Navigate 3.1.2 Creation and Investigation into Courses Quest

Navigate 3.1.2 Creation and Investigation into Courses Quest

What an adventure I have had tonight in creating and investigating Canvas LMS. I have worked with Moodle for the past three years and created courses for teachers in this LMS, but was really intrigued to try a new LMS.

First Canvas had a wonderful set of short videos for orientation that was quite helpful and very user friendly. In total it was 45 minutes to watch all 16 videos. I have never had this for Moodle, and I pay for Moodle for my school system. So I really enjoyed having an orientation for Canvas. They also have great resource manuals as well as a help desk with posts so one can see all of the recent questions and answer sessions.

The first thing I did was set up a free account which was quite fast and simple. It went straight to a dashboard. The picture above shows you the dashboard for my account in Canvas.

I clicked on create a new course. The Course title popped up first- I typed in "Introduction to Digital Citizenship." Then it showed me the "next steps" you must take in order to set up your class. It basically walks you through each step. It was LMS for dummies!

The first step was to import content. I imported the test zip file from GAVS. You could import zip files, individual files or folders. Very easy and simple.

Next step was to add course assignments. To add anything on Canvas you simply click on the plus sign.

Then the add students to class section was the next step. This could be done by typing or pasting a list of emails.

Select navigation links was next and it let me drag and drop items in any order of content for the course.

Choosing a course home page was also quite simple- you could set the course activity page to default to the home page or customize it.

Adding course calendar came next. I could do both a personal calendar and one for the class.

The last step was to publish the course.

All in all, Canvas is a very SIMPLE and EASY format that young and old, digital immigrants or natives would feel comfortable utilizing!

I think I definitely need a new LMS for FCS.