Instructional Technologies Blog

Mark your calendars! Beginning in mid-May 2025, we are transitioning from Classic Quizzes to New Quizzes as our assessment tool in Canvas. What is New Quizzes? New Quizzes is a tool instructors can use to create and administer their online quizzes in Canvas. New Quizzes offers familiar question types, such as multiple-choice, true/false, fill-in-the-blank, matching, essay, and more, in addition to several new question type options. Much of what you can do with "Classic" Quizzes you will also be

Over 270 sections that began in mid-August are wrapping up next week. We know that you are very busy during this time period and need to focus on grading student work. To assist with your end of the semester tasks, we wanted to share some information about working in the Gradebook. Visibility icon on Students’ Total Grade A visibility icon may appear when an accurate Total Grade is not available for students. This does not affect the score that you see as the instructor. The score displays

In this follow-up to our Canvas Updates and Tools for Fall 2024 Part 1, we’d like to introduce two brand-new Canvas features that we believe many of you will enjoy exploring: Screen Capture in SpeedGrader and Lucid. SpeedGrader’s New Screen Capture Over the summer, Canvas quietly enhanced the feedback options available in SpeedGrader by adding a new feature called Screen Capture. Located below the Assignment Comments box in the grading pane, this feature allows you to record video feedback (or

Welcome back, instructors! As we embark on a new fall semester at Durham Tech, Instructional Technologies is here to support you with information on updated resources and Canvas tools. This month, we’ll be sharing two blog articles with you. To kick things off with Part 1, we’ll be sharing several important Canvas updates and some resources to enhance your teaching experience. Updated Online Course Guidelines Earlier this year, the Distance Learning Committee revised Durham Tech’s Online Course

In our last blog post, Canvas Discussions Redesign Coming Soon, we provided a first look at the upcoming redesigned Discussions tool. At this time, we suggest marking your calendar; the more modernized look and feel for Discussions will be here May 13th! We’ve explored the expected changes and have created a more personalized demonstration video to help you navigate the redesign and learn a few tips before it arrives: Tips and Resources Your students may gain the ability to edit, delete, and

The Canvas Discussions Redesign introduces a suite of new features that enhance usability and flexibility within Canvas discussions. While retaining all the existing discussion functionality, this redesign incorporates a modernized user interface that enriches the instructor and student experience with advanced options for interaction, navigation, and organization. Key improvements include easier ways of viewing, searching, and sorting replies, alongside enhanced tools for discussion moderation

At this point in the semester, your Gradebook in Canvas has probably gathered quite a few assignment columns. The presentation of columns can seem cluttered, especially when viewing all student work in your Gradebook. While it is not hard to navigate your Canvas Gradebook, the Filters feature can help to improve clarity, organization, and ease of grading. Filters allow you to narrow your Gradebook view to specific: Modules (i.e., Week 2) Assignment Groups (i.e, Exams) Status (i.e., Missing, Late

Moving into the heart of the Spring semester, the Instructional Technologies team would like to highlight a few tips and time-saving strategies that can be applied as you use Canvas as an instructor. Our goal is to provide tools that you can add to your Canvas toolbox as you become a more efficient, effective, and expert Canvas user. For each tool, view the video demonstration and access the quick reference guide for additional information and links to supplementary resources. Emojis in Module

As we approach the final days of 2023, Instructional Technologies is taking a moment to reflect on the incredible journey we've undertaken alongside Durham Tech's dedicated faculty. The past year has been a whirlwind of change, with the Sakai-to-Canvas transition standing out as a testament to your hard work and adaptability. We want to express our heartfelt gratitude for the crucial role you play in ensuring the success of Durham Tech's students (and fellow faculty members) on Canvas. Today’s

As we become more familiar with Canvas, we have received lots of great questions about using the LMS. In learning more about Canvas together, some common issues have emerged from faculty. These have the potential to cause frustration and some moments of panic. The good news is that each of these issues has an easy and quick fix. To help you avoid these panicky moments, please review the problems and solutions below. HELP…I gave an extension to a student on a quiz (or assignment or discussion)