Skip to main content

Canvas

Canvas

Teaching Tools Pilots

XCITE invites your participation in a limited pilot of the FeedbackFruits suite and Slack (Coursebot) over the Summer 2023 term.

Teaching Tools Pilots

  • Peer Review & Social Annotation Pilot using Feedback Fruits

    The FeedbackFruits suite includes tools to support both Peer Review and Social Annotation and integrates directly into Canvas to help boost student engagement and group work in multiple course designs.

    This UCR pilot of FeedbackFruits is scheduled for the Summer 2023 term, and will focus on the following tools:

    • Peer Review: Students review each other's deliverables using rubrics, likert scales or open comments; allowing you to enhance student quality feedback (use case);

    • Social Annotation (Interactive Document) and Interactive Video: The social annotation tools enable students’ collaborative learning (use case) and boost student engagement (use case).

    The Automated Feedback tool is also included as part of the UCR pilot agreement:

    • Automated Feedback: AI-powered learning assistant that will allow you to save time by giving lower-order feedback (article).

    Learn More: Training Recordings and Slides

    Here are links to recordings and slides from each of the training sessions held in advance of Spring term (below).

     

    1. Peer Review and Automated Feedback:

     

    1. Social Annotations and Automated Feedback:

    Agree to Participate in the Pilot

    If you agree to formally participate in piloting FeedbackFruits in your course(s) in the Summer 2023 term, then please opt-in using this Google Form no later than on June 2nd, 2023 by the end of the day.

    Once you formally agree to participate in the pilot, and you have indicated the specific course(s) in which you will implement either the FeedbackFruits’ Peer Review or Social Annotation (Interactive Document & Video) tools, we will work with you to get FeedbackFruits set up in your Canvas course(s) for Summer (see how to create a FeedbackFruits activity).

    This FeedbackFruits pilot for Peer Review and Social Annotation tools is currently limited. The continued integration of the tool in Canvas past the pilot period will depend on:

    1) How effectively the tool meets the interests and needs of our pilot participants, and

    2) Identification of available funding and support.

    Participating instructors will complete a post-pilot survey to share recommendations and feedback on their experiences using FeedbackFruits.

    We will follow up to schedule Q&A or training sessions for each tool.

    Additional resources:

    The tools available through the FeedbackFruits suite tackle different pedagogical aspects, and you can choose which ones are most applicable to your courses - this decision tree can guide you on which tool is most applicable to you.

    If you need any help discussing the applicability of the tools, or need assistance with setting up the assignments feel free to contact the central team at UCR (xcite-help@ucr.edu) or FeedbackFruits representative Julia Wysocka (julia.w@feedbackfruits.com). 

     

     

    Thank you for your consideration!

     

  • Canvas & Slack Integration Pilot (Coursebot)

    XCITE in Partnership with ITS has integrated Slack (Coursebot) to engage student engagement among their peers and professors.

    Click for more information on Slack and common questions.

    Information Technology Solutions (ITS) recently announced the purchase of Slack Enterprise Grid for campus. As part of this campus-wide offering, ITS and XCITE have partnered to integrate Slack with Canvas. We seek your participation in a limited Summer 2023 quarter pilot of the Canvas and Slack integration, in advance of a larger campus deployment.

    Participating instructors will utilize Canvas to create an automated Slack instance for a course that can be used to facilitate communication, foster collaboration, and build community.

    The goal is to receive feedback from instructors about their experience using Slack to supplement or facilitate instruction, to gauge what adjustments should be made prior to a campus-wide rollout, and what support may be needed to make the deployment successful.

    Space for the pilot is limited, so if this is something you are interested in please submit the following form by June 2nd 2023 by the end of the day, and XCITE will be in touch with next steps:

    More About the Slack and Canvas Integration (Coursebot) Slack is a channel-based messaging platform that will soon be available to everyone on campus at no cost to the user. While Slack allows colleagues and collaborators to connect, increasingly, instructors are finding value incorporating Slack into their courses to better engage with students.

    Messaging platforms are familiar to students and can augment course communication. Coursebot works to seamlessly integrate your Canvas course with Slack.

    As a result, you can use Slack to:

    • Notify students and TAs in real-time (e.g., send urgent announcements or assignment reminders)
    • Interact with students and TAs asynchronously, including scheduling messages
    • Create topic-based channels for discussions, pinning important information to the top.
    • Create private channels for student group work and/or course staff collaboration
    • Conduct virtual office hours
    • Easily search a channel’s history to find previously communicated information
    • Break through the cacophony of email with individual notification preferences

    Campus-wide deployment of Coursebot is currently planned for Fall 2023, while deployment of the Slack Enterprise Grid for general campus use is planned for spring 2023. ITS will share more information about this launch and how to use Slack in the coming weeks. In the meantime, we encourage you to participate in the pilot to familiarize yourself with and provide feedback on this new campus tool.

  • Student Learning Outcomes

    XCITE, in partnership with the Office of Evaluation and Assessment, is pleased to offer a workshop on the use of Canvas Outcomes as another tool for self-measure of teaching effectiveness. Outcomes, also called Student Learning Outcomes are specific and measurable statements of what a student will be able to do by the end of a course (what your students actually learned with evidence)

    Outcomes in Canvas - What can you do?

    • Outcomes can be aligned to assignments, quizzes and discussions
    • They can be added to the rubrics for grading
    • Help track mastery in a course Helps with constructive alignment- making sure your assignments are aligned to learning outcomes
    • Track student progress and provide formative assessment
    • Focus students' attention on the most important skills and activities in your course

    Participation Incentive: Faculty who successfully implement Canvas outcomes in their course(s) for at least one quarter will receive a Certificate/Digital Badge from XCITE. Faculty can use this as an award for instructional development towards their eFIle, or for their CV, website, and courses. This workshop will be offered via Zoom. This is a hands-on training session. We recommend joining from a computer.