Canvas Tip of the Week: Dropping the Lowest Grade

How to drop the lowest Assignment grade in Canvas

Canvas allows instructors to set the assignments so that the students’ lowest grade is dropped for the quarter.  Instructors do this so that if students have to miss an assignment it will not drop their grade significantly.  This can be set at the beginning of the quarter and becomes a continual adjustment to the students’ grades or at the end of the quarter before the final grades are tallied up. 

For example, if one assignment is worth 5 points and another assignment is worth 10 points, Canvas will look to the assignment which will most hurt the student’s overall score (a combination of total points AND percentage).  The student gets 1 out of 5 on one quiz, and 5 out of 10 on the other.  The 1/5 is 25% and the 5/10 is 50% but the second quiz is worth double the points, so that one gets dropped from the student’s overall score.

To include “Drop the Lowest Grade” in your Assignments:

Navigate to your Course Assignments tab in the left-hand pane | navigate to the desired Module | Select the Module’s pencil icon (edit button) | Select Add grading rule | Select Drop the Lowest and type in the number of scores you wish to drop (1, 3, etc.) | select Update.

If you have any questions on this or anything related to Canvas, you can also send an email to eLearning@tacomacc.edu and that will create a ticket.   

ctcLink

Starting April 1st, 2013 I will be starting a new position at Tacoma Community College.  I will be stepping down as eLearning Director to assume the position of ctcLink Project Director for TCC.  Christopher Soran, who also contributes to this blog, will be taking over as the eLearning Director in my absence.

What is ctcLink?  ctcLink is a very large project for the entire Washington State Community and Technical College system where we will migrate from our, very old, administrative system (registration, financial aid, payroll, etc...) to a modern platform.  This modern platform is an implementation of PeopleSoft from the vendor Ciber.

Tacoma Community College has been chosen to be a FirstLink college, which means we will be one of the first institutions to go through this migration.  My role as Project Director will be to try and make this migration run as smoothly as possible for the students, faculty and staff at TCC.  I am very excited about this project as it should make all the administrative processes at TCC easier to use.  

This new role will be taking up a lot of my time so I probably will not be able to post to this blog as often as I would like, but I do plan on contributing information about this project as it relates to student use of the new system.  If you would like to learn more about the project you can check out the ctcLink Connect blog.

Online Student Success

After reading Adaptability to Online Learning: Differences Across Types of Students and Academic Subject Areas from the Community College Research Center (CCRC) (http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/publications/adaptability- to-online-learning.html) I was very happy I had attended the Instructional Technology Council eLearning conference a couple of weeks ago.

This report looks at online courses in the Washington State Community and Technical College system. Although I may not agree with everything listed in this report it really did illustrate to me that we need to be doing more to support online student success. I believe that the eLearning department at TCC has done a great job supporting faculty and students with the technology used to teach/learn online, but there is more to teaching and learning online than just the technology. We really need to start incorporating other skills around time management, productivity and work/school/life balance to our workshops as these can be just as, if not more important, than some of the technological skills.

There were a couple of really good sessions at the eLearning conference that I think will be helpful as we develop activities to help promote online student success. The first session was a vendor hosted session on SmarterMeasure. SmarterMeasure is an assessment tool that helps students identify their readiness to take online classes. The assessment focuses on technical aptitude, school/life balance and time management. Once the student has completed the 30 minute assessment they receive a report that gives the student a good picture of their readiness to take online courses. This information is also available to eLearning staff so we can work with students on problem areas and refer them to campus resources as necessary.

The second helpful session I attended was about an online student success course that the Alamo colleges are offering. This course covered the technology but also focused on the other areas mentioned above that promote student success. This course was offered in the learning management system so students could become familiar with the tools.

I think using the SmarterMeasure assessment in conjunction with an online student success course will be invaluable to our eLearning students. Maybe this strategy will go a long way to change some of the troubling statistics that were mentioned in the CCRC report.  

What do you think?  If we created a free online student success course that was offered during Week Zero, would you be interested in taking it?  Let us know in the comments.

Free Video Editors for Windows

Well it comes to that video essay you've dreamed of for a very long time. Or, your video assignment for the speech class. You've got your footage, photos, audio bits, and now you're ready to mash them all in the nicest piece you've ever dreamed of. But one thing that beginning video makers and video editors spend more time deciding is the video editing software they will use for the post-production. Here is a list of some titles that you could use for just basic trimming, transitions, photo slideshows, and voice over. This list will not prioritize the titles by best to worst or vice versa, I am just sharing the ones I found useful and easy to learn.

Be also aware that these titles are freely available on the world wide web and so be careful where you download them from. I am including the links to the maker sites but if for some reason you decide to download them from somewhere else you are doing that upon your own risk. I would also suggest that you scan for viruses before you install any software downloaded from the world wide web. As free ware these titles will suggest that you install toolbars or search engines but you can uncheck the suggestive boxes during installation. Keep your PC safe!!!

1. Windows Live Movie Maker is a given one. It comes as a part of your operating system or you can download it from Microsoft's website. Follow this download LINK if you would like to use this editor.

Here is a number of tasks you could complete using this editor:

- Import and edit slide shows and videos.

- Add photos and footage from your PC or camera. 

- Move elements of your project around.

- Speed it up or slow it down - it’s up to you.

- Add a soundtrack and a theme.

- Add transitions and effects. If you choose a theme they will be added automatically.

- Share your movie online on Facebook, YouTube or other social networking and video sharing sites.

2. Avidemux [this one is actually available for Mac, Windows, and Linux].

This title is very simple and straight forward with basic tasks such as cut, paste, and encode. Avidemux will not allow you to add multiple tracks of video, photo or audio, though. It is just a very simplified and fast cutter. So, if you have a video you would like to use and would like to prep your shorts before mixing them up in an editor you could select the parts you need and get rid of the ones that don't have any useful content. 

3. VirtualDub. If you all you can get from your camera is an .avi file format then this editor is for you. Be aware that VirtualDub will not work with QuickTime files. Also, do not mix different type files as the program may crash and you will lose progress. Very simple and straight forward, this editor will cut and paste parts of your clips, rearrange them in the desired order but without transitions, and will also extract the audio if you desire to do so. Although VirtualDub can add filters to your video I am not sure how useful this could be in an assignment, but you have it anyways.

4. Free Video Dub is another video editor like the VirtualDub that will only trim your videos but there is no capability to rearrange the clip parts for your likes. This one will work with QuickTime files though.

5. ezvid is one of the latest video editors that is completely free and with an entire arsenal of features for your creative mind. The editor lets you edit and rearrange videos on a dynamic timeline to which you could add photos, audio tracks, and your voice over. In addition to a very powerful editor ezvid will also record your entire screen or just part of it, and this is recorded in full HD. It will work as your instant video messenger and will let you annotate on the screen while screen capture. The developer seems very excited about the speed control built into the editor and I believe you can find many uses for it. Check out the voice synthesizer but don't submit your speech assignment with this effect ;).

Again, I suggest these video editing titles, but you assume your own risk by running them on your PC. Don't forget they are free ware and could be discontinued without a prompt or become paid software. And, keep your PC safe!!!

What laptop should I buy? An eLearning Support Specialist's recommendations for your next laptop purchase

I have had many students recently ask me what laptop they should buy for school.  What you get will depend on a lot of things, such as your preferences and how much money you are willing to spend.  As a minimum, you should get a computer with at least 4GB of RAM and a 2.0 Ghz or faster dual core processor.  

Portability, speed, screen size, hard drive capacity

Do you prefer portability or a large screen?  If you like portability, you should get a laptop with a 13 inch screen.  If you need lots of screen space and don't mind lugging around a large computer, you can get a 17 in screen.  15 in screen is a good compromise.  If you need more screen space, you can always buy an external monitor to connect your laptop to when you are at home.  

Do you have lots of pictures, music, and movies?  You will need a larger hard drive for that and 500 GB will be enough to suit most people's needs.  You can always buy a larger 1TB, 2TB, or 3TB external hard drive if you need more space.  If you want speed, then you should get a laptop with a solid state drive (SSD) or a hybrid drive like many ultrabooks have now.  

I would also recommend getting at least 4GB of RAM.  8GB is probably the most you will be able to have on any laptop, although for a lot of money, you could bump it up to 16GB.  If you are only doing web browsing 2GB may be enough, but if you use any applications besides Solitaire (Microsoft Office, anyone?), your experience will be much better with 4GB.

Mac

Personally, I want portability and speed.  I bought the 128GB 13in Macbook Air. The thinness, speed, portability, and 7 hour battery life have been invaluable to me and worth every dollar I spent on it.  Macs are built with quality materials and will last you a long time.  Apple also has refurbished laptops at a discount that come with the full one year warranty, if you want a Mac and want to spend a little bit less than buying a new one.  A Mac will also work just fine with Canvas, Angel, Tegrity, and Collaborate.  I would highly recommend a Mac laptop.

Windows

If you want any laptop with Windows on it, I would suggest going to Newegg to buy the laptop.  They have lots of sales and great prices.  You can check out their Daily Deals here and their latest email specials here.  I would recommend Toshiba and Asus laptops.  I have personally had 3 HP laptops fail on me in a 6 month period and ever since then I have told people to not buy any HP laptops.  

Microsoft also recently introduced Windows Surface tablets.  These laptops/tablets are touch screen devices with a kickstand and detachable keyboard that doubles as the cover.  The Surface Pro runs the full version of Windows 8 and you can run any applications for Windows 8, Windows 7, and some applications from Vista or XP.  The 64GB Surface Pro only has 23GB of free space to use, so if you want more space, you will want to spring for the 128GB version.  The Surface RT runs Windows 8 RT and is cheaper than the Surface Pro.  One thing to be aware of with the Surface RT is that only applications designed to run on Windows 8 RT will work.  You will not be able to install any application designed for previous versions of Windows. 

Chrome OS

If you are on a really tight budget and want both portability, speed, and long battery life, you could get a $249 Chromebook.  It has ChromeOS (not Windows or Mac OSX) and depending on your needs, that may be just what you need.  If you are interested, I have gone in more depth about the Chromebook in this blog post.

Best laptops

• Techradar's Top laptops: 25 best laptops in the US (last updated Jan 17th, 2013)
• PCMag's The Top 10 Best Laptops (last updated Jan 7th, 2013)

Deals

In addition to Newegg, I would recommend checking out the computer deals at Slickdeals.net.  Slickdeals is a site that gathers deals from all over the internet and the website users post the deals that they find.  

Please ask any questions that you have in the comments or let me know what recommendations that you have for laptop buying.

Taking screenshots and video screen captures - Free and paid applications for Windows, Mac, and Linux

A picture is worth a thousand words.  How many words is a computer screen capture worth?  It can be invaluable when you are having technical issues with anything at TCC (like Angel or Canvas) and you are able to capture the error as it is happening.  Those screenshots are very helpful to send to the eLearning department when you are working with us on a technical support issue you are experiencing.  There are also lots of other useful applications for using screen capture tools.  Below are a few examples of screenshot and screen capture tools, sorted by operating system. You can click the hyperlinks to go to the application website.

Windows

• Jing - Free.  This application is very easy to use and can take screenshots and do video screen recordings. [Recommended]
• Tegrity - Free.  TCC has an unlimited, campus-wide license to use Tegrity. You can't do still image screen captures, but it does a great job of making video recordings of your screen.  If you would like to use it or have any questions about it, please click here to open a support ticket with your question or email elearning@tacomacc.edu.  You should also ask your instructor is he or she is using Tegrity with the course(s) you are taking   The recordings you make need to upload to a specific course and your instructor may or may not be alright with you making recordings there.
• Snipping tool - This is built into Windows 7 and Vista by default. You don't have to install anything to use it.  This application will only do still image screenshots and won't do video screen recordings.
• Snagit - $50.  Made by same company as Jing, but it has many more advanced features.
• Here is how to use Word 2010 to take screenshots
• Camtasia Studio - $50.  This application will do video screen recording and post-production editing.

Mac

• Jing - Free.  This application is very easy to use and can take screenshots and do video screen recordings. [Recommended]
• Tegrity - Free.  TCC has an unlimited, campus-wide license to use Tegrity. You can't do still image screen captures, but it does a great job of making video recordings of your screen.  If you would like to use it or have any questions about it, please click here to open a support ticket with your question or email elearning@tacomacc.edu.  You should also ask your instructor is he or she is using Tegrity with the course(s) you are taking.  The recordings you make need to upload to a specific course and your instructor may or may not be alright with you making recordings there.
• Skitch - free
• Snagit - $50.  Made by same company as Jing, but it has many more advanced features.
• Camtasia Studio - $50.  This application will do video screen recording and post-production editing.

Linux

• Shutter - free
• Greenshot - free

What screen capture tools do you use?  Please post those in the comments.

Want a feature added in Canvas? Ask for it!

Canvas is a system that is very student focused.  Changes and additional features are driven by user feedback and requests.  As a student, you can submit a request directly to Canvas and ask for an additional feature that you would like to see.  You can also vote on requests other people have already submitted.  Canvas implements that changes and requests that are most voted on, much like a popularity contest.


Here is how you can add a feature request:

 You can now vote to have that feature added:

Do you have any feature requests you have added?  Please post them in the comments and we'll vote for those features.

How I save money with smartphone apps and you can too

Do you have a smartphone?  Do you like saving money?  I know I do.  I need money to pay for things like textbooks and tuition and want to keep as much of my hard earned money as possible.  Here are a few apps that I have personally used to get discounts on things or just find the best price possible:

Gas Buddy

With this app, you get a list of the gas stations near your current location and what the prices are at all of the nearby stations.  From Gas Buddy, you can also launch any turn by turn or maps app that you have to get directions to the station you want to go to.

• Download links:  iOS and Android 

Hotel Tonight

With this app, you can book a hotel last minute with up to 70% savings.  They work with hotels to book the last open rooms at the last minute, so you can't book a hotel until after 12 noon on the same day of the booking, but they have great deals for some great hotels.  You can also use coupon codes to get even more discount.  You can get an additional $25 off your stay if you use this code: CSORAN1
Instead of paying the standard $165 per night rate, I stayed at a 4 star hotel in Seattle a few weeks ago for $85 using the app and a coupon code.

• Download links: iOS and Android

Groupon, Living Social

You've probably heard of Groupon and Living Social and may have already used their websites.  They have great deals for restaurants, goods, travel, and local experiences like plays or concerts.  For example, you can buy a voucher for $20 to spend at a restaurant for $10.  The mobile apps are great because you can save paper and don't need to print out your vouchers.  When you buy a Groupon or Living Social deal for restaurants, you can just bring your phone with you and show them the voucher from the app.

• Groupon download links: iOS and Android
• Living Social download links: iOS and Android

RedLaser

With RedLaser you can scan UPC codes of products and the app will look for the best price for that item in any stores or online retailers.  For example, if you were at Best Buy and wanted to know if the price at Best Buy was the best available for that Asus router that you want to buy, you could scan the UPC code with the app and find out the prices that online retailers like Amazon and Newegg have, as well as other nearby stores like Office Depot.

• Download links: iOS and Android

Safeway

You may already shop at Safeway for groceries and alway look for the food on sale.  With the Safeway app you can get the "Just for you" prices on specific foods.  Using the app, you can look through the items that they have discounts on and add them to "My List".  That list is connected to your Safeway card and anything that you buy in the store that is on that list, you will have automatically discounted at checkout.  Note that all of the "Just for you" discounts are applied at the very end, when you get your total and it doesn't come up as the item is being scanned.  My wife and I will just browse through the discounted items and just add anything that we might even think of needing to our lists.  More than once I have forgotten that I added items to the list and have received the discount at checkout.

• Download links: iOS and Android

Do you use apps on your smartphone to save money?  If so, please post them in the comments below.

GTD: Focusing on Tasks

First off I would like to apologize for the lack of recent posts on the blog.  The current cold bug hit the eLearning department pretty hard last week, but we are all back and almost at 100%!

I am a bit of a Getting Things Done (GTD) geek.  I like to make sure I am on track for completing projects and getting general work done in a timely manner.  There are always so many tasks to work on that it can be a bit overwhelming.  I have used a variety of task management apps (Remember the Milk, Things and The Hit List) to keep myself organized.  I currently use Apple's Reminders because of the iCloud synchronization.  They are all good apps but for me they have one major flaw.  It is much too easy to just change the due date on the task and forget about.  Before I know it I have tasks that are months old because it was too easy to put them off.

Recently I stumbled across something that completely changed task management for me.  I was surfing the web for productivity tools and found a site by David Seah.  On his site he had a variety of paper-based task management and project management solutions.  I had always avoided paper-based tools because I just always felt the digital tools were superior.  The one solution on David's site that really impressed me is his Emergent Task Planner.  It is a great task management tool and the best part is you can't just change the due date and put the task off, especially if you use a pen! :)

So, a little bit about how I use the tool.  I usually get to work around 7:30am and that is the time I start to organize my day.  The first thing I do is grab a new sheet of the ETP and fill out the date and the times, from 8am to 5pm.  

Then I look at my digital task list and pick three tasks that I have to complete by the end of the day.  

As I work through the day I list all the other activities that work on in addition to my tasks. 

As I work on items I list them on the left-hand side (see first image) and mark off the amount of time I spend on them.  If I am able to complete the initial three tasks then I reward myself by adding three more to the list.  This process has been very helpful.  With this system I have been able to stay on task and also identify things that tend to distract me from GTD, like email.

Canvas now has an Android app

Canvas has had an app for iOS for some time now, but they have lacked an app for Android.  They lack that app no more!  You can go here to download the app from the Play Store.

I had the chance to test out the app on my EVO 3D and on my new Nexus 4 and the app worked great on both devices.  It was handy to be able to access all of the courses I was enrolled in, check my grades, and read all of the content.  I spoke with one of the developers of the app and he said that they would be adding the ability to submit assignments, post to discussions, and take quizzes in the app soon, but that was not functionality they were able to add in the initial launch of the app.  It is a promising start for the app with many more great features to come.

Here is the official press release from Instructure Canvas about the launch of the Android app.  What do you think about the app?  Please post in the comments below.

$50 a month for unlimited data, texting, and talking without a contract - Save money on your cell phone plan so you can buy those textbooks

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I am always looking for ways to save money and I'm sure you are too.  One way I was able to save money was to reduce my monthly cell phone bill.  A smartphone is an integral part of many people's everyday lives and you can have one contract-free for $50 per month.  There is even one phone plan that is $19 per month.  You may be paying more for texting and phone calling only, so why not have a smartphone for cheaper?  You can use that extra money you'll have to buy textbooks or pay for tuition.

I explain in detail on this page how you can make the switch to a contract free cell phone carrier and get unlimited data, texting, and talking for only $50 a month.

How do you save money on your cell phone bill?  Please post in the comments below and let me know.

*The image of the Nexus 4 is Creative Commons Attribution licensed and thanks to Dru Kelly.  The image of the iPhone is Creative Commons Attribution licensed and thanks to theOOBE.