As a College of IST faculty member, you are receiving this email to help assist you with Canvas and online learning.
Welcome to the College of IST Learning Design eNewsletter
December 2017
Canvas Updates
The latest release from Canvas happened December 9th. Not all of the updates may apply to Penn State’s usage of Canvas. Of note from Canvas:
Assignments: Assignment Group Contents Move MenuThe Assignment Group Settings menu includes a Move Content option, which moves all assignment content items in an assignment group to another group. This functionality is designed for consistency with other Move-To menus in Canvas.
Groups: Student Inactive Status
Instructors can view the inactive label for students within a group. This change helps instructors identify inactive students in a group and move group memberships, if necessary.
For more information, visit the Canvas Production Release Notes
World Campus Courses: Spring ‘18 Prep
Learning Design has been hard at work on Spring 2018 preparations. If you are teaching a World Campus course for us, your instructional designer will notify you before December 21st that your SP18 section is ready. We ask that faculty do not publish their courses.
On January 2nd, our head of production, Laura Adams, will publish courses. Learning Design publishes courses one week early to allow students a chance to review course expectations and then drop the course, if needed, before the semester starts. Classes begin on Monday, January 8th.
We are looking forward to another great semester with our faculty!
Penn State Holiday Break and Out of Office Information
Penn State will close Friday, December 22nd through Tuesday, January 1stfor winter break. We will be back in the office on Tuesday, January 2nd. However, as an FYI, Canvas support will still be open during this period if faculty members have any Canvas-related questions. Canvas support may be reached by clicking the question mark found on left-hand navigation menu in Canvas or by calling (833) 846-7691.
And while we are mentioning out of office information, as a reminder, Amy Stever will be out of the office Saturday, December 9th through Friday, December 29th. Sherry, Alison and Learning Design will be available if you have an urgent issue to direct you to the appropriate contacts. Contact Sherry and Alison mps@ist.psu.edu or (814) 865-0053.
We wish all of our faculty members a happy holiday season!
Join Us for Our Next Online Teaching and Learning Meeting
We are happy to report the Online Teaching and Learning Meetings will resume in January. Please mark your calendars and join us on Friday, January 25th from 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Please contact Amy Garbrick, Gary Heberling, or Fred Fonseca with questions or agenda items.
Congratulations Are In Order!
Brian Daigle and his wife Emily welcomed their first child! Hazel Lee Daigle was born on November 14th. She weighed 8lbs 6 oz and was 21”. Brian and his family are doing well!
Amy Garbrick and Chris Gamratboth successfully defended their dissertations on December 7th! Amy’s dissertation is entitled ‘Factors Influencing Engagement in an Online Asynchronous Discussion Forum’ while Chris’s dissertation is named ‘Digital Badge Systems as Cultural Tools for Personalized Professional Development’.
Ronda Reid obtained her Project Management Professional (PMP) certification in early November. PMP is an internationally recognized professional designation.