NERCOMP Regional Canvas User Group Meeting Agenda

7.30 am-9:00 am  Registration and Coffee

9.00 am-9:10 am  Introduction to the Day 
Mary MacDonald, Senior Instructional Technologist at Framingham State University
Adam Hauerwas, Academic Systems Architect / LMS Administrator at Providence College

9:10 am-10:15 am  Instructure/Canvas Speaker
Speaker:  Zach Pendleton, Chief Architect at Instructure

Since the release of ChatGPT on November 30, 2023, educators everywhere have been grappling with what it means for education. In this session we'll discuss the latest in AI, talk about what's coming next, and show how Canvas can help you safely and intentionally use AI to better reach your students.

10:15 am-10:30 am Break 

10:30am-11:30 am  Lightning Round Presentations

The Lightning Round presentations are a series of 15-minute talks designed to share best practices and insights and encourage conversations about innovative ideas and tips for using Canvas tools. 

Placement Testing for Fun and Prophet
Speaker: Adam Hauerwas, Academic Systems Architect / LMS Administrator, Providence College

It started simply enough: the Math department wanted to assess incoming students’ skills for course placement.  But they wanted to do so with both quantitative and qualitative assessments.  Then Modern Languages wanted to do have a test; then an Undeclared Survey was created.  Today we administer placement tests for Math, languages, and Chemistry, we survey interests from Undeclared students, and run Academic Integrity training for 1200 incoming students annually.  We’ll share 15 years of experience, Canvas tips and tricks (such as why we’re still using Classic Quizzes), and interesting ways we’re integrating the data for the Registrar and Academic Advising.

Credentials at Babson College
Speaker:  Meryl Poku, Instructional Technologist at Babson College

Babson College has successfully leveraged Canvas Credentials to modernize its certification process by transitioning from traditional paper certificates to digital badges. This initiative, led by the Academic Technology Innovation Center, aims to enhance the recognition and verification of skills and achievements. I will briefly describe our assessment of needs, selection of Canvas Credentials, Implementation/Pilot Phase, to our move to integration with curriculum (COIL) and school-wide need (Foundations of AI).

Impact(ful) Communication: Practical Insights from Our First Year
Speaker:  Ryan Sobeck, Assistant Director, Educational Technology at the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning, Yale University

This session will provide an overview of the assumptions we made about how Impact could meet our communication needs in Canvas, misconceptions we had about the tool prior to working closely with it, use case stories from our first year of using Impact, and our future plans for using Impact at Yale University.  

11:30 am-12:00 pm Open Discussion

12:00 pm-1:00 pm Lunch

1:00 pm-2:30 pm   API/Postman Workshop and Roundtable Discussion

In the afternoon we will have a workshop to introduce how to use the Canvas API in Postman to take action in the platform.  Concurrently, several tables will be reserved for roundtable discussions with other attendees for particular themes and topics.

2:30 pm – 3:00 pm  Next Steps / Wrap Up

3:00 pm   End