Canvas Integrations Bring New Opportunities For Student Projects

Panopto and various homework systems integrate with Canvas, our USask LMS, allowing for users to access materials without needing additional account creations or sign-on. This integration for homework systems helps to link homework systems to the Canvas Grade Book and protects students from any potential risks associated with purchasing access from a publishers website.

There are also new tools that instructors and students can make use of that can be accessed either directly through Canvas integrations or outside of Canvas, but using the same single-sign-on that they use to access Canvas and PAWs.

WordPress is available for instructors and students to use to create blogs. Blogs are useful for activities involving reflection, sharing experiences and resources, and even connecting with a broader community for feedback. Instructors and students (for use with one or more classes) can request a blog.

Pressbooks has been used by educators in the creation and adaptation of open textbooks at USask. Accounts have been created for such projects, and materials created have been shared widely, with USask open textbooks adopted by instructors at institutions throughout North America. The Pressbooks integration with Canvas makes it possible for students to make use of the platform as part of a course. For example, College of Education professor Paula McDowell had students in ETAD 874 adapt an open textbook as a class project, with all students accessing via the Canvas integration.

With WordPress and Pressbooks becoming more easily accessible for everyone, students can move from being predominantly consumers of information to creators and collaborators. These tools allow new opportunities for using authentic assessment in addressing the Learning Technology Ecosystem Principles.

For more information on using WordPress and Pressbooks in your teaching, please contact the GMCTL.

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This resource is shared by the Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching and Learning (GMCTL), University of Saskatchewan, under a CC BY-NC-SA license.