VOL 3.2: Course Notifications, Boosting Office Hours, and Building an Accessible Canvas Core

3 Things Worth Sharing. ITSS Academic Technology & Course Design. University of Minnesota Duluth.

Improving Course Communication with Enhanced Notifications

Screenshot: Select Settings to enable notifications in Canvas

With a simple toggle of a button, students can tailor their Canvas notification settings at a course level. This can help them be more engaged with class announcements, on-going discussion threads, or other course activities.

Students can manage course level notifications to be more engaged by choosing immediate or daily notifications for certain Canvas functions. For example, we suggest fine tuning the following settings:

  • Course Activities: Announcements, Due Dates, and Submission Comments. Set to immediately.
  • Discussions: New Reply and New Mention. Set to immediately or daily digest.

Boosting Office Hours

Icon: Time management. Created by Adi putro wibowo from Noun Project.

“How can I increase attendance for office hours?” is a common question in the academy.  Does this sound familiar?

If so, read this Boost Student Attendance and Participations in Office Hours article and explore tips on how name changes, invitations, and event descriptions might increase engagement.

You can also review this student focused article on instructor office hours for more insights.

Building an Accessible Canvas Core

Cross section of the earth showing strata and core. Created by Matthew S Hall from Noun Project.

Start with five key components to organize and frame your course materials to make your Canvas course accessible from the get-go!

  1. Create a landing page to help orient students to the course layout. 
  2. Limit Items in Course Menu to only the tools you are using in your course.
  3. Use the Module layout to arrange course materials including introductory pages, headings, and due dates and point values.
  4. Structure Content Pages with clear headings, concise links, high contrast images and text, and captioned videos.

Are you interested in building your Accessible Canvas Core? ITSS Academic Technology & Course Design is hosting Accessibility Jumpstarts on:

Join these drop-in sessions and work alongside technologists and colleagues to build a more accessible core. These sessions will be in-person in Kirby Plaza 175 and online via Zoom. More details will be announced soon!

About #ThingsWorthSharing

#3ThingsWorthSharing is curated and created through many conversations with many instructors and support staff from the UMD Teaching and Learning community. This edition is written by Adam Brisk, UMD ITSS Academic Technologist, and Karen Jeannette, UMD ITSS Instructional Designer