Student intern: Sian Gooding
Staff supervisors: Jon Binner (Metallurgy and Materials) and Mark Lee (Computer Science)
This project involved bringing together examples of best practice in the use of the Canvas Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) for undergraduate teaching, development of new examples, and the writing of a brief guide on its use.
One of the main objectives was to ensure the guide was clear, concise and user friendly.
The first phase of the project involved looking at how different departments had utilized Canvas and establishing clear categories that its features could be grouped into.
One of the problems of this approach was that for some features (for instance Quizzes) there were many examples across departments, but for other features none. A result of this was to look for examples from outside of the university in conjunction with contacting Canvas directly for specific illustrations.
The end product is a guide that outlines how to use some of the key Canvas features. These are introduced with examples of best practice and ideas for application.
Sian Gooding writes, "I believe the project was a success and will not only make the use of the VLE clearer and more enjoyable for staff but will have beneficial implications for students also."
The University of Birmingham Canvas Guide is available to download here.