Canvas Baseline Practices (CBP)

Kia ora koutou katoa. My name is Alan Shaker and I’m the current President of the Auckland University Students Association.

Today I’m excited to share with you some essential Canvas baseline practices that can improve the overall student experience at Waipapa Taumata Rau.

As educators you already know that creating a consistent and coherent learning environment is vital to supporting our students and enhancing their learning journey. As a student myself I understand the importance of having a well-structured course in Canvas that is why the AUSA student council worked closely with the University Learning and Teaching Design Team to provide feedback on our experiences with Canvas over the last couple of years.

AUSA is thrilled that the University is addressing the issue of course inconsistency with the new Canvas Baseline Practices as part of the wider Curriculum Framework Transformation Program. What does this mean for you as an academic? It means that by following these essential Canvas Baseline Practices, you can improve the student learning experience and create a more consistent and coherent learning environment for all of our students.

Let us start with the first practice. Well-structured and easy to navigate courses are valuable because they allow students to quickly find the course content they need, reducing frustration and improving their overall learning experience. Use Modules to provide students with an overview of the overall course structure and Pages within Modules to provide course content, including links to files and resources.

Hiding unused tools in the navigation bar also helps to simplify the interface making it less cluttered and more focused on the essential course components.

Orientation or welcome modules that provide students with a clear introduction to the course and teaching team, including contact information, assessment overview and links to student support resources are essential to help students feel welcome and informed about the course.

Including information about class representatives also fosters a sense of community and encourages student engagement.

Clearly communicating course policies, rules and regulations is important because it sets expectations for students and helps to prevent misunderstandings or conflicts.

Creating a Syllabus page with links to the digital course outline, course learning outcomes and special considerations provide students with a comprehensive overview of the course, which helps them to stay on track and meet their academic goals.

Publishing assessments with their due dates before the start of the course and placing all relevant assessment information in the Canvas assignment is valuable because it provides students with a clear understanding of their workload and assessment expectations. This helps students plan their workload and find information for the assessments quickly and easily, which is crucial in supporting better time management in students’ busy lives. It also reduces stress and anxiety associated with unclear expectations.

Ensuring that all course content meets accessibility guidelines and is copyright or license compliant is valuable because it promotes inclusivity and equity in the learning environment. The built-in accessibility checker in Canvas and the newly acquired UDOIT tool for Canvas make it easier to ensure that all students have equal access to course materials regardless of their abilities or circumstances.

Recording or uploading instructor-created video content to the Panopto server further supports this goal by providing students with a consistent and accessible way to engage with course material.

By implementing these essential Canvas baseline practices we can improve the overall student experience and create a more engaging and exciting learning environment for all of our students.

So let’s work together to support our students and enhance their learning journey at Waipapa Taumata Rau the University of Auckland.

Hi, my name’s Ayolabi Martins. I’m a second year Law and Arts student. I’m also the President of our Disabled Students Association.

My name is Zainab. I’m a Bachelor of Arts student majoring in Classics and Psychology and I was diagnosed with ADHD in 2021.

Hi, I’m Aeson Chappell. I’ve done a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Science and I’ve done a honors degree also in Biomedical Science. I’ve experienced issues relating to diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder and associated issues with sensory processing and working memory.

Ayolabi:
One lecturer posts the slideshow a week in advance, says, “Here are the readings. Here’s everything we’ll be doing for the next week.” But the next lecturer only does so the night before. That makes it increasingly difficult for students to keep up to date and aptly follow along with class content.

I, for example, have a hard time writing on pens and paper, so I typically ask to use a computer. So, I don’t lack time by needing to write on paper.

One really important thing that lecturers should be mindful of is colour schemes and colour coordination, font sizes as well. For colourblind individuals, mixing backgrounds of red, green, and text of white, it’s quite challenging. I’m aware that images are a bit of an issue as well. Images cannot utilise that Canvas e-reader. Maybe inserting text that might explain the image.

Zainab:
Some lecturers didn’t have the modules tab on Canvas. Rather, they just had a Canvas resource tab and a lecture slides tab, which made our Canvas page quite cluttered. When I went on there, it was just filled with textbooks that said compulsory or recommended. But then turns out that that wasn’t the readings that we would do every week. The weekly readings were actually just on the module page. Lecturer to lecturer, like some of them are just good at designing their courses. Everything’s easy to find on their Canvas pages, but you know, some lecturers just make it overly complicated. Canvas pages would look a lot different from other courses which can make it a bit confusing. I get that all courses aren’t the same but generally I feel like most courses you should be able to keep a similar format.

Aeson:
So in order to find a specific piece of information I sort of have to remember it as a step-by-step instruction of how to get there. And so it would be something like go to the homepage, and then select the modules, and then scroll down to the bottom, and then select this link, and then you have to open this, and then download it. And it becomes quite complicated when there’s a lot of steps to actually find what you’re looking for. And when this set of steps is different that makes it really difficult.

Sometimes different courses will use similar words but mean different things. Sometimes the modules section can mean very different things on Canvas. Sometimes modules refers to like different blocks of content. But then sometimes modules could just be labs versus lectures, or it could be just different groupings of file formats. So there’s a lot of variability there.

They will update information on one page of how to get there, but then they won’t realise that the same information is also somewhere else and will not update the second location. And so that can be quite annoying when it’s conflicting information. Sometimes it could even be really important information.

Zainab:
What I would like other students to do is to reach out to your lecturers if you’re struggling and you know tell them exactly what’s going on and usually lecturers are quite helpful if they understand where you’re coming from.

Aeson:
So for lecturers I would say take feedback from students.

Ayolabi:
By simply letting all my lecturers know I have medical infusions once or twice a month that maybe for a full week I may be out of action, they’ve been able to give me the grace to just maybe have an extra day for some assignments that are quite timely or close to my infusion dates.