Canvas Champion: Dr. Ha-Chin Yi

Canvas Champion: Dr. Ha-Chin Yi

I would strongly urge other faculty to jump on it because Canvas can make learning experiences better that TRACS may not be able to deliver.”

Dr. Ha-Chin Yi considers himself a tech enthusiast, so when TXST Canvas opened in spring 2020, he dove in. He was curious, and wanted to explore Canvas’ capabilities, see how it could improve the way his students learned, and help him build the best learning environment for them.

“It has improved the student learning experience in that a student can be directed to course requirements in an efficient and effective manner,” said Dr. Yi, professor in the Department of Finance and Economics. “I heard positive feedback on my pages where I summarized my lectures in an organized manner.”

Like other Canvas Champions before him, he has found the many tools in Canvas to be very helpful.

“These tools are easy enough to navigate for both faculty and student,” Dr. Yi said.

He highlighted three tools as the most used in his courses.

SpeedGrader

The SpeedGrader tool allows instructors to view and grade student assignments in one place. All assignments and their values are loaded and saved ahead of time. When assignments are graded in SpeedGrader, the scores are also visible in Gradebook. There are many ways to access SpeedGrader, such as Assignments, Quizzes, Graded Discussion, and the Gradebook.

“Many students find feedback given by SpeedGrader useful to understand an instructor’s critique on their homework submission,” he said.

Pages

Pages are designed to open to the front page of a course (if there is one). When creating Pages, you can also assign permissions for editing the page and choose to add it to the To Do Lists. This keeps students on track with course activities by showing a To Do List with check boxes (if set up for editing) and visible in the course calendar.

Dr. Yi said he extensively utilizes Pages within Modules to create learning materials in a sequenced order.

“My Pages contain class summary, lecture videos, articles, YouTube feeds and others,” he explained. “I would strongly urge other faculty to jump on it because Canvas can make learning experiences better that TRACS may not be able to deliver.”

Modules

Modules allow instructors to organize content to help guide students to the appropriate course materials and information. Instructors may include files, pages, discussions, assignments, quizzes, and other learning materials for their course.

“In my Modules, I listed several requirements by topic,” Dr. Yi said.

Canvas allows integration with textbook publishers, making it easy to integrate them into his course requirements in situations where a student might need to read an e-book.

“After they read the assigned chapter, a student is directed to my Pages to take a quiz,” he said. “All these sequenced requirements can be organized within Modules and this is why I find it the most useful feature.”

Dr. Yi is one of the many faculty members leading the way into Canvas. He encourages his colleagues to join him in the using the new learning management system, and welcomes open discussion about his site and how he can help others.

Now is the time to prepare yourself. Texas State faculty are expected to be teaching their courses in Canvas this fall and teaching completely in Canvas in spring 2021.

Get ahead and take one of the many training courses offered by the IT Assistance Center (ITAC). The hands-on courses will help with your course transition. I suggest faculty begin with the Canvas Basics course and then 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 a communications specialist in the IT Marketing and Communications office.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email