SoS: Start of Semester FYIs for Students

January 23, 2020January 24, 2020

SoS: Start of Semester FYIs for Students

Happy first week of classes, SUNY Geneseo! To help our learners start the fall semester off on the right foot, this blog post walks Geneseo learners through the essential items to address at the start of a semester. This post will be particularly useful for users who are new to Canvas.

Have the Right Tools

Be sure you are accessing Canvas through an up-to-date and supported web browser
- Canvas was optimized for Chrome and is our recommended browser
- Adjust your pop-up blocker to allow pop-ups from Canvas
Install the (Canvas) Student app for iOS or Android on your mobile device
Connect your Canvas and Google Drive accounts
Add a profile picture to your Canvas account
Ensure you have Adobe Flash Player installed and enabled for your browser
If your computer does not have Microsoft Office, download a copy through Geneseo’s campus agreement

October 22, 2019November 7, 2019

Canvas Release Notes Highlights: October 19, 2019

Canvas operates on a three-week release cycle through which features are added or updated; feature releases in the production environment take place on the third Saturday of every month. SUNY Geneseo’s EdTech team posts highlights from Canvas’s production release notes, a link to these notes, and other relevant content to our blog a few days before the production release, which usually occurs on Saturdays. Please contact the Canvas Support Team if you have any questions about an upcoming production release.

September 17, 2019September 17, 2019

Canvas Release Notes Highlights: September 21, 2019

September 9, 2019September 25, 2019

Canvas Release Notes Highlights: Summer 2019

Canvas operates on a three-week release cycle through which features are added or updated; feature releases in the production environment take place on the third Saturday of every month, beginning August 17. SUNY Geneseo’s EdTech team posts highlights from Canvas’s production release notes, a link to these notes, and other relevant content to our blog a few days before the production release, which usually occurs on Saturdays. Please contact the Canvas Support Team if you have any questions about the following changes made to the Canvas environment between May 2019 through August 2019. Click here to go directly to our notes on New Gradebook.

May 9, 2019

#TechTipThursday: Interpreting attendance data in Canvas

Canvas includes many features designed to enhance the ease and efficiency with which faculty manage their courses. As their answer to the perennial question of tracking student attendance and participation in a course, Canvas built the “Attendance” tool into course navigation options. Learning how to use Canvas Attendance is not a daunting task. Interpreting the data it provides, however, can be challenging.

May 2, 2019May 21, 2019

#TechTipThursday: Managing A Learner’s “I” Grade

As we approach the end of a semester in higher education, the teaching and learning environment frequently experiences renewed focus on academic achievement. Conversations revolve around the availability of extra credit, final exams or seminar presentations, and the seemingly never-ending hours spent studying or grading in far greater frequency in the latter half of a semester than the former. While these topics may play a role in the lives of many within the teaching and learning environment, there are countless influences on a learner’s ability to complete course requirements. “A temporary grade of ‘I’ (incomplete) may be awarded when a student has been unable to complete a course due to circumstances beyond his, her, or their control” (2018-2019 Undergraduate Bulletin, SUNY Geneseo). Prior to awarding an incomplete, learners and faculty should be aware of institutional policies surrounding the grade and are encouraged to consult SUNY Geneseo’s 2018-2019 Undergraduate Bulletin for more information; this post highlights Canvas-based considerations for faculty when awarding an “I” (incomplete) grade.

April 23, 2019May 21, 2019

Going Beyond SoFis, Soliciting Meaningful Feedback

Meaningful participation in the student feedback process can be difficult for some educators, making SoFis a bitter pill for any number of reasons. Perhaps students aren’t informed about what meaningful feedback looks like. Often students aren’t vested in the process or in providing serious feedback, sometimes because we don’t take the system seriously enough ourselves. Additionally, given the time of year, even when meaningful issues are raised we do not have the opportunity to course-correct and make impactful changes for those particular students. Given these observations one might think I was building a case for less solicitation of feedback instead of more. However, it is exactly for these reasons that I would suggest offering students an opportunity to provide more informal feedback throughout the semester. Doing so is not only a good, best practice but one of the best, best practices. Consider the added potential to increase the effectiveness of your teaching as well as provide a more positive SoFi experience for you and your students.

April 18, 2019May 21, 2019

#TechTipThursday: Locating and Interpreting the Similarity Score for a Turnitin assignment

Turnitin is one of many digital tools available to enhance the teaching and learning environment at SUNY Geneseo. Commonly thought of as a plagiarism-detection utility, Turnitin compares a learner’s submission against documents in its database. Settings for comparison are determined by the professor and can be adjusted for each assignment. Faculty are not required to use this tool but those that opt-in have guidelines governing its implementation in a course.