Mary C. Henry

Miami University has recently changed to a new LMS (Learning Management System) called Canvas.  We used Sakai for a few years before this latest change- and faculty can choose to keep Sakai for this year if they choose.  I decided to jump in and switch to Canvas this semester. It's been a steep learning curve, but I've put in a lot of hours setting up my courses and think I have a good idea how to use it now. One thing that I like is that it has apps for iOS and Android. So obviously I went ahead and installed it on my iPhone, iPad, and Nexus 7! Here's a comparison of the home page for my GEO 121 course: Here is a screen grab from my computer (iMac 27') Here is the iPad version iPhone (5s) version Nexus 7 version (Android) The picture is not showing up in the Android version for some reason (it shows up in the iPhone version, but you have to scroll down). I like the features in the Nexus 7 and iPad since you can set a color for each course (iPhone d...

The last time I posted over here (almost a year ago!) I wrote about teaching GEO 121 (Intro Physical Geography) online that summer. I think it went pretty well, but the labs were the most challenging aspect of that class. I write my labs with fairly detailed instructions and encouraged students to email with questions, but I think some students still struggled. It was hard to tell how many of the problems they had resulted from frustration and just giving up, or thinking that they were on the right track, but being wrong about that. Another issue with the online labs is providing feedback to students on their work.  I used Google Forms for student lab submissions- which was great. I split each lab into multiple parts instead of having one really long form.  When students submit their answers, I get everything in a spreadsheet.  I do the lab first to submit my answers for the key (first row in the spreadsheet) and it makes grading really easy.  For my summer class l...

I was scheduled to teach a section of GEO 121 (Intro Physical Geography) this summer, but was told a few weeks ago and that we can't schedule any classes in our building this summer.  We're supposed to move out in August so that (long overdue) renovations can begin on our building.  Even though my class ends in June, we were told to move it.  My class is usually scheduled in both a classroom AND the computer lab, so I was immediately concerned about how I would swing this in another building. Then I asked if I could just move it to an online course and that is what happened! I'm excited about adapting my class for online (which I already planned to do for next winter term), but a little worried about the challenges.  I already teach the course in a way that is well suited for online teaching (I don't have much lecture, students work in groups, quizzes are already online, etc.), but I will also have to adapt my lab exercises. As of now, I'm planning to set up Googl...