SEED projects 2019 – A new Canvas for teaching and learning

Rethinking post-class “on-task” activities using H5P / Canvas

Angela Tsai (Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences)

To support student learning, engagement and achievement in MEDSCI 142, I have designed a whole range of teaching and learning activities. These “on-task” activities align with the intended learning outcomes of each class so students can see how they might be expected to meet these. In a large-enrolment course like MEDSCI 142 with approximately 1300 students, it is difficult for the instructor to give feedback to each student. My project involved the redesign of these teaching and learning activities in order to make them more inviting, interactive and informative. Using tools such a H5P, I wanted to enrich the educational value of these exercises by embedding personalised formative feedback to facilitate student understanding, help to diagnose and resolve misconceptions.

By embedding these activities within Canvas pages, I offer these exercises as ongoing “concept checks’ that are contextual and meaningful to the contents of each Canvas pages rather than as separate “Canvas quizzes” that take the students away to another space and is a current constraint within Canvas. Post-class “concept checks” are not a new idea; many of my colleagues are already doing this using Canvas quizzes. However, most of their question formats are limited to multiple-choice questions. This project has given my colleagues and me a valuable opportunity to rethink how signature pedagogies in Anatomy and Physiology (e.g. labelling diagrams or generating these from scratch) can be modified so they can be robustly assessed in a digital format.