The modern high-tech world dictates its conditions to the education system. And nowadays, in the teaching environment, one can hear more and more often about blended learning. This is such a construction of the educational process, where traditional approaches and teaching methods are combined with electronic ones. For the latter, various applications, services, and online platforms are used. One of them is Canvas, which is often used for ESL courses. What kind of thing is it and how can it be useful for a teacher? Let’s figure it out together.
What is Canvas?
Canvas is a free platform for creating fully functional Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Such courses can be easily integrated into blended learning or used as a standalone educational product. This platform provides free hosting and convenient tools for developing lessons and courses, it is free for both teachers and students.
What can Canvas do?
On Canvas, you can do the following:
- Create pages with text and images.
- Compose tests with different settings, for example, time limit, number of attempts, etc.
- Give assignments and set deadlines.
- Add documents and files.
- Give grades and organize mutual appreciation of each other by students.
- View analytics of the course and individual students.
- Hold conferences.
- Involve students in joint work on a project, document, etc.
As you can see, the platform allows you to use almost all known sources of information like video lectures, text documents to conduct quizzes, tests, live online discussions, etc. With its help, you can easily and excitingly present any grammatical or lexical topic.
Is it convenient?
To make the platform convenient for users, it is equipped with a built-in calendar, a mailbox for internal communication, and a course showcase. If you have any technical questions, you can ask for help or find an answer using the built-in tool to find the information you need.
How to Begin
The creators of the service recommend starting to create a course by compiling its description. You should write what knowledge and experience are required to participate, what students will know and be able to do after passing, brief information about the authors of the materials, general descriptions of the types of tasks and deadlines, etc.
How to Prepare Content for ESL Lessons
First, you need to define the purpose of the entire course. Then break it down into study objectives for each section, topic, and lesson. Think over the structure. Prepare textbooks, documents, articles, videos, images. Try to use more visual material, since Canvas gives you all the possibilities for this. Create tests of different formats to test the knowledge of students. Live discussions and regular interactions will help students feel support.
What else is useful in Canvas ESL? </h3>
In addition to the possibility of creating your own authoring courses, Canvas ESL gives a chance to take advantage of courses from other teachers of various subjects. They are free, do not imply a strict study deadline, are full of modern materials, and provide room for self-development and self-improvement. By the way, there you can also learn how to create your own educational content if you have not had such experience before.