As discussed in Chapter 7, Now You're Ready!, Canvas offers a wide array of features that allow you to address contemporary trends in education. The resources and books described in the following sections will provide you with more specific information about current best practices in teaching and learning.
Partnership for 21st Century Skills
Authors: Partnership between educational leaders from 19 states in the US and 26 organizations.
Website: http://www.p21.org.
Description: Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) provides valuable information regarding skills gleaned from educational experiences that will enhance the lives of learners in the 21st century. These skills go beyond traditional behaviorist goals to include more complex thought processes by making connections, synthesizing information, and thinking critically. The P21 Framework for 21st Century Learning has been adopted as a contemporary best practice in education throughout the United States with worldwide implications. The details of the P21 skills and framework are freely available online at the P21 website.
Connections to Canvas: Chapter 7, Now You're Ready!, includes a detailed discussion of the ways in which Canvas can help you connect to and address a wide variety of 21st century skills in a live, online, or hybrid course. Familiarizing yourself with these skills can inform you about the ways in which you might choose to utilize Canvas to enhance your students' learning experience.
Further Reading: A number of publications address the P21 skills and framework, including 21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times by Bernie Trilling and Charles Fadel, published by Jossey-Bass.
Understanding by Design
Authors: Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe
ISBN: 978-0131950849
Publisher: Pearson (Expanded 2nd Edition)
Description: Understanding by Design presents ways to conceptualize curriculum design to ensure lasting student understanding. Addressing the contemporary push for standards-based education, components of Understanding by Design such as Backwards Design, the Six Facets of Understanding, Essential Questions, and Teaching for Understanding offer ways to ensure that your students are able to fully understand and utilize content to meet the educational standards of your country, district, or institution. A number of resources related to Understanding by Design are available online for free in addition to a wide range of publications available for purchase in printed format.
Connections to Canvas: As you work to design your Canvas courses, referring to the concepts and techniques articulated in the Understanding by Design literature can help you ensure that your course design, assessments, and outcomes are all aligned with one another to ensure maximum student understanding and retention of information. The Outcomes feature of Canvas offers you a unique way to directly incorporate the standards of your country, district, or institution into your course, and incorporating strategies of Understanding by Design can further aid you in helping your students attain these outcomes.
Creating Significant Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses
Author: L. Dee Fink
ISBN: 978-1118124253
Publisher: Jossey-Bass (Revised and Updated)
Website: http://www.deefinkandassociates.com
Description: Considering the tremendous changes, developments, and advances within higher education in recent decades, this book offers you insight into new research on learning in higher education as well as research regarding Fink's popular instructional design model used in colleges and universities around the world. This revised edition presents examples of Fink's model from online education, explores how student engagement impacts student learning, and suggests strategies for addressing resistance from students to innovative teaching strategies within higher education.
Connections to Canvas: Though the trend of online learning has begun to spread to institutions serving students of younger ages, online learning started and has remained prominent within higher education. Fink's instructional design model offers guidance for instructors of college-aged learners and integrates current research to support best practices in instructional design. This book can offer context, guidance, and scholarly grounding for you as you work to build and teach your Canvas course within a higher education environment.