As the demands of teaching and learning continue to shift, educators’ technology solutions need to adapt to accommodate new hybrid learning circumstances.
That’s why we’re so excited to share how you can make the most of your hybrid learning setup with Canvas and Microsoft 365.
Canvas + Microsoft Teams: Better together
Educators can use Canvas’ rich Learning Management System (LMS) in Microsoft Teams. Combining Microsoft’s best-in-class collaboration and productivity tools with the power of Canvas’ capabilities delivers an unparalleled classroom experience.
Hundreds of thousands of enterprises and educational institutions use Microsoft Teams to provide video calling, complex chat functionality, and group-based collaboration. Microsoft Teams features such as Education Insights also support student success. Teams tools such as Viva Learning help faculty and staff coordinate and develop professionally. By integrating Teams with Canvas, you can access world-class collaboration experiences and give your students the technological skills they will need in their careers.
New LTI features coming to Canvas this summer
You asked and we listened! Based on your feedback, we’ve added features to our Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) offerings with Canvas, including a new Teams Classes LTI, a new Teams Meetings LTI, and a new OneDrive LTI with Canvas.
The Teams Classes LTI allows instructors and students to move seamlessly from their course in Canvas into the corresponding class team in Microsoft Teams. With the Teams Meetings LTI, users can create, view, organize, and join their Teams meetings from within Canvas. And the OneDrive LTI lets instructors create assignments, add content using the Rich Content Editor (RCE) and modules, and create collaborative documents in Canvas. We’ve also worked to bring Immersive Reader into Canvas to provide accessibility to all. Check out this Infrastructure blog for a more in-depth look at these integrations.
Access Teams sites and shared files from the OneDrive LTI
Educators and students can now access their shared files and Teams files directly within the OneDrive LTI in Canvas. This makes it easier than ever to bring your shared files and collaborative work into the Canvas experience. Using the OneDrive LTI, you can create assignments, start collaborations, or simply add cloud files to your course outline and pages in Canvas.
Support for Channel Meetings in the Microsoft Teams Meetings LTI
Another new feature lets you create channel meetings from within Canvas in the Teams Meetings LTI. This allows meetings to take place within a Class Team—giving automatic access to all the rich Teams collaboration features in one channel.
Access Teams meetings recordings directly from Canvas
The Teams Meetings LTI now allows users to access recordings and attendance reports from within the LTI. This means educators and students will never have to leave Canvas to access all their recordings and videos. This has been one of our top customer asks over the last year.
See your Teams notifications in Canvas
Educators and students can now see their Teams notifications directly within Canvas so they can catch up on any important chats or discussions without having to switch apps.
Create Teams posts within Canvas
The Teams Classes LTI app inside Canvas helps facilitate educator and student collaboration. To create a smoother experience, we now support content creation capabilities within Canvas using the Teams Classes LTI app, all in an intuitive way—and without having to leave Canvas to create content.
Case study: Utah Valley University increases student engagement using Microsoft 365 and Canvas
Utah Valley University (UVU), home to more than 40,000 undergraduate students, adopted Canvas as its LMS in 2011, and Teams as its collaboration platform in 2019. UVU selected Teams as its collaboration tool because of the prevalence Teams has in the workforce and the unique ability of Teams to prepare students for the future.
UVU students will apply for jobs at companies that depend on apps to function. In 2021, over 650,000 companies have a productivity package that includes Teams – meaning students who use Canvas LMS, and Microsoft Teams are well prepared for the workforce.”
Before the LTI integrations were available, UVU had manually set up Class Teams alongside their Canvas courses and kept them in sync. Educators and students had to go to two separate interfaces: Canvas for their classroom needs and Teams for meeting and group collaboration.
After adopting the Teams Classes LTI, UVU educators could easily create Class Teams and keep them in sync automatically from within Canvas. This also streamlined the process of educators and students accessing their meetings and collaboration spaces. As a result, UVU saw a significant increase in student engagement and attendance at lectures and virtual classes, with both educators and students using more Teams features than ever before because of the seamless integration with Canvas LMS.
Being able to quickly message an entire class, specific groups within a class, and individual students has enabled faculty to better engage with the right students at the right time.”
Jason Hill, Utah Valley University, Director of Learning Systems
Get in touch with our Microsoft LTI team to learn more about the new and upcoming integrations. Our customer success team will reach out with more information and can provide 1:1 assistance with deploying the LTIs. You can also register to watch our latest webinar—“Transforming Teaching and Learning with M365”—with Canvas and Utah Valley University to see LIVE demos!
Ready to try the Canvas and Microsoft Teams integration? Find it here.
