{"id":11439,"date":"2019-01-22T07:33:09","date_gmt":"2019-01-22T15:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/?p=11439"},"modified":"2019-01-20T09:40:23","modified_gmt":"2019-01-20T17:40:23","slug":"keeping-content-up-to-date-in-the-lms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/2019\/01\/22\/keeping-content-up-to-date-in-the-lms\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping Content Up to Date in the LMS"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Keeping<\/p>\n

This article was first published on EdSurge as part of my column –\u00a0Toward Better Teaching: Office Hours With Bonni Stachowiak.<\/a> You can pose a question for a future column\u00a0here<\/a>. While the following question was posed about working within two LMSs, the advice applies even to those who only teach within one LMS platform.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This semester\u2014at the same institution\u2014I will be teaching 2 online graduate courses: a brand new one on Canvas, and an existing one on Blackboard. Any tips on keeping my eye on the teaching\/learning objectives while having two major LMS\u2019s in play simultaneously? \u2014Adjunct at a tier 1 research university in the mid-Atlantic
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Even a little bit of effort toward streamlining content that could be moved to multiple learning management systems (LMSs) can have a big payoff. There are approaches that can help even when only working within a single LMS, particularly given the changing nature of some course content.<\/p>\n

I, too, teach between Canvas and Blackboard. I know Canvas much better since I use it both as a professor and in coaching faculty. There is nothing that helps me learn faster than to hear how other people are trying to use an LMS.<\/p>\n

Embed Often<\/h2>\n

Instead of trying to learn the creation tools for each learning management system, I suggest turning to mainstream platforms, like video for Youtube or Soundcloud for audio, and then embedding video or sound clips into any LMS you use.<\/p>\n

Examples of this in approach abound, from embedding a form or signup sheet within a page on the LMS, to embedding a Kahoot game for your students to play from within their familiar course environment.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Embed Responsively<\/a>\u00a0website can make this process easier for sites like YouTube, Vimeo, Google Maps or Getty Images, though I find that I can fine-tune most content to display just the way I want it within Blackboard or Canvas without needing to use the help from Embed Responsively.<\/p>\n

A Canvas-specific resource I have found helpful in thinking more creatively about embedding is a CanvasLIVE video featuring Laura Gibbs, an online instructor at the University of Oklahoma:\u00a0Beautiful Curation: Flickr & Pinterest (+Diigo & Padlet)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to Class Calendars<\/h2>\n

Both Canvas and Blackboard allow you to subscribe to your course calendars and have them display within your primary calendar application on your computer or mobile device. On my laptop, phone and tablet, I am able to see all the calendars for courses I teach across both Canvas and Blackboard within my other appointments.<\/p>\n

I like being able to see when assignments are due, as it helps me recognize the need to block off time in my calendar for grading. It\u2019s especially helpful for me to be able to see what week in the semester or term we are in, especially as what I have\u00a0previously called \u201cthe dip\u201d<\/a>\u00a0starts to take its toll on a class.<\/p>\n

Link Smart<\/h2>\n

I first started down this path of wanting to make my life easier solely when it came to course syllabi. I grew tired of uploading the syllabus as a file within our LMS, only to need to upload a new version every single semester. It also seemed like every time I would send my document off to the department\u2019s administrative assistant, I would find an error, or something else would change. I then found myself needing to send out a revised syllabus to her and once again having to upload a revision to the LMS.<\/p>\n

I then found a much better way. Dropbox (a cloud-based storage service) became the place where I would store my syllabi, and then I could just link to the files in the LMS. In Microsoft Word, I would do a file save-as each semester and name the file something time-based, like 2020f-syllabus-BUSN114.docx. However, instead of uploading the Word document in the LMS, as most people do, I would save the file on Dropbox as a PDF. The file name was crucial in eventually saving me time. I would name it something like syllabus-BUSN114.pdf with no indication of what semester\u2019s syllabus the file contained.<\/p>\n

Each time a new semester would come around, all I had to do was perform a save-as on the syllabus Word file to have an archive of date-specific syllabi from past semesters and then make modifications to the Word file for the new semester. When all the changes were done, I would save a PDF copy with the non-date-specific name (e.g. syllabus-BUSN114.pdf) that would take the place of the previous semester\u2019s file on Dropbox. The link to the syllabus remained unchanged and therefore did not need to be updated on the LMS.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a screencast that shows this process<\/a>\u00a0of having a syllabus live in Cloud-based storage (like Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, or Google Drive).<\/p>\n