Canvas Champion: Dr. Michele Crawford

Canvas Champion: Dr. Michele Crawford

“There is nothing to lose and so much to gain! Plus, there are many of us out there to help with the transition.”

Dr. Michele Crawford is one of many faculty members who made the move to TXST Canvas this summer. Dr. Crawford is a lecturer in the biology department and a Canvas Champion. She teaches anatomy and physiology for non-nursing majors.

Dr. Crawford has already moved all her course content into Canvas. She said she found the move easy, partly because she has used the system in other roles since 2017. She is Canvas certified and the system serves as her primary delivery method of course information for her lecture and lab courses.

“Having had experience with other platforms, I have found Canvas to be the least intimidating in getting to know,” she said. “Canvas is the friendliest in allowing for creativity in assignments, announcements, and pages used to convey content to the students.

“I really feel that once one gets past the scariness of the newness, they will see that their fear is soon replaced with the joy and ease that Canvas has to offer in teaching,” Dr. Crawford said.

Although Dr. Crawford enjoys using many of the Canvas tools as part of her courses, her top three favorite are the discussion, module, and groups tools.

Discussion

The discussion tool allows instructors and students to interactively communicate in conversations (focused-single post and related comments or threaded-multiple posts and related comments) between two or more people, as a class, or in groups. These discussions can be created as an assignment and graded, or as just a forum.

Dr. Crawford opens her class several days early and provides fun questions for her students to answer using a discussion topic. These questions serve as an ice breaker allowing students to get to know each other a little better in a more relaxed format.

“The discussion tool is my favorite ice breaker tool,” she said. “They can add photos or videos to that, and they always seem to enjoy talking about who they are in that style versus face-to-face.”

Modules

By setting up modules, instructors can organize content by weeks, units, or other structures to control the flow of the course. Modules may include files, discussions, assignments, quizzes, and other course materials.

“I really enjoy the module tool with its simplicity,” she said.

Groups

Many courses require students to work in groups to complete assignments. The groups tool allows instructors to set up groups for student collaboration on course work, choose to grade or not grade facilitated projects, and view all activity within those groups. This tool is great for group discussions whether online or in person.

“I like randomly assigning students to groups in discussions, sometimes big groups and sometimes small, so they get a chance to meet and interact,” she said. “It allows for students to connect to others in their class when they may never have done so otherwise.”

Dr. Crawford encourages colleagues to join her in Canvas and is happy to share more about the tools and her experiences.

“There is nothing to lose and so much to gain,” she said. “Plus, there are many of us out there to help with the transition.”

She hears positive feedback about Canvas from those who were strictly TRACS users previously, as well as from those who have only known Canvas.

Like Dr. Crawford, most Texas State faculty are expected to be teaching their courses this fall through Canvas. Now is the time to prepare yourself. The IT Assistance Center (ITAC) offers many courses to guide your course transition. Start with the Canvas Basics course and move through the other courses. Whatever your level, ITAC provides Canvas training opportunities to meet your needs. Canvas also has many resources available within the system to help you make the transition.

Rebecca Ormsby is the communications specialist in the IT Marketing and Communications office.

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