VE Single Unit of Competency template

[Start transcript]

TEXT ON SCREEN: Getting started with the VE Single Unit of Competency Canvas Template 

[Voice over Nicky Callinan]

In this video we are going to show you how to import the VE Essentials Single Unit of competency template into your course shell. We will also look at its features and how you can repurpose it to suit your course.  

VISUAL: Screen cast of the VE Single Unit of Competency template modules.

TEXT ON SCREEN: Import the template to your canvas shell 

To get started, download the template from Canvas commons. You can do this by selecting the Commons button on the left-hand side. In the search function look for ‘VE single Unit of competency’ and download the latest version which in this case is version 1.5. Once it has downloaded, go to your course shell. 

VISUAL: Screen cast showing how to download the VE Single Unit of Competency template through Canvas Commons.

Go to settings and select import course content. 

In the content type drop down, select the canvas course export option then locate the zip file you have just download 

Once that has finished installing you look at the modules or pages and see that the template has installed.  

If you're importing into an existing course shell that already has content in it, you should note that this won’t override your existing content. You will still be able to see the pages or any assignments that were already in there.   

TEXT ON SCREEN: Teachers guide module 

VISUAL: Screen cast of Teachers guide module and its pages

The teacher's guide is an unpublished module that contains a whole lot of useful resources to help teachers with their online delivery. This module is only for teachers to refer to so should remain unpublished. If you are using this template for the first time, it is highly recommended that you have a look through these guides. 

 TEXT ON SCREEN: The blue and yellow highlighted text 

VISUAL: Screen cast showing blue and yellow text being edit in template

You will see a lot of highlighted text throughout the template. This is a prompt for you to edit the text to suit your course. The yellow highlighted text is an instruction for the teacher on how to use that part of the template. You must delete all of the yellow text when you have finished editing.  

The blue highlighted text is a prompt for you to edit or remove the example text that has been provided. When you have finished editing your course, it’s important that you have reviewed and removed all of the highlighted text.  

 TEXT ON SCREEN: Welcome and orientation module

VISUAL: Screen cast of Welcome and orientation module and its pages.

This module has been set up to help cover most of the 14 Element requirements. You will need to go through each page and adjust the text to suit your course.  

 TEXT ON SCREEN: Home page 

VISUAL: Screen cast of the Home page and its features including the banner generator. 

Once students have gone through the Welcome and orientation pages, they will then get to the home page for the course. This page gives students an overview of the entire course.  

• You will need to create a banner for your course by using the banner generator. A link for it can be found here.  
  
• Here you can embed your welcome video which introduces students to yourself and the learning objectives for the course. 
  
• If you have a transcript for the video, you can link it to this button for students to download.  
  

Again, you will need to go through all of the highlighted text and edit it so it is relevant to your course.  Simply select edit and fill in the cells.  

 TEXT ON SCREEN: Syllabus 

VISUAL: Screen cast of Course syllabus page and how to link the assessment and learning activities within the table. 

The syllabus section includes a table that has been nicely formatted for you to add your course syllabus to. 

Under course summary, you can see that it automatically populates a list of all of the quizzes and learning activities that have been set up for that course.   

It is good practice to create a link to the assessment or learning activity. You can do this by :

• right-clicking on the quiz or learning activity from the list below and select ‘copy link location’. 
  
• highlight the text that     
  
• select the chain icon 
  
• paste the url into the box and select insert link. 
  

 TEXT ON SCREEN: Module structure

VISUAL: Screen cast of the module structure

The modules have been set up to help provide a logical structure for students to follow in Canvas. But as there is never a ‘one size fits all’ approach with courses, you will need to review and edit each page to make sure it makes sense for your course. You can choose if you want to structure these into weekly topics, workshops or keep them as modules. 

Each module has a basic structure that includes an introduction page followed by learning activity pages. If you have any existing pages, quizzes, discussions or assessment tasks that you wish to add to the module, you can select the plus button.  

This will bring up a list of all of the existing content. Navigate to the page you wish to add and this will add it to the module structure. You can also change the order by clicking the dotted area on the left and dragging it to where you want it. The same applies to the modules. You can move an entire module by selecting the dotted area and dragging it to where you want it to be.  

 TEXT ON SCREEN: Introduction to the module or topic

VISUAL: Screen cast of Introduction to the module page. It shows the blue and yellow highlighted text that needs to be edited or removed.

The introduction page provides students with an overview of their learning objectives, learning material, learning activities, learning outcomes and assessments they can expect for that week or module. Don’t forget to review all of the highlighted text and remove anything that’s irrelevant! 

 TEXT ON SCREEN: Learning activity pages

VISUAL: Screen cast of the four different learning activity templates.

This template provides four different examples of learning activities that you might want to include in your course. By placing learning activities into the structure of your module or topic, you can automatically keep track of Evidence of participation reporting.  

These are all formative tasks that won’t go towards the student’s final grade.  

TEXT ON SCREEN: Learning activity – Practical 

The first example shows you how to set up a practical learning activity. It has some suggested text that you can use and shows you what settings you need to change to make this a formative assessment.  

In the assessment settings you will need to change points to zero. 

Change ‘display grade’ to complete/incomplete. 

And make sure to check the ‘do not count this assignment towards the final grade option’. 

TEXT ON SCREEN: Learning activity – collaboration 

The next example shows you how you can set up a learning activity that might use some of the collaborative tools available in Canvas. For example, Collaborate Ultra or Teams.   

Again, there is some example text that you will need adjust. When you have set up your Teams and Collaborate Ultra sessions, make sure to include a link on this page so it is easy for students to find.  

We will have a separate video that will go into more detail on how to set up Collaborate Ultra and run successful sessions.   

 TEXT ON SCREEN: Learning activity – Quiz 

The next page is an example on how to set up a practice quiz.  

You will notice when you are in this page that ‘Quizzes’ is also highlighted in the left-hand side. All of the course quizzes can also be accessed here. 

To set up a practice you will need to: 

- set the quiz type to ‘graded quiz’.  

- set each question points to zero 

This is so it can be recorded for Evidence of Participation but not go towards the student’s final marks.  

We will have a separate video that will go into more detail on how to set up quizzes for your course.  

 TEXT ON SCREEN: Learning activity – Discussion forum (secondary title) 

The last example shows you how to set up a discussion forum as a learning activity.  

Again, there is some recommended text for you to review and modify to suit your course. You will notice when you are in this page that ‘discussion’ is also highlighted on the left-hand side.   

TEXT ON SCREEN: Assignment 

VISUAL: Screen cast of the assignment layout

Under assignments is where you will find all or the learning activities, knowledge quizzes and assessment tasks for the course. In this template we have grouped the non-assessed activities under ‘Learning activities’ and the activities that go towards the student’s final grade under ‘Assessment task’.  

VISUAL: Screen cast showing the portfolio assessment task template.

The first is an example on how to set up a Project, report, portfolio or case study assessment task.  

VISUAL: Screen cast of the Practical assessment template 

The next example provides guidance on how to set up a Practical assessment task.  

VISUAL: Screen cast of the Knowledge quiz template 

The next one is an example of a graded knowledge quiz 

VISUAL: Screen cast of the Work placement template 

And the final example shows how to set up a graded work placement assessment. 

If you need help with building your assessments, there are plenty of great resources available on the VE Essentials website including Assessment tools and Assessment essentials which can be found in the VE Toolbox. We’ll leave a link to both of these resources down below. 

TEXT ON SCREEN: Optional module and pages 

This is an option you might want to include to congratulate students for making it through to the end of the module.  

If you wish to use this, you’ll need to duplicate the entire module, delete any unwanted pages and then drag a copy to the end of each module within the course. You’ll then need to go into each page and update the blue text so it matches the learning objectives for that particular module.  

The reason for duplicating the module rather than just the congratulations page is that it gives you the option to lock it until a certain date or until the student meets a certain prerequisite or requirement.  

To lock the module   

• select the three dots 

• Select edit  

• And that will give you the option to ‘lock until’... and then you can choose to enter a date, prerequisite or requirement.  

The last optional page includes instruction on how to set up the glossary tool for your course. If you would like to include the glossary tool into your course, there is a video embedded here to help you set that up. 

TEXT ON SCREEN: Contact us vedt@rmit.edu.au

That concludes our video on how to use the VE essentials single unit template. We hope you’ve found it useful! If you have any questions or wish to give some feedback you can send us a message at  VEDT@rmit.edu.au 

Otherwise thanks for watching!