Pulling Apart the Venn Diagram: When Should You Use Digication vs. Canvas?

• Exams: Whether you elect to use Classic Quizzes or New Quizzes (and whether or not you decide to use LockDown Browser), exams, especially mid-terms and finals, should be facilitated through Canvas.  
• Assignment submission and instructor feedback: Courses with an emphasis on written work can use the Assignments feature to provide feedback on and grade student work. The recent OneDrive integration also allows for easy file-sharing.  
• Formative assessment and peer feedback: For courses that practice formative assessment, or in which larger projects are scaffolded into a series of steps that includes peer and/or instructor feedback, Canvas allows for the dissemination of feedback via Groups, Peer Review, and SpeedGrader. 
  • In Digication’s latest update, known as Digication Kora, ePortfolio assignments can be scaffolded into individual assignments and graded within Digication based on point values that will then sync with the Canvas gradebook. However, this option only makes sense if students are using these assignments to build out a larger ePortfolio project, as assignments are added to a template or to the student’s existing ePortfolio. Additionally, Digication does not have the capabilities to sync written feedback with Canvas just yet. 
• Readings and Instructional Materials: Uploading readings and other instructional materials to Canvas not only makes it easy for students to access those materials at any point in the term, but also allows (and, in a way, encourages) supplementing readings with other types of content and media, which supports the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework of providing multiple means of engagement for students. 
• Discussion boards: Canvas’s Discussion boards are great for getting students to interact with each other and the instructor, engage with course materials, and demonstrate knowledge of the course subject matter beyond simply participating in face-to-face discussions.  
• Scheduling Zoom: Courses that utilize Zoom can use Canvas to schedule meetings for the whole class, group work, or office hours. 
• Kaltura videos: The Kaltura Mediaspace integration allows you and your students to easily create and share videos, including Interactive Video Quizzes (which offer useful analytics on the back-end for instructors).  
  • This is also a great option to use if students are recording and adding videos to an ePortfolio—videos and audio can be recorded directly within Digication, but Kaltura has a more robust set of accessibility features, like the ability to create captions and transcripts for recorded videos, that, once recorded, can easily be embedded in an ePortfolio page. 
• Modules: Using Modules to organize course content by day or week creates an ease of navigation that allows students to access all the relevant content in one place. If you’re tired of students asking or messaging you with questions about where they can find something, using Modules thoughtfully is your best bet. 

All of which may now have you asking, “So if Canvas does all that, what are we supposed to use Digication for?”