Canvas Tips and Tricks

Tips, tricks and shortcuts to make your Canvas course easier to use and more engaging.

Create custom Canvas course navigation bar items.
Did you know you can create your own custom links to any URL that will appear in your course navigation bar for your students to access more quickly and easily? Just follow these steps.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Here’s your new custom link!

Endicott Case Study for YuJa now online

Associate Dean of Academic Technology Kent Barclay was interviewed in June as part of a series of case studies by YuJa, the college’s media storage, management and distribution application. YuJa is showcasing on their website some select colleges and universities that are using YuJa to enhance teaching and learning at their institution. Endicott has been using YuJa since 2016 so the college was chosen to be one of these case studies. To read the interview and the case study on Endicott’s history and use of YuJa, click on this link yuja.com/case-studies

Professor Allen’s Media and Culture students experience virtual reality

The team from Academic Technology demonstrated XR (eXtended reality, an umbrella term for VR, AR (augmented reality), and MR (mixed reality) technologies to the students in Prof Sara Allen’s CMM107- Media and Culture II class on Thursday, Nov 18th. A total of 25 students in two class sections came to the XR Lab in LSB403 and donned Oculus Rift 2 headsets to experience VR (virtual reality) for themselves, many for the first time.

Most students played a game called Beat Saber to get a feel for what VR is all about and some common remarks describing what everyone was feeling were “awesome!”, “amazing!”, “wow!”.

Hedrick Ellis, Endicott’s Coordinator of Instructional Technology and Immersive Learning has been evangelizing with Deans and faculty on the benefits of using XR across the curriculum. Some of the programs that have already adopted VR technology into their curriculum include Nursing, Architectural Studies, Anatomy and Physiology, Biology, Athletic Training, and several athletic team coaches.

Students try out the Oculus Quest in Endicott’s XR Lab

Lockdown Browser and Respondus Monitor Using Chromebook

Important Note:  Endicott College requires a Windows PC or Mac laptop for students in most programs.  These instructions are provided for exceptions to that general policy. 

A Chromebook is a laptop computer that only runs Google Chrome browser, thus Lockdown Browser is installed as an extension to Chrome, not as a separate program.  The Lockdown Browser extension requires Chrome version 88 or newer. 

Just as with Windows and Mac computers, students with Chromebooks who attempt to take a Canvas quiz will be prompted to download Lockdown Browser, unless they have already installed the extension:

Clicking on the link will bring Chromebook users to the Chrome Web Store’s Lockdown Browser page.  Click “Add to Chrome” and then “Add Extension” to install.  Successful installation will show this screen:  

Log into Canvas and navigate to the quiz

Click on Take the quiz (button) and enter an access code (optional)

LDB extension will automatically be loaded

If LDB extension does not load, then clear Cookies and Browsing Data by typing CNTL + SHIFT + BACKSPACE (those three keys together), then Clear Data,  and try again.  

When complete click submit and then close LockDown Browser — click X in the top right corner

Press the continue button to Exit LockDown Browser  

Log back on to Canvas.

Jim Lacey 9/10/2021

Using Blackboard Ally in Canvas to make your course more accessible

Blackboard Ally accessibility reporting is now available in all Canvas courses. You may have noticed the small icons Screen Shot 2019-10-10 at 10.49.41 AM  that look like fuel gauges next to files that you have uploaded into your course.

To learn what those icons mean and how you can use the accessibility reports to improve your course, watch the short video below.

Apple Clips

Hello,
I’m writing to share some resources I have come across that are quick, easy and offer some great ideas. Last spring, Apple came out with an app called Clips. This is a simple app that creates short video segments complete with transcription of your audio into text, filters, etc.
For more on the app – visit this page

This summer, Apple Distinguished Educators are making short clips on ways you can integrate tech into your classroom. Some are geared to K-12, but many can be applied to any level of education. They are short and you can quickly review a bunch of them to see if you can find any new ideas. They are being shared via twitter under these hashtags(you can view with or without a twitter account):
#onesmallclip

#classroomclips

@onesmallclip

Not education related, but an example of people using clips – @clipstours

Check them out, I’ll update this post if any new hashtags/collections emerge.

 

iOS 11 and new iPad Pro

Hello,

You probably heard about the announcement from Apple last week regarding changes to the iPad Pro and iOS 11. There are some very exciting features that will greatly enhance the feature set and capabilities of the iPad. I have been looking for the best summary of these changes and wanted to share these links. Feel free to shoot me a note if you have any questions.

Video review of iOS 11 on the iPad

Written reviews of iOS changes

Another summary of iOS changes

I will share more if I find some additional information, but for now, we will probably have to wait until September to download and enjoy these great new benefits in iOS 11.