Net+ Canvas Newsletter
November 2020
In this version of the NET+ Canvas Newsletter, learn about the latest updates from Instructure about Canvas, comments and feedback from the Canvas Advisory Board, as well as best practices in Canvas use around the Internet2 Community.
Instructure Updates
Updates from Instructure regarding Canvas product offerings.
CanvasCon Online 2020
On October 15, 2020, Instructure held their annual global conference for edtech enthusiasts, educators, and all levels of Canvas users. The event was a huge success, demonstrating the power of the Canvas Community of over 1 million active and engaged members. Below you can find the links to view the event’s inspiring keynote speakers and insightful breakout sessions!
Top CanvasCon Online 2020 Sessions
LeVar Burton
LeVar sees storytelling as the greatest power we have as human beings. He also says we’re just beginning to understand how technology can transform education, and that the definition of literacy must continue to evolve in the digital age.
LeVar Burton | CanvasCon Online 2020 | October 15
Sal Khan
Sal shares his vision for founding the Khan Academy, a nonprofit organization that offers free education to millions of students worldwide. He also looks at how technology will play an increasingly important role in reaching underserved populations.
Sal Khan | CanvasCon Online 2020 | October 15
Jared Stein
Instructure’s VP of Higher Education Strategy, discusses the challenges facing higher education during these tumultuous times, the importance of going "back to basics," and how Canvas is working with our community.
Jared Stein | CanvasCon Online 2020 | October 15
Sam Blyth
While every institution shares the goal of improving lives through education, each faces unique challenges. Sam Blyth, Instructure’s Senior Director of Education in EMEA, shows how educators can engage with and learn from other regions.
Sam Blyth | CanvasCon Online 2020 | October 15
Kona Jones
When students feel like their teacher cares about them as a person, as well as their success in the course, it creates a foundation of trust that promotes meaningful interactions and learning. Take a closer look at this kind of learning environment.
Kona Jones | CanvasCon Online 2020 | October 15
What We Learned
Educators & Students Are Embracing Online Learning
While the COVID-19 crisis accelerated trends in online learning, causing an initial scramble, educators and students are now beginning to embrace it. This was a common thread in educator-led sessions and in Instructure’s global benchmark study, The State of Student Success in Higher Education. Learn more here.
Open Integrations Enrich Learning Experiences
Instructure announced an enhanced LTI app that will create a fully immersive Microsoft Teams experience within Canvas, demonstrating how Canvas' open architecture helps educators build the learning ecosystems they need to engage their students. Canvas offers countless integrations to enrich learning experiences for everyone, everywhere. See the directory.
Community Is POWERFUL
The Canvas Community shone brightly at CanvasCon Online. With over one million members, it's the most active and engaged online community in education. It's brimming with resources, tips, guides, discussion, innovation, and support, and it's more important than ever. Visit the Community.
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Canvas Advisory Board Updates
Upcoming Meeting: November 11, 2020
The next Canvas Advisory Board meeting will be on November 11, 2020. The meeting agenda can be found here.
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October Meeting Recap
The NET+ Canvas Service Advisory Board usually meets face to face twice a year with monthly virtual meetings in between. One of those face to face meetings usually happens yearly at InstructureCon. This year, with the pandemic, we chose to continue this tradition but hold a special 2 hour session during CanvasCon and like CanvasCon hold it virtually. The agendas for all our meetings are published including our October meeting.
For this particular meeting, it was more leadership focused with time spent in conversation with Steve Daly around the state of Instructure and Canvas that also yielded discussion around its future and what expectations we should anticipate. Further, we also collaborated with Jared Stein and Shaun Moon on tools/technologies we’re using to do things that Instructure doesn’t offer (but we wish it did).
Finally, we concluded on a discussion with Melissa Loble centered around the pain-points seen within support this past fall. The discussion quickly led to possible remedies for future semesters and ongoing strategies. These discussions are ongoing.
Should you have any questions or want further information around the work being done at the NET+ Canvas Service Advisory Board, please don’t hesitate to visit us at https://spaces.at.internet2.edu/x/7BOJCQ or contact us at netplus@internet2.edu and we will be happy to respond.
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NET+ Canvas Program Update
An Update on Accessibility
The NET+ Canvas Service Advisory Board has been working with Instructure on becoming compliant with the WCAG 2.1 AA standard. We are pleased to announce the NET+ Canvas program has updated its agreement with Instructure to reflect the WCAG 2.1 AA standard now and into the future. For more information on this, please contact netplus@internet2.edu and we will be happy to send you the updated language.
Based on this new standard, Instructure has publicly shared their commitment to the 3 core values of Validity, Inclusivity, and Flexibility. Canvas has been certified WCAG 2.1 AA substantially conformant by non-profit third-party WebAIM. Click here for more information.
NET+ Canvas - HELPFUL LINKS
Around the Community
Commentary from I2 Canvas users: advice, best practices, feedback.
R1 Peers
The Canvas Peers Research Universities Group (or R1 Peers Group) brings together representatives from large public and private research universities to share best practices around using Canvas and the surrounding ed tech ecosystem to support teaching and learning. They also collaborate closely with Instructure (Canvas vendor) and sit on the Internet2 NET+ Canvas Service Advisory Board to improve the Canvas platform and user experience for research universities. This group represents more than 250 members from 45 institutions of higher education and research across the United States, and around the world.
For context, recently the R1 Peers Group has collaborated in the following areas:
Tier 1 support
Archiving
3rd party integrations
Pain points
Data privacy
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LRS Standards SIG
The Learning Records Store (LRS) Special Interest Group (SIG) assembles use cases for an LRS, creates an LRS reference architecture, and develops implementation/engineering best practices. The SIG promotes open standards that enable data from a variety of teaching and learning tools to be included in the LRS.This group is chaired by the University of Washington and meets monthly on the fourth Wednesday of the month. For more information or to join this group, please reach out to Matthew Buss (mbuss@internet2.edu). Thank you.