Flipgrid has long been a favorite video discussion platform integrated into Canvas, enhancing student engagement through interactive discussion boards and assignments. However, with Flipgrid sunsetting its Canvas integration on July 1 and transitioning exclusively to MS Teams, educators need a robust alternative to maintain this level of engagement. Let me show you how you can leverage Studio for the same purpose with our new Capture solution released earlier this year.
Studio Capture is our native webcam and screen capture tool that not only generates captions automatically but also provides video and caption editing capabilities. Accessible anywhere in Canvas with the RCE - including Assignments and Discussions - Studio Capture makes it an easy substitute for Flip Assignments. Moreover, the screen recording piece will be added to the Speedgrader in July which creates an even more engaging atmosphere when communicating with students privately.
Flip Assignments
Let’s break down the Flip experience in Canvas into three pillars and recreate the experience
- Creating a Flip Assignment: Set up an assignment in Canvas as a Flip Discussion board.
- Student Replies: Students submit video responses from anywhere, anytime.
- Grading Interactions: Access and grade student interactions in SpeedGrader.
Create a Flip Assignment
For a video discussion, you will start with creating a regular Discussion in Canvas. If you want video replies from students showing up in the Speedgrader automatically, make sure the Graded checkbox is selected. Flipgrid’s topic resource is widely used to enrich the discussion topic with media, with a recording on the fly, an uploaded video from your computer or an embedded video from Youtube or Vimeo. Those options are all supported with Studio in Discussions! In addition to that, videos added as topic resources land in your Studio library, so you can re-use them in other discussions and courses.
Student Replies
Students have the same RCE as teachers, allowing them to record or upload videos directly in their replies. These videos appear under the discussion post, are automatically captioned, and saved in the student’s Studio library for future reference. Additionally, students can create screen recordings with Studio Capture, providing flexibility in how they present their responses.
Grading Interactions
A key aspect of Flipgrid is its integration with SpeedGrader. With Studio Capture, student reply videos are automatically added to SpeedGrader, allowing teachers to quickly grade and provide feedback. Studio enhances this experience: the upcoming Canvas release in June will include screen recording and auto-captioning directly within SpeedGrader, providing teachers with the necessary video tools to share private, accessible feedback on discussion board posts.
The screen recorder option in the Speedgrader can already be tested on Canvas Beta - find the camera icon with “NEW” right under the comment box!
Upcoming enhancements
We have three enhancements on our immediate roadmap strongly related to this:
- Auto-publishing captions: Currently, while Studio generates captions automatically, they must be manually reviewed and published. By the end of the month, an optional auto-publish mode will be introduced, making video discussion replies accessible immediately upon upload.
- Open Studio in a wider dialog in Canvas: You may also notice a wider Studio dialog in the first image to make browsing and recording videos in Canvas easier and more accessible, something we plan to roll out during summer.
- Disable Media Tabs in discussion replies: while the media tabs can be anytime enabled and disable during submitting a video reply, it will greatly help if there was a separate control for embedding in Discussions
Feel free to share about your Flip experience in the comments and let's continue to explore how we can assist you with this transition!
Akos
