Focusing student effort where it matters most by improving Canvas course structure

8.13 Physics (Course 8)

Faculty/Instructor: Sean Robinson
Digital Innovations & Tools: Active Learning, Blended Learning & Flipped Classroom, Flexible Course Delivery

In 8.13 where students are navigating large amounts of resources and accessing different sets of lab materials at different times, organized Canvas pages help to focus students’ cognitive efforts on what matters most: becoming a physicist.

Sean Robinson, Lecturer in Physics & Associate Director of the Helena Foundation Junior Laboratory (aka MIT J Lab), and Cory Romanov, Technical Instructor for Physics Department, collaborated with Open Learning Residential Education to improve the 8.13 Canvas course site for students. The improvements, resulting from a 2024 Summer Canvas Innovation Fund project, include easier access to lab materials from the homepage, expanded and updated pages with crucial prelab resources, and a better way of conveying the overall semester structure to students.

Watch this 2-min. video of Sean and students describing why these changes were needed and the positive results.

For more from Sean Robinson and Cory Romanov, watch this panel discussion.