Canvas Communities

Benefits

1. Resource Availability: Ensures that important documents, policies, and guidelines are always accessible, without the need for annual updates over the summer. 
2. Long-Term Collaboration: Facilitates ongoing collaboration and relationship-building among members, fostering a sense of community, particularly when the community participants remain consistent over years. 
3. Historical Reference: Maintains a continuous record of discussions, resources, and activities, which can be valuable for reference and review.
4. Content Stability: Offers the advantage of having content that doesn't change, allowing users to rely on a consistent set of resources and information.

Drawbacks

1. Outdated Information: Risks becoming outdated if policies, guidelines, or resources are not regularly updated to reflect current practices. Content would have to be regularly reviewed for relevancy and accuracy. 
2. Potential Decreasing Engagement: May lead to reduced engagement over time as the community lacks fresh content and new initiatives.
3. Inflexibility and Older Designs: Can be less adaptable to changing needs and circumstances which come with annual renewal with any design changes based off best practice not being included in a static community.
4. Maintenance Challenges: As the community isn't refreshed, this will require ongoing maintenance to ensure that the community remains relevant and useful, which can be resource intensive.
5. Enrolment Issues: Students are not automatically removed from these courses via feeds, resulting in enrolments persisting beyond the necessary access period. This can lead to confusion for students who are no longer eligible to be part of the community, as they will still appear enrolled. From an administrative perspective, managing large numbers of inactive students becomes increasingly challenging.

An annual Canvas community, which is renewed each year, has its own set of advantages and disadvantages:

Benefits

1. Up-to-Date Information: Ensures that all content, including policies, guidelines, and resources, is current and relevant, reflecting the latest practices and information. This can be imported and added based off relevancy so there is a lower risk of older and out of date information being included in the community. 
2. Fresh Engagement: Encourages renewed engagement and participation from members each year, as new content and styles are added based on best practice, these can be included in new communities. 
3. Adaptability: Allows the community to adapt to changing needs and circumstances, making it more responsive and innovative based off feedback from the previous year.
4. Content Relevance: Ensures that the content remains relevant and aligned with the current academic year, avoiding the risk of outdated information. This also means that announcements and other communications from the previous academic year and not confused with this academic year. 

Drawbacks

1. Learning Curve: Requires members to familiarise themselves with a new community setup each year, but following design best practice, this can be migated. 
2. Resource Intensive: There is effort to set up and maintain the community annually, including updating content and managing transitions. However, the ability to import content can mitigate some of this effort.
3. Loss of Historical Data: May result in the loss of valuable historical discussions, resources, and activities from previous years, unless archived effectively but this data is still available in the older community when this is archived.

A school-wide community consolidates all subject-specific communities into a single, unified space. This inclusive community can encompass all students within the school, from undergraduate to postgraduate levels. By centralising these communities, it fosters a sense of belonging and facilitates easier access to shared resources, information, and support across all academic stages.

It can be a central point for students to access materials such as:

• Induction Materials
• Course Handbooks
• Assessment Information
• Student Support, Wellbeing and The School Office
• Events/Societies 
• Careers and Opportunities
• Module Choice 

This template is available on Canvas Commons and can be downloaded and tailored to meet your specific needs.

Discover more about School Wide Canvas Communities, including a comprehensive tour and guidance on how to effectively utilise this type of community within your school.

Staff training communities can be established to support both new and existing staff members. These communities serve multiple purposes:

1. Induction and Ongoing Training: This can help with the induction process for new staff members and providing guided training on school processes and procedures.
2. Centralised Document Storage: Act as a repository for essential school documents, including policies, guidelines, and other important resources that colleagues need access to.
3. Collaborative Learning: Encourage collaborative learning and knowledge sharing among staff members, fostering a culture of continuous improvement. This could include sections on best practice and a space for colleagues to share ideas.
4. Support and Mentorship: Provide a platform for staff to seek support, ask questions, and receive mentorship from more experienced colleagues.
5. Updates and Announcements: Share updates, announcements, and important information related to staff training and school operations.

By using staff training communities, schools can ensure that all staff members are well-informed, supported, and equipped to perform their roles effectively.

Postgraduate training communities can be created to support postgraduate research students:

1. Induction and Ongoing Training: Assist new postgraduate research students with their induction by providing access to essential resources such as policies, guidance, funding advice, and other relevant support.
2. Centralised Document Storage: Serve as a central repository for important school documents, including policies, guidelines, and other resources that postgraduate students need.
3. Collaborative Learning: Promote collaborative learning and knowledge sharing among students, fostering a culture of cooperation and discussion.
4. Updates and Announcements: Disseminate updates, announcements, and important information related to postgraduate training.

By establishing postgraduate training communities, schools can ensure that all postgraduate students are well-informed and supported.

Canva Sections are a feature within the Canvas that allows community administrators to subdivide students within a course. For instance, students can be categorised based on their course, academic stage, subject, and other criteria.

The "Assign To" functionality in Canvas can be used in several areas to customise the availability and due dates for different sections or individual students. Here are the main areas where this feature can be applied, along with examples:

Discussions

The "Assign To" functionality in Canvas Discussions allows community administrators to tailor discussion topics to specific  sections within a course. This feature is particularly useful for making discussions targetted at specific groups of students, enabling personalised engagement and targeted discussions. When creating or editing a discussion, instructors can use the "Assign To" section to specify the sections and set availability dates.

For example, if an community administrator wants to facilitate a discussion on a particular topic, they can choose the group from the "Assign To" dropdown menu and set the availability dates accordingly. This ensures that the discussion is only accessible to the students that need it and during the specified time frame.

For more information on how to use Canvas Discussions in your community visit the Canvas Discussion Guidance pages.

Pages

The "Assign To" functionality in Canvas allows community administrators to assign specific pages to sections within a community. This feature enables personalised content delivery by ensuring that only the designated groups have access to particular content. When editing or creating a page, instructors can use the "Assign To" section to specify the students or sections and set availability dates.

For example, if a community administrator wants to a resource group of students, they can select the group from the "Assign To" dropdown menu and set the availability dates and who can see the resource. This ensures that the page is only accessible to the selected students during the specified time frame.

For more information on how to use Canvas Pages in your community visit the Canvas Rich Content Editor Guidance pages.

Modules

The "Assign To" functionality in Canvas Modules allows ommunity administrators to tailor module content to sections within a course. This feature enables personalised content delivery by ensuring that only the designated groups have access to particular content. When creating or editing a module, instructors can use the "Assign To" section to specify the sections and set availability dates.

For example, if an instructor wants to assign a module on specific resources for a particular group of students, they can choose the group from the "Assign To" dropdown menu and set the availability dates accordingly. This ensures that the module is only accessible to the designated students during the specified time frame.

This sets the availability to all items in the module rather than having to set the availability on the item by item level. 

For more information on how to use Canvas Modules in your community visit the Canvas Module Guidance pages.

Announcements

The "Assign To" functionality in Canvas Announcements allows instructors to tailor announcements to specific students or sections within a course. This feature is particularly useful for ensuring that relevant information reaches the intended audience. When creating or editing an announcement, instructors can use the "Assign To" section to specify the students or sections and set availability dates.

For example, if an instructor wants to send a reminder about an upcoming school event to a particular group of students, they can select the group from the "Assign To" dropdown menu and set the availability dates accordingly.

This ensures that the announcement is only visible to the specific group of students during the specified time frame.

For more information on how to use Canvas Announcements in your community visit the Canvas Announcements Guidance pages.

What are Canvas modules?

Canvas Modules serve as an effective organisational tool for community administrators, allowing them to arrange course into distinct content areas. This serves as a great way to group together resources for students to access and navigate. 

Each module can include files, discussions, pages and other resources, making them an excellent method for organising and making resources available. They enable comprehensive management of all community resource elements in one location.

This helps with directing to resources as links are created to the module making it easier for students to find.

Example Module Flow

The course is designed with a top-to-bottom flow, guiding students through the learning material sequentially. Content is typically divided by week, but it can also be organised by topic. Within each module, headers are used to break down content into distinct sections, clearly separating different activities.

For more information on how to use Canvas Modules visit Canvas Modules Guidance page.

The Canvas Rich Content Editor (RCE) is an editing tool designed to create and format content within Canvas. It includes a menubar, toolbar, and content space, allowing users to add formatted text, hyperlinks, images, media, embedded objects, tables, and more

How It Can Be Used in a Canvas Community

The Rich Content Editor can be utilised in various Canvas features, such as:

1. Announcements: Create and edit announcements with rich text, images, and media to keep the community informed and provide direct access to resources by embedding them into the announcement. 
2. Discussions: Facilitate engaging discussions by incorporating multimedia elements and links to resources to facilitate discussions.
3. Pages: Develop comprehensive pages with structured content, including links, images, and embedded objects. The brings together resources in a single place, where instruction can be provided on how to use the resources but also provides a central place for students to find these resources.

To learn more on how to utilise the Rich Content Editor in your community, visit the Rich Content Editor guidance page.

Canvas Announcements are a feature within the Canvas that allows Community Admins to communicate important information to students.

Community Admins can use announcements to share updates, reminders, and important information about the community with all students or specific sections of students.

When an announcement is posted, students receive notifications based on their preferred settings, ensuring they stay informed.

For more information on how to use Canvas Announcements in your community, please visit the Canvas Announcements guidance page.