Navigating Canvas at Pasadena City College: A Comprehensive Guide

Pasadena City College (PCC) leverages Canvas as its primary Learning Management System (LMS), providing students and faculty with a centralized platform for accessing course materials, submitting assignments, and engaging in online learning activities. This guide offers a comprehensive overview of the resources and tools available within Canvas at PCC, designed to enhance the learning experience.

Accessing and Navigating Canvas

Upon enrollment at PCC, students gain access to Canvas through the PCC website. The Canvas interface is intuitive, with a dashboard displaying current courses, announcements, and upcoming assignments. Each course within Canvas is organized by the instructor, but generally includes modules for accessing course content, assignments, quizzes, discussion forums, and grades. Familiarizing yourself with the basic navigation of Canvas is the first step towards a successful online learning experience.

Key Resources Within Canvas

PCC provides a variety of resources accessible through Canvas to support student learning and faculty instruction. These resources include:

PCC Library Resources

The PCC Library offers a wealth of resources integrated into Canvas, providing students with seamless access to academic materials. These resources are essential for research, completing assignments, and deepening understanding of course content.

Discovery System

The library's new Discovery system allows users to simultaneously search almost all of PCC Library's collection. This powerful search engine streamlines the research process, enabling students to efficiently locate relevant materials across various formats and databases.

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Databases

PCC Library provides access to a broad range of databases which offer magazine, newspaper, and scholarly journal articles. These databases provide a wealth of information for research papers, projects, and staying current in various fields of study.

E-book Platforms

Students can access several ebook platforms, with most titles available to an unlimited number of students simultaneously. This ensures that all students have access to the required reading materials, regardless of location or time constraints. The availability of unlimited access to most titles is a significant advantage, eliminating wait times and ensuring equitable access for all learners.

Streaming Videos

The PCC Library makes finding and embedding relevant streaming videos for your class easy. These videos can enhance learning by providing visual aids, demonstrations, and alternative perspectives on course topics.

Films on Demand: This service offers over 48,000 full length programs and more than 329,000 segments on a wide variety of educational subjects. It is a valuable resource for faculty looking to incorporate multimedia content into their courses.
Kanopy: A streaming video service featuring mainstream movies and other films across all genres. (Note: embedding Kanopy videos in Canvas is not supported. This link opens in a new windowStream classic and recent popular films; specific films must be requested by PCC faculty.
Discipline-Specific Streaming-Media Resources: The library also offers other discipline-specific streaming-media resources tailored to specific academic areas.

Canvas Commons

Canvas Commons is a learning object repository that enables educators to find, import, and share resources. This collaborative platform allows faculty to share and adopt instructional materials, promoting innovation and efficiency in course design. Within Canvas Commons, instructors can find a variety of resources, including:

Modules: Complete course modules covering specific topics or units of study.
Assignments: Pre-designed assignments that can be easily integrated into Canvas courses.
Quizzes: Ready-made quizzes for assessing student understanding of course material.
Pages: Informative pages with text, images, and multimedia content.
Discussions: Discussion prompts and activities to promote student engagement and interaction.

Open Educational Resources (OER)

Open Educational Resources are teaching and learning materials that you may freely use and reuse, without charge. The growth of OER is an exciting trend for all educators, but especially for those teaching online. OER materials often include:

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Textbooks: Free or low-cost textbooks that replace expensive traditional textbooks.
Videos: Educational videos that explain concepts, demonstrate skills, or provide real-world examples.
Course Units: Complete units of instruction with learning objectives, activities, and assessments.
Assessments: Quizzes, tests, and other assessment tools that measure student learning.
Images: Freely available images that can be used in presentations, websites, and other educational materials.

PCC's OER web site offers guidance for faculty on how to locate free OER resources such as textbooks, videos, course units, assessments, images, etc.

Maximizing Your Canvas Experience

To fully leverage the capabilities of Canvas at PCC, consider the following tips:

Regularly Check Canvas: Make it a habit to check Canvas daily for announcements, updates, and new assignments.
Explore Course Modules: Familiarize yourself with the organization of each course and explore the available modules.
Utilize Library Resources: Take advantage of the library's Discovery system, databases, and streaming videos to enhance your research and learning.
Engage in Discussions: Participate in discussion forums to interact with classmates and instructors.
Seek Help When Needed: Don't hesitate to contact your instructor or PCC's technical support for assistance with Canvas.
Attend Workshops and Training: PCC offers workshops and training sessions on Canvas and other educational technologies.

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