Want to help your students be prepared for the first day of class but don't want to publish your Canvas course? Use the Course distribution list for your course section in Gmail! All courses get them once they are active in SIS. When you send an email this way any student that is registered for your course at the time will receive your message*! Remember to Blind Carbon Copy your students so that if they reply all the other students will not receive the email. This is the same as checking the box to send an individual message to students in Canvas. 
*This function remains available for 90 days after the semester ends, but you need to add ".completed" to the address. Example: 
Current Student Gmail Group: 
CGC.2021.Spring.BPC.110.21561@cgc.edu

Completed Student Gmail Group (students have been graded in SIS): 
CGC.2021.Spring.BPC.110.21561.completed@cgc.edu

Before I talk about some of the ways in which you can encourage student engagement with videos in your Canvas course, let’s talk just a bit about some video recording options as well.

Please watch...

RESOURCES:

• Get your own copy of the slides from the "Survival Tips" session: https://bit.ly/LOL-convocationslides
• Use the LOL Suggestion Box (https://bit.ly/LOLsuggestionbox) to share:
  • Topics you would like to see in future LOL sessions
  • Ideas you would be willing to share (we'd love to have anyone who is interested as a guest, or to have small groups with a common interest as a panel!)
  • Questions or comments you may have about LOL specifically, or about synchronous online teaching in general!
• Remember, this Spring LOL will be on 2nd and 4th Tuesday afternoons from 2:30-3:30 PM! The session room will open 15 minutes prior to start time. No registration necessary - just use this link to join: https://bit.ly/LiveOnlineLive

We hope to see all of you at next week's LOL session!

You all know that I am the biggest advocate ever for free tools, but this week I want to share one of the most-used tools in my arsenal, which did in fact cost me about $30 - TechSmith's SnagIt.

A lot of software companies these days work on a subscription basis, but the $29.99 education price pays for a license, not a periodic subscription fee (you will need to provide proof that you are an educator in order to take advantage of the education pricing).
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I use SnagIt pretty much on a daily basis, for many tasks:

• To create graphs for handouts
• Capturing images, especially for guides and how-to documents
• Editing, resizing, setting transparent backgrounds, image reflections, text overlays, etc.
• Combining images for headers, slides, etc.
• Screencasting (I use it regularly to provide students with video feedback)