Genially, as used by One World

We’ve heard about Genially, the platform allowing users to create visually engaging and interactive presentations, infographics, quizzes, etc. Genially is supremely user-friendly, enabling educators from all backgrounds to create professional-looking content without needing advanced design or coding skills. Whether a novice or a seasoned user, here is a great opportunity to bring Genially to your online classroom:

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Virtual Chains of Kindness Activity for Online/Virtual Students

If you heard about the Chains of Kindness Challenge happening on campus and wondered how to get your online or virtual students involved, this is the activity for you! 
 
The Virtual Chains of Kindness activity allows students who do not have classes on campus to join the Chains of Kindness fun. For the virtual activity, One World’s Karen Villalobos created a rotating marquee in Genially. Marquees can display important information or announcements, adding a dynamic element to the classroom. In an online course, this can help draw attention to key messages, such as the Virtual Chains of Kindness activity. This is how it looks at the top of your Canvas course homepage:

…and these are some screenshots of the rotating marquee:

The Virtual Chains of Kindness marquee is ready for you to use. All you need to do is embed it into your online Canvas course. Go ahead and give it a try:

Go to the Canvas page where you want to insert the Kindness banner. This can be the homepage or any other page where you want the banner to appear:

Select “edit” in the top right corner:

Below the editing space, click on the coding tags:

Place your cursor at the very beginning of the code (you might want to space a line):

Click here for the code to copy and paste for the Virtual Chains of Kindness marquee.
Next, hit “Save” or “Save & Publish”

Done! 🎉🎉
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Once the marquee is embedded and published, students will see a link to submit entries at the top of the marquee titled, “Share your Kindness here.” If you would like to offer your online or virtual students credit for completing the Virtual Chains of Kindness Activity, provide these instructions: 

1. Perform one act of kindness each day for 5 days.
2. Click the “Share your kindness here” link at the top of the marquee.
3. Complete the activity form: Share 3-5 of the kind acts you performed. Note: Students must provide their names and fill out the course and instructor sections of the form to receive credit.
4. Submit the form. 

The Virtual Chains of Kindness activity for online/virtual students will run through the end of Coyote Kindness Week: November 11-15.

For instructors who offer this activity to online or virtual students for credit, One World (upon request) will provide a list of participants who submitted entries. Entries will be monitored for appropriateness. Please contact One World Co-Coordinators Jade Williams or Mariam Zamila to request a list of your participating students or to report issues or concerns.

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Want to learn how to create your own marquees? Below are easy, step-by-step instructions to simulate a marquee for your class announcements using Genially:

1. Choose a Layout: Use Genially’s banner or header templates as the base. These templates are perfect for creating announcements that scroll or change dynamically. You can set custom dimensions to create a long, narrow marquee format if needed. Ensure the size fits well when embedded into your LMS (in our experience, Canvas goes well with 800px wide).

2. Use Animations to Create Motion: Genially has animation tools that allow you to make text or objects move. You can apply an animation that makes your announcement text scroll from right to left, mimicking the effect of a traditional marquee. To ensure continuous visibility, set the text to repeat or loop.

3. Add Tools and Flair: Incorporate icons or small images related to the announcement. Embed clickable links within the marquee that take students to more detailed information. Genially also allows you to embed external files and widgets like Google Docs, maps, timers, etc.

4. Rotating Text: For the Virtual Chains of Kindness activity, we wanted each kind act to be displayed separately in a rotating fashion. You can create a rotating banner, too, with Genially’s slideshow feature. Each “slide” in the banner can display a different message, creating a rotation of slides that translates in a continuous loop.

5. Embed the Marquee in Your Canvas Classroom: Once your marquee is created, bring it to your Canvas classroom using Genially’s ready-to-use code located within the sharing menu. To embed, follow the same steps provided above for embedding the Chains of Kindness marquee. Just be sure to use your marquee’s code in place of the kindness activity code. 

Congratulations! You’re on your way to becoming a Genially Genius.

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Canvas Integration: Genially integration is not available in our Canvas account. Departments interested in this feature would need to explore purchasing it. The CTLA can assist with the integration process if your department decides to pursue this option. Please see the documents linked below for further information: 

Help Guide: Instructor Requests LTI Integration
Request to Vendor for Privacy and Security Information

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The One World Committee initiates and promotes programs, activities, and services designed to transcend cultural boundaries in order to assist our students, staff, faculty, and community in acquiring the knowledge, skills, and willingness to participate in a diverse and multicultural world. Our goal is a transformative experience, and our core values are justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI). We believe that acts of JEDI are acts of kindness, that kindness leads to belonging, and that belonging creates community.