Enhancing the student and instructor experience through the use of Canvas course templates

The transition from Connect to Canvas as the Learning Technology Environment (LTE) has given us an opportunity to examine and renew our relationship with the online environment we create for our students. Studies conducted throughout the LTE Renewal process identified concerns with how Connect was used: instructors faced time constraints to get their courses up and running, and students struggled with the lack of consistency between Connect courses. We in the Biology Program have striven to further understand the issues brought up by the LTE Renewal studies, and to develop easy-to-use, customizable Canvas course templates as a way to address both issues. In this Supper Series, we will discuss the data that led us to develop the templates, examine student and faculty responses to the use of these templates in our Biology courses, and discuss how our Canvas experiences may be further improved. There will be an opportunity to showcase our templates and share ideas about best practices in course management systems.