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Welcome to this section. This section will give you an introduction to the fundamentals of Canvas about communication.

Structure

Notice that all sections have the same structure as the modules. Each section starts with a description of the learning goals and an introductory video. After the introductory page, you can go through the informative pages of the section to become familiar with the Canvas functionalities. This module ends with an (optional) assignment and quiz.

VU Amsterdam Canvas Community

Just like the other modules, this section contains a discussion forum. We invite you to share your ideas with your fellow teachers. Let's learn from and with each other. In this module we discuss different ways to communicate with students. To streamline communication with students, it is advisable to think carefully about which Canvas communication function can be used best within in a certain context or related to a specific communication aim and to show some reluctance to the use of Announcements only. Curious about the ideas of your fellow teachers about the (appropriate) use of Announcements? Check the Discussion: When to Make Announcements?

Feel free to participate and join this VU Amsterdam Canvas Community!

Time invested

If you read all the content, make the assignments and take the quiz, this section will take about 30 minutes. Keep in mind that you do not have to read all the pages from the beginning to the end. Read the pages that are useful to you, and click ‘next’ if you think the information is not essential to you (at this moment). This course will remain available in the future, so if you would like to learn more about a specific subject or functionality in the coming months, that is possible.

However, some functions within Canvas are so important that we think it is necessary that you take a look at the pages regarding these functions. We have marked these pages as ‘Essential’. These pages form in our opinion the basis of Canvas and everyone that follows this course should at least visit these pages.

We have also created a very simple Canvas Example Course. This course features all – and only those (!) – elements that we have considered to be ‘Essential’. You can take a look at the Example Course by clicking here and subsequently clicking the Join this Course button in the upper right corner of your screen.

Learning goals

After completing this section, you know:

How to create announcements with the Rich Content Editor
What conversations are
How to use conversations
What conferences are
How to use conferences
How to create conferences
What discussions are
How to create a discussion to communicate
What chat is
How to use chat in your course

Try things in your Practice Course!

If you want to try out the things you have learned in this course, you can do this in your own practice course. You can find your course (Practice Course [VUnetID]) in Courses in the Global Navigation Menu (the blue column at the left side of your screen). This course will remain available in the future, so if you want to try something new later this year (or in the following years!), that is possible.

There are no students in your practice course, so if you want to try out functions that require student participation, there are two things you can do:

View the course using Student View
Add a colleague (or multiple colleagues) to your course as a student