Five Ways Canvas Can Improve Student Success and Equity

Michael Smedshammer, Ph.D.Instructional Design Coordinator

Modesto Junior College

Demographics

● 541k Stanislaus / 269k Merced

● White: 43% / 28%

● Hispanic: 46% / 59%

● Asian: 6% / 8%

● African American: 3% / 4%

● Household Income: $52k / $44k

● Below poverty level: 14.5% / 20.3%

● Bachelor’s or higher: 16.5% / 13.7%

Merced

Modesto

• FTES: 15k MJC / 9k MC

• Hispanic: 48% / 58%

• White: 38% / 23%

• African American: 4% /

3.5%

• First Gen 49% / 52%

● “‘I’ve never met the guy. I don’t know if he is a good teacher or

not.”

● “It’s very about coursework and that is that. She [the instructor]

doesn’t care about what is going on in my life.”

● “If they [his teachers] don’t care about how I do, neither do I.”

Latino students 30% less likely than white students to

take an online class when presented with the option.

“I usually don’t ask for help … I will

seriously sit there in math lab all day

and click, you know, instructions 17

times ‘til I get it. I won’t run back and

ask the teacher. And that’s one of the

things that affects me.”

Relationships Before Pedagogy

“The importance of teachers being proactive in

establishing communication and rapport with

students cannot be overstated”

--Luke Wood, SDSU Black Minds Matter

Intrusive

Instruction

Top 5 Ways to Leverage

Canvas to Improve

Student Equity

Think Mobile5.

20%Number of online students who

access the Internet primarily through

their phones.

ePub Exporting

Let your students work offline

Go Small with “Real

World” Group Projects

4.

Go Positive3.

NameCoach

Get Zoom in the Room2.

Talk Via the Grade Book1.

Resources• Brown, Peter C., Henry L Roediger III, and Mark A. McDaniel: Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning. Belknap Press,

2014.

• Hammond, Zoretta: Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain. Corwin Press, 2015.

• Kaupp, Ray. “Online Penalty: The Impact of Online Instruction on the Latino-White Achievement Gap.” Journal of Applied Research in the Community College. Vol 12 No 2, Spring 2012. 8-16.

• Lentini, Marc. “Culturally Responsive Canvas Courses.” Presentation at InstructureCon 2016, Keystone, CO. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kDlrMSLWd1tpXoQgCPFWDIG72vtwjI99vPADk3eJVEA/edit?pref=2&pli=1

• Palacios, Angelica M. G. and J. Luke Wood. “Is Online Learning the Silver Bullet for Men of Color? An Institutional-Level Analysis of the California Community College System.” Community College Journal of Research and Practice. Volume 40, 2016. Issue 8. Published online: 25 Nov 2015. 643-655. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10668926.2015.1087893

• Wood, J. Luke. “Apprehension to engagement in the classroom: perceptions of Black males in the community college.” International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 2014. Vol 27, No. 6, 785-803.

• Wood, J. Luke. Black Minds Matter. Webcast series of eight course meetings. Fall 2017. https://jlukewood.com/portfolio/black-minds-matter/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/jlukewood

Michael Smedshammer, Ph.D.smedshammerm@yosemite.edu209-575-6490@mikesmedshammer

Instructional Design CoordinatorModesto Junior College435 College AvenueModesto, CA 95350