Upon Woolf's course preparation for your college on Canvas and Woolf, and after finalizing course setup, you're ready to develop content within courses. For a detailed guide on setting up courses, refer here.
Content Development in Canvas
All course content should be built directly in Canvas. When you create items within Canvas course modules, they automatically sync with your AMS course libraries, appearing in draft status. It's advisable to periodically verify that resources display correctly on Woolf AMS to detect synchronization issues early.
We currently support Canvas pages, files, quizzes, and assignments.
Compliance and Creation
Items created or updated in Canvas are mirrored on Woolf AMS, each corresponding to a distinct resource. Here's how to manage different types of content:
- Assignments and Quizzes: Automatically recognized as Regular Assignments on Woolf.
- Pages: Identified as General Resources.
- Files: Categorized as Publications.
Items like Canvas discussions or external links are not synced with Woolf, impacting accredited learning reflection. You may use it, but it will not be part of student record on Woolf.
Adjusting Resource Kinds and Workloads in Woolf AMS
Default Workloads
To streamline the creation of resources on Woolf, it's essential to set a default workload for each resource kind in your course settings within Woolf AMS. This default ensures that newly created resources automatically carry the most common workload, minimizing the need for subsequent adjustments.
Manual Adjustments
Should a resource's workload deviate from the default, adjustments must be made manually within AMS after creation. This flexibility allows for precise tailoring of workload expectations to match the specific demands of each resource.
Resource Kind Adjustments
Occasionally, the default kind assigned to a resource may not accurately reflect its purpose. In such instances, manual modification on AMS is required. Common adjustments include:
- Changing a default regular assignment to a summative assignment.
- Altering a default general resource, publication, or regular assignment to a peer-reviewed publication.
Given that courses typically feature only a few peer-reviewed publications and one summative assignment, these adjustments are infrequent but crucial for accurate resource categorization.
Important Considerations
To maintain a seamless synchronization between Canvas and Woolf, it is crucial to avoid changing the kinds of resources from general or publications to regular or summative assignments. If an item on Canvas is marked as an assignment or quiz, it should mirror this classification on Woolf as either regular or summative, never as general or publication. This distinction is vital because general resources and publications do not accommodate submissions or grades, which could disrupt the accurate reflection of student engagement and achievement if incorrectly categorized.
Assignments
When setting up assignments and quizzes in Canvas, opt for the "assignment" or "quiz" formats, and be mindful that Woolf currently only integrates with the original Canvas Quiz, type "Graded Quiz". New quiz formats are not compatible and are therefore restricted by Woolf.
If your assignments include attachments, it's best to incorporate them within the assignment description itself.
As for the assignment settings that are compatible with Woolf:
- Points: Assign a point value to each assignment, preferably using 100 points to align with Woolf's grading scale.
- Assignment Group: Ensure each assignment is linked to the correct assignment group in Canvas to correspond with Woolf's grade weight categories, which facilitates automatic grade weighting on Woolf.
- Display Grade as: The grading format can be set as either 'Points', 'Percent' or other. Woolf's system is flexible regarding this aspect.
- Submission Type: The submission should be set to 'Online', and the following entry options are supported by Woolf:
- Text Entry: Allows students to submit their assignments directly within the Canvas text editor.
- File Uploads: Students can upload files as their submission.
- Submission Attempts: The number of submission attempts is at your discretion; Woolf has no restrictions on this parameter.
- Group Assignment: The checkbox for 'This is a Group Assignment' should not be selected, as Woolf currently does not support group submission features. Each assignment needs to be submitted individually by students to be recognized by Woolf for accreditation and record-keeping.
- Quiz Types: Canvas provides four types of quizzes for enhancing your course's interactivity. Woolf currently supports only the Graded Quiz format. This means that while you can incorporate the other three quiz types into your courses for engagement or practice purposes, their usage will not be tracked by Woolf. Consequently, activities from these non-supported quizzes will not be recorded or added to a student's record in Woolf.
These settings help to ensure a smooth integration of course assignments from Canvas to Woolf, keeping course delivery and accreditation tracking consistent and reliable.
Pages and Files
Non-submissive materials like readings or videos should be segmented into manageable portions as "page" or "file" types. Peer-reviewed publications must be PDFs, labeled appropriately on AMS.
File Management and Quotas
Canvas offers a default 500 MB course storage, extendable upon request. However, there are two other storage space types: Group and Personal. These file storage types have their own particular quotas, and are used in their own specific times and places.
If you have reached the limit in your Canvas course, you may contact Woolf team to increase storage size up to a limit of 5 GB.
Personal File Storage is set at a default of 500 MB per user. Files that are submitted as part of a graded assignment or Graded discussion will appear in the personal file storage area, but they will not count against their quota. Assignment submissions cannot exceed 500MB. However, media uploads cannot exceed 5GB.
Meeting
To synchronize meeting information with Woolf, you have two primary methods: CSV import or API automation.
- CSV Import: Meeting data can be imported into Woolf using a CSV files. A step-by-step guide is available here to assist you through the process.
- API Automation: For a more streamlined approach, automate the synchronization process using Woolf's API.
Please note that live session recordings and attendance must be managed by you. Currently, there is no direct synchronization for meeting attendance between Canvas and Woolf.
The essential step for Woolf synchronization is the uploading of meeting recordings and the attendance list in the specified format. Detailed instructions on this process can be found here.
This step is the only required for ensuring that meetings are accurately reflected in Woolf's records and contribute to students' course progress.
Meeting Recordings in Canvas
If you wish to provide students with access to meeting recordings within Canvas, you can create a page and attach the video file or use ungraded discussion, that can be also assigned to section. On Woolf, this will be categorized as a general resource and will account for resource consumption when viewed.
Zoom and Canvas
For colleges utilizing Zoom, Canvas supports LTI integration which can be enabled upon request. This integration allows instructors to start meetings, schedule them, and share recordings with participants directly in Canvas. However, Woolf will not automatically track the consumption of these recordings.
Canvas Calendar
Canvas calendar feature can be an effective tool for managing students' schedules and enhancing their experience. Learn more about this feature in the Canvas guides.
Managing Resource Submission
After finalizing a resource in Canvas, submit it for accreditation review through Woolf AMS. This step is essential for compliance and verification. Ensure timely submission to meet accreditation standards.
Bulk Submission: For efficiency, we recommend bulk submissions. In Woolf AMS, resources can be filtered by course for mass submission with just a few clicks.
Our accreditation team then reviews and approves them. If the provided content has issues or does not meet regulatory compliance, it will be rejected with a reason. You can monitor resource statuses inside the AMS.
Canvas Guides
These guides are tailored to the Woolf-Canvas synchronization process.
For comprehensive insights on creating and delivering content directly within Canvas, including utilizing its vast array of tools and features to enhance student learning, refer to the Canvas guides available on their platform. This dual approach ensures not only compliance and effective management on Woolf but also leverages the full pedagogical potential of Canvas for your courses.