Honest disclosure: I had every intention of finally investing in a webcam/microphone for this week’s post, but I get anxious when dealing with purchasing a new electronic (a silly analysis paralysis), so I put it off and here we are. On the bright side, I have finally read every review for every webcam/microphone combination in existence. So, instead of providing you with a wonderful video tour of my bleak Canvas page, I am going to have to use screen shots to guide this post.

Another honest disclosure: online presence in my F2F courses has always been rather minimal, so my Canvas page is pretty barren.

Home Page: Believe it or not, the above photo is actually an improvement for this semester. This is my first semester using Canvas, and I used to just have an empty landing page on my prior Blackboard page. Once again, the online community in my class has always been supplemental. Essentially, the online aspect of my course was just to send out emails, collect assignments through Turnitin and post files. Canvas has really pushed me into thinking about a more serious integration.

Announcements: I have started utilizing the announcement section a lot more this semester due to the Canvas App. Most of my students use the Canvas app on their phones, so sending out announcements is the fastest way to get my students information.

Modules: I started this semester by reorganizing my modules at my students’ request. I used to have these sections organized by types (prompts/readings/submission links), but students asked for them to be organized on a week-by-week basis. In the end, this reorganization has definitely worked for the better.

So far, that is all I use Canvas for. After seeing all of your posts, I realize I need to step up my game. I do have a lot of goals for the upcoming semester in terms of polishing my course, and here there are in no particular order:

• Get a webcam/microphone, and utilize more video feedback/discussion.
• Polish my home page to utilize links (much like the Writing with Machines page). I think this is the one I am most interested in as it seems like any way to consolidate and streamline is beneficial (especially with the push to the Canvas App).
• Utilize the syllabus section of the website and move away from just posting the .pdf.