Here are tips and instructions for a variety of actions you may want to use in your courses.
You can duplicate all materials in Canvas, including modules. You an save yourself time by creating a basic module that acts as a template, duplicating it, and then editing the materials inside each module as needed.
This allows you to create a basic module that you can reuse throughout your course. For example, you may want to create a module for each class period or week. You an save yourself time by creating a basic module that acts as a template, duplicating it, and then editing the materials inside each module as needed. The duplication process creates a copy of almost everything in the module (pages, assignments, etc) – Classic Quizzes are the exception, and modules that contain Classic Quizzes can NOT be duplicated.
NOTE: Modules that contain quizzes can NOT be duplicated. I recommend creating duplicates of your modules, then adding quizzes in afterwards.
To duplicate a module:
To export a Canvas course, see the directions on Canvas's online documentation: How do I export a Canvas course?
It may be useful to create a page with images for your course. To demonstrate this, I will be inserting images into a study guide for an art history course.
1. In the text box, place your cursor where you want the image to be located.
2. Locate the image icon in the tool bar above the text box.
3. Select the location you are drawing your image from. For this example, I selected "Course Images" to choose from one of the images I had uploaded to the course files. This opens a new side menu on the right with any images you have available.
4. Click on the image you want to insert. Once the image appears in your text box, it may be an inconvenient size. You can resize your image a few different ways. The easiest is to click on the image and drag the corners when the image highlights in blue. Alternatively, you can resize the image by clicking on it. A tooltip that says "Image Options" will appear. Click this to open a new side menu.
5. The Image Options menu at the right will give you several ways to resize your image, including pixels, percentage of the view screen width, and custom.
6. You may want to experiment with these options. For this example I selected Custom and chose the Medium size.
7. Your image will appear in its new resized format. Be sure to click "Save" at the bottom of the page to see your page with images!
You should be able to access your lists of enrolled students from SAGE, however, you can also export class lists using Canvas.
1. Open the Gradebook for the course you want.
2. In the upper right corner, click the "Export" dropdown menu. Select the option you want.
3. This list will download as a .csv file. You can open it using Excel or another spreadsheet program. From this point you can copy whatever information you want and reformat it.
Canvas gives you the ability to create groups of students within your course called group sets or sections, depending on the type of course you have.
Once you have your sections created, you can send announcement to all sections (this is the default setting), or choose to send the announcement only to selected sections. Do this by selecting the sections you want to target from the dropdown menu in the "Post to" part of the Announcement creation page.
You can use Canvas's Inbox to message individual students or entire classes.
What is the Inbox? | Canvas Instructor Guide: How do I use the Inbox as an Instructor?
Canvas has a feature called student view that lets you see your course as it appears to students in the class. We recommend using this periodically to confirm that students can see materials and access assignments.
To enter student view, enter your course, then click on the "View as Student" button at the top right of the page.
In student view, your screen will have a bright pink border. In student view, you can view assignments and submit assignments as a test student. You can reset the test student to submit multiple times. The "Reset Student" and the "Leave Student View" buttons are located at the bottom of your screen. Be sure to click the "Leave Student View" button once you are done with whatever checks you were doing.
Canvas will create a test student the first time that you enter student view in a course. You can see the test student row in your course grade book.
You can share entire courses or selected materials using Canvas Commons, which is located in the global Canvas menu on the left of the screen.
You can also share Item Banks, but if you share an item bank with another Canvas user, you must ALSO share the item bank with the course they will be using it for. See the detailed steps on Canvas's support site – note that you must follow BOTH sets of steps to share with a User AND a Course!
Note: you can select the scope of how material is shared on Commons: when you follow the directions on sharing to Commons you will see checkboxes that allow you to share with yourself, with all of Willamette University, or publicly (any Canvas user).
You can add Google files and calendars to modules as module items, and you can embed Google files and calendars anywhere you have access to the rich content editor box, like Canvas Pages or Assignments.
Please see the step-by-step directions on this page:
This demonstrates how to create a shared Google document that students can edit collaboratively, but the process is the same for shared slide shows, spreadsheets, and so on.
First, create the file you want to share in your Google Drive. Once it's set up, locate the "Share button" in the top right corner of the screen.
Click the "Share" button and edit your sharing settings. Under the "General Access" heading, select "Anyone with the link" from the dropdown menu.
Then, select "Editor" from the Role dropdown menu. This will allow all of the participants in your class to access and edit the file.
Click the "Copy link" button; the link will be copied to your computer clipboard. Click the "Done" button when you're finished.
Navigate back to your Canvas course.
You can add this link to a Canvas page, assignment, quiz, or anywhere a content box is available. If you are using modules, you can add the file as a module item using these steps:
If you are using modules, click the "+" button in the module where you want the shared file to be accessed.
Select "External URL" from the dropdown menu, paste the link that you copied from the Google file, and give the item a name. Click "Add Item" when you have finished filling in the fields.
Your editable file will appear as an item in the module (in this example, it is "Sample Shared Editable Doc."
When students click on this item in the module, they will see an editable file embedded in Canvas, and can add to it as they would any Google Drive file. If they want to access the file in Google Drive, they can click the rectangular icon next to the file name in the gray bar at the top of the document.
Willamette's Canvas team has provided you with some optional templates for course pages. Some of these, like the sample page below, have styled elements like buttons and sections with colored backgrounds. You can create or edit these elements by copying and pasting from the sample pages using the Rich Content Editor (default content editing box) or the code editor if you are comfortable with HTML.
The sample page has buttons leading to the Syllabus Page and Modules Page. To create a button that leads to a Canvas page, open a page with a sample button and click the "Edit" button in the top right corner.
The buttons will now appear as links. To adjust the button once you have pasted it to a new page, highlight or hover over the link and click the "Link Options" side of the button that appears.
This will bring up the "Edit Course Link" side menu. This menu allows you to change the text that appears in the button, and to select a new destination page within your course. Click the "Replace" button at the bottom of the menu and your button will be updated.
The sample page I am using has a button leading to an external site (in this case the Metropolitan Museum of Art).
To create a button like this, open a page with a sample button to an external site and click the "Edit" button in the top right corner.
The button will now appear as a link. To adjust the button once you have pasted it to a new page, highlight or over over the link and click the "Link Options" side of the button that appears.
This will open the "Link Options" side menu. From here you can update the button's text and enter the new URL for your new destination.
Click the "Done" button at the bottom of the menu and you will see the updated button (in this case, redirecting to Willamette's homepage).
As always, remember to click the "Save" button when you are finished creating or making changes to a page!
If you are comfortable with HTML (or would like to start playing with HTML), you can access Canvas's built-in code editor. Choose a page to edit and click the "Edit" button at the top right corner of the page. Click on the </> icon below the rich content editor box.
Now you can see the HTML code for the page.
If you choose to create a div with a colored background, remember to use the accessibility checker by switching back to the rich content editor and looking at the accessibility checker icon. The accessibility checker with let you know if there is sufficient contrast between the background color and text for readability.
The HTML code for the Syllabus button on the sample page is as follows:
<a class="btn btn-large btn-primary" title="Syllabus" href="https://willamette.instructure.com/courses/5315/assignments/syllabus" data-course-type="navigation">Syllabus</a>
The btn-primary class creates a button in Willamette's default red and white theme. Please note that each course has a number that identifies it (5315 in this case). This must be updated for navigation to work properly, so it may be easiest to copy/paste the button, adjust it using the rich content editor method described above, and then use that code for future reference.
The HTML code for buttons leading to external sites is as follows:
<a class="btn btn-large btn-primary" href="https://www.metmuseum.org/">Metropolitan Museum of Art</a>
Be sure to update the URL and button text.
As always, remember to click the "Save" button when you are finished creating or making changes to a page!
All courses are automatically concluded 5 weeks after the semester ends, sending them into read-only mode. You do have the ability to conclude your course before it automatically concludes, if you want to send it into read-only mode early. However, that action affects you as the instructor as well. As per the Canvas Instructor documentation, "Instructor-based roles will no longer have the same access in the course and will result in loss of course functionality and user information, such as viewing SIS data." However, if you decide you do want to conclude your course, you can follow the directions given here: How do I conclude a course at the end of a term as an instructor?
By default, students can access their new courses once in read-only mode once they are published by the instructor but before the course begins, and they can access old courses in read-only mode once courses are concluded. If, for some reason, you do not want students to be able to access courses they will take or have taken with you, you can restrict access. Follow the directions given here: How do I restrict student access to a course before or after the course dates?
You can upload a new image to replace the default image on your course cards. Learn more in the Canvas instructor guide: How do I add an image to a course card in the Dashboard?
You can select the courses that show up on your Dashboard.
First, click the "Courses" tab in the left sidebar menu. Next, click "All courses." The All courses page has a list of all courses you are teaching and have taught in the past. Click the star next to the titles of the classes that you want to see on your Dashboard. When you navigate back to your Dashboard, those are the only courses that will show up.
You can adjust the courses you see by clicking and unclicking the stars next to your course titles on the All courses page.
You can also adjust the order of courses that show up on your dashboard. Click the three dots on the course title card. Click the "Move" option that appears. You will see a menu that allows you to move the course card "up" or "down."
At some point you will probably need to allow a student to resubmit an assignment or quiz.
I recommend initially setting up your assignments with at least 2 attempts so that you don't have to moderate an assignment if a student uploads the wrong file. It is possible to reassign or reopen an assignment for a specific student. Learn more in the Canvas Instructor Guide: Can a student resubmit Canvas assignments?
You may run into situations like this: a student was taking an online quiz, but the power went out. A student was taking an online quiz, but the internet was spotty or failed. You use the moderate feature in Canvas to allow this student another chance.
Canvas gives you the ability to set up accommodations you may need for some of your students.
If you want to look at one student's grades over the course of a semester, navigate to the gradebook for that course.
Click on the student's name. This will open a side window on the right. Click on the "Grades" button.
This will open a window that lists all of the assignments in the course. You can see the points this student has received so far, and by scrolling to the bottom of the page you can see their cumulative grade.
To view their response to any specific assignment, just click on the name of that assignment. This will open their submission for that assignment.
This is specific to assignments that have file upload submissions. Sometimes a student may have issues submitting an assignment. If you want the assignment in the SpeedGrader system, you can submit a file that they send you on their behalf. See directions in the Canvas Instructor Guide – How do I submit an assignment on behalf of a student as an instructor?
If your class involves repeated in-class assignments like workbook page, you may prefer to create assignments through a .csv file. This allows you to bypass creating assignments in Canvas. Instead, you download a spreadsheet, open it with a program like Excel or Google Sheets, and create columns for assignments. You would then track the grades in your spreadsheet. After each assignment, you are able to save your spreadsheet as a .csv file and re-upload it to Canvas, thus keeping your grades up-to-date for your students. You can use Canvas-created and .csv-created assignments with each other in the same course.
Videos demonstrating the process can be found below the written directions.
To create the initial .csv file, navigate to the course gradebook. It does not matter if you have already created assignments in Canvas or not. Click on the "Export" button at the top right corner of the page, and select "Export Entire Gradebook."
Canvas will create a .csv file that downloads to your computer. Open the file, which should look something like the image below (shown in Excel).
Add columns for your desired assignments following the directions on this Canvas help page. Then import the file back into Canvas. Your new assignments should appear in the gradebook!
Assignments (and quizzes) are by default assigned to everyone in a course. However, you have the option to assign something to individual students, course sections (if you are using them), and groups. This allows you to set different due dates on an assignment for different students.
If you want Canvas to automatically deduct points from assignments that are turned in late, you can use Canvas's late submission policy tool.
Learn more in the Canvas instructor guide: How do I apply a Late Submission policy in the Gradebook?
Instructors can adjust the final grade of a Canvas quiz using SpeedGrader's fudge points feature to add or remove points.
SpeedGrader gives you the option to grade by question (as opposed to by student) so that you grade all answers to one question, then move on to the next.
HOWEVER, if you choose to grade this way you MUST be sure to click the "Update" button after grading each student's answer to save your grading progress!!!!
Learn more about how to use this feature in Canvas's documentation: Grade By Question in SpeedGrader for New Quizzes.
Canvas allows you to record videos directly within the LMS, and you can upload files that you create elsewhere. Please refer to the Canvas LTI Tools page within this LibGuide for details.
Any media that you uploaded to Kaltura through WISE is available to you in your My Media folder in Canvas.
You can embed videos from many different sources in your courses. See the Using Images & Videos in Canvas page for specific directions.
Canvas does not have a native polling system. Here are several options that you can use depending on what type of poll you want.
Classic Quizzes
Google Forms
Canva
Lucid
You may want to provide students with material only after they have completed an assignment. For example, you may assign an essay and want students to access answers or tips after they have submitted their essay. You can achieve this using module requirements.
First, click on the three dots at the far right in the module box to reveal the dropdown menu of actions and select "Edit."
Next, adjust the requirements for the module. Be sure to check the box "Students must move through requirements in sequential order" – this controls the way students access the materials.
Be sure to click the red "Update Module" button to save your changes! Now when a student looks at the module they can see that they must complete all items in the module, but they can only access the certain items. Below, the first page in the module appears with black text, while the rest of the items are grayed out. As a student completes each item, the next item in the module list is unlocked for them.
You can access the student view of Canvas to double-check that modules' requirements are set correctly. Do this by clicking the "Student View" button at the top right of any page in Canvas.
If you have worked with a librarian to create a LibGuide for your course, you can embed the guide directly into your course modules.
1. Click the "+" button in the module title bar.
2. Scroll down to the bottom of the pop-up modal. Enter the URL and Page name of the LibGuide you want to add to your module. You can choose to load the guide in a new window by checking the box labeled "Load in a new tab." If you do not check this box, the LibGuide will appear directly in a Canvas page.
3. Click the "Add Item" button.
4. Be sure to publish the Lib Guide!
Tech support: For technical assistance, start a ticket with WITS
Brainstorming: For ideas on how to use tools in your course, contact the DLS