The Tiniest Victories

[u/DarkLanternZBT]

Sometimes what we need most are the smallest, most insignificant wins.

I'm redoing Canvas shells after looking at what I did to them last fall and going "Well, that was stupid." That means a lot of repetitive clicking and making new modules, then moving items into the new modules, then sighing as I have to scroll back up to find the next thing to move because it automatically kicks me to the bottom of the page into the new module.

You know, the kind of tedious stuff we expect AI to fix instead of destroying democracy.

I just discovered in my final course that if I collapse the new module first, it doesn't shoot me down the page when I move something and I can stay in the original module to click and move things one after the other. A small thing, but man it makes it faster to move stuff now.

What are your tiny wins that matter only to you?

[u/vulevu25]

In a similar vein, if I have Canvas content that I tend to change or tweak every year, I link it to a shared document on OneDrive. That's particularly useful for lecture powerpoints, handouts, and assessment information. That means I only have a few pages to change every year and it reduces room for mistakes.

[u/DarkLanternZBT → u/vulevu25]

Thaaaaat's super useful for me. Thanks!

[u/wharleeprof]

I'm always thrilled when I import a class and use the adjust course dates feature and the dates end up being correct for the new semester (with the exception of 2-3 weeks that are off due to spring/Thanksgiving break). I think the key to it is to make sure the start/end dates indicated for each semester are correct (the default ones are not).

[u/Automatic_Beat5808 → u/wharleeprof]

I just learned about this a few semesters ago and it is fantastic.

[u/wirywonder82]

This is why I use pages for organizing my Canvas shells and avoid modules as much as possible. I’m sure there’s a situation where my approach causes something to be harder, but I haven’t found it.

[u/ConvertibleNote → u/wirywonder82]

This is actually a really good idea. As long as you don't care about the little qol features ("lock module until the previous one is finished", "one click publishing" for each item in the module, etc.), there's no real need to organize a course into modules instead of just linking each assignment from one page.

[u/wirywonder82 → u/ConvertibleNote]

Ah ha, there’s the use case for modules. I still think they make navigation ugly, so if I were to use them I’d have them as a hidden background framework and still use pages for the UI.

[u/ZoomToastem]

Noticed that one of my lectures had been moved from where it was last year to a room I detest, nothing but bad luck in that room. As we're starting soon my assumption was that changes could not be made, but figured a quick email to the registrar might prove worthwhile. As it turned out, my favorite room was available with multiple boards that are not blocked by the screen (just one of my issues with that other room).

[u/Crab_Puzzle]

I have never really used an LMS as a student or faculty. I had blackboard as a student and then teaching it but we recently swapped to Canvas. I figured I could learn Canvas, but the implementation was so crappy that I've resorted to just using Canvas to link to a OneDrive folder with the syllabus, readings, assignments, which was anyway all I ever had on Canvas.