Harmonize for Instructors & TAs

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Overview
• Multiple Due Date Framing
• Set-Up Wizard 
• Settings to Check each Session
• Harmonize Peer Review and Annotation
• Additional Documentation & Support

Overview

Harmonize is a collaboration and discussion tool that resembles popular social media applications. This tool has multimedia applications allowing the user to record and post photos and videos. Harmonize also supports multi-part discussions with multiple due dates. 

Harmonize is not available by default. It must be requested in advance of a course's start date, and availability is limited to the number of licenses remaining at the time of the request. Please email online-learning-help@sas.upenn.edu to inquire about Harmonize. 

Please Note: Harmonize is accessed via Canvas but relies on your browser for certain permissions. Browsers ask permission to access your camera and microphone, many browsers only ask once and it can be easy to miss - if you experience any issues when trying to use your camera or microphone in Harmonize, please check the settings in the browser. We link to a couple of pages below that show you step-by-step how to check these settings depending on which browser you like to use.

• Chrome: Use your camera and microphone in Chrome
• Firefox: How to manage your camera and microphone permissions with Firefox
• Safari: Change Websites settings in Safari on Mac
• Edge: Windows camera, microphone, and privacy

Multiple Due Date Framing

Since Harmonize is unique and offers multiple due dates for multi-part discussions, we recommend notifying students about these requirements in several areas of the course so they are not surprised by this mechanic. 

Instructors can mention the pacing of the assignments in the introductory module in Canvas and/or add a text header before the Harmonize assignment in a module that reads: "This Harmonize assignment has multiple due dates. Please carefully read the instructions ASAP and note all due dates." 

We strongly encourage instructors to inform students to check their Canvas To-Do lists and the Canvas Calendar for assignment due dates and not the Grades area, as that area will not show multiple due dates for the assignment.

Reminder to instructors: Check both the Canvas Assignment instructions and the inner Harmonize instructions to make sure all dates and days of the week are updated each session and that they match. This does not happen automatically.

Set-Up Wizard 

Harmonize has introduced a new "setup wizard" to streamline the process of setting up graded discussions for instructors. This update provides a slightly different user experience but remains intuitive and easy to follow. Instructors can seamlessly navigate through the steps or switch to the older, more manual setup process with the click of a button.

Please note that the setup wizard may reference AI functionality. However, AI is not enabled for our license. If prompted to use AI, please skip directly to the manual setup. You can always access the manual setup by clicking the Configure Manually button in the top-right corner of the wizard (see picture below).

Please follow the Harmonize Creating a Graded Discussion guide for step-by-step instructions on how to create a discussion with the help of the new wizard or with the older more manual process.

Settings to Check each Session

Update the Instructions and Check the "Visibility Settings" for each Harmonize assignment

Why: Many instructions have dates/days of the week inside them and changing the Canvas assignment instructions does not automatically update the inner Harmonize set of instructions. Double Check visibility settings because some want certain assignments to be small groups only, or for the whole class to interact. This preference can change depending on the session.

To do this: 

1. Open the Canvas Assignment that is using Harmonize and then enter Harmonize by clicking on the open tool button.
2. Click edit assignment, and update the instructions.
3. Look for the next tab along the top titled "Post Settings". Scroll down this page, toggle settings on and off as needed. The most important setting to double check is called "Visibility Settings". This determines if small groups are working together on a Harmonize assignment or if post for that assignment are visible to the entire class.

Grading Release

Why: Many instructors wish to release grades after they have double checked all submissions and left comments to students.

To do this:

1. At the start of the session: In the Canvas Gradebook, find each column that contains a Harmonize assignment and click the three vertical dots at the top of the column. This will open a menu.
2. In the menu, select "Grade Posting Policy" and select "Manual". This will change the automatic delivery/posting of the score to Manual posting. At this point, you also have an option to add a future date for these grades to "Post" to students. Selecting manual will stop the posting of this column until you look it over and add grades and comments, but if you do not add a future date for them to post to students you will need to manually come back to this column and select post grades.

Harmonize Peer Review and Annotation

Harmonize has recently rolled out Peer Review and PDF Annotation capabilities. We have found that both of these offerings exceed the current Canvas options. Please take a look at their guides to learn how to implement both of these features.

• Harmonize Peer Review
• Harmonize PDF Annotation

Additional Documentation & Support

• Getting Started with Harmonize
• Creating a Graded Discussion
• Download All Attachments
• Adding to Canvas Modules
• Create a Student Video Introduction How to
• Harmonize Support Knowledge Base

If you experience any technical difficulties, please email online-learning-help@sas.upenn.edu.