Canvas Designing

 

What developmental model is used to design on this platform?

 

So now speaking about Canvas and the developmental model we used is much the same. We still focus on Backwards Design via Understanding by Design and Bloom's Taxonomy, when it comes to working in Canvas. It's just that we with Canvas, we don't have to be quite as modular in our approach, which is something that I'll discuss a little bit later when I go into the similarities and differences between the platforms. But I think it's important to understand that, you know, starting with very clear goals that you want students to reach and working backward from there and appropriately structuring our scaffolding the contents so that they can understand and learn as they go—and building in lots and lots and lots of iterative feedback since teaching is a feedback loop—building as much feedback as you can have. I think these are just good design principles period when being an instructional designer in education. 

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What design process is used on this platform?

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So our design process with Canvas is different than the one with edX. It's, it's a little more one-on-one because typically we have more time to work with the course. So in a best-case scenario with our canvas designs, we'll have at least a semester at a time to get ready. So we can have as many as 16 weeks to prepare the course, sometimes more, sometimes less. A faculty member is assigned individually to us as an instructional designer, and we work with them, which and they are the only ones that we work with. So they're both subject matter experts, and they are also the facilitators. So in edX, we have separate facilitators and subject matter experts. So we have the faculty member, the one-on-one relationship, and often a longer timeframe, which really helps in designing. Also, usually, our instructors are somewhat familiar with Canvas when they come to us. Either they have used it before for their courses, or they've even taking courses, taking classes via Canvas. So there's a little more familiarity with the LMS there. And there's simply; there are more things that we can do in Canvas in terms of tools available to us. And then personally, I have more experience with that platform, the design processes, we have more built out resources ready to go in Canvas as well. Canvas has a little bit more robust tools for doing things like importing pre-made modules and using existing templates as well. So overall, I'd say the design process for our campus course, it's a lot smoother. 

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What are a few challenges in this process?

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So in terms of challenges with our Canvas process, I think the biggest challenge often comes in the form of the faculty and the attitude that they bring to the table. So if they're ready to jump in and try new things. And often, the process goes a lot smoother if faculty are a little more reserved or sometimes even openly hostile towards using Canvas or towards teaching online. And that can create challenges. But that honestly, that mostly has to do with trying to provide them a positive experience and trying to show them that you know, what they want to teach can be done online, and that they don't actually have to compromise their principles as instructors in order to deliver an online course that it can be a quality course, that it doesn't have to be a dumbed-down version of their in-person course, which is the most common attitude that we get that instructors bring to the table. That is a real challenge for the process. Otherwise, there occasionally challenges in terms of professors wanting to try things that maybe we have never done before or that we have to build some custom tools to make it possible. But we have the ability to do that in Canvas, and we're developing the ability to do that in edX more and more. But we really don't have the experience with that platform like video and canvas. But it can be challenging faculty attitudes and then occasionally some logistical or even programming challenges in Canvas that can usually be overcome with the team. The fact that I have a whole team of people, that it's not just me. I'm working one-on-one with the faculty, but I can consult with any of my fellow—IDs for ideas. I can pull in a graphic designer to help create things that we need. I can send my faculty to a media production space to have videos made. So we have the resources on the team that help us meet the challenges of working and designing with these instructors.