Language Centre first to go live on Canvas

On 6 August 2018 the University’s Language Centre became the first of our early adopters to welcome students to courses in Canvas, the new virtual learning environment (VLE). 

The Centre ran pre-sessional Academic English summer courses for approximately 50 students, and included the use of Lecture Capture (Replay), as well as quizzes and presentations, to deliver innovative and interactive experiences for their students. Sam McIlroy, Head of Academic English, and Marion Sadoux, Head of Modern Language Programmes, worked closely with learning technologists to develop a number of new courses in Canvas.  

Sam said, ‘This is a really exciting time for us as early adopters of Canvas. I’m really looking forward to getting started and sharing our experiences as well as that of our students of using Canvas with the wider University’. 

Marion Sadoux, Head of Modern Language Programmes at the University of Oxford Language Centre, working on a course in Canvas.

Marion is also currently trialling Canvas for a one-to-one bespoke course where she is preparing a DPhil student for a year in exchange at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris. They have been using the voice functionality in Canvas for their discussions and will be also be using the live conference tool to enable their remote sessions. Marion said, ‘As a language teacher, I must say that it is a delight to work with a platform that offers seamless integration of voice tools – even though those have existed for a long time now, very few University VLE’s have them’.

Courses in the Departments of Education and Continuing Education also went live for teaching and learning in Canvas during August.  

The early adopter phase will continue until Trinity term 2019, with Canvas being rolled out across the University more widely from summer 2019 following a rigorous evaluation process. 

Please contact the team if you would like to know more about Canvas at canvasoxford@it.ox.ac.uk