Preview: Instructurecon in Denver

 This year's Instructurecon for Canvas in Denver and I'll be attending! Ohio University recently accepted Canvas as our new LMS and we are now working on transitioning from Blackboard. So far, it's been busy
with a lot of work, but that also makes it enjoyable. I believe that this conference will be a great way to dive into Canvas and speak with others about it so that we have more resources to help us. 

There appears to be a fair amount of support for conference attendees with several discussion postings for first timers, networking strategies, and session suggestions. It is a sold out conference, so I suspect it will be pretty crowded. 

Here are some of my general thoughts on attending this conference. Since I don't have a lot of experience with Canvas yet, my session choice has been a little different. They have a total of 146 sessions with a wide variety and I've tried to register for some sessions that deal more with setup and training so that I can focus on some of that as we move into integrating Canvas at our institution. Another area I've tried to focus on is course design which will help with assisting faculty as they move into their courses. You can see my 14 selections below. Interestingly enough, as I was going through the sessions you could add ones that you had an interest in and I ended up with another 50 on that list, so it looks like the conference needs to be about a week long for me😁 Keynote speakers. Often they are more general and try to be inspirational or at least thought provoking. Instructurecon doesn't seem to be an exception to this. I think the one I am most looking forward to is Arianna Huffington since I've heard her in programs on NPR. Usually I try to read, watch, or listen to material they've produced. For these keynotes, I've found more material available for Arianna and Deepak.

1. Opening Keynote: Moments of Inspiration and Connection
2. How to Become a Course Design Superhero
3. Canvas Certified Programs: Learn Research-Based Best Practices for Online and Blended Learning
4. Faculty Professional Development through the Advancing Excellence in Online Teaching Program
5. Keynote: Moments of Learning, Innovation and Well-Being
6. Creating Meaningful Engagement with Canvas
7. Designing for Consistency: A Canvas Course Co-Design Project for Enhanced Student Experience
8. Harnessing the Power of Interactive Training
9. Turning a Flexible Assessment Approach into a Canvas Integration
10. It’s to Your Advantage: A Guide to LTI Integrations
11. Creating a Pathway for Accessible Course Design
12. Best of ICON 23- HiED Edition
13. Closing Keynote :Moments of Awareness
14. UnConference

I am looking forward to everything that this conference has to offer and will be posting some thoughts for each day, so feel free to check back for those in the next few days. Attending the conference or just have some thoughts? Let me know in the comments 😀