Canvas Spring 2021 semester wrap-up

Canvas instructors,

 

First of all, early congratulations on making it through an entire academic year during the pandemic! Hope the Spring semester has gone well. To wrap it up for Canvas and prepare for the next semester, please note the following:

1. Here’s how course access at the end of a semester works in Canvas (note that Canvas changes are reflected in (c) and (d):
   1. You will have full access to your course until June 11 at 11:59 p.m. After that, you will only have read-only access. However, you will be able to export your course. At that point, get to the course by clicking Courses – All Courses. It will be listed under Past Enrollments.
   2. Students will have full access to your course until the term end date of May 28 at 11:59 p.m. (unless you have changed the Course 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, and for Participation, choose Course. Then increase the End date and time, and click Update Course Details at the bottom.
   4. If you don’t want students to have any access to the course after the Term end date and time, go to Settings, make sure Term is selected for Participation, and check the box that says: Restrict students from viewing course after term end date. Then click Update Course Details at the bottom.
      
      View a video on course availability.
2. For each class, 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 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. When you are finished with grading, download your Gradebook by clicking Actions - Export. Keep your exported Gradebook on your computer and/or external/online drive.
   5. To archive your course and save it for safekeeping (in case anything bad happens to Canvas…and it has happened!), 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 and/or external/online drive. Note that you cannot open the resulting .imscc file on your computer.
      
      Exporting, downloading, and saving your Gradebooks and courses are critical! We have had incidents in the recent past where entire courses and class grades were lost. Don’t get caught without backups.

 

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.
      
      If you use the Hypothesis annotation tool, be sure to read Canvas Course Import and Hypothesis for special instructions.
      
      
4. Also when moving from one semester to another, do not remove assignments from within the Calendar. If you need to remove assignments, do this from the Assignments area. If you need to remove quizzes or discussions, do those from their respective areas, too. This pertains to both the course from which you are copying and the course into which you are copying.
   
   
5. Students have already been put into their Summer classes. They are scheduled to be inputted into their Fall classes Aug. 4.
   
   
6. If you are teaching online during the in Summer or Fall, you should send a welcome letter to your students a week or so prior to the first day of classes. We offer a welcome letter template for your optional use, along with an online syllabus template, and an entire model course template.
   1. View/download welcome letter template
   2. View/download syllabus template
   3. If you are interested in previewing or using the model course template, view instructions on accessing it.
      
      
7. If you want to merge next semester’s sections in Canvas and have not already done so, read the Merging Sections in Canvas page, and follow the instructions carefully.
   
   
8. If you want to see what is upcoming in Canvas, go to the Canvas Release Notes page.
   
   

Scott

 

Canvas update/Summer students

On Saturday (tomorrow), Canvas will update our system with some minor changes. Students will notice a few of these when they submit assignments that you create with the Assignments tool.

 

• There is an updated submission tracker that helps determine the status of their submission.
• Rubrics will be on the submission page, not on a separate tab.
• Feedback will now be found in the comment tray, not in a separate tab.

 

Information about the above (and more) can be found on a Canvas blog for this tool.

 

There are two other bigger changes with Assignments, but honestly, after getting mixed signals from Canvas, I’m not sure whether either or both will show up Saturday. The first is a Webcam Submission button for File Uploads, and this allows students to take a picture of an object (say, a Math solution) with a webcam and submit it. The other is a submission option called Student Annotations that allows you to upload a document and have students type directly into it before submitting it. It’s the same technology that allows you to annotate right on student submissions in the SpeedGrader.

 

If one or neither of the above features doesn’t show Saturday, they will show eventually. Of course, one Canvas person told me they will show in the “near future”, while the other said they are “not on the roadmap” yet. So go figure.

 

Finally, for those of you teaching summer courses, students are scheduled to be inputted into their classes Monday.

 

Scott

 

Fall Canvas shells now available

Canvas instructors,

 

Your Fall 2021 courses are now in Canvas. If you do not see your course under Unpublished Courses on your Dashboard, 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 several of these. Once you become official, Banner will process you into the Canvas course.

 

Some notes:

 

1. If you plan to merge courses or sections, you will do that in Canvas. Please read Merging Sections in Canvas, and closely 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. As an online instructor, 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 are interested in previewing or using the model course template, view instructions on accessing it.
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 into 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, check out the Canvas course titled Web Accessibility Course.
6. Students are scheduled to be inputted into their courses August 4.
   

Scott

 

Fall Canvas course shells

LPC faculty,

 

I wanted to let you all know that Fall 2021 Canvas course shells are scheduled to be created May 10. I will email you when they are ready. Fall students are not scheduled to be inputted until August 4.

 

Scott

Canvas Studio update

Canvas has fixed the Studio page error issue and says everything is running normal again.

 

Scott

Canvas Studio issue

Canvas just sent an email saying some users are experiencing page errors in Canvas Studio. The email wasn’t more specific than that. When it’s fixed, I’ll let everyone know. You can always check the Canvas Status page, too.

 

Scott

Summer, fall Canvas shells

I wanted to let you all know that summer 2021 Canvas course shells will be created April 12, and fall 2021 shells will be created May 10. This is a little later than past years in order to make sure that changes to section numbers are as permanent as possible. When section numbers are changed after course shells are created, problems occur in Canvas.

 

If you need to begin building a course prior to April 12, you can do so in your sandbox, then copy it over when the actual shell is created.

 

Lastly, I will be gone April 2 and won’t be back until April 12. If you need assistance during that time, contact Wanda Butterly. Enjoy your spring break next week.

 

Scott