Canvas Fall 2019 semester wrap-up

Canvas instructors,

 

Hope your semester went well. To wrap it up and prepare for next semester, please note the following:

1. Here’s how course access at the end of a semester works in Canvas:
   1. You will have full access to your course until Jan. 10 at 11:59 p.m. After that, you will only have read-only access. However, you will be able to export your course.
   2. Students will have full access to your course until Dec. 21 at 11:59 p.m. (unless you have changed the Term end date and time). After the Term end date and time passes, students will have read-only access. They can get to the course by clicking Courses – All Courses. The course will show under Past Enrollments.
   3. If you want students to have full access after the Term end date and time, go into Settings, increase the Term end date and time, then check the box that says: Students can only participate in the course between these dates.  
   4. If you don’t want students to have any access to the course after the Term end date and time, scroll down in Settings, and check the box that says: Restrict students from viewing course after end date.
2. Check the accuracy of your grades, then download your Gradebook and course separately.
   1. For students who do not complete assignments by the deadline dates, manually give them zeros in the gradebook. If you leave their grade cells blank, those missing assignments won't count against them. Canvas has a feature in the old gradebook called Treat Ungraded as 0, but this does not automatically convert dashes to zeros; it only changes the Totals column. Students won’t see zeros or any changes in Totals when they check grades.
   2. Make sure you don’t have any grade columns that show as hidden when they shouldn’t be hidden.
   3. If you incorrectly gave a student extra attempts on quizzes by adding that student’s name under Assign To in the quiz settings while removing Everyone, you will need to add Everyone back in. You’d notice this in the gradebook if you have a quiz column with only one student’s score while the rest of the students have no scores. Once you add Everyone back in and click Save, all of the scores will show.
   4. For those of you still using the old gradebook: When you are finished with Fall grades, download your Gradebook by clicking Export – CSV File. Keep your exported Gradebook on your computer or backup drive for safekeeping.
   5. For those using the New Gradebook: When you are finished with Fall grades, download your Gradebook by clicking Actions - Export. Keep your exported Gradebook on your computer or backup drive for safekeeping.
   6. To archive your course and save it for safekeeping (in case anything happens to the Canvas server), go to Settings – Export Course Content – make sure Course is chosen under Export Type, then click Create Export. Once the process is finished, click New Export to download the file to your computer or external/online drive.

 

3. When moving from one semester to another, you can either copy a previous semester's course content or export the previous course and import it into the new course. You can do either of these by going to Settings and choosing Import Course Content. If you then select Copy a Canvas Course, you might have to check the box to "Include completed courses."
   1. Learn how to copy a course.
   2. Learn how to export a course.
   3. Learn how to import a course.
      
      
4. On Jan. 9, the following Canvas changes will be implemented: VeriCite will be removed, and the New Gradebook, New Analytics, and the Microsoft Immersive Reader will be enabled for everyone.
   
   
5. Students are scheduled to be inputted into their Spring classes in the early morning hours of Jan. 3.
   
   
6. If you are teaching a Distance Education course next term, you should send a welcome letter to your students a week or so prior to the first day of classes. A template is attached. I have also attached a syllabus template for your optional use. I even have an entire course template, and if you’re interested in that, let me know.
   
   
7. Canvas now offers a Training Services Portal that is available from the Help icon in the global navigation menu. Resources include live webinar trainings, recorded videos, and actual courses.
   
   
8. For those of you who teach DE courses and completed the DE Faculty Survey, I want to thank you. Your answers are extremely beneficial as we strive to continually offer a quality DE program. Among those respondents who chose to enter the raffle for a $25 gift card to the Cheesecake Factory restaurant, only one could win. And the big winner was Business instructor Mary Lauffer! Mary graciously donated the gift card to CalWORKs.
   
   
9. The campus will be closed Dec. 24-Jan. 1. I will be off Jan. 2-3. Wanda Butterly will be working Jan. 2. Canvas provides nighttime and weekend support at 1-833-300-3467.
   
   

Enjoy your holidays!

Scott

 

Spring 2020 Canvas courses are ready

Canvas instructors,

 

Your Spring 2020 Canvas courses have been automatically created for you. If you do not see your course, it’s most likely because your name hasn’t gone through the official channels to become the instructor of record yet. At this early date, there are many of these. Once you become official, Banner will process you into the Canvas course. Students will be imported into their courses in early January.

 

Some notes:

 

1. If you plan to merge courses or sections, you will do that in Canvas, not in Class Web. Please read Merging Sections in Canvas, and follow the instructions.

2. When moving from one semester to another in Canvas, you can either copy a previous semester's course content or export the previous course and import it into the new course. You can do all of these by going to Settings in a course. While in Settings, DO NOT click the Copy this Course button on the right side; this tool creates a new course that your students will not be able to access.

1. Learn how to copy a course.
2. Learn how to export a course.
3. Learn how to import a course.

3. If you are teaching an online course, you have the option to use the Canvas model course template as a starting point. The course is based on the Academic Senate-approved OEI’s Course Design Rubric and provides organization and structure for your course. If you want to view the model course, let me know. If you already have access to it and want to use it, complete this form.

4. The OEI’s Quest for Online Success tutorial is the student readiness tool used for DE courses at LPC. There is a Canvas version to which you can have students self-enroll. You can even have students complete assignments based on the tutorial. Learn more about Quest.

5. Remember that everything in your course must be made accessible to students with disabilities. To learn how to do this, you can either come to a workshop, make an appointment, or complete the Canvas tutorial called Web Accessibility Course.

6. The New Gradebook in Canvas will be turned on by default Jan. 9. You can enable it now in your Spring course by going to Settings - Feature Options and clicking the button for New Gradebook. Learn how to use the New Gradebook.

 

Scott

Spring Canvas courses

LPC Faculty,

 

Just wanted to let you know that all Spring 2020 courses are scheduled to be automatically set up in Canvas on Wednesday.

 

Scott

Canvas error messages Wednesday

For almost a half-hour Wednesday just after 5 pm, Canvas users were getting error messages while attempting to access Canvas. This problem was corrected prior to 5:30, and Canvas is now working normally.

 

Scott

Heads-up: Canvas navigation changes

Those of you using Canvas will notice cosmetic changes in the course navigation menu of your courses beginning Saturday. For web accessibility reasons, Canvas will indicate menu items not visible to students with an icon. Currently, they are grayed out. The current page will be depicted in black with a vertical line in front of it. No functionality has been changed.

 

 

View more information about this change.

 

Scott

 

Regular effective contact reminder

[Apologies if you got this twice]

Online instructors,

In an effort to ensure that the state- and federally mandated regular effective contact regulations are being met in online and hybrid courses, the LPC Distance Education Committee has asked me to send a Mid-Semester Regular Effective Contact Checklist to you. These mandates include instructor-initiated contact with students and fostering student-to-student contact.

Links to more information are included at the bottom of the checklist.

If you have any questions, let me know.
Scott

 

Canvas page errors

Canvas just sent an email saying that users have been experiencing page errors since yesterday. No other details, but I thought I'd pass this along in case you have been hearing any about Canvas errors from students. Canvas says the issue has been resolved.

Scott

Canvas error Sunday night

Canvas sent a note saying that on Sunday between 8:59 p.m. and 9:10 p.m., some users experienced errors while uploading files into the system. So if you had students claiming they could not submit an attached file, this is the reason.

 

Scott

Canvas maintenance Aug. 31-Sept. 1

Canvas will be performing maintenance on our system from 9 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 31 until 1 a.m., Sunday, Sept. 1. Canvas says that users might experience a short downtime during this period, so please inform students and plan accordingly.

 

Scott

 

Turnitin update

For those who could not attend Thursday’s Turnitin training session, you can view the recording. If you want, you can also go to the instructor help page.

 

When you create an assignment in Canvas and want to utilize Turnitin, you will still see the option to Enable VeriCite Submissions. Please ignore this. The reason it’s still there is for the possibility of students challenging grades from a recent term, and removing VeriCite will change the originality report results. The VeriCite option will remain visible for the duration of the fall semester, then a decision will be made to keep it for another semester or remove it.

 

One last thing: I am working with Chabot and District ITS to work out a process for stocking the Turnitin database with past LPC and Chabot papers. There are financial and workload implications associated with this.

 

Scott

Final Canvas reminders

For those of you teaching with Canvas this semester:

 

Attached is a checklist (with corresponding links) to help your classes get off to a good start. And here is some information/reminders to help, too:

 

1. View Canvas faculty notes and tips. One new change this semester is that in Discussions, the option for students to add file attachments is enabled by default. There are a bit too many other features to fit into this email. Since Canvas adds new features and enhancements every three weeks, make sure to go to the Canvas Release Notes page to see what’s new.
   
   
2. Publish your courses by the beginning of the day your class starts so students can access them. If you are not teaching an online or hybrid course and want to wait longer to publish your courses, that’s up to you. To publish your course, go to the course home page, and click Publish.
   
   
3. If you are teaching a DE class, contact your students prior to the start of the semester, and encourage them to self-enroll into the Quest for Online Success Course in Canvas. This is a readiness course that prepares students to succeed online. Learn more about Quest. I notified DE students by email, and many have already self-enrolled. A reminder from you would be good, especially since students who added late did not receive the my  email notification. Here are instructions you can copy and paste for your students:
   
   

a.     Go to https://clpccd.instructure.com/enroll/KDENL6. If necessary, copy and paste the URL (without the period at the end) into your browser.

b.     Log into Canvas with your W number. Your password is the first 2 letters of your first name, followed by the first 2 letters of your last name (all lowercase), followed by the last four digits of your W number. If you have already logged into Canvas and changed your password, use that password.

c.      Click the button "Enroll in Course".

d.     Click the button "Go to the Course".

e.     Complete the modules.

4. Also, if you are teaching a DE class and want to see how your course measures up to the quality standards set by the Online Education Initiative, you can compare it to the OEI Course Design Rubric. The LPC Academic Senate has endorsed the rubric as the standards to strive for in DE classes. View the Senate’s resolution. Examples that meet the rubric’s criteria can be found in the Online Course Design Guide and the Course Design Showcase.
   
   
5. Make sure all of your content is accessible to students with disabilities. Everything you need to know about web accessibility, including “how-to” tutorials, is available in a Canvas course in which you have access. Just log into Canvas, and you will see a web accessibility course in your Dashboard called Creating Accessible Course Content.
   
   
6. All online and hybrid courses must show evidence of an instructor’s regular effective contact with students, as per Title 5 and accreditation requirements. Title 5 adds that regular effective contact must take place among students, too. For hybrids, both types of contact are required in the online portion of the class. Read Hybrids @ LPC. When contacting students by email, online and hybrid instructors should use the Canvas Inbox for all of your email correspondences with students. The Canvas Inbox will automatically save the emails. Emails sent from Outlook will be archived, but they will not be available from a central location. Read more about regular effective contact. Also, view the CVC-OEI’s Student-Student Interaction Guide (contains concrete examples).
   
   
7. If you need to give students extra time or extra attempts on a quiz in Canvas, use the Moderate Quiz feature. Too many instructors are editing their quiz and adding a student’s name under Assign To in the quiz settings while removing Everyone. The result is that only that one student’s score goes into the Gradebook, while the rest do not. Learn how to moderate a quiz.
   
   
8. If you want students to have access to your class before the first day of the semester, go into Settings, change the Term start date and time, then check the box that says: Users can only participate in the course between these dates.
   
   
9. The LPC DE Committee has developed recommendations, along with answers to frequently asked questions, that are intended to aid instructors—particularly new instructors—in determining how many students to add and when to add those students near the beginning of the semester. View the recommendations and FAQs.
   
   
10. The LPC Online Learning web site includes a link called Faculty Resources, which was created for you. It provides information and resources for instructors online learning at LPC. The section also includes the DE Handbook.
    
    
11. For financial aid and auditing purposes, you should record the last day of attendance for students who drop DE courses. This can be done easily in Canvas. In your course, go to the People page, click on the three dots on the right side for a student, and select User Details. This brings you to the student’s Profile page. Simply enter the date in the box under Last Day Attended. If a student dropped prior to Census, you can't enter the student's LDA into Canvas because that student simply disappears from the course. The best you can do is note the date elsewhere after monitoring your class roster in CLASS-Web.
    
    The last day of attendance is not the last day a student logged into your course; it’s the last day a student actively participated in class. Read Federal Title IV and Last Day of Attendance.
    
    Here is LPC’s DE drop policy:
    
    The instructor may drop students who miss the first meeting of a course. The first meeting of online or hybrid Distance Education courses is the first day of the class as specified in the class schedule listing.  For these courses, instructors may drop students who do not log into their Canvas course and/or complete indicated activities by the third day of classes. DE instructors may drop students if they have not submitted work and/or accessed the class for two consecutive weeks. For Summer courses, DE instructors may drop students if they have not submitted work and/or accessed the class for one week.
    
    
12. If you need (or want) a banner for the home page of your course, the attached file is a template to use. Just open it in PowerPoint, modify it, save it as a .PNG file, then upload it into Canvas.
    
    
13. If you plan to use the online proctoring tool Proctorio, you need to understand how it works. View a faculty web page on Proctorio. You should put information about Proctorio into your welcome letter and syllabus. Here are links to an example welcome letter and an example syllabus. Both contain student language about Proctorio. Feel free to use it.
    
    
14. You can also use NameCoach, a pronunciation and gender ID tool. NameCoach allows students to record their names and note their gender. Because of privacy reasons, only the instructor will be able to hear the recordings and see the genders noted. To use NameCoach, just enable it in the course menu. It’s self-explanatory from there.
    
    

15.   Because of an issue this past summer with students not being able to see results of automatically graded quizzes, it is recommended that you use Canvas’ New Gradebook. Follow the instructions below to enable it in your course(s): Access a course, click Settings, click Feature Options, click the switch to enable the New Gradebook. Learn how the New Gradebook works. The old Gradebook goes away in time for the Spring 2020 semester.

16.   If you want to merge sections in Canvas and have not already done so, read the Merging Sections in Canvas page, and follow the instructions carefully.

17.   Wanda Butterly and I will provide faculty technical support. During nights and weekends, you can call Canvas directly at 1-833-300-3467. For students, all daytime support will be handled by LPC’s technical support desk, and they can call Canvas to get their nighttime and weekend questions answered. The student Canvas number is 1-844-600-3467. You might want to note this in your classes.

Good luck with your courses!

Scott

 

Turnitin anti-plagiarism service

LPC Faculty,

 

As you probably know, the district has purchased a one-year license to use Turnitin within Canvas as a replacement to the VeriCite anti-plagiarism service. The plan is to install Turnitin and remove VeriCite on Aug. 13. That day is also the target for beginning to migrate all of the student submissions in the VeriCite database to the Turnitin database (this is supposed to be done for you). The district is also planning to host a Turnitin training Aug. 15 at Convocation (time and room TBA).

 

Scott

Canvas students inputted Aug. 6

For those using Canvas in the fall, I wanted to alert you that students are scheduled to be inputted into their courses in the early morning hours of Aug. 6.

 

Scott

Canvas Summer 2019 semester wrap-up

Canvas instructors,

 

Hope your semester went well. To wrap it up and prepare for next semester, please note the following:

1.       Here’s how course access at the end of a semester works in Canvas:

a.       You will have full access to your course until Aug. 9 at 11:59 p.m. After that, you will only have read-only access. However, you will be able to export your course.

b.       Students will have full access to your course until Aug. 2 at 11:59 p.m. (unless you have changed the Term end date and time). After the Term end date and time passes, students will have read-only access. They can get to the course by clicking Courses – All Courses. The course will show under Past Enrollments.

c.       If you want students to have full access after the Term end date and time, go into Settings, increase the Term end date and time, then check the box that says: Students can only participate in the course between these dates.  

d.       If you don’t want students to have any access to the course after the Term end date and time, scroll down in Settings, and check the box that says: Restrict students from viewing course after end date.

2. Check the accuracy of your grades, then download your Gradebook and course separately. For students who do not complete assignments by the deadline dates, manually give them zeros in the gradebook. If you leave their grade cells blank, those missing assignments won't count against them. Canvas has a feature in the old gradebook called Treat Ungraded as 0, but this does not automatically convert dashes to zeros; it only changes the Totals column. Students won’t see zeros or any changes in Totals when they check grades.
   
   Speaking of students checking grades, you might want to re-read the email I sent Tuesday at 4:25 p.m. about incorrect total scores students have been seeing because of a recent problem with auto-grading quizzes. For that reason alone, you might want to start using the New Gradebook for your next class instead of the old gradebook (don’t switch your Summer class). The issue will be absent in the New Gradebook for your Fall classes.
   

For those using the old gradebook: When you are finished with Summer grades, download your Gradebook by clicking Export – CSV File. Keep your exported Gradebook on your computer or backup drive for safekeeping.

For those using the New Gradebook: When you are finished with Summer grades, download your Gradebook by clicking Actions - Export. Keep your exported Gradebook on your computer or backup drive for safekeeping.

To archive your course and save it for safekeeping (in case anything happens to the Canvas server), go to Settings – Export Course Content – make sure Course is chosen under Export Type, then click Create Export. Once the process is finished, click New Export to download the file to your computer or external/online drive.

To switch your Fall classes from the old gradebook to the New Gradebook, go to Settings – Feature Options and click the New Gradebook toggle button to turn it on. All classes will come with the New Gradebook by default in Spring 2020.

 

3.     When moving from one semester to another, you can either copy a previous semester's course content or export the previous course and import it into the new course. You can do either of these by going to Settings and choosing Import Course Content. If you then select Copy a Canvas Course, you might have to check the box to "Include completed courses."

a.     Learn how to copy a course.

b.     Learn how to export a course.

c.     Learn how to import a course.

4.     The district has purchased a one-year license to use Turnitin as a replacement to the VeriCite anti-plagiarism service. The plan as of today is to install Turnitin and remove VeriCite on Aug. 13. That day is also the target for migrating all of the student submissions in the VeriCite database to the Turnitin database. The district is also planning to host a Turnitin training Aug. 15 at Convocation.

5.     Students are scheduled to be inputted into their Fall classes in the early morning hours of Aug. 6. Remember, you do NOT have to request Fall course shells for Canvas; they have been automatically created.

6.     If you are teaching a Distance Education course next term, you should send a welcome letter to your students a week or so prior to the first day of classes. A template is attached. I have also attached a syllabus template for your optional use. If you put either or both into Canvas, you will need to convert to accessible PDFs beforehand. I even have an entire course template, and if you’re interested in that, let me know.

7. If you plan to use the online proctoring tool Proctorio next term, you need to understand how it works. View a faculty web page on Proctorio. The attached welcome letter and syllabus contain student language about Proctorio. Feel free to use that language.
   
   

Scott

 

Update on Canvas quiz grading

Summer Canvas instructors,

 

Apparently, the issue affecting auto-grading quizzes since July 13 is affecting students not only in courses using the old gradebook, but also using the New Gradebook. Again, this issue is disallowing results of these quizzes from being added to total class scores when students check their grades. This does not affect the scores in your gradebook; those scores are accurate.

 

I’ve detailed below workarounds for those of you using the old gradebook and those using the New Gradebook. These workarounds were provided by Canvas to solve the students’ problem.

 

How do you know which gradebook you are using?

 

New Gradebook shows drop-downs for Gradebook, View, and Actions on the left side.

 

Old Gradebook shows a Filter by student name or secondary ID box on the left side.

 

 

Workaround for New Gradebook

 

Find a quiz column header with an orange eye icon with a slash through it, click the three-dots on the right, and choose Post grades. (If you see orange dots next to student names, that just indicates that their grades are hidden.)

 

On the next screen, choose Everyone, and Post. Repeat for other similar quizzes.

 

 

Workaround for old Gradebook

 

Find a quiz that students have taken since July 13, click the drop-down for the column header, and select Mute Assignment.

 

Once the column is muted, you’ll notice a bell icon with a slash through it, then click the same drop-down, and select Unmute Assignment. Repeat for other similar quizzes.

 

 

Finally, Canvas says that this issue has also caused a problem with plagiarism tools (in our case, VeriCite) not displaying originality reports to students before the grade is posted.

 

Scott

FW: Canvas quiz issue

 

 

From: Scott Vigallon
Sent: Tuesday, July 23, 2019 9:35 AM
To: Scott Vigallon <SVigallon@laspositascollege.edu>
Subject: Canvas quiz issue

 

Summer Canvas instructors,

 

Canvas is working on a bug that is disallowing results of auto-graded quizzes dating from July 13 from being added to total class scores when students check their grades. This does not affect the scores in your gradebook; those scores are accurate. It’s just affecting the students’ views of their total scores. They can see their quiz scores, but those scores aren’t being reflected in the class total.

 

According to Canvas, this is only happening in classes that are using the old gradebook, not the new gradebook.

 

I’ll update you when Canvas fixes the issue.

Scott

Canvas Spring 2019 semester wrap-up

Canvas instructors,

 

Hope your semester went well. To wrap it up and prepare for next semester, please note the following:

1.       Here’s how course access at the end of a semester works in Canvas:

a.       You will have full access to your course until June 7 at 11:59 p.m. After that, you will only have read-only access. However, you will be able to export your course.

b.       Students will have full access to your course until May 25 at 11:59 p.m. (unless you have changed the Term end date and time). After the Term end date and time passes, students will have read-only access. They can get to the course by clicking Courses – All Courses. The course will show under Past Enrollments.

c.       If you want students to have full access after the Term end date and time, go into Settings, increase the Term end date and time, then check the box that says: Users can only participate in the course between these dates.  

d.       If you don’t want students to have any access to the course after the Term end date and time, scroll down in Settings, and check the box that says: Restrict students from viewing course after end date.

2. Check the accuracy of your grades, then download your Gradebook and course separately. For students who do not complete assignments by the deadline dates, manually give them zeros in the gradebook. If you leave their grade cells blank, those missing assignments won't count against them. Canvas has a feature in the gradebook settings called Treat Ungraded as 0, but this does not automatically convert dashes to zeros; it only changes the Totals column. Students won’t see zeros or any changes in Totals when they check grades.
   

When you are finished with grades, download your Gradebook by clicking Export – CSV File. Keep your exported Gradebook on your computer or backup drive for safekeeping.

To archive your course and save it for safekeeping (in case anything happens to the Canvas server), go to Settings – Export Course Content – make sure Course is chosen under Export Type, then click Create Export. Once the process is finished, click New Export to download the file to your computer or external/online drive.

 

3.     If you are going to move your current course into a subsequent term’s course, you can either copy a previous term's course content or export the previous course and import it into the new course. You can do all of these by going to Settings in a course. While in Settings, do NOT click the Copy this Course button on the right side; this tool creates a new course that your students will not be able to access.

a.     Learn how to copy a course.

b.     Learn how to export a course.

c.     Learn how to import a course.

4.     Students are scheduled to be inputted into their Fall classes in the early morning hours of Aug. 6. They are already inputted into Summer classes. Remember, you do NOT have to request Fall course shells for Canvas; they have been automatically created. If you haven’t requested Summer shells, you can do that in CLASS-Web.

5.     If you are teaching a Distance Education course next term, you should send a welcome letter to your students a week or so prior to the first day of classes. A template is attached. I have also attached a syllabus template for your optional use. If you put either or both into Canvas, you will need to convert to accessible PDFs beforehand. I even have an entire course template, and if you’re interested in that, let me know.

6. If you plan to use the online proctoring tool Proctorio next term, you need to understand how it works. View a faculty web page on Proctorio. The attached welcome letter and syllabus contain student language about Proctorio. Feel free to use that language.
   
   
7. This is a reminder that if you have used the Notebowl app in your class, don’t use it any longer. It will be removed from Canvas on June 10. The CVC-OEI will no longer be funding that tool, so it will no longer be supported.
   
   
8. Keep in mind that LPC will be closed on Fridays during the Summer beginning June 7. If you need support on Fridays, you can call Canvas after 5 p.m. (and on weekends) at 1-833-300-3467.
   
   

Scott

 

FW: Grab a Spot in Our Fall Course Line-Up! 🍂 🍃

For those of you interested…

 

From: Online Network of Educators [mailto:registration@cvc.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, May 21, 2019 4:47 PM
To: Scott Vigallon <SVigallon@laspositascollege.edu>
Subject: Grab a Spot in Our Fall Course Line-Up! 🍂 🍃

 

View this email in your browser   Free and low-cost professional development for online educators from CVC-OEI/@ONE.   The fall line-up of our popular online courses is now ready for you. With multiple sections of 12 courses and 10 start dates, there's something for everyone!    Register Now!         Don't forget you have until August 20th to submit your proposal for Can•Innovate, our free online Canvas conference on Friday, October 25th, 2019. So far 18 colleges have signed up to host on an on-campus viewing room. Don't miss out! Add your college to the list today.   Learn more & spread the word! Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.