Author Archives: jrfreese

Voting for Canvas Feature Request: Make links in DocViewer annotations clickable

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Alan Ng recently requested a feature for Canvas that’s open for global voting. The request is for instructors to be able to include a direct link while annotating feedback as we grade student work. This link could go to a specific Canvas or OER page containing relevant or clarifying information that students can simply click on to access.

If you’re interested in such a feature, or if you’d simply like to help a colleague, you can vote at the link below (please note that you’ll be prompted to log in to your Canvas account).
https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/13334-make-links-in-speedgrader-comments-clickable

Construct Your Career at UW

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UW-Madison is hosting a free conference for employees interested in managing their careers, offering resources, helping establish goals, etc.

From the conference website:
You can learn how to assess where you are now, build a career plan, execute that plan, or continue building within your current role. Join us for a full day or part of the day.
https://hr.wisc.edu/employee-career-conference/

Again, this is free, and includes access to workshops, a keynote session, and lunch.

Canvas Gems: How to Grade Using Rubrics

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As we further learn how to get the most out of teaching in Canvas, Erin Paul has put together another FAQ. This one explains how we can use rubrics in Canvas to quickly evaluate assignments. Thanks, Erin!

How to Grade Using Rubrics in Canvas

On a related note: if you haven’t used them for grading before, rubrics can save a lot of time. While there is the initial work to create a rubric, many instructors have commented how it can make evaluating student work so much more time-efficient.

NetID Login

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In an effort to help with online protection, UW-Madison will be adding a step to the NetID login later this year. After logging in as we usually do, we’ll then use a smartphone or a fob to verify our identity. If you don’t have a smartphone, you will be provided with a fob.

The purpose of this: even if someone else has your NetID password, they won’t be able to log in to steal information or your identity.

The Division of Continuing Studies is schedule to start this process in February or March. More information can be found here:
https://it.wisc.edu/it-projects/multi-factor-authentication-project

In general, this new process should be user-friendly, and we’ll provide detailed instructions when the login process changes.

Presentation: Creating and Evaluating Assessments

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Earlier this year, Nate Ewings and Kristine Pierick at UW-Extension presented Assessments, Alignment, Evaluation, Oh my! The Path to Creating and Evaluating Assessments. The presentation examines ways to create high-quality assessments. You can view a powerpoint from their presentation here:
Faculty Symposium Assessments

While viewing a powerpoint doesn’t replicate the experience of attending a presentation in-person, there are some great ideas included:

Characteristics of high-quality assessments
Aligning learning objectives with assignments
Including real-life applications for students
Rubrics
Examples of how these ideas have been implemented in courses

Invitation to IL Course Showcase

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Greetings from Rich Freese! I wanted to invite you to a brief presentation that I’ll be giving alongside instructional designer Eric Peloza and media specialist Nick Meyer. We’ll be at UW-Extension and presenting on the IL course Legendary Performers. We revised it this past year, and we were fortunate to receive an ADEIL College-Level Course Award.

The brief presentation and following reception will take place Thursday, December 13, from 3-3:30pm, at 5602 Research Park Blvd., Suite 300 (top/3rd floor of building) Madison, WI 53719. We’ll be in room 337 (the Creativity Room).

Looking to later next month, we’ll also showcase the course in more detail at our next IL instructor meeting, Friday, January 25.

A Way to Help IL Colleagues: Quickmarks in Speedgrader

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Have you used Quickmarks when grading student work? It can save time – and lots of it – with its tools to save and reuse comments or other feedback that you might often provide when grading assignments.

Quickmarks is not currently available with Canvas, but we can reach out to the Canvas developers to request this feature at the following link:
https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/1751-ability-to-save-and-copy-from-frequently-used-comments-in-speedgradercrocodoc

Whether you’ve used this feature, would like to try this feature, or simply want to help your IL colleagues by making the request, your vote improves the chances of it being implemented.

Good Practice Reminder: Out-of-office Notifications

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With the end of the year and the holiday season approaching, many instructors will spend some time on vacation or out-of-the-office. If you’re planning on taking time off:

1) Inform Program Director Sarah Korpi [sarah.korpi@nullwisc.edu] at least two weeks before your vacation.

2) Inform your students as soon as you know about your vacation. This gives them time to plan their course completion. An email to students along with a post in your course Newsfeed/Announcements is a great way to communicate this information with students.

On a related note, for a list of Federal Legal Holidays – days that the Division of Continuing Studies is closed, go to:
https://uwservice.wisconsin.edu/calendars-schedules/legal-holidays/