Canvas and Integrated Tools

The Hybrid NUflex model supports scheduled real-time class sessions for students joining in-person and remotely. Canvas serves as a home base for all course materials and activities.

The Hybrid NUflex Experience

Students in a Hybrid NUflex course will have the same between-classes experiences that they would in a typical in-person course—whether those experiences are completing readings, responding to the prompts on discussion boards, or submitting assignments.

Students’ experiences during class sessions in a Hybrid NUflex course will be different in the sense that students participating in-person will have physical distancing measures in place, and some students will be participating remotely. Depending on the activity, in-person students may interact with the instructor and their classmates through integrated tools, such as Teams, Zoom, Panopto, and whiteboard tools.

Canvas as a Home Base

For between-classes experiences, the Canvas course site is students’ go-to place to access course materials and participate in any additional learning activities, such as posting to discussion boards, taking quizzes, and submitting assignments.

Best Practices for Canvas:

  • Use Homepage to welcome and orient students
  • Add a Syllabus to the course
  • Utilize Modules for course flow
  • Link course content through Canvas
  • Create and grade Assignments through Canvas
  • Create online class meetings
  • Publish Your course in Canvas
  • Communicate with students

Real-Time Sessions with Zoom or Microsoft Teams

While some aspects of Hybrid NUflex will take some adjustment, the goal of real-time class sessions has not changed: engagement, exploration, and meaningful interaction. Instructors have a choice between Zoom and Microsoft Teams to facilitate course meetings and discussions.

Canvas should host the Zoom or Teams link for class sessions for easy access. In-person students are encouraged to connect via Zoom or Teams  using their own devices while classes meet.

Best Practices for Engaging Virtual Discussions:

  • Use ‘warm calling” and encourage active learning for the whole class
  • Use the chat window to pose and answer questions
  • Utilize breakout rooms for group work

Recorded Lectures and Course Materials

Panopto can be used for lecture capture, recordings, pre-recorded materials, and archiving course materials.

Faculty using Zoom through Canvas can record to the cloud and recordings will appear in the Canvas course for students to access. When recording to the cloud through Zoom, recordings are also backed up in the faculty’s Panopto account. This allows faculty to easily edit Zoom recordings, share in pages or modules of Canvas courses, or share to multiple Canvas courses. If faculty would like to add the Zoom recordings to modules or pages in their Canvas course, it’s recommended to use Zoom recording stored in Panopto.

Whiteboarding

In all classrooms, remote students will be able to see video of the instructor and hear the lecture, and they will be able to see information displayed on the computer screen and the chalkboard or white board.

Whiteboarding Best Practices:

  • Cameras provide a wide view of the front of the room and may be manually pointed at the board if faculty would prefer to write on the chalkboard or whiteboard instead of digitally writing on the monitor.
  • In NUflex classrooms, faculty will have the option to write directly on the monitors for whiteboarding, which helps provide all students a front-row seat, whether in the classroom or remote.

Additional Resources

See Canvas Resources for Faculty

  • View and download the Canvas Readiness Checklist, access training options, and find useful resources on Canvas teaching pedagogy.

See Canvas Resources for Students

  • Learn how to get started with Canvas, view Frequently Asked Questions, or request assistance.

Take the Designing and Teaching Your Hybrid NUflex course in Canvas.

  • Dive deeper into Canvas and its integrated tools through this self-paced training.