Canvas Discussions Redesign Arrives May 13, 2024 

In Summer 2024, Canvas will officially roll out its “Discussions Redesign,” which will bring a visual refresh to Canvas Discussions while adding some new features. UW-Green Bay will be turning on the redesign between the Spring and Summer terms on Monday, May 13, 2024. On this date, all discussions will automatically upgrade to the redesign with no action needed from instructors. Read this post to learn about the new features coming to Discussions and where to look for familiar buttons that have changed locations within the Discussions Redesign.

New Features

The Discussions Redesign adds the following new ways for students and instructors to interact and to view discussion activity:

Anonymous Discussions

Screenshot of the Anonymous Discussion settings seen while creating or editing a Canvas discussion

With the Discussions Redesign, the options shown when creating a new discussion in a Canvas course remain largely unchanged except for the addition of a setting that allows instructors to enable full or partial anonymity while setting up an ungraded discussion. With “full” anonymity, all student replies will appear anonymously without the student’s name and profile picture. With “partial” anonymity, students can choose whether to reveal their name and profile picture while making a reply. Anonymity only applies to students; instructor posts and replies are always shown with names and profile pictures. If you allow students to create their own discussion topics, a new setting in the discussion options for your course allows you to choose whether students can create anonymous discussions.

@ Mentions

Screenshot of two discussion replies with @ mentions. The mentions each include a student's name and are highlighted in purple.

With the Discussions Redesign, discussion participants can mention an instructor or student in their replies by typing “@” and the beginning of a person’s name and then selecting the full name from a list of matches from the class roster that appears. Mentioned names are highlighted in the post and will trigger a notification for the mentioned person if they have the “New Mention” notification type enabled in their Canvas Notifications settings. Students and instructors can use this feature to more clearly identify who they are responding to in a discussion thread and get their attention.

Quote Reply

Screenshot of the Quote Reply option on a reply. The options menu icon and Quote Reply option are highlighted.

The Discussions Redesign has a new “Quote Reply” action which lets you include the contents of the post you are replying to within your reply. Using this feature will help add clarity to long discussion threads when replying to a post that is higher up in the thread. You can find the Quote Reply option within the options menu (the three vertical dots icon) of any discussion reply.

Multiple Viewing Options for Discussion Threads

A Canvas discussion reply. The link that can be selected to reveal threaded replies is highlighted and reads, "9 Replies, 2 Unread"

The Discussions Redesign offers a more condensed initial view where only the top-level replies to the topic are visible after opening a discussion. If a reply to the main topic has threaded replies (i.e., replies to the reply) “underneath” it, they are initially hidden, and the post will have a link under its contents which reports the number of threaded replies that are “underneath” that post. You can select that link to reveal the threaded replies in either an “Inline View,” which shows all replies underneath one another with varying indentation (like the older discussions design does), or a “Split View,” which shows threaded replies in a side panel that flies in from the right side of the screen.

A screenshot of the search bar and buttons found at the top of a Canvas discussion. The "View Split Screen" and "Expand Threads" buttons are highlighted.

You can switch between using the Inline and Split view modes with the View Inline / View Split Screen button at the top of the discussion page. When using Inline View, you can select the Expand Threads button at the top of the discussion to quickly reveal all threaded replies at once.

Edit History

A screenshot of a Canvas discussion reply that has been edited. The reply's "View History" link is highlighted.

If a student edits a reply after posting it, Canvas will now keep each version of that reply in an “edit history” that is available to instructors. Instructors will see a “view history” link on any reply that a student edited after posting and can select it to view that reply’s previous versions. Students can only view the edit history of their own replies.

Coming Soon: Discussion Checkpoints!

Canvas will soon (finally) be adding the oft-requested feature for supporting multiple due dates in a discussion. This feature may not yet be available when we enable the Discussions Redesign in May, but Canvas plans to add it during Summer 2024. With this feature, instructors will be able to easily set separate due dates for initial posts and for replies to peers’ posts within the same discussion, which will help automate reminders for students by adding calendar and to-do list items for each “checkpoint.” Watch for more information on this feature as it gets closer to release!

New Locations for Important Buttons

Don’t get lost within the Discussions Redesign by taking note of the following new locations for some often-used buttons:

Edit Button

A screenshot of the options menu for a Canvas discussion topic as seen by an instructor. The "options" icon and "Edit" menu item are highlighted.

The Edit button is moving from its prominent position at the top of the discussion page to being tucked within the options (three dots) menu found in the top-right corner of the discussion topic. Look for the Edit link in that options menu whenever you want to adjust an existing discussion’s settings.

Group Discussion Navigation

A screenshot of a Canvas group discussion with the groups icon highlighted in the top-left corner.

Group discussions will no longer show a blue box at the top of the page with the links for accessing each individual discussion. Instead, a group discussion will have a button with the “groups” icon in the top-left corner which you can select to switch between the discussions of each group.

Publishing and Subscribing

Two screenshots of the publish and subscribe icons of a discussion topic. The first screenshot shows the unpublished and unsubscribed icon states; the second screenshot shows the published and subscribed icon states.

The buttons for publishing a discussion and subscribing to it (for notifications) have shrunk into smaller icons that can be found next to the options (three dots) menu in the top-right corner of the discussion topic. You can select these smaller publish and subscribe icons to publish or unpublish a discussion and subscribe or unsubscribe to a discussion.

Ready, Set, Discuss!

Knowledge of these new features and interface changes is all you need for a smooth transition to using the Discussions Redesign in your courses. Your existing discussions will automatically upgrade on May 13 with all existing topics and replies retained. We hope that the fresh look and new features will facilitate more robust interactions within your courses! If you want to discuss ideas for using Canvas discussions in your course with a member of our team, we encourage you to request a CATL Consultation or reach out to us at catl@uwgb.edu.

“Zeroing in” on Canvas Gradebook Accuracy

A major benefit of using the Canvas gradebook to keep your grades is that it gives students a live and continuously updated view of their standing in the course. For better or worse, students trust that the grade shown to them in Canvas is an accurate measure of their current achievement and a predictor of their final grade. Students use the running total grade shown to them in the Canvas gradebook to set goals for upcoming assignments which will help them achieve their desired final grade. Unfortunately, mistakes and instructor misunderstandings about how Canvas calculates total grades may lead to the total grade students see in a course being misleading or inaccurate, and that can have negative effects on a student’s ability to plan for future coursework. Making sure your Canvas gradebook is accurate and up to date throughout the term also helps prevent final grade “surprises” and grade disputes. The Canvas gradebook practice that most frequently leads to students seeing misleading total grade calculations is leaving missing assignments ungraded. This article explains the importance of regularly entering scores of zero in Canvas for missing work, which is a necessary step for making sure your Canvas gradebook is working for students and not against them.

Because of the way Canvas treats assignments with no grade when calculating a student’s total grade, students who have a missing assignment see a higher total grade in Canvas than what they have truly earned until the instructor enters a zero score for the missing assignment. Canvas does not treat ungraded missing assignments (in other words, assignments that show a dash in the gradebook cell) as zeroes when calculating student’s total grades. Instead, Canvas ignores all ungraded assignments when calculating a student’s total grade, even those that are past due. When calculating the total grade percentage for the course and each assignment group, Canvas divides the student’s total earned points by a total number of possible points that does not include possible points from ungraded assignments. To make sure students are aware of the impact that missing work will have on their final grade, instructors should regularly enter a score of zero for students who have not turned in an assignment after its due date.

Here is an example of the impact that leaving missing work ungraded in the Canvas gradebook has on total score calculations: imagine a student who has participated in 5 weekly discussions worth 10 points each, earning all 10 points for each discussion (50 points total). Now imagine that a writing project worth another 50 points is past due, and this student has not submitted that assignment. If those five discussions and the writing project are the only assignments in the course to that point, the student will see their total grade as 100% (50/50 points or an A) until the instructor enters a zero for the missing project. When the instructor enters the zero for the writing project, the student’s total grade calculation will update to 50% (50/100 points or an F). The student will not see the impact of the missing project on their total score in Canvas until the instructor enters the zero; if the instructor waits to enter a zero until the end of the term, the student could go through the rest of the course thinking they are in much better standing than they truly are.

Gradebook Zeros Example

While it is easy to do the total grade calculation of this simple example with mental math because it uses a small number of assignments, real courses have greater complexity in grading. Because total grade calculations are often complex, students will struggle to understand and may underestimate the true impact of missing assignments on their grade if those assignments remain ungraded and therefore not included in the calculation of the total grade shown in Canvas. You can help students by entering zeroes right away or as early as it makes sense for your late policy!

New Submission Icon

If your course policies allow students to submit late work, entering a zero score on a missing assignment will not prevent the student from making a late submission. A zero grade is a big attention getter, and seeing the impact the zero has on the total grade in Canvas can motivate a student to make a late submission. Better late than never! To ensure the zero score is not demotivating, make sure students understand that the zero grade you entered is not final. You can use the “Message Students Who” feature in the Canvas gradebook to efficiently send a message to all students with zeros on an assignment which encourages them to submit late and earn (at least) partial credit. Once the student submits the assignment, the Canvas gradebook will show the new submission icon in the cell and update the cell’s status (color) to “Late” (blue). You can grade the late submission and enter a new score to replace the zero.

Entering zeroes for missing work is a crucial step for keeping an accurate and up-to-date gradebook in Canvas, but many instructors learn this step the hard way after receiving a complaint from a student who saw an inflated total grade in Canvas and then got surprised by their official final grade. While entering zeroes is not the only requirement for keeping accurate grades in Canvas, it is a simple-but-not-always-intuitive step that instructors should not ignore. Make sure to do it regularly—ideally while you grade submissions for an assignment. The sooner a student realizes how a missing assignment impacts their grade, the more time they have to compensate. If you would like Canvas to help you keep up with entering zeroes, applying a Missing Submission policy to the gradebook before the start of a course can automate this task for online submission assignments, but note that you may still need to enter some zeroes manually. If reading this article makes you want to have a deeper discussion on setting up and managing your Canvas gradebook, we encourage you to request a CATL Consultation to set up a meeting with a member of our team!

Sandbox Courses: A Time-Saving Tool for Course Design and Collaboration

Decorative image of sandbox with a toy truck.

The University of Wisconsin – Green Bay uses Canvas as its Learning Management System (LMS). When instructors participate in professional development opportunities offered by the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CATL), they often encounter information about creating a Canvas Sandbox course. But what exactly is a sandbox course? This blog post will define what a sandbox course is, what the differences are between a sandbox course and an instructional course, and some different use cases for sandbox courses that will help save you time in the long run.

What is a sandbox course?

A sandbox course is an empty Canvas course shell that can be used for a wide variety of purposes. These courses are not linked to the UWGB course registrar the way instructional courses are. Therefore, Sandbox courses can be used as a testing field or playground within the Canvas environment. Sandbox courses can be used by instructors as a tool to engage with Canvas content and teaching materials with other faculty or staff.

How is a sandbox course different from an instructional course?

  • Sandbox course: A sandbox course can be manually created at any time. These courses are not linked to a specific term within Canvas and do not have term start or end dates. Sandbox courses are not linked to the Registrar or SIS, so they do not have automatic enrollments and do not have any students.
  • Instructional course: An instructional course is created 75 days before the start date of the course as it is listed in the Schedule of Classes. These courses are linked to the UWGB student information system (SIS) which automatically enrolls students. This same system also automatically updates student enrollments as students add and drop courses at the beginning of a term to keep your course enrollments up to date. Both the instructor and students within a Canvas instructional course are added with SIS system sync. Therefore, the only Teachers within an instructional course are those listed as an instructor of record by the Registrar’s Office and only students who officially enroll in a course are added to an instructional course shell.

What are the limitations and benefits of a sandbox course?

Sandbox courses do not have the option to add someone to the course as a “Student.” This is a setting enforced by the University of Wisconsin System. Instructors can, however, utilize the “Student View” option in Canvas to view content in their Sandbox courses as a student would see it. To do so, any modules and content of interest must be published.

Canvas sandbox courses also allow for multiple individuals to have the role of “Teacher” at the same time. As sandbox courses are not linked to the SIS system, these roles can be granted by anyone within the course who has the role of “Teacher”. This allows for multiple instructors to contribute collaboratively to learning materials and activities to a course, or to allow instructors to share content with each other without worry that students will have access to those resources.

How can you utilize a sandbox course (instructors and staff)?

  • Sharing course content with other instructors or staff members while being mindful of FERPA. This is the safest way to share course content between instructors.
  • Preemptively building out your course content prior to the creation of your Instructional Canvas courses (these show up 75 days before the listed course start date). Content built in a sandbox course prior to the creation of an instructional course can be moved into the live instructional course using the Canvas Course Import tool.
  • Make “live” revisions to course content during an active teaching term without impacting the instructional course your students are engaging in. The best way to do this is to build a sandbox course and then copy the course content from your instructional course into the sandbox course. Then you can make reflective edits to that content in the sandbox course without impacting the activities that students have engaged with.
  • Collaborative course design and course building with a co-instructor or designers.
  • Creation of departmental or program trainings for instructors, staff, graduate students, and/or student employees. If you would like to create a course shell for training and development purposes and need to add users with the “Student” role, please reach out to dle@uwgb.edu and a Canvas admin can copy your sandbox into a course shell that supports the Student role.
  • Testing and experimenting to build new activities or assessments using different integrations (LTIs) such as PlayPosit and Hypothesis that are available within in the UWGB Canvas instance.

How do I create a sandbox course?

To create a Canvas sandbox course, you can follow the directions listed in this UWGB Knowledge Base article. There are, however, a few caveats for the creation of a sandbox course in the UWGB instance of Canvas. These conditions are listed below:

Global Navigation how to create a Sandbox

 

  • You must be enrolled in at least one existing Canvas course as a Teacher. If you are not enrolled in any Canvas courses as a Teacher yet, you can email DLE@uwgb.edu to have a Canvas admin create a sandbox for you.
  • You must access the Sandbox course creation tool, located under the Help menu within the Canvas Global Navigation Menu, from the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay instance website (https://uwgby.instructure.com).

 

What is Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI)? Exploring AI Tools and Their Relationship with Education

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) and machine-generated content have become prominent in educational discussions. Amidst technical jargon and concerns about the impact of traditional learning, writing, and other facets, understanding what these tools are and what they can do can be overwhelming. This toolbox guide provides insights into some commonly used generative AI tools and explains how they are changing the landscape of higher education.

What is Generative AI?

CATL created a short video presentation in Fall 2023 that provides instructors with an introduction to generative AI tools. The video and the linked PowerPoint slides below can help you understand how generative AI tools work, their capabilities, and their limitations. Please note, minor parts of the tool identification in the video have been corrected below in the ‘Common Generative AI Tools’ section. 

Introduction to Generative AI – CATL Presentation Slides (PDF)

Microsoft Copilot – UWGB Supported GAI Tool

 Microsoft Copilot is the recommended tool for UWGB instructors and students for safety, equity, and GBIT technical support. Using Microsoft Copilot with your UWGB account will bypass the need for individuals to create personal accounts which require providing personal information in the sign-up process. Learn more about Copilot below.

  • Microsoft has created its own AI called Copilot using a customized version of OpenAI’s large language model and many of the features of ChatGPT. Users can interact with the AI through a chatbot, compose feature, or the with Microsoft Edge search engine. Microsoft is also rolling out Copilot-powered features in many of its Office 365 products, but these features are currently only available for an additional subscription fee.
  • Faculty, staff, and students can access Copilot (which uses both ChatGPT 4.0 and Bing Chat) with their UWGB account. Visit www.copilot.microsoft.com to try out Copilot or watch our short video on how to log in using a different browser. By logging in with UWGB credentials, a green shield and “protected” should appear on the screen. The specifics of what is/is not protected can be complicated, but this Microsoft document is intended to provide guidance. Regardless of potential protections, FERPA and HIPPA-protected information (student or employee) should not be entered.
home page for Microsoft Copilot
The Microsoft Copilot home page as of May 2024

Common Generative AI Tools

Since OpenAI released ChatGPT in November 2022, various companies have developed their own generative AI applications based on or in direct competition with OpenAI’s framework. Learn more about a few common, browser-based generative AI tools below.

  • ChatGPT is an AI-powered chatbot created by OpenAI. The "GPT" in "ChatGPT" stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer.
  • ChatGPT previously required users to sign up for an account and verify with a phone number, but it can now be used without an account. Users can use the chatbot features of ChatGPT both with or without an account (currently version ChatGPT 3.5) or access more advanced models and features with a paid account (currently version ChatGPT 4.0). For more information or to try it yourself, visit chatgpt.com.
  • Google has created their own AI tool called Gemini (formerly Google Bard). Similar to ChatGPT and Copilot, Gemini can generate content based on users’ inputs. Outputs may also include sources fetched from Google.
  • Using Gemini requires a free Google account. If you have a personal Google account, you can try out Gemini at gemini.google.com.

 

Note that we are also learning more about potential access to Adobe Express and Firefly (including their image generation features) with UWGB login credentials, at least for employees. Watch this space for additional details as they become available.

What Can Generative AI Tools Do?

The generative AI tools we’ve discussed so far are all trained on large datasets that produce outputs based on patterns in that dataset. User prompts and feedback can be used to improve their outputs and models, so these tools are constantly evolving. Explore below to learn about some use cases and limitations of text-based generative AI tools.

Generative AI tools can be used in a multitude of ways. Some common use cases for text-based generative AI tools include: 

  • Language generation: Users can ask the AI to write essays, poems, emails, research papers, and Powerpoint presentations, or code snippets on a given topic.  
  • Information retrieval: Users can ask the AI simple questions like “explain the rules of football to me” or “what is the correct way to use a semicolon?”.
  • Language translation: Users can use the AI to translate words or phrases into different languages.  
  • Text summarization: Users can ask them to condense long texts, including lecture notes or entire books, into shorter summaries.
  • Idea generation: Users can use the AI to brainstorm and generate ideas for a story, research outline, email, or cover letter. 
  • Editorial assistance: Users can input their own writing and then ask the AI to provide feedback or rewrite it to make it more concise or formal.
  • Code generation: Users can ask the AI to generate code snippets, scripts, or even full programs in various programming languages based on specific requirements or prompts.
  • Image generation: Users can ask the AI to create images or visual content from text descriptions, including illustrations, designs or conceptual art.

These tools are constantly evolving and improving, but in their current state, many have the following limitations:

  • False or hallucinated responses: Most AI-powered text generators produce responses that they deem are likely answers based on complex algorithms and probability, which is not always the correct answer. As a result, AI may produce outputs that are misleading or incorrect. When asking AI complex questions, it may also generate an output that is grammatically correct but logically nonsensical or contradictory. These incorrect responses are sometimes called AI "hallucinations."
  • Limited frame of reference: Outputs are generated based on the user's input and the data that the AI has been trained on. When asking an AI about current events or information not widely circulated on the internet, it may produce outputs that are not accurate, relevant, or current because its frame of reference is limited to data that it has been trained on. 
  • Citation: Although the idea behind generative AI is to generate unique responses, there have been documented cases in which an AI has produced outputs containing unchanged, copyrighted content from its dataset. Even when an AI produces a unique response, some are unable to verify the accuracy of their outputs or provide sources supporting their claims. Additionally, AI tools have been known to produce inaccurate information, citations, and can even hallucinate citations 
  • Machine learning bias: AI tools may produce outputs that are discriminatory or harmful due to pre-existing bias in the data it has been trained.

The potential for GAI tools seems almost endless — writing complete essays, creating poetry, summarizing books and large texts, creating games, translating languages, analyzing data, and more. GAI tools can interpret and analyze language, similar to how human beings can. These tools have become more conversational and adaptive with each update, making it difficult to discern between what is generated by an AI and what is produced by a human, and the machine-learning models they are based upon imitate the way humans learn, so their accuracy and utility will only continue to improve over time.

What Does This Mean for Educators?

The existence of this technology raises questions about which tasks will be completed all or in part by machines in the future and what that means for our learning outcomes, assessments, and even disciplines. Some experts are discussing to what extent it should become part of the educational enterprise to teach students how to write effective AI prompts and use GAI tools to produce work that balances quality with efficiency. Other instructors are considering integrating lessons on AI ethics or information literacy into their teaching. Meanwhile, organizations like Inside Higher Ed have rushed to conduct research and surveys on current and prospective AI usage in higher ed to offer some benefits and challenges of using generative AI for leaders in higher education looking to make informed decisions about AI guidance and policy.

Next Steps for UWGB Instructors

The Universities of Wisconsin have issued official guidance on the use of generative AI, but the extent to which courses will engage with this technology is largely left up to the individual instructor. Instructors may wish to mitigate, support, or even elevate students’ use of generative AI depending on their discipline and courses.

Those interested in using these tools in the classroom should familiarize themselves with these considerations for using generative AI, especially regarding a tool’s accuracy, privacy, and security. As with any tool we incorporate into our teaching, we must be thoughtful about how and when to use AI and then provide students with proper scaffolding, framing, and guardrails to encourage responsible and effective usage.

Still, even for those who don’t want to incorporate this technology into their courses right now, we can’t ignore its existence either. All instructors, regardless of their philosophy on AI, are highly encouraged to consider how generative AI will impact their assessments, incorporate explicit guidance on AI tool usage in their syllabi, and continue to engage in conversations around these topics with their colleagues, chairs, and deans.

Learn More

Explore even more CATL resources related to AI in education:

If you have questions, concerns, or ideas specific to generative AI tools in education and the classroom, please email us at catl@uwgb.edu or set up a consultation!

Session Recording: “Getting Starting with Canvas: Building Your First Module” (Aug. 25, 2023)

Session Description

New to Canvas and not sure where to start? In this one-hour workshop, we will walk you through the essentials for building your first module! Learn about the features you might need to prepare your class including pages, assignments, discussions, and quizzes.