Monday · 8:00 a.m.–4:30 p.m.

Good teaching. Intentional learning. Practical course preparation.

Move through the workshop together. Use the printed workbook to keep your thinking, the browser activities to make thinking visible, and your actual Canvas course to build and verify.

Begin workshop Canvas Launchpad

Facilitator-led path

We move through this together.

The site supports the workshop; it does not replace the workshop. Each stop follows the same rhythm: connect, interact, apply, verify.

8:00
Welcome + learner experience
PRINT
Best learning experience + Triple E lens.
Go
8:20
Getting Started in Canvas
INTERACTCANVAS
Access, saving, publication, visibility.
Go
8:50
Canvas Tour + Student View
CANVAS
See the course through students' eyes.
Go
9:30
Course Kickstart
PRINTCANVAS
Minimum template, instructor presence, navigation, grades.
Go
10:50
Student Starting Point
INTERACT
Compare what students encounter first.
Go
11:25
Modules + Learning Sequence
INTERACT
Organize for learning, not an arbitrary module count.
Go
1:00
Content + Accessibility
INTERACT
Find barriers, then improve a real item.
Go
1:35
Assessment + Gradebook
INTERACTCANVAS
Evidence first; Canvas role second.
Go
3:00
Teaching Choices + Technology
INTERACT
Triple E + modality translation.
Go
3:25
Readiness Test Drive
PRINTCANVAS
Green, Yellow, Red + Tuesday priorities.
Go

Opening reflection

The best learning experience

What made it effective from the learner's perspective? What did learners actually think, do, practice, create, explain, or perform?

Was the technology memorable, or was the learning experience memorable? What made the difference?

Learning-first lens

Engage · Enhance · Extend

Technology earns its place when it supports the learning goal. We will return to this lens throughout the day.

Why this matters

The Triple E Framework centers learning goals rather than technology tools and examines engagement, enhancement, and extension.

Triple E Framework · Kolb

Interactive workshop moments

Do the thinking here. Keep what matters on paper or in Canvas.

These are deliberately simple, temporary browser interactions. No login. No submission. No progress tracking.

Getting Started in Canvas

Predict → Test → Explain

Make a prediction before we test the behavior in Canvas.

Scenario A

A page is unpublished inside a published module. Can students open it?

Scenario B

The item is published, but the module containing it is unpublished. Is the item available through the module?

Scenario C

You edited a published page and saved. What should you verify next?

Canvas teaching connectionPublication is not merely a technical setting. It controls what students can actually access when they need it.

Student Starting Point

Course-Entry Comparison

Which experience makes the next action easier to understand?

Course Entry A

Home page has a welcome, instructor photo/name, clear Start Here direction, and a visible path to the first required action.

Course Entry B

Home opens to a list of modules named Module 1, Module 2, Module 3. Several links are visible. Students decide where to begin.

What would a brand-new student know to do in the first 60 seconds? What are we assuming they already know?

Canvas teaching connectionA face-to-face course still needs a usable Canvas starting point. Canvas can orient students without duplicating what happens in the classroom, lab, shop, studio, or field.

Modules + Learning Sequence

Build a purposeful sequence

Drag pieces into the three broad phases. There is no single correct sequence, and pieces may repeat.

Purpose + relevanceLearning targetPrior knowledgeInstruction / modelGuided practiceFeedbackApplicationEvidenceReflection / transferInstructor presenceAccess / supportStudent preview

Prepare

Learn + practice

Demonstrate + transfer

Canvas teaching connectionTopical, thoughtful module names are preferred over forcing every course into eight generic modules. Organize around how students encounter the learning.

Research connection: active learning

A major meta-analysis of 225 undergraduate STEM studies found better performance and lower failure rates under active learning than traditional lecturing. The takeaway here is not “put everything online”; it is to create opportunities for students to do meaningful cognitive work.

Freeman et al. (2014), PNAS

Content + Accessibility

Find the Barriers

Click anything that could create unnecessary friction for a student.

Lab Assignment

for the file.

Your grade is based on doing it correctly.

If this were preparation for a lab, shop, clinical, or field activity, which ambiguities could affect readiness or safety, not just convenience?

Canvas teaching connectionClear instructions, meaningful links, accessible media, criteria, and dates reduce barriers before students ever arrive for hands-on work.

Research connection: reducing barriers

CAST's UDL Guidelines emphasize meaningful goals, relevant and authentic learning, accessible interaction, multiple ways to perceive information, and action-oriented feedback.

CAST UDL Guidelines 3.0 (2024)

Assessment + Gradebook

Evidence Before Format

Start with what would convince you the student learned it. Then decide what role Canvas should play.

Welding / Applied Tech

Students must demonstrate a procedure accurately and safely in the shop.

Computer Science

Students must diagnose a malfunctioning configuration and explain the fix.

Horticulture

Students must identify specimens and justify care decisions from observable evidence.

Where should the strongest evidence happen?

What role should Canvas play?

Canvas teaching connectionFor work completed face-to-face, Canvas may simply hold the correctly configured gradebook item. A Canvas quiz or submission is an option when it improves the learning or workflow, not a requirement merely because Canvas exists.

Teaching Choices + Technology

Triple E Digital Companion

Choose one real instructional practice or technology from your course. Evaluate the learning contribution, not the novelty of the tool.

Practice/tool:

Engage

Does it focus students on the learning and meaningful participation?

Enhance

Does it make the learning clearer, deeper, safer, more supported, or otherwise better?

Extend

Does it connect learning to authentic practice, another context, or application beyond the immediate task?

Decision:

Canvas teaching connection“Use Canvas” is not automatically the answer. Keep authentic face-to-face learning authentic; use Canvas where it genuinely supports preparation, access, practice, communication, evidence, feedback, or continuity.

Research connection: Triple E

The framework is explicitly learning-goal centered and emphasizes quality of technology use over quantity.

Triple E research base

Modality Translation

Translate the purpose, not just the activity

Keep the learning purpose and evidence stable while the mechanics change.

What cannot change?

Learning purpose · student performance · evidence

What can change?

Location · timing · interaction · tools · submission mechanics

What support changes?

Instructions · feedback · access · presence · contingency

Canvas teaching connectionBlended and hybrid courses need the Course Entry Quiz and an appropriate amount of actual online work for their scheduled online hours. They do not automatically require every element of a fully online course.

Apply to the course you actually teach

Canvas connections across delivery modes

These are the FTCC workshop expectations and preferences guiding today's build. Canvas should support the instructional reality of the course, not create a second unnecessary course.

All instructors

Focus on FTCC Minimum Template Requirements.
Add instructor photo and bio.
Create appropriate weekly assessments/gradebook items in Canvas.
Verify student-facing setup in Student View.
Have an inclement-weather assignment built and ready to publish, but unavailable until needed.

Primarily face-to-face

Hands-on or classroom assessment may remain face-to-face.
Create the Canvas gradebook placeholder needed to record the grade.
Use Canvas assessment tools when they add value, not merely to duplicate F2F work.
Use topical, thoughtful module naming rather than forcing an eight-module pattern.

Blended / hybrid

Include the Course Entry Quiz.
Provide the appropriate amount of real online work for the scheduled online hours.
Do not assume every fully-online requirement applies simply because part of the course is online.

Fully online

Full online-course requirements apply.
Requirements specific to fully online delivery, such as the welcome video, belong here.

Community of Inquiry: a useful lens for the Canvas component

The Community of Inquiry framework describes educational experience through cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence. For this workshop, the practical connection is simple: Canvas can make purpose, instructor presence, interaction, feedback, and the learning path more visible without replacing authentic face-to-face instruction.

Garrison, Anderson & Archer (2000) · Community of Inquiry research collection

End-of-day test drive

Ready enough to launch?

Use the printed workbook for the Green / Yellow / Red review. Check course entry, structure, learning experience, activity setup, instructor presence, accessibility, and technical verification.

Tuesday Open Lab: Bring the Yellow and Red items: what still blocks launch, what support is needed, who owns the next action, and the target completion date.

The resource participants keep

Canvas Launchpad

This workshop companion is for today's facilitated experience. The Canvas Launchpad is the continuing reference for Canvas help, troubleshooting, guides, and refreshers.

Keep this one.

Bookmark the Canvas Launchpad. You do not need to return to the onboarding workshop site after today.

Open Canvas Launchpad