In this article we will take a look at how to add Vevox as an activity within a course in Canvas.
Setting things up as an Instructor
- Whilst logged in to Canvas as an instructor, navigate to a course.
- Vevox can either be added as an Assignment or as an item to a module.
- To add a link to Vevox as an assignment, Click on the Assignments option from the menu and press + Assignment.
- Give the assignment a name, allocate any points if applicable and then under the submission type select External Tool.
- Press the Find button and select Vevox from the list (or however the LTI was named when it was installed).
- The first thing to do is choose a Vevox session you would like to link with this activity. You can choose a Vevox session you have already created or you can create a new one.
- Select Identification - we need to choose whether this activity will be anonymous or identified
- Anonymous - This is great for live polling sessions, quick instant feedback and putting your students at ease, safe in the knowledge they are not being monitored or tracked by their participation. We recommend this for the when you want to use Vevox in your class/lecture with minimal effort for encourage engagement.
- Identified - This is for when you want a greater degree of understanding about who is saying what whilst using Vevox. We recommend this only when you want to specifically track students or pass grades back into Canvas to record a grade, typically this would be done with a self-paced survey/quiz.
IMPORTANT: If you choose an identified session, then students MUST access Vevox through Canvas as Vevox authenticates the student based on their Canvas Identity. - Select activity - The choice here really relates to if you intend on using the grading feature in Canvas.
- Live Polling and Q&A - Typically when you are doing a live activity during a lecture or class it will be using the live polling or Q&A features of Vevox. Participants will be responding to questions live, as they are asked. Choosing this option will direct participants into the live aspects of the Vevox app
- Self-paced survey/quiz - If you are setting an activity intended to be done in the own time of your students then it will invariably be a self-paced survey. Choosing this option will allow you to link directly to a Vevox survey and then for the purposes of grading, it will pass the grade back to the relevant column in the grading report.
- Choosing this option gives a further option to select a specific self-paced survey/quiz within your Vevox session to link to or to create a new one.
- Completeing the Vevox setup screen will take you back to the screen in step 5 above. Press the Select button and then Save the assignment.
- Once the activity has been configured, as the instructor when you select the activity it will direct you to your Vevox dashboard (Note: due to security reasons the Vevox dashboard will be opened in a new browser tab rather than within the Canvas dashboard).
- Within your Vevox dashboard you can create the content for your live polls, or self-paced surveys/quizzes.
Participating as a student
- Students will see the Vevox activity listed within their course view.
- When selecting the activity students will be taken into the Vevox app where they can participate.
- If the activity is a general Live Polling/Q&A activity then they will be greeted by the Vevox app home screen where they can navigate to the Q&A if enabled or await a live poll to be asked.
- If the activity is a Self-paced quiz/survey, then participants will be taken directly to the survey so they can complete it.
Important information around grading
If you want to use the Gradebook service to populate the grading report with scores, based on a students response to questions then the Vevox sessions MUST be identified.
It is also worth noting that if you do setup an identified session then students MUST access Vevox through Canvas. Vevox authenticates students through their Canvas Identity which is passed when they click on the link through their Canvas instance.
For the above reason, it is why typically we only recommend identification for a self-paced activity such as a survey or quiz when students are likely to navigate to this activity through Canvas. For live polling activities done in a classroom environment, students would generally access Vevox through https://vevox.app and therefore not be able to be authenticated with their Canvas account and link to the grading features.