CourseWorks: Navigating Columbia University's Learning Management System

CourseWorks is Columbia University's Learning Management System (LMS), a comprehensive platform designed to facilitate online learning and course management for both faculty and students. Often used interchangeably with the term "Canvas," which is the brand name for the learning management system, CourseWorks provides a centralized hub for accessing course materials, engaging in discussions, submitting assignments, and receiving feedback. This article provides a detailed overview of CourseWorks, its features, and how to effectively utilize it for an enhanced educational experience.

Introduction to CourseWorks

Columbia University has created a specialized database for entering textbook information as a part of the University CourseWorks system. Your CourseWorks site can serve as your virtual classroom, a home base to communicate and build community with students, engage students, and also a tool you can use to assess and give feedback to students. CourseWorks provides state-of-the-art online learning and information sharing tools, while creating a highly interactive educational experience. Course sites are created and populated with instructors and students based on data from the Columbia Registrar. All available student photos are displayed for faculty.

Accessing CourseWorks

UNI and Login

To access CourseWorks, you need your Columbia University Network ID (UNI) and password. The UNI is a unique identifier assigned to all university employees and students. You can log in to CourseWorks by using your Columbia UNI and password at courseworks.columbia.edu. Once logged in, you'll be taken to your dashboard, where you can see all your courses. You can also access your courses through the My Courses or Courses buttons on the left-hand navigation.

Dashboard Overview

The dashboard provides a snapshot of all the courses you are enrolled in or teaching. From here, you can navigate to individual course sites and access various tools and resources.

Key Features and Tools

CourseWorks offers a range of tools and features to support teaching and learning. Here's a detailed look at some of the most important ones:

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Communication and Community Building

Consider what you want to communicate with your students and how you might use various tools to do so. You might consider how the learning environment you are building in Canvas facilitates and encourages communication and collaboration among instructor and students.

Announcements

The Announcements tool allows you to send class-wide updates, ideal for reminders or changes in plans. Students will receive notifications when announcements are sent; how they receive these notifications depends on their individual notification settings. How do I create an announcement?

Discussions

The discussion feature allows for students to engage with each other in an asynchronous manner. Students can reply directly to the prompt, or to other students. Tip: While most people type text into discussions, students also have the option of uploading video or audio. This is something you may want to encourage, as it may be easier or more natural for some students to contribute using those formats. Discussions can be graded or ungraded.

Collaborations

Collaborations allow students to work together on a single Google doc or Google Drive file through CourseWorks. You can assign a document to a group of students, or to the whole class. Tip: Because of certain gBear settings, Columbia students may have difficulty accessing Google Drive collaborations through CourseWorks.

Groups

Groups can be used to help students collaborate together. When students are placed in groups, they can participate in discussions within just their group, and also submit assignments as a group. Groups can be set up and managed from within the People page.

Canvas Messaging

This Canvas tool allows instant messaging between instructors, students, and other class participants. Note that messages can only be sent to people who are currently online.

Content and Organization

Organizing your content and having streamlined course navigation improves the overall learning experience and promotes learner success by allowing students to focus on the course content rather than getting bogged down in navigational challenges. It enhances usability by making materials and resources easily accessible, supports learner orientation within the course structure, creates consistency and predictability to reduce cognitive load, improves accessibility for diverse learners, and aligns with instructional design principles like chunking and scaffolding for logical progression through the content.

Modules

Modules are ways of grouping and organizing your course content for students. You may want to use modules to separate your course into units or topics; this can help make it easier for students to understand relationships between content and find relevant information. An Introduction module in your course can help students orient themselves to course expectations and navigation.

Pages

Pages are where you can include all sorts of information that you want to share with your students, whether it's instructional content, course policies, or anything else. In addition to text, you can include images, videos, and links to other content. When creating pages, keep the formatting simple and keep in mind accessibility standards. Tip: When designing pages, please keep the layout and formatting simple.

Syllabus

The syllabus feature lets you post your syllabus to your CourseWorks site. By default, the CBS Homepage links to the Syllabus tool in Canvas. The syllabus is a detailed outline of expectations and subjects covered within a course. It is a valuable resource for both you and the students. Ideally, a syllabus is a formal document that acts as a contract between the students and the instructor and a reference guide for all components related to the course. On the top of the syllabus page, you can put whatever information you want. On the bottom of the syllabus page, there is a chronological list of all assignments and due dates in the course. You can use the Syllabus Template as a starting point in developing your syllabus before putting it on your course site.

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Files

Files are where you can store all sorts of documents you want to share with your class: photos, slides, text, pdfs, etc. Files can serve as a central repository to house course files such as syllabi, excel spreadsheets, PDF files, PPTs and readings. Files can be placed as links in Modules, Assignments, Quizzes and Pages. Files and folders are arranged in alphabetical order and cannot be rearranged. You can set restrictions and manage access to files. You can also use your files throughout your Canvas site, such as in your pages or assignments. CourseWorks courses have a size limit so we recommend storing video files in Echo360 rather than in Files.

Assessment and Feedback

Great courses should have a mix of diagnostic, formative, and summative assessments. Diagnostic: Diagnostic assignments are for you to "diagnose" benchmarks of skill, readiness, and understanding. Formative: Low-stakes assignments carry little-to-no grade. They are meant as checkpoints to resonance and application of the material. Additionally, completing formative assessments yields meaningful and specific feedback from the instructor prior to completing a higher-stakes assessment. Summative: Evaluation of student learning at the completion of a major instructional unit (usually at the midterm or conclusion). Usually, the work is compared against previous work (on the subject) for reinforcement or mastery. Below are some tools you may use to create these types of assessments and give more effective, engaging, and timely feedback.

Assignments

You can use the Assignments feature for anything in the course that you'd like students to submit to you. Students can turn in assignments in a wide-variety of formats, and assignments can be graded or ungraded. Canvas Assignments is a great centralized location in which to collect student work. You can utilize Rubrics, the Speedgrader and annotation tools to grade assignments and give feedback. You can also set up group assignments and peer reviews. Tip: When creating an assignment that will be submitted through CourseWorks, you can choose what sort of file types students are allowed to submit.

Quizzes

The quizzes tool can be used for both short quizzes and full-length exams, though it generally works best for assessments that use multiple-choice, true/false, fill-in-the-blank, or other question styles that have a single-correct answer. CourseWorks can automatically grade quizzes structured with these question types. For online courses, take-home exams are recommended when feasible. The Quizzes tool in CourseWorks serves well for formative or summative assessments. You can also utilize the quizzes feature to design exams with essay-style, short-answer questions, or file uploads. Quizzes can be used as formative assessments as you can give feedback to students at a question level.

Gradebook

The Gradebook feature lets you enter student grades and will calculate a final grade for your students. The Gradebook, called "Grades" in CourseWorks, enables instructors to easily view and enter grades for students. The grade display options include points, percentages, complete/incomplete, or letter grades. Only graded assignments, graded discussions, graded quizzes, and graded surveys that have been published display in the Gradebook. Keep in mind that the default Grade Posting Policy for the Gradebook is "Automatically Post Grades." We recommend changing this to "Manually Post Grades" so you can control when students see their grades (and not before you've finished grading). You can also use this tool to set your late policy and set your grade posting policy (which determines when students can see grades). Tip: By default, students will be able to see their grades as soon as you post them.

Speedgrader

Speedgrader is a tool that lets you grade assignments, quizzes, and discussions within the Canvas interface. Speedgrader is a Canvas tool that allows you to grade assignments, quizzes, and discussions in one place. You can leave comments and annotations for students and submit their grades to the Gradebook.

Rubrics

Similarly, rubrics can be used with graded assignments, quizzes and discussion. With the rubric tool, you can create an online rubric with categories and point values. Rubrics help instructors clarify expectations for student work and provide consistent, transparent feedback. When well-designed, rubrics enable fair and efficient grading across assignments, exams, projects, and other assessments.

TurnItIn

TurnItIn is a service that runs originality checks on submitted documents. TurnItIn can be enabled for CourseWorks (Canvas) assignments that use File Upload or Text Entry. Note that TurnItIn must be enabled before any students submit their assignment; it cannot be added after submissions have been received. To start, create a new assignment and set the Submission Type to âOnlineâ, then check off Text Entry or File Uploads. Selecting either of these options will make the Plagiarism Review section appear further down the page. Select âTurnItInâ, then review the settings to ensure that they are configured to your liking. Finish configuring the assignment, save, and publish. This option is recommended for those looking to submit individual documents for review. Some faculty may have noticed an AI detection report included within their Similarity Report last semester. However, there are serious and acknowledged concerns about bias and reliability, including the risk for false positives with this tool.

Additional Tools and Integrations

Zoom Class Sessions

Zoom Class Sessions is where you can set up and access your synchronous Zoom calls for your course.

Class Video Recordings (Panopto)

The Class Video Recordings (Panopto) tab is where you'll find your Zoom course recordings. Panopto can also be used for hosting additional instructional videos. Panopto also has tools for editing and captioning your videos.

Textbook Tool

Faculty are required to provide accurate textbook information for their courses under the Higher Education Opportunity Act, and the Textbook tool is where you can do this. Please note that even if your course does not have any required textbooks, you are still required to use the Textbook tool to indicate that your course does not require textbooks.

Course Analytics

Course Analytics enables instructors to see individual student data and aggregate data for their CourseWorks courses, including average grades for individual assignments, sections, and courses.

External Tools

We offer additional academic technology tools, many of which can be integrated into CourseWorks. These tools include: Padlet, Hypothesis, YellowDig and Ed Discussions. There are also a few tools that have been approved for use by CUIT, but are not integrated into CourseWorks on a Barnard-wide level. Please note that it can sometimes take several weeks or months to go through the approval and install process.

Getting to Know Your Students

It is important to get to know the students you are teaching. By understanding your students, you can tailor teaching methods to their unique needs, fostering a supportive learning environment where they feel valued and motivated to engage with the material, ultimately promoting academic success and well-being.

SeatGEN

SeatGEN is a tool that can be used to build and print seating charts and print class rosters, student profiles, flash cards and tent cards for all students enrolled in a particular course. Note: Students must opt-in to have their photo and background information shared on SeatGEN. During Orientation, students are strongly encouraged to opt-in and are given instructions on how to do so within their CampusGroups profile. SeatGEN is one option for tracking attendance and participation. Faculty, TAs, and divisional staff may access the "New seatGEN" tab within the Canvas course navigation menu.

Tips and Best Practices for Course Site Design

It's important to think about how all the pieces of your CourseWorks site come together to ensure that students can easily navigate your site. Below are some tips and best practices to keep in mind when finalizing your course site.

Course Navigation Customization

You can customize your course's left-hand navigation by reordering items and hiding items you don't use. You can edit the left-hand course navigation to streamline what students see. Navigate to Student View to see what students see and to know what tools are hidden by default from student view. To do this, navigate to your course settings (in the left-hand navigation) and then click the navigation tab at the top of the page.

Homepage Selection

You have a few options for your course homepage; We recommend using the syllabus, course modules, or a custom page introducing the course. You should make it clear where students can find important class materials on your homepage. To change your homepage, navigate to your current homepage and click the Choose Home Page button on the right side.

Student View

We recommend taking a look at your course in student view, which shows your course as a student would see it. This can help you make sure everything is showing up as intended. To enter student view, click the Student View button on the right side of your homepage.

Accessibility

You'll see Ally gauges throughout CourseWorks, which signal how accessible your content is. Clicking on a gauge will give you further feedback on your content, and advice on making it more accessible.

Course Publication

Students will only be able to view your course once it has been published. To ensure your course is published, navigate to your course homepage and check that the course status is set to "published." All individual course content items (Pages, Modules, Assignments, etc.) also need to be published before they will appear visible to students. Published content will be marked with a green checkmark icon, while unpublished content will be marked with a gray no sign icon.

Support and Resources

We are always happy to set up an appointment for more in-depth support. Columbiaâs learning management system, CourseWorks, is at the center of many instructional technology activities. CourseWorks is supplemented and enhanced by tools that support a range of instructional objectives, such as tools for collaboration, presentations, lecture capture, audience response, media annotation, and electronic portfolios. The CTL has developed the videos below to help instructors get started using CourseWorks. For further guidance on how to set up discussions, take attendance, create and grade assignments, and create online exams and quizzes using CourseWorks, visit our webpage Teaching with CourseWorks. For tips on setting up your CourseWorks Gradebook and grading procedure, see this resource. For further one-on-one support, read below. Looking to get started using CourseWorks, or need guidance on which of our videos best meet your needs? How do I foster community in addition to face-to-face engagement with students? This video focuses on some strategies to foster community using CourseWorks tools. How do I engage my students? How can I assess student learning using CourseWorks? How can I foster discussion among my students? This video looks at the integrated discussion tool in CourseWorks. Do you need assistance with CourseWorks? Get started. Explore resources. Talk to an expert. Learn at your pace. Create assignments and grade. Explore the self-paced âAssessment and Grading in CourseWorks (Canvas) 2.0â online course. Technical SupportThe CourseWorks platform is powered and maintained by CUIT. View our office hours. Contact the CTL during office hours for help with CourseWorks and other educational technologies. Your CourseWorks site makes it easy to post your syllabus, course objectives, and textbooks, communicate with students, and more. A CourseWorks site is a good way to make course material accessible to students at any time â in many cases eliminating paper handouts. Instructors can easily revise course materials as the semester progresses or migrate the materials to a course in the future.

Course Materials in Law School

Course Materials for almost all Law School courses that were posted in the Fall 2018 semester and Spring 2018 semester were done on the Canvas system. For Fall 2019 courses - the tools developed for importing course materials within the Canvas system can be used. LawNet is the Law School database that has class lists, seating charts, grades, and course evaluations.

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