If you teach a project-based course, in which the focus is on individual or group projects that students work on over most of the term, synchronous time may be best spent on students or student groups getting project feedback and guidance from the instructor. 

For a long-term project, we also recommend giving each group a Canvas Group workspace, in which they can create and share material, and schedule videoconference meetings among themselves. Instructors can enter Group workspaces at any time, to monitor progress

For a project-based course, we recommend the following basic pattern:

Using a Discussion item to collect questions beforehand allows the live session to be more focused and productive, and lets students see the kinds of questions other people have. It may suggest something they hadn’t realized they need to know!

We recommend including a deliverable item, each week, for the project. This might be as simple as a single paragraph write-up of the individual or group’s progress or research, but scaffolding the project with regular sub-assignments allows both instructor and students to ensure everyone is on track. If you use your synchronous meeting time specifically for this purpose, you may wish to remove these assignments from Modules and manually fill in the gradebook column they create after the week’s live meetings are completed

If you are providing any readings in PDF format, consider adding it as a Perusall assignment, rather than simply linking to the file, so that students can share their annotations, reading notes, and questions with each other there.

Example

Take a look at an example project-based Module.

Import this Template into your Canvas Course

Visit Canvas Commons to find a blank project-based template to import into your Canvas course. 

To import a LSA Template into your Canas course:

1. Open Canvas.
2. Click the Commons icon in the left-side navigation menu.
3. Type LSA Teaching Remotely in the search bar.
4. Click the LSA Template you wish to import.
5. Click the blue Import/Download button.
6. Select the course in which to import the template.
7. Click the blue Import into Course button.  

View more detailed instructions on how to import a LSA Template into your Canvas course.

If you would like to consult with someone on the best way to use this template for your own course, contact the Learning and Teaching Technology Consultants at LSATechnologyServices@umich.edu.