1) The document discusses using an API and analytics data from the Canvas learning management system to provide faculty feedback on student progress and assignment completion. 2) A whirlwind of preparation last spring included rolling out Canvas and migrating content from Blackboard, along with training sessions for faculty and students. 3) The API allows tracking various metrics for each course like number of assignments, ungraded assignments, and turnaround time for grading to identify outliers and have follow up conversations with faculty.

1. Using the API for Faculty Feedback
Seth Battis
St. Mark’s School

2. St. Mark’s School
• Intentionally small boarding
school
• 350 high school students
• 75 “triple threat” teachers
• 1,500+ devices on wifi

3. Seth Battis
• Director of Academic
Technology
• Math Department Chair
• Sometime History Teacher
• Former Middle School Principal
• Ex-Outdoor Educator
• Lousy Baseball Coach

4. The ideal college is Mark
Hopkins on one end of a log
and a student on the other.
James Garfield

5. Canvas Expectations for Faculty
• Post all assignments to Canvas
• Post all grades on assignments to Canvas

6. Whirlwind of Preparation Last Spring
• Canvas roll-out as a “shadow” LMS
• Unconference with faculty, students, Instructure on digital workflows
• In-person, flipped and online training sessions for faculty
• Built our own Blackboard-to-Canvas migration tool
• Workshops and drop-ins for students and faculty
• “Tech Tips” knowledge base
• Oh yeah… and we also rolled out Google Apps for Education at the same
time.

7. Student Learning a cycle

12. Faculty Learning not quite a cycle

16. • What is our desired outcome?
• Efficient communication of
student progress and
responsibilities to support
learning, teaching and
advising.
• What are measurable indicators?
• Assignments (responsibilities)
• Grades (progress)
• How do we adjust in response to
measurement?
Faculty Feedback

17. For every course, every day…
• Total number of assignments due (through today)
• Total number of undated assignments.
• Total number of grade-able (non-zero) assignments (through today).
• Total number of zero-point assignments.
• Total number of grade-able assignments for which student work has been
graded.
• The oldest ungraded grade-able assignment.
• Average (per submission) turn-around time between due date and grade posting.
• Average (per assignment due through today) percentage of submissions graded.
• And a miscellany of contextual information.

20. Turn-around
Comparison
whole school

21. Turn-around
Comparison
department

23. How do we adjust in response to measurement?
• Look for outliers
• Investigate
• Consult
• Make a plan
• Check back

24. What have we learned from this?
• Canvas is a (sometimes weak) proxy for real life.
• Some teachers do need personal invitations.
• Some teachers are pushing the envelope (in good
ways).
• Data provides helpful context for anecdotes.
The plural of anecdote is not “data.”
• As a faculty, our students would benefit from a larger
conversation around feedback and assessment.

25. Areas for Further Exploration
• Window between posting and due date
• Gradebook math
• Getting teachers “into” analytics
• Developing distributed leadership

26. “Calling all heroes…”
• St. Mark’s faculty, IT and administration
• John DeFonzo & Travis Cornes’ instant responses
• Cortny Lyon & Patrick Colclough’s advocacy
• Hilary Scharton’s data geekery and encouragement
• Kevin Reeve: Using Analytics to Keep Students on Track
5pm today Chistopher Davis: Use of Canvas Analytics to Improve Student Success
• John Louviere: API for the Rest of Us
• “Build your own awesome”

27. Useful Links
• github.com/smtech/canvas
• SethBattis@stmarksschool.org
• @battis
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