There are many ways of using Google Apps (drive, docs, slides, draw, sheets) in your Canvas course. If you are unfamiliar with Google Apps, they offer many benefits such as the ability for more than one person to work on the same document at the same time, automatic saves every few seconds, and any changes one makes in the document are automatically updated in Canvas.

Reflective teaching involves taking time to assess the effectiveness of your teaching, identify areas of strengths and weaknesses, and make a plan for improvement.

One student concern about online courses is the group work. Some students even go out of their way to ask instructors for the opportunity to do a group assignment alone, promising to do all the work that a group would do as an individual. With a well-designed collaborative group assignment, the probability of successfully completing the assignment as an individual would be unrealistic for a student to take on alone.

Narrated lectures refers to creating a multimedia video of an instructor’s lecture. Among other things it could include a Powerpoint Presentation, audio of the instructor speaking, screen capture, or inking (writing on the presentation). It has become popular for online and flipped classroom models, where students are given online access to the lectures.

Chunking is the process of breaking down the course content into smaller, more manageable pieces. It is especially important for online courses where there is no teacher to guide students, that the content be organized in a consistent and functional manner through chunking.

Canvas features course-wide and individual student analytics reports for published courses. These reports can provide a snapshot of how and when the system is being used, when submissions are taking place relative to set due dates, and what student achievement looks like in terms of scores.

When developing a course, an instructor must consider how to effectively measure student progress and performance. A high-quality course should integrate a variety of assessments that are aligned with objectives, learning activities, and instructional materials.

The dilemma that instructors often have is that they want to create those same engaging, spontaneous discussions they have in a face-to-face class in their new online space. The problem is they can’t; at least not exactly. Quite simply, the online course design is different therefore the discussion will be different.

One of the most important elements in any course is providing students with formative and summative feedback about their performance and progress. Consistent, ongoing and detailed feedback can have a positive effect on student success in online courses, specifically with regard to increasing student self-confidence, self-efficacy, and self-esteem.

Asynchronous discussions are a very effective means of engaging students and enhancing understanding irrespective of whether you are teaching a fully online or a blended/hybrid course. Nevertheless, planning a successful online discussion can be one of the most challenging aspects of an online course.