content=Feb+Final
Links to an external site.
While every class would be, ideally, a writing class, the fact is most faculty simply do not have the time to develop related content or cover writing instruction. The solution? Outsource it with this open access self-paced class (4-6 hours). Combined with the Canvas peer review function It may save you some time and frustration. Check out this informational video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LErz0EfEq8Q
Links to an external site.
Adventures in Writing is a series of graphic-novel style learning modules designed to help students learn more about and practice a range of effective written communication skills. Writing instructors in Stanford’s Program in Writing and Rhetoric (PWR) designed the modules to reflect PWR’s philosophy that the best academic and real world communication practices require us to think about more than “correctness” or just getting things right—we must actively consider what we’re trying to achieve with a specific audience for a specific purpose. Through joining Maya and Chris on their adventures, students develop their abilities to communicate in writing—from punctuation and style to argument.
Things Students don't know about Canvas
After my recent student workshops several basic functions and features of Canvas stood out as confusing for students. Here are some links to student Canvas Guides that you can work into your own assignment instructions.
First things, first, if you get a technical question on using Canvas, direct students to The Canvas Student Guides
How to set up Notifications
What are my Profile and User Settings?
How do I set my Notification Preferences?
Students have their own personal files section on Canvas and this is how they can upload media files and graphics to discussion and wiki pages.
How do I use Files as a student?
How do I add a file to my personal Files?
How can I embed images from Canvas into the Rich Content Editor?