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This guide is intended to help faculty, instructors, and TAs to adapt a course to a fully or mostly online course. 

The following principles can help you identify ways to achieve the course's goals and support student learning in an online learning format. Each section will direct you to relevant tools and strategies, and how to leverage them in your course. 

If you're just getting started with Canvas, begin by reviewing the basics of how to use Canvas.

Engaging Asynchronously

Asynchronous course elements, such as quizzes, discussion boards, and collaborative tools, are particularly useful for helping students prepare for synchronous sessions, practice and reflect on their understanding, and interact with other students.

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Meeting Synchronously

Synchronous class meetings allow for real-time student discussion, problem-solving, clarifications, and emphasizing and summarizing key points. This is a time when students have direct access to the instructor and their peers for help, and can promote a sense of connection to the course. You can use tools like breakout rooms for small group work and virtual whiteboards to help engage students.

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Creating Community

Students are more motivated to persist and thrive in online classes when they sense that the class and instructor are connected to each other and have shared learning goals. 

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Organizing your Course and Distributing Course Materials

Canvas can be used to provide students with materials, such as readings and videos, and to post assignments. We can also use course organization to communicate our goals and help students focus on what is most important in our courses

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Assessments and Exams

Designing online assessments that promote both student learning and academic integrity may take rethinking assignments and exams used in face-to-face courses and adapting assessments for the online platform.

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