If you teach a lecture-based course, we actually do not recommend you use your synchronous time for lecture! Even a very dynamic and engaging speaker won't be able to engage students in very deep learning during the initial presentation of new material. Instead we recommend you record that presentation-of-new-material as several videos of 10-20 minutes each. In an online or blended course, this approach will ensure that this primary course material is not lost to a lagging network or dropped connections. Students will be able to return to the videos in case of any technical problems or absences. In an on-site class, this also allows students to absorb new material at their own pace, and repeat it as necessary. The LSA Instructional Video team can work with you to create engaging videos on-location or in the studio, and include refinements like a glass-board or green-screen recording so that multiple sources can appear behind and around you.

Best of all, if students have already viewed the new material ahead of time, it also means you can spend your synchronous meeting time on direct, high-quality interaction that will help ensure student understanding. This might take the form of Q&A about the lecture, small-group discussions that then report back to the larger group, real-time polls on the essential points of lecture which you can then expand on based on student responses, or a variety of other activities to help students engage fully with the material, with you, and with each other.

For a lecture-based course, we recommend the following basic pattern in Canvas:

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

We also recommend including regular ungraded practice quizzes, to let students test their own understanding of the material. These do not need to be long; a few questions each week will let students know if this is a module they need to study more, or perhaps ask more questions about!

Example

Take a look at an example lecture-based Module.

Import this Template into your Canvas Course

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

To import an LSA Template into your Canas course:

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