7.2 Gauging and Enhancing Your Canvas Proficiency

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College of the Desert uses the Canvas course management system to serve as its primary online learning environment. Thus, it is essential that faculty teaching online are as proficient as possible with use of Canvas. If you are brand new to Canvas, it's important to seek out training, mentorship, resources, and on-demand support that can help you build your skills. Pages from elsewhere in this Handbook with recommended resources to support your Canvas learning include:

Self-Assessing Your Canvas Skills

Think about your use of Canvas to develop and/or present:

Accessible, useful course content materials and resources
Engaging, meaningful activities and assessments
Compelling and effective communication and interaction (announcements, discussions, grades/feedback)
An overall comprehensible, intuitive, and engaging experience (organization, navigation, design)

With the various elements of effective Canvas use in mind, consider:

What are your areas of greatest confidence and comfort with Canvas? What are your frustrations with Canvas?
Which Canvas tools have been most important to you for designing and teaching your classes?
What strategies and resources have you used previously to support your use of Canvas?
Within your Canvas classes: What have students found most useful and engaging? What have students struggled with or found confusing?
What Canvas skills and knowledge would you like to build, and which resources do you think will be most helpful?

Enhancing Your Canvas Skills

After reflecting on the above, do you feel like your Canvas skills are:

Basic: You feel like it takes longer to build and run your Canvas classes than it should, and/or you know that some students have less than optimal experiences in your Canvas classes, due to your incomplete Canvas skills or knowledge
- Consider enrolling in COD's Self-Paced Introduction to Teaching with Canvas course.
- Don't hesitate to consult with Canvas experts via the 24x7 help line, or with local resources at COD including departmental peers, the two Distance Education/ Instructional Coordinators, Donna Greene (Dgreene@collegeofthedesert.edu) or Cora Leighton (Cleighton@collegeofthedesert.edu), or the COD Instructional Support Specialist- BFIC, Tony Aguilar (toaguilar@collegeofthedesert.edu).
Intermediate: You are comfortable using Canvas to create and teach classes, but you believe some improvements in your methods could enhance the student experience
- Look for recorded workshops on COD's Faculty Resources Canvas page that might enhance your skills.
- Consider enrolling in an @ONE online teaching class.
Everything you need them to be at this point?
- Awesome! Please share your skills and knowledge with other faculty!
- There are always opportunities to polish and refine - keep seeking feedback from students and peers, and keep on the lookout for tips and tools that could take your classes to another level.

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