 | Engagement Examples |
One of the most important ways to connect asynchronously with students online is through the Canvas Discussion feature. Discussion can look very different when teaching online, but remains an effective means of allowing students to deeply explore an idea, raise questions and support one another.
- Learn if the course instructor has set class norms for discussion, such as length, frequency or number of posts.
- Provide prompts for discussion that allow for multiple perspectives. (e.g., Provide three different ways that this object/image could be tagged in a database. Why did you choose these tags?)
- Synthesize the themes or areas of divergence/disagreement within the discussion to achieve closure. This can be done by the instructor or by the students. For example, ask students to reflect on the main takeaways of a given discussion.
- Structure discussions in a way that allows for equitable participation. This may mean offering different options for participation (text or video post).
See further ideas here, courtesy of Stanford's Center for Teaching and Learning.
Canvas is the learning management system that facilitates online learning at UD. Teaching and Learning Services instructors can email askit@udel.edu and request a sandbox space to begin building and exploring.
Tools & Resources
Resources from UD ATS
Explore a quick start guide, training materials and a FAQ designed for faculty on the Academic Technology Services Canvas Faculty Center.
Canvas@UD Newsletter
Read about Canvas updates, training sessions and more.
Creating a Canvas Commons Module
Canvas Commons is a repository of shared materials that Canvas users can easily find and copy into an existing course. This makes it a useful vehicle for sharing pre-made learning content in Canvas. Instructions for faculty on how to pull a module into their course from Canvas Commons are located here.
Creating a Discussion in Canvas (as Instructor)
If you are added as an instructor to a course in Canvas, a powerful way to support students is to work with the faculty member to design a discussion post that can have students ask questions of you or their peers or reflect upon their research process.