The two developers on the Teaching & Learning Technologies team, Patricia Goldweic and Jacob Collins, have built all kinds of Canvas tools to respond to the needs of the Northwestern community. Their two newest creations, NU Worldwide and NU Canvas Dashboard, help instructors manage student time zone information and understand student activity in their Canvas course.
NU Worldwide
Built by Jacob Collins, NU Worldwide allows instructors to easily see which students are in different time zones from the instructor by sorting those students to the top of a list. Students who are in different time zones from the instructor are automatically sorted to the top of the list. On the far right column, text and a bar tell the instructor how much a student is offset from them.
The interface also includes a time simulator that an instructor can use to decide on assignment or meeting times. To use the time simulator, click on the pencil icon in the Current or Set Time box. In the pop-up window, click on the hour and minute hands of the clock to enter your proposed time. Click Done to see that time reflected in the students’ time zone entries. Click on the red X in the Current or Set Time to return to the default time. Additionally, the tool detects mismatches between your computer and your Canvas Time Zone.
How do I set a time zone in Canvas?
How do I get NU Worldwide into my course?
NU Worldwide is currently available in all Canvas courses under Settings and can be added to your left navigation in any course. Click on Settings in a course and then click on the Navigation tab. Scroll to the bottom of the page to find NU Worldwide listed under hidden items. Drag NU Worldwide into the top section of the navigation and then click on the blue Save button at the bottom of the page.
NU Canvas Dashboards in Canvas
Built by Patricia Goldweic, the NU Dashboard helps instructors better understand how students interact with their Canvas courses. The dashboard currently contains two sets of visualizations (dashboards): Submissions and Files.
Files
The Files dashboard can give you an idea –and detailed information- of what files your students are downloading in your course, and at what rate.
Submissions
How do I get the NU Dashboards in my course?
NU Dashboards are currently in beta and looking for testers. If you’d like to try NU Dashboards in your course, email canvas@northwestern.edu and let us know which of your courses you’d like it installed in.
NU Canvas Dashboards is only visible to teachers and TAs and will not be seen by students.