>> So welcome to this week's Weekly Webinar.
Again, I'm Cynthia Wilshusen
and I'm an Instructional Designer here at Cuesta College.
I'm trying to reach out to you give you some resources
for your courses.
So this week we're going to look at embedding,
looking at putting, looking a little closer
at putting some resources into your course so just to kind
of give you a little background.
The ability to embed items into your course allows you
to give your students access to materials
without having them leave your course.
You can create an entire learning environment
where students can get resources and materials that you need them
to use in one convenient location.
So embedding resources can improve the learning experience
for your students and reduce the amount of clicking
that they need to do to remain successful in your course.
So some of the things that we might embed
into our course include things like videos,
slides or other types of content.
So let's take a look at what embedding is.
So embedding is a process and has a very simple definition
so the simple definition of embed is to place
or set something firmly in something else.
We can also say - I found another definition that it is
to make something an integral part of something else.
So in doing so you can help ingrain content
into your students' learning experience
and making it an integral part of their learning.
You can also add some character and style
to how you teach your course
and provide your students an opportunity
or your learners an opportunity to feel more engaged in part
of the learning experience.
Oftentimes text-heavy items do not always create a very
interactive learning environment.
So when we're imbedding into our course you can also help create
a more humanized approach to your course
where you're putting a little bit of your personality
and style into the course.
So here's some quick examples of what embedding might look like.
You can embed a video
that populates right into your course.
You can embed slides.
You can also embed things like padlets,
as well as many other types of resources that are out there.
As long as they offer you if they're web-based some sort
of ability to grab embed code you can input them
and place them into your course.
So what are some of the benefits to embedding into our course?
Well obviously if you have links
in your content students will have to click on the link.
Once they've arrived at that link they will need to click
to play or download a file so minimizing the number of clicks
for your students is one benefit.
Your course becomes more interesting to look at
and inviting for your students to engage them in the material.
So that's where we can increase some visual interest
in your content.
Students feel like they have more opportunity or options
to review the material rather
than just reading the information in a textbook
so creating that sense of variety,
giving them some different ways of engaging with the content.
Note that your students are already logged into your course
and so by doing so you can help them you know
through using authentication
in our campus learning system you can help them reduce the
need to sign into additional services
or web pages giving them one access point.
We also reduce the --
or minimize the opportunity for students to actually close
out their course windows.
So when they're done viewing the material they're less likely
to accidentally close the course window and therefore be logged
out of your course and then creating additional work
for them needing to get back into the content.
So you create an opportunity to tell them what you wanted them
to do with it, give them the information
and then have them ready to move on to the next steps.
Another thing is that oftentimes
when we're viewing resources online we all know
that it's easy to get distracted by ads and other videos
so if we place the material that we want the students
to view exclusively inside our -
inside our course it helps to keep our students focused
on the task that we want them to perform.
So let's take a look at some examples.
So I've got - search here --
some examples of what embedding might look like before --
-- a little lag there.
It should pop up --
about a minute to populate.
We're sharing.
I need to share my window with you.
So I grab my window, there we go.
So here's what embedding might look like after.
We want to look at before,
so before embedding this is what a student might see.
So if we wanted to give them access
to a video you might have it placed somewhere in your course
that asks them to please use this link to access the video
on financial statements and if this wasn't created
into a hyperlink like this one is not the student would have
to actually have to select the hyperlink, copy it,
go to their web browser, paste it and then view it from there.
So that's an example of you know lots of clicks for the student.
They've got to click on it and paste it and move it
and it's just a lot of work for the students.
Another example might be for like a PowerPoint presentation
and I will can kind of mention to you
that PowerPoint is definitely geared towards more face-to-face
courses because the idea behind PowerPoint is
that you have minimized slides that are meant to be discussed
in an in-person place where you can use them as highlight points
like I'm doing in my presentation
and then you can talk a little bit more in detail about them.
But there are some things and reasons why you might want
to put PowerPoint slides out there for your students
and when that's the case this is what you might have done before
when you might have put the file into your course
where a student would have to click on the file.
They would be prompted to download the file.
They have to save it and then they'd have to either open it
or access it and so as you can see that's additional steps
and clicks and students tend
to be a little frustrated with that.
So those are just examples
of what it might have looked like before.
As far as visually appealing, we can see it's just a bunch
of text we're looking at.
It's not very exciting or informative to kind of look
at so if we think about those benefits again I don't have a
lot of variety, nothing really catching my eye here.
Again I'm sending students outside by having them open
up another web browser, tab, or window to access the information
and then, of course, once they get
out there let's actually just go ahead and launch a new window
and see when I get out to the YouTube video I've now got all
these other distractions over here
that students are going to, oh,
maybe I need to go look at this one
and then you're taking them away from the actual one
that you wanted them to see.
And then of course one
of the other benefits was reducing the ability
for them to close your course.
Well if they don't realize they can close just the tab they
might close to entire window, which therefore closes them
out of your class as well.
So again just all around minimizing opportunities
for disadvantages is really powerful.
So let's look and see what it might look
like if I did embed some objects into my course.
So embedding after this is what it might look
like if I embed a video
and I have very just brief discussion here
of "Please take a moment to review this video
on financial statements."
I could actually enhance that up a little bit
to identify with them.
You know maybe I want them to actually say,
"Once you are done, you will be able to complete your homework
and create effective financial statements."
I might even add a little brief description
as to what exactly the benefit is maybe taking it back
to my learning objectives
so that they know what they're going to do
with this once they've completed it,
how that benefits their ability to perform in the class
and how they're meeting objectives.
So you can see on this now they've got
to video face looking at them.
They can actually click Play right here
and they're watching the video inside your course
so they're not taken outside of your course at all.
They're just watching the video right here in your course.
They can go on to the next step in their process
and complete their assignments and continue on with their work.
So that's what a video might look like.
Here's an example of for instance a PowerPoint slide.
So "Please review this slideshow for more information."
Now note previously I had said that we had slides
and when you use PowerPoint that is a downloadable file
that students will need to download
but you can also export your or import your PowerPoint slides
into Google slides and now they've become web-based
so that you can actually embed them.
You wouldn't be able to embed a PowerPoint file
but because I did put this into Google slides I was able
to grab the embed code because it's now web-based
and put it into my course.
So another example would be using a padlet,
so padlet is like Sticky Notes.
It's a big desktop essentially and all of these little items
on my padlet are Sticky Notes that I can do.
This is like really I think very powerful for probably the arts
and humanities where maybe you've got a lot of objects
and images that you wanted to share with your students
so you could actually put them all up here.
They're now on the web
where you've got some more file storage space
or you might be a little limited in Canvas
and then you can create a space where you can get students
to start talking about images.
Maybe do those compare and contrast and now you can plug
that right into your Canvas course, have them take a look
at the resources that you've presented
for them on the padlet,
ask them to do something specifically with it maybe
to compare the cash flow statement
with the income statement and give them an activity
and now it's right there in front of them
and they can actually access the information right there
in front of them.
So that's with the padlet.
It's really quite cool.
Let's go back so now we'll take a look at some examples.
Let's take to look now at how do we make this happen.
So let's try it out.
So realistically there are basically four simple steps
and they're really not that difficult at all.
Once you see how the process works you're going
to say why did not I do this before?
So first and foremost decide where you want
to place your content.
In Canvas, obviously the most appropriate place would be
to place them in a page.
So using the Pages tool to generate a location
where you can type in a textual descriptive
of the particular item identify how they're supposed to use it,
what they need to do with it, what they should do
after they've watched the video or utilized those slides,
you know, so create some variety around that as well and decide
where you're going to place that.
But you can also embed your objects not only into pages
but you can embed them right into an assignment
so maybe you're creating an assignment for your class
and part of that assignment is to watch a video
and then you're going to have them analyze the video.
So you could actually use the assignment description
or details for the assignment to place in the textual description
and then link them right there within the assignment
to the video so they don't have to leave Canvas at all
and they can type up in the Comment Box whatever you needed
them to do.
Hit submit.
They've moved on in the activity.
So decide whether it's going to be in a page or in an assignment
or quiz or how you're going to be using it.
Then the next step is to locate and copy the embed code
and once you see those web-based applications, the location
of where that embed code might reside might be a little
different depending on where you're accessing it
but the idea behind that is that you would be able
to access it very quickly, copy it, and then come back
into Canvas and paste your embed code into the HTML editor.
And this third step is probably the most challenging part,
a little daunting and sometimes a little scary, but once you go
in there the first time and realize you're just pasting
and saving you're going to be just fine.
And then of course obviously you save and go
and your material is there and your students have it
and they're ready to be successful and you're ready
to keep them moving in the right place.
So let's go ahead and take another look here
at where we want to put it.
So first thing as I said was to first decide
where you're going to put your content.
So one of those would be opportunities would be
into a page so in your course navigation clicking on Pages,
View All Pages, and then you could Add a New Page.
The other location could be in assignments
and when you Create a New Assignment you can create a new
assignment and what you're looking for as far as location
to place these embedded items
in is essentially the Rich Text editor, Actually,
we're going to hop into the HTML editor in a moment
but you need this text box here to be able to type
in the descriptor and then be able
to input the embed code below it.
Okay, so I would either use assignments or pages
as your tool to create that content.
So I'm going to do a page.
So I'm clicking on a New Page and I'm going to call this
"Financial Statements Video."
"So please use this video as a resource
to creating" I can spell today:
"When you are finished you can begin working
on your assignment."
So I've told them what to do and what to do
when they're finished.
Okay, so then the next step would be to go
out to the location where,
oops on how you're not seeing my screen share anymore --
there we go, to a location where you want them to view that.
So obviously if it was a YouTube video some other resources
that you might look at is 3C Media,
it's 3cmediasolutions.org.
3C Media Solutions is a location
where you could actually upload your own videos to store them
and this is sponsored by the Chancellor's Office
and then you can also once you've uploaded your own videos
if you've created your own using something like Screencastomatic
or Camtasia you might want to come visit me in my next course
that is creating videos.
We'll look at that and how to house them here
so 3C Media is also a solution
for hosting your own creative videos
but let's say you had a video that you were looking at online
so for instance the financial statements video
so access your video and then you'll always see there's an
opportunity to share and this is true
with most anything that's web-based there's going
to be a little share opportunity.
Usually you just grab the URL,
which is the first thing you see.
Now by doing that, in Canvas it will create a little snapshot
saying that it is a YouTube video but that doesn't work
for everything, so I always encourage you
to use the embed link.
So I'm going to click on the tab for embed
and here is the embed code and what it is, is it's in HTML code
that we're going to copy.
So I'm just doing Control C or I can right click and say Copy.
Then I would return to my course where I've set
up the place holder for that particular video and as I said
in this step so the first place
of locating my page I'm putting it on.
I've now located the content and copied the embed code.
This third step was to paste it into the HTML editor.
So within my tool whether it's pages or assignments
or discussions, I'm just going to click on HTML editor
and I can still see the text that I typed in.
I'm going to click and create a new line for it
and then I'm going to use Control V or right click
and Paste to plug in the HTML code
and what the HTML code is it tells it
where to grab the video so that's the URL.
It also tells it to put in a frame and how big it is.
So you could actually adjust, if you wanted
to control its size a little bit you can adjust the height
and width in here if you wanted to make it a little bit smaller
in this determination.
You can also do that through sizing.
So if I click back to my Rich Text editor I'll see here's the
placeholder for my video and as I mentioned a minute ago
if I wanted to resize I could also do it
but resizing the handles
if I don't know exactly what size I want it to be.
And then I'll hit Save or Save and Publish.
I'm going to do Save and Publish and once I hit Save
and Publish I'll actually see the text
and a link to that video.
So that wasn't too complicated, right?
No, not at all.
So let's do another one so go back here to View All Pages.
Actually this time let's do it in an assignment.
I'm going to do one of my other tools here and I'm going
to say Create a New Assignment.
And again I have a text box where I can put information
in so I'm going to say
"Please review these"
[performing task] --
so I've told them what to do afterwards.
So what I'm going to do is go out to my Google Drive.
I should have had this opened to save a little time but I forgot
so in my Google Drive I actually have some files in here
and as you can see I have PowerPoint.
What I did was I actually just imported my actual
PowerPoint slide.
I used the Upload feature to bring the slides in so
that there it is then as a PowerPoint
and then I just converted them over to a PowerPoint slide.
So what I need to do is actually open
with Google slides to open this up
so once I converted it into Google slides it's now web-based
so under the File menu I actually have the option
to publish to the web and so note
in this particular place there's nowhere that says share,
so again it might be, oh, it does have share
but that's sharing it with particular people
so in Google Drive I have to publish to the web
and then I have a link here for embed.
And so when I click on that embed option
and then click publish, "Are you sure?"
Yes; it's going to generate the embed code for me.
Again I can Control C to copy or right click
and copy if I wanted to.
Return back to my Canvas assignment.
Again, toggle into HTML editor; create a new line and paste.
Return back to Rich Text editor
and here again is the placeholder for my slides.
Once again if I don't want it to be so large I can resize it
and then set any other details I wanted
to since this was an assignment and save and publish.
I want to give it an assignment name, so "Financial Statements."
It's not an external tool.
It's just a link.
So many details I was leaving out.
Okay,
and here we -- now I have instructions
and the slides right there
and so now the students can click right on them.
It started it, so now it's going to play them.
They can make this screen just a little bit bigger.
Every time they click they'll advance the slide right there
in the assignment and then
when they're done I might have had some questions
and they can go ahead and enter and submit the assignment.
Okay, so that's two examples.
I'll show you one more and I'll actually create it
so you can see kind of three different places
that you could put embedded information.
So if I were to create a new discussion again you can embed
anywhere that has the opportunity
to go into the HTML editor.
So as long as you have this text box you can create an
embedded item.
So the other item I had in my examples was a padlet.
So here is my padlet that I created and you know
if you wanted to learn more
about padlet, just reach out to me.
It's really quite simple to use but again here is an opportunity
to share so if I click on the Share option I can then say
that I want to Share, Export, or Embed so I choose that option
and then here is the option to embed
so now everywhere you go it looks a little different
but you're looking for that term called embed
so here is the embed code.
So I can just simply copy.
My embed code has been copied to my clipboard.
I can return to my Canvas discussion
so "Discuss the difference between Cash Flow
and Income statement."
And then I could tell them "Take a look
at the two statements below and identify differences."
There should be very great differences.
So now I've got the instructions.
I'm going to click over to HTML editor, again get a new line,
control V to Paste, return to my Rich Text editor.
I've now got a placeholder and resize
if I desire, Save and Publish.
So now once this saves, the students will be able
to see what they need to do, the directions
for the discussion board.
They can now see the padlet here.
They can compare these two and identify what's different
and then they can go ahead and reply to the discussion.
So essentially I've showed you three different places
that you could put the content into and then be able
to give them access to those materials.
At no point once I've created it have I left the Canvas course.
They're just able now to continue
into the next opportunity or next resource
that you've provided to them in your course.
So I hope that that gives you a good idea now
that you've seen how it works.
You Save and Go and the resources are there
for your student.
So I just wanted to put that out there for you as an option
to enhance your course, make it a little bit more appealing
and visually exciting for your students,
create a cohesive learning environment
where students can stay in one location, access your materials
and complete their assignments in a much simpler formatted way.
So I do hope that this is helpful for you
and I look forward to seeing you in future webinars
where we still have lots of topics
to talk about this semester.
Do reach out for anything that you saw in here
that you're interested in learning more about.
I'd be happy to share.
So again, thank you for taking a look.