COURSE TITLE:
NO. OF CREDITS:
5 QUARTER CREDITS
[semester equivalent = 3.33 credits]
| WA CLOCK HRS: OREGON PDUs: PENNSYLVANIA ACT 48: |
50 50 50 |
INSTRUCTOR:
Michael Boll
michael@bollnet.com
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Never thought of yourself as someone who can make beautiful graphs, presentations, videos, charts, infographics, or posters?
Think again; Canva makes designing all these visuals (and more) a breeze. Course participants start with setting up and applying for the free (yes, free!) pro-teacher account and then plunge into templates, elements, design choices, branding, video, student use, and much more. Participants are encouraged to build designs they can immediately use in their classroom, keeping the learning practical and useful.
Join Michael Boll, your instructor, as he guides your journey with helpful video screencasts and insights along the way, and take a step into the Canva world and emerge as a stellar designer loaded with ideas on how best to communicate visually.
This course is appropriate for all educators from Pre-K to High School and beyond.
Learn more about this course, including some QuickTips, by visiting CanvaTeacherTips.com
This course may be taken as a group. With the influence of visual communication becoming so powerful, working in a group is an excellent way to expand how to better communicate visually and help set the narrative at your school. See here for more information.
LEARNING OUTCOMES: Upon completion of this course, participants will have:
Setup and become comfortable designing in the outrageously remarkable Canva environment and workspace
Leverage Canva's power to build design-oriented lessons for students
Develop your own look, feel, and brand that compliments your design preferences
Explore the current and future trends of visual literacy and design
Build a bundle of new visuals for immediate use in your in-person and digital classroom
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
Completion of all specified assignments is required for issuance of hours or credit. The Heritage Institute does not award partial credit.
The use of artificial intelligence is not permitted. Assignment responses found to be generated by AI will not be accepted.
HOURS EARNED:
Completing the basic assignments (Section A. Information Acquisition) for this course automatically earns participants their choice of CEUs (Continuing Education Units), Washington State Clock Hours, Oregon PDUs, or Pennsylvania ACT 48 Hours. The Heritage Institute offers CEUs and is an approved provider of Washington State Clock Hours, Oregon PDUs, and Pennsylvania ACT 48 Hours.
UNIVERSITY QUARTER CREDIT INFORMATION
REQUIREMENTS FOR UNIVERSITY QUARTER CREDIT
Continuing Education Quarter credits are awarded by Antioch University Seattle (AUS). AUS requires 75% or better for credit at the 400 level and 85% or better to issue credit at the 500 level. These criteria refer both to the amount and quality of work submitted.
CREDIT/NO CREDIT (No Letter Grades or Numeric Equivalents on Transcripts)
Antioch University Seattle (AUS) Continuing Education Quarter credit is offered on a Credit/No Credit basis; neither letter grades nor numeric equivalents are on a transcript. 400 level credit is equal to a "C" or better, 500 level credit is equal to a "B" or better. This information is on the back of the transcript.
AUS Continuing Education quarter credits may or may not be accepted into degree programs. Prior to registering, determine with your district personnel, department head, or state education office the acceptability of these credits for your purpose.
ADDITIONAL COURSE INFORMATION
REQUIRED TEXT
None. All reading is online.
MATERIALS FEE
There should be zero frees for the Canva Pro account as long as you work at an educational institution. Canva always has a free version but with fewer features.
ASSIGNMENTS REQUIRED FOR HOURS OR UNIVERSITY QUARTER CREDIT
A. INFORMATION ACQUISITION
Assignments done in a course forum will show responses from all educators who have or are taking the course independently. Feel free to read and respond to others' comments.
Group participants can only view and respond to their group members in the Forum.
Assignment #1: Let’s Get to Know Each Other
Overview
Getting to know each other a little better is a nice way to start off this course. It helps us all to understand our individual situations and teaching expectations.
I will introduce myself below and explain a little more about the course.
Assignment
Take a few moments and kindly complete a 250+ word description about you.
Possible items to include:
Note: All group participants are required to view the above video.
Assignment #2: Getting Started
View lesson #2 video below:
We, humans, are visually driven much more than we are text-driven. This is especially true of our students and other non-teachers who have not dedicated their lives to communicating via the written word. In life and while looking at print or screens, our eyes quickly gravitate toward visual elements. For example, if you head to Clubmed’s website, your eyes normally first go straight to the images, then on to the text if needed. The word on the street is that we process visual images 60,0000 times faster than text. It likely varies for teachers, but you get the point.
Canva.com makes creating graphics super easy and fun. Gone are the awful days of using complex programs like Photoshop.
In this lesson, we will ensure we have a Canva.com account and set up and apply for the free educator pro license.
Run over to Canva.com and set up a free account. You may use a Google login if you like; something super helpful if you plan to have students create accounts.
Get yourself a free pro teacher account.
Play around with the tools. We will go over it more in the next lesson.
In a short response, explain what your first impressions are of Canva and what areas you are drawn to. What do you want to try first? For me, it was infographics and YouTube thumbnails!
Note: All group participants are required to view the above videos.
Assignment #3: Using the Canva Dashboard
View lesson #3 video below.
The Canva dashboard is one of the most powerful dashboards on the planet! While that is likely an exaggeration, it is not far from the truth. It is hard to see just how powerful it is as many of the tools lie behind the surface. As a design company, Canva made sure to have a dashboard that is easy to use and understand. Good on them!
Watch the video(s) below for an introduction to Canva.
Jump in and build something of your choice. Totally up to you.
(But, if you want some ideas, check out this list of Canva use cases.}
Write a short reflection on the experience and what you decided to make.
What did you learn?
How easy/difficult was it to make?
Include a link (see how to share here) of your design.
Note: All group participants are required to view the above videos.
Assignment #4: Tempting Templates
View lesson #4 video below.
The templates take the average person (like me and maybe you) and make them look “Canva Cool”. The quality of the templates are first rate and easy to modify.
When I make a new design, I usually work through multiple templates until I decide on a look that is just right, then make the modifications from there.
Create a new design. I suggest starting with something easy like a square Instagram post. Even if you don’t use Instagram, this square graphic is useful for all kinds of things. This keeps it easy. However, if you prefer to design something you can use right now, go for it.
(If you want some other ideas, check out this list of Canva use cases.)
Using the templates feature, design at least six different versions of your work. This gives you the chance to really explore the different templates. You don’t have to go deep into each sample; just a rough version is fine.
In a short written response, reflect on the experience.
What sort of templates are you drawn to?
Do you like a busy, medium, or clean look?
What about colors? Thinking about a color palette yet?
Include a link to your designs.
See how to share here
Assignment #5: Dive deeper into Elements, Text, and Layers
View lesson #5 video below.
While it is hard to say what the best part of Canva is (there are so many best parts!), surely the amount of elements (images, pictures, videos, audio, etc.) available is at the top of the list. This is especially true if you have a paid pro account or the free teacher pro account.
Create a new design
Suggested project: Build a presentation. The presentation templates are loaded with ideas, and a presentation slide can actually be used for a lot more than just a presentation.Add multiple pages so you can explore and not be too overwhelmed.
Select the Elements tab and start adding items.
5. Work with some of the more advanced features found in the edit section of each graphic (see my video
(Text, front to back, etc.)
6. Work with the layers options (See video)
7. Write a short reflection on what aspects of all those elements spoke to you.
See how to share here
Assignment #6: Using Canva With Students
View lesson #6 video below.
Bringing Canva into the classroom is a huge bonus to students. It creates fantastic opportunities to teach the skills of visual communication and the importance of design.
Canva also makes it easy with Google, Office, and other sign-in options (if that works at your school). This makes it possible to scale the use of Canva to large groups of students without the insanity of password management issues.
Lastly, similar to an LMS such as Google Classroom, you can create your own individual classrooms and team up with your students to design fantabulous things.
Browse the resources below for student uses of Canva
In a short response, provide your thoughts about the use of Canva in the classroom.
Suggested topics:
Browse some of the resources with suggestions on how to use Canva with students
Enjoy a bunch of great tutorials that show students how to use Canva
Explanation of how to invite students to your class. Note: you must be using the teacher version
View the video below: Create & invite a class.
General List of Resources For All Lessons
Note: All group participants are required to view the above videos.
Assignment #7: Audio and Video
View lesson #7 video below
Canva has some strong audio and video capabilities. For example, you can mix music, edit videos, send messages, build screencasts, and more. While various other stand-alone apps provide more capability, Canva has it all in one place and may meet your needs.
Create a new video design
Suggested project: A happy birthday message to a real or fictional student. (See tutorial below)
Or another video design you prefer and is helpful to you
Provide a short, written reflection of the experience
A zillion Canva video templates to help give a great look.
All Canva tutorials for working with video
General List of Resources For All Lessons
Note: All group participants are required to view the above videos.
Assignment #8: Fonts, Color Choices and the Brand Kit
View lesson #8 video below.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/KMOq353C2Tw
Overview
This lesson assumes that by now you have grabbed the free educator Canva pro version and can take advantage of the branding features.
Good design standards push us to be consistent in how our work looks. While we have the freedom to innovate along the way, your viewers (students, parents, colleagues, etc.) appreciate a consistent color scheme and font choice. This helps the viewer better understand what you are communicating and the rules that surround the ways you communicate.
Using the Brand Kit allows you to develop a defined suite of fonts and colors that fit your preferred look. At first, depending on your experience in graphic design, picking the color or fonts that you like may take some time. I mean there is just so much to explore!
Open the Brand Kit
If you are a PPS employee, they blocked this feature for you. #Irritating. Please go ahead and pick a set of colors using a site such as Coolors.co instead.
Create a new Brand Kit
Decide on some colors and add them to your “Brand Colors”
(See the resources below for help with colors.)
In the “Brand Fonts” section, add a font for each heading style
5. Provide a short, written reflection of the experience
What colors did you pick? ( A screenshot would be nice)
What fonts did you pick?
Why did you pick your colors? For example, what emotion do you want them to convey?
Why did you pick the fonts you did? What do they communicate?
Coolors.co color generator for ideas. A personal favorite tool of mine
Canva's article “How to Choose the Right Fonts”
A variety of even more articles on fonts from Canva
General List of Resources For All Lessons
Note: All group participants are required to view the above videos.
Assignment #9: Organizing Your Work and Discovering Apps
Canva has a helpful organization system much like the ones you may be familiar with in Google Drive or Office 365. While you may not feel compelled to use it in the beginning, after a while you may be clambering for some organization.
Canva developed a bunch of great relationships with app developers and they are there for you to use. Each one might require its own, independent account from a company outside of Canva. For example, a Google Drive account.
Think about how you want to organize your work and what folders will support that effort.
Add a few folders as needed and move your current work to the appropriate location(s)
Explore the “Discover Apps” section and add one or more apps to your Canva setup. Personally I could hang out all day in the AI section (https://www.canva.com/your-apps/ai-powered)
Try one or more of them out in an existing design or a new design.
Provide a short, written reflection on the experience
Assignment #10: Unleashing Canva’s Artificial Intelligence “Magic”
Canva was quick to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) into its platform. Typical Canva moves as they seem to always be looking for an opportunity to innovate.
Instead of calling it AI, they use the word “Magic.” Not as cool as AI in my opinion, but does it matter what I think here? ;-)
This lesson focuses on the powers of Magic in Canva and gives you a chance to try it out and see if fits into your design world.
If you are new to AI, or would like some more general information by AI, feel free to check out my THI course Integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into your Classroom: A Hands-On Guide
Click the syllabus button to see all the resources for the class for free
Also, most of the help videos for that course are here.
Explore all the Canva Magic on offer here. They keep adding things, but the current focus is on:
Creating content with images based on your prompts
Switching your content from one type of design to another. Say you want to convert your written lesson to a slide deck.
Text to video or image. Take your written requests and watch it make videos or images.
Image conversion.
Expand your Instagram image to a full document size
Remove backgrounds
Change outfits on a person in the photo
Remove people or items in a photo
Create an animation
Morph an image into another image
Click on three or more of the “Try…” buttons and give it a run. They have a nice demo for each feature.
In 250 words or more, let me know what you tried, how it went, and if you think it is something you can use in your own teaching world. Add a Canva link to the one you found the most interesting.
ADDITIONAL ASSIGNMENTS REQUIRED FOR UNIVERSITY QUARTER CREDIT
B. LEARNING APPLICATION
In this section, you will apply your learning to your professional situation. This course assumes that most participants are classroom teachers who have access to students. If you do not have a classroom available to you, please contact the instructor for course modifications. Assignments done in a course forum will show responses from all educators who have or are taking the course independently. Feel free to read and respond to others' comments. Group participants can only view and respond to their group members in the Forum.
Assignment #11: Assemble Visual Designs for your Physical and/or Digital Environment
Ok, time to get to work! Use Canva to help you with your own specific needs in and out of the classroom or digital/virtual world. This is a great chance to try various ideas and see how well they work.
Design at least five different graphics to support your work
(See some suggestions here and also on the tips part of my CanvaTeacherTips website.)
Share your work with other colleagues, staff, administrators, students, etc., for feedback. I know I always learn something when I share my work.
In 750 words or more reflect on the experience.
Assignment #12: The Power of Visual Literacy in our Modern World
Our students are super, super awesome consumers of visual information. They can turn on their devices and flip through a zillion images, play a few games, and watch a bunch of short videos.
But, can they create, produce and critically analyze visuals? Maybe, maybe not. That is where this lesson comes into play. How can we make our visual consumers into visual producers and critical analysts?
Watch and read a variety of resources on visual literacy. I have a bunch here, but feel free to find your own additional resources as well.
In 750 words articulate your view(s) on visual literacy in general and specifically its impact on students.
Suggested areas to cover:
Assignment #13: (500 Level ONLY) Applying Your Learning to Professional Development or Student Use
This assignment lets you apply what you have learned so far in the course to your current teaching situation.
Assignment
Complete one of the following:
ACTIVITY A
Create a 30-minute or longer presentation to be given at a professional development workshop. Be sure to use Canva to build this presentation.
It should relate to the themes discussed in this course such as:
Or
ACTIVITY B
Take a very deep dive into design and the use of Canva for students and develop a variety of lesson ideas for students. Make sure to design something useful to you and your teaching situation.
A Few Sample Ideas:
C. INTEGRATION PAPER
Assignment #14: (Required for 400 and 500 level)
SELF REFLECTION & INTEGRATION PAPER
(Please do not write this paper until you've completed all of your other assignments)
Write a 400-500 word Integration Paper answering these 5 questions:
INSTRUCTOR COMMENTS ON YOUR WORK:
Instructors will comment on each assignment. If you do not hear from the instructor within a few days of posting your assignment, please get in touch with them immediately.
QUALIFICATIONS FOR TEACHING THIS COURSE:
Michael Boll is an Apple Distinguished Educator and former Technology Coach at international schools in China and Thailand.
Now based in the United States, Michael is an enthusiastic instructional designer and presenter. He works to make his courses and presentations information-packed, slightly provocative, and fun.
Michael has an adult son with profound autism and is keenly interested in the special needs community and its population of diverse learners.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Graphics, Visuals and Digital Communication Made Easy With Canva
“13 Ways to Use Canva in Your Classroom – Ask a Tech Teacher.” Ask a Tech Teacher, 28 Feb. 2017, https://askatechteacher.com/13-ways-to-use-canva-in-your-classroom/
Agtarap, Kevin. “How to Incorporate Visual Literacy in Pre-K and Elementary School Instruction | Edutopia.” Edutopia, George Lucas Educational Foundation, 15 Nov. 2021, https://www.edutopia.org/article/how-incorporate-visual-literacy-your-instruction.
Contributors to Wikimedia projects. “Visual Literacy - Wikipedia.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 26 Feb. 2005, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_literacy.
Finley, Todd. “Common Core in Action: 10 Visual Literacy Strategies | Edutopia.” Edutopia, George Lucas Educational Foundation, 19 Feb. 2014, https://www.edutopia.org/blog/ccia-10-visual-literacy-strategies-todd-finley.
Hooker, David. “David Hooker: The Importance of Visual Literacy | TED Talk.” TED: Ideas Worth Spreading, 1 Feb. 2018, https://www.ted.com/talks/david_hooker_the_importance_of_visual_literacy.
Lynch, Matthew. “Teach Your Students Visual Literacy - The Edvocate.” The Edvocate, The Edvocate, 26 Feb. 2019, https://www.theedadvocate.org/teach-your-students-visual-literacy/.
“What Are the 13 Types of Literacy? - The Edvocate.” The Edvocate, The Edvocate, 29 Jan. 2019, https://www.theedadvocate.org/what-are-the-13-types-of-literacy/.
Mercier, Tracy. “5 Ways for Students to Use Canva Today : Vr2ltch.” Vr2ltch, https://www.facebook.com/vr2ltch, 20 Aug. 2020, https://vr2ltch.com/5-ways-for-students-to-use-canva-today/.
The Merrills. “10 Ways for Teachers to Use Canva — @TheMerrillsEDU.” @TheMerrillsEDU, @TheMerrillsEDU, 10 Jan. 2022, https://www.themerrillsedu.com/blog-1/2021/12/3/20-ways-for-students-to-use-canva-in-the-classroom-epgyf.
“Visual Literacy in Education.” Jolly’s Class, Jolly’s Class, 5 May 2022, https://www.jollysclass.com/post/visual-literacy-in-education.
“What Is Visual Literacy? – Visual Literacy Today.” Visual Literacy Today – An Online Magazine for Visual Literacy and Visual Learning, https://visualliteracytoday.org/what-is-visual-literacy/. Accessed 5 Sept. 2022.
Wiebusch, Fiona. “5 Ways to Use Canva in the Language Classroom — The Queensland Institute Pty Ltd.” The Queensland Institute Pty Ltd, The Queensland Institute Pty Ltd, 8 Mar. 2022, https://thequeenslandinstitute.com/news/using-canva-in-the-language-classroom.