[note: this post has been updated to reflect a terminology change on the Sussex Canvas VLE, to align it to Sussex terminology]
In this weeks ‘Canvas Highlights’ we take a look at the Rich Content Editor. This represents the set of uniform tools which are available across the Canvas system when creating and editing your content; from entering text to inserting graphics, maths equations, multimedia based content and more.
Typical of Canvas, a simple, but intuitive and efficient workflow required for a great user-experience is at the heart of the rich-content editor.
Canvas includes all of the typical features of a rich-content-editor, such as the ability to add basic text-formatting, change font-size and colour, produce data tables, insert web-links, images and video content. It also includes a number of unique features for creating bespoke educational content.
Notable features:
Side menu for quick access to inserting web-links to existing files, images, activities and assignments in your module.
Integration with Flickr repository. Search and insert creative commons licensed images from the Flickr repository without having to leave your Canvas module.
Add audio-visual content by creating on-the-fly recordings directly from your microphone or web-cam.
Ensure that your content is readable, presentable and user friendly to all of your students with the in-built accessibility checker.
Create maths equations using the graphic menu of symbols or by typing LaTeX into the editor.
For more information on the rich-content editor see also the Canvas community help pages for an in depth look at how to make the most out of this essential and powerful tool in your new VLE.
During the first week of this term Technology Enhanced Learning teamed up with the Careers and Employability Centre to deliver the online bitesized course ‘Take 5: LinkedIn & your digital identity’ aimed at both staff and students. Here Tim Bradshaw (@TJBSussex), Careers and Employability Consultant, takes us through top tips for developing your LinkedIn profile.
Photo, headline and summary
When it comes to networking first impressions really do count – your initial appearance on LinkedIn will decide whether you get taken seriously or not. To find out more about making your photo, headline and summary work for you, click through this Slideshare presentation. While it is aimed at students and recent graduates, the main points can be usefully adopted by anyone who is new to LinkedIn:
The differences between a LinkedIn profile and a CV
Is there still a place for a CV? In a word, yes! While LinkedIn can be an integral part of job-seeking, the CV is still the primary document for applying to roles which don’t require an application form to be filled out. We would recommend that, whatever stage you are at in your career, you keep your CV regularly reviewed and updated.
Here are a few differences between your profile and a CV:
CV
LinkedIn Profile
Length defined by paper formatting – should usually fit on equivalent of two pages of A4.
Length defined by content & whatever is appropriate to showcase your talents and achievements without losing the reader’s interest.
Usually text-based (with some exceptions for creative roles).
Great multimedia potential – upload/link to presentations, videos.
Doesn’t include a photo (for use in the UK).
Should always include a photo.
Primary purpose is job-seeking.
Primary purpose is networking.
Personalising your URL
Once you have your profile looking good, you will want to make it easy for others to find it. You don’t want people to have to copy or remember a long string of meaningless characters from a CV, business card or email signature. Compare these two urls:
Changing the default address you have been given is simple, but difficult to find on your own. Follow these steps (bear in mind that the LinkedIn interface changes rapidly, so this web page was current as of February 2018, but may become out of date after that):
Writing an effective profile is only the first step in using LinkedIn effectively. The fundamental purpose of LinkedIn is professional networking – so you need a network.
If you already have contacts you would like to keep in touch with, this could be a great platform (assuming your contact is already on LinkedIn). It is simple to search for people by name in the search box at the top of the page, and send a request to connect. Whether you are approaching an existing contact or someone you don’t yet know, it is important not to use the default wording in the connection request, but to personalise it.
The Alumni Tool
Are you looking for people to connect with? Are you unsure where to find them? The Alumni Tool could be perfect for you. With over 70,000 past and present Sussex staff, students and alumni on LinkedIn, there is bound to be someone from Sussex who you’ll want to connect with. Just click on the Sussex logo on your profile, or look for University of Sussex in the search box at the top, to get started. As above, it is important to personalise the connection request.
This video explains how to make best use of the Alumni Tool:
Groups
Another great way to explore your interests and build your profile in your field of work (or the field you’d like to enter) is to join and participate in Groups. Like Facebook Groups, these are for like-minded people to discuss and share new ideas, queries, etc. Many of the best Groups are closed, but don’t worry if you are a student or inexperienced in this area – you are likely to be accepted if your profile shows that you have a genuine interest.
Once you are a member, do join in discussions – even better, start one yourself. If you don’t have something new to share, you could ask a question. Active groups will often generate useful answers to your queries – a great way to network if you are unsure where to start. Once you are interacting with Group members, remember to connect with them as well. Find out more about Groups from LinkedIn.
LinkedIn at Sussex
Sussex students, PhD researchers and recent graduates have the opportunity to book appointments with a Careers and Employability Consultant. These appointments can be booked up to 2 weeks in advance and there are also some on the day appointments which can be booked from 9am on the day. Login to CareerHub to book an appointment.
If you’d like to use LinkedIn with your students or to develop your teaching please contact tel@sussex.ac.uk.
[note: this post has been updated to reflect a terminology change on the Sussex Canvas VLE, to align it to Sussex terminology]
Continuing our Canvas highlights series, this week we are looking at peer assessment. In Canvas it is possible to set ‘Assignments’ to enable students to mark and review each other’s work. In addition, the ‘Discussion’ tool can be used to enable peer assessment. As with quizzes, peer reviewed assessments can be scheduled to open and lock at certain times and can be assigned to multiple groups, allowing for reasonable adjustments or to organise students by seminar or workshop groups. These peer reviewed assignments are quick to set up and the many different settings allow you to tailor the assessment to your module.
Notable features:
Anonymous submissions and reviews/marking
Tutor-created rubrics to guide student marking
Automatically or manually assign peer reviewers
Multiple submission formats allowed – any file type, website URL, paper submission, no submission (e.g. presentations)
Tutor has final say over students’ marks
There are many ways in which peer assessment can be used within teaching, both for summative and formative assessment. One idea would be to ask students to submit a draft or shorter essay midway through the term and ask them to mark each other’s work against the module’s assessment criteria. This would enable students to get to grips with the criteria prior to their assessment, provide them with useful feedback to take forward into their final assessment and would give them valuable writing practice. Alternatively you could ask students to mark each other’s presentations during face-to-face teaching sessions. In this case, providing students with a rubric would help to guide their marking and would standardise the type of feedback that students receive.
If you would like to learn more about the peer assessment features in Canvas see the following FAQs:
We have a dedicated Canvas section on the TEL website (www.sussex.ac.uk/tel/canvas) and you can subscribe to this blog or follow us on Twitter (@SussexTEL) to receive all our Canvas news and information, including training for all Sussex staff.
Microsoft Office is a suite of programs that I’d imagine most people have encountered, whilst it’s a good suite of programs and all University of Sussex staff have access to a full licence (details on the ITS website ), it is not the only option.
G Suite is a collection of programs created by Google, which is free to use. If you already have a Gmail account then you will have access to G Suite, otherwise you can sign up using any existing email address. There are three main programs; Google Docs, Google Slides and Google Sheets that are alternatives to Microsoft Word, Powerpoint and Excel respectively. Read more ›
There are times when you want to have complete creative control over the content you create, and when you are able to spend time on making the perfect image, video or portfolio. There are also times when you need to be able to produce something that looks great in a fraction of the time.
Adobe Spark is for those of you who need great looking results quickly. The three tools, Post, Page and Video, cover most content types, removing the technical barriers and getting you straight to the result. Below we’ll take a look into these tools for quick, easy and free content creation. Read more ›
Canvas provides lots of opportunities for students to learn together. One of the features that enables this is Groups. This post provides a brief overview of Canvas Groups and suggests some ways in which teachers and learners may want to use them.
Groups and Group Sets in Canvas
When an instructor creates groups in Canvas they can gather together a number of groups in a Group Set. For example, you might have students working on group presentations, so a Group Set called ‘Presentation Groups’ could be set up containing 10 groups of students.
There are several ways that Canvas enables the creation of groups by tutors (instructors).
Automatically create groups: choose how many groups you want and Canvas will create them and divide the students between the groups.
Manually create groups: create a group and drag and drop students’ names into it.
Self sign-up: Set the number of groups required, or the number of members per group and let students choose which group they want to join. This would be ideal for group presentations.
Student created groups: Students can create their own groups in Canvas.
Whichever way you choose to create groups there is an option to assign a group leader. This can be by choosing a particular name, making the first student to join the group the leader, or by randomly assigning a leader. Group leaders are able to edit the group name and add or remove members.
All activity within groups on a course can be viewed by the instructors (tutors) and administrators.Read more ›
“Got Feedback?” flickr photo by cogdogblog https://flickr.com/photos/cogdog/14279306964 shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license
What is feedback and why is it important?
Feedback on your performance at university comes in many forms – it could be something as simple as your tutor nodding in agreement when you make a point in seminar discussion, responses from your classmates when you give a presentation, or the score from an online quiz.
Most often, we tend to think about ‘feedback’ as the comments markers give on written work and/or the descriptors in marking rubrics or grids. This post will focus on how you can get the most benefit from feedback on your written work.
Whatever form it takes, feedback is most useful when you use it to develop your learning and improve your performance in the future. Usually markers will provide a mixture of feedback and ‘feed forward’.
‘While feedback focuses on current performance…feed forward looks ahead to the next assignment.’
If you have submitted your work online, you can access your feedback via Study Direct and / or Sussex Direct. If your work was submitted manually, make sure you know where and when you can collect your marked work – your School Office will be able to help you.
Most assignments will be marked against assessment criteria, which will be published in advance. A mark in a particular grade band will correspond to a description of the strengths of the work and indicate areas to develop. If your assignment was submitted through Turnitin the assessment criteria might be displayed in a rubric indicating how well your work met each of the criteria. You can see rubric feedback by clicking on the ‘View Rubric’ button.
You can then see the comments that relate to each of the criteria as in this example.
Example of rubric feedback – the highlighted blocks relate to this piece of work.
To get some tips for improving your work, look at the descriptors for the higher grades and think about how you could reach those in future.
3. Read all the comments and make notes
These could be comments in the margins, or on a rubric / grading form. You might have been given audio feedback, so look out for that and listen to it carefully. It is a good idea to make some notes from your feedback, especially noting down the things you did well and aspects that you want to work on for future assignments.
4. Tap into helpful resources and support
If you have any questions about your feedback, arrange to meet with your tutor or Academic Advisor to discuss it. They will be pleased to offer you advice on how you can improve your understanding and written work.
Before you start work on your next assignment, look back at the notes you made on your feedback (see 3 above) and any notes from meetings with a tutor or from the other resources mentioned in section 4. Don’t forget those important assessment criteria – they describe the characteristics of good work and are an excellent guide as you start planning your writing.
Since the first announcement of our decision to adopt Canvas, there has been a lot of work going on behind the scenes to get the new virtual learning environment (VLE) ready for our staff and students. Some of this work will continue throughout the Spring and Summer, but here’s a brief summary of what we’ve been up to so far: Read more ›
We are the Educational Enhancement team at the University of Sussex. We publish posts each fortnight about the use of technology to support teaching and learning. Read more about us.
