The facility to create private Canvas course Journals is now available. The TEL team have developed a tool which creates a private discussion space for each student in your course, so that individuals can post entries privately and receive feedback. Once a journal is created, all students receive a notification outlining the due date and students can access it via a browser or mobile device. Course tutors can monitor students via the Grades and Discussions areas.
What Can This be Used For?
This Canvas enhancement was developed through conversations with LJMU academic staff. Which identified requirements for:
- Reflective Learning. Supporting students in examining their own learning process which enables the lecturer to understand students’ ongoing learning journey. For example, a student could write a blog entry each week about their experiences on a field trip.
- Management of Personal Projects. Students can find it difficult to organise and manage their own development during a personal project, which can lead to procrastination and poor outcomes. This process could help by requiring a student to create a weekly log of their progress, reflect and plan for the next stage of the project.
How do I set this up?
For further guidance on how to create private course journals, please see the My Canvas Admin guide.
Assessment
You can then use ‘graded’ discussions for students to undertake. Read how to do this here: How do I assign a graded discussion to a course group?.
You might also want to indicate to students that these activities are formative only, this can be done by creating a ‘formative’ assignment group. Here is some guidance on this: