Canvas.net limitations

Our university signed with Canvas.NET, and I spoke to a rep/handler/instructional designer today.

Things I learned:

• An 8-week course is probably too long. Four weeks is ideal
• Plan for 2-4 hours of work/effort by participants each week - far less than the usual college expectation
• Up to 30-50% of the users are accessing canvas.net via mobile devices, so I have to optimize the course for them. That means using Pages (not Modules, which is not in the app yet), and it means using the onscreen editor rather than uploaded HTML pages (so they can 'count' the hits right and so that it works with mobile). My custom CSS won't port over - I'm a sad panda.
• Discussion Boards and Pages links (navigation links) can't be hidden like I normally do, or else the mobile users can't access them. Argh! 
• The best workaround to host SWF videos for iOS devices to upload them to YouTube and embed - this works on all devices. 
• Best practice: lock modules until the date arrives when it's what everyone is working on (ie, don't turn on the whole course all at once). 

Instablogg to the rescue

I'm in the thick of constructing the first module, and since this MOOC will have gamification elements (including Easter eggs, hidden on individual pages), I needed a way to 'house' pages that students can't find by clicking around the interface.

Canvas.NET may be fully public, but my university's canvas requires a student ID, so that was out. Wikispaces and Google Sites both have "view all" buttons to see all the pages, which defeats the purpose of Easter eggs.

Solution: Instablogg.com, where you can build one single post anonymously and it's not linked to anything else. You can control if it's sharable and if there are comments on it. You can only edit it once published if you remember to save the edit-URL (which is different from the front-door URL of the actual content).