Faculty Guide to Academic Instruction

Peabody faculty have access to a variety of tools to accomplish their learning goals in their academic courses. Start with the Faculty Guide to Flexible Course Design to help with defining your goals, then explore the areas below.

• Primary Academic Technology Resources
• Assessments and Final Exams
• Canvas FAQ
• Zoom FAQ

Primary Academic Technology Resources

Canvas Learning Management System

The primary enterprise system for teaching and learning and Johns Hopkins University is the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS). Available at https://canvas.jhu.edu, the Canvas LMS is our central hub for announcements, discussion, grading, and resource sharing. More than just an alternative to the physical classroom, Canvas is used by many faculty even when teaching face-to-face courses. The possibilities multiply in the online format.

Using Canvas, faculty can:

• Create announcements that are emailed to each class’ students (without having to find all of their email addresses) and, critically, documented in the course site.
• Post course materials (PDFs, PPT decks, music files, web links, embedded media)
• Receive and submit assignments, using the inline grading tool to grade submissions with annotation features on a computer or using a stylus on a tablet device.
• Post self-made videos and presentations (using a tool called Panopto).
• Access a number of other tools, including VoiceThread (asynchronous video conversations and annotations), Noteflight (composition, sharing, and grading of music scores), and Hypothes.is (collaborative annotation of web content and articles).

Get Canvas Support

Microsoft Teams

The Microsoft Teams is a complementary platform to Canvas. In Teams, faculty and students can:

• Have informal, collaborative threaded discussions
• Create and work concurrently on Microsoft Office 365 documents and other file types
• Work collaboratively on shared notebooks
• Access a number of integrated tools, including Polly (inline polling), Microsoft Forms (surveys), and Microsoft Planner (project management and tasks).

Microsoft Teams sites can be created from the Student Information System (SIS), just like your Canvas sections, and enrollments will be automatically handled by the system so faculty don’t have to worry about whether the right students have access.

Request a Team for Your Class or Get Teams Support

Zoom Videoconferencing

Zoom is Peabody’s video conferencing solution. For comprehensive information on Zoom, please visit the Faculty Guide to Zoom.

Microsoft OneDrive

Microsoft OneDrive is an online file storage service (cloud file sharing service) that can help keep your files secure and easily sharable with your colleagues, whether affiliated with JHU or not. Through JHU’s Office 365 license, every Johns Hopkins affiliate has access to 5 terabytes of storage. It is a great way to share large files too big for emailing. You can also work collaboratively with colleagues on files stored in OneDrive.

(Note: “JHOneDrive” is the JHU branded instance of Microsoft’s OneDrive for business made available through JHU’s Microsoft license.)

For instructions on how to get started, please visit: https://cer.jhu.edu/tools-and-tech/onedrive. 

Access to These Resources

Students can access all the tools on this page with their JHED, and many are already familiar with multiple tools. As these tools gain greater adoption, faculty need not gather email addresses, invite students, troubleshoot access, teach a new tool, etc. Faculty and students are automatically enrolled in courses via a SIS integration. All of these tools are also accessibility-compliant for students with a variety of learning needs. The more faculty use these tools, the more familiar they become for everyone, and the less the technology gets in the way of teaching and learning. Faculty and students are 100% supported in their use of these tools by IT@Peabody and the Learning Innovation team.

Assessments and Final Exams

You will need to revise the format of your assessments so students can submit them remotely. Several tools are available to deliver and receive assessments: Canvas, email, and OneDrive.

Using Canvas for Assessments

Canvas offers several options for assessments:

• Collect assignments where students can submit their work. Using this option, faculty are able to grade submissions using the inline grading tool, moving the work of collecting, grading, and returning written assignments to the LMS.
• Create tests with multiple choice, fill in the blank, short essay options, and other question types. Tests can be imported from Word documents or from publisher resources.
• Submit student videos with VoiceThread or Panopto. Contact the Learning Innovation team for support.

Direct, synchronous supervision of assessments and exams is difficult and/or cost-prohibitive in a remote teaching environment. Another option is to use a timed, open book format that makes it difficult for students to cheat.  

Canvas allows you to schedule exams to release at a specific time and for a limited amount of time. Be mindful of student bandwidth issues and time zone differences when using time limits. Please remember that student accommodations are still in effect.

Other Tools for Exams

Email. Email students a written test to complete and return via email.

OneDrive. Outlined above, OneDrive could also work as an easy way to share files, especially large projects. For instructions on how to get started, please visit: https://cer.jhu.edu/tools-and-tech/onedrive. 

Additional Resources for Assessment

Additional strategies and suggestions can be found here, https://cer.jhu.edu/teaching/assessing-students-remotely

Canvas FAQ

Here are the most frequent questions we get about Canvas, organized in order of functions that require increasing effort to learn and use:

• How do I access Canvas? https://wiki.peabody.jhu.edu/x/pAdXAw 
• How do I make my course available in Canvas? Students cannot see a course until it is made available.  https://wiki.peabody.jhu.edu/x/0AdXAw
• Why use Canvas instead of another tool? It’s tempting to use a tool that is comfortable and familiar, but there are a number of benefits to Canvas. First, it is the system of record for academic coursework and student artifacts. Canvas is fully supported by the Learning Innovation team. Faculty and students are automatically enrolled in courses via a SIS integration. Canvas is also accessibility-compliant for students with a variety of needs. Students already know how to use Canvas and have access through their JHED – no gathering email addresses, inviting, troubleshooting access, etc. The more faculty use Canvas, the more familiar it gets for everyone and the less the technology gets in the way of teaching and learning.
• How do I post an announcement in my course that emails my students? Post a course announcement in Canvas. Students will receive email and app notifications based on their individual notification preferences. The default settings for students is to be notified immediately of new announcements.
• How can I share course materials using Canvas? Lecture notes, slides, detailed assignment instructions, and other course materials can be uploaded into Canvas. Read more about Modules and Pages in Canvas.
• How can I collect assignments using Canvas? Students can upload assignments through the assignment submission tool in Canvas. To learn how to create an assignment in Canvas, visit JHU’s Canvas Assignments help page.
• I want to do more. Where can I find more resources? There are a number of places to continue exploring. Here are a few:
  • JHU’s Canvas Faculty Resources Page
  • The Center for Teaching Excellence and Innovation at Homewood also has a good set of resources available on their Teaching Remotely site. Some of their guidance is a little different due to tools supported – if you have any questions please feel free to reach out to the Learning Innovation team.

Zoom FAQ

Please visit the Zoom FAQ on the Faculty Guide to Zoom page.