Reading Time: 2 minutesSo far, we’ve covered the current state of Assignments and Discussions in Canvas. This week, we’ll be chatting about (New) Quizzes! It’s been a relatively quiet year for New Quizzes so far – the biggest update we’ve talked about has been the update to the moderation settings. But there are a few exciting things that have either already landed or are on the horizon! Text blocks in New Quizzes Have you ever wished that there was an easy way to provide directions or additional information inside a New Quiz? Previously, you could to that through using a Stimulus – but you had to attach questions to it, and…
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State of Canvas 2025: Discussions
Reading Time: 2 minutesLast week, we took a moment to review the current status of Assignments in Canvas. This week, we’re turning our focus to Discussions. We’ve talked about Discussions a few times over the last several months because of some big updates to the tool. We’ll be going over those and more today! Discussion Checkpoints Canvas has finally added multiple due dates for discussions with their Discussion Checkpoints update earlier this year. Now, you can set one due date for students to submit initial replies to the prompt and a second due date for students to submit replies to other students. There was a moment of oddness with how…
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State of Canvas 2025: Assignments
Reading Time: 2 minutesNow that we’ve hit the summer and have half a moment to breathe, we’re going to take the next few weeks to do a comprehensive review of various elements of Canvas. We’ll be taking a look at the current state of the tools, highlighting any major changes that have been made recently, and looking forward at Canvas’ roadmap and future changes. This week, we’ll be looking at Assignments in Canvas. Out of the posts we have planned, assignments is the most “stable” at the moment – we’ve had some changes across the last year, and there isn’t anything huge on the horizon (at the moment). So, let’s…
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Microsoft Teams/Canvas Integration Is Changing – Current Tools Leaving in June
Reading Time: < 1 minuteMicrosoft recently announced that they are in the process of updating some of their LTIs – and the Teams Classes and Teams Meetings LTIs are at the top of the list. Both of these tools in their current iteration will stop working in Canvas June 15, 2025. Microsoft is working a “new, unified experience” that consolidates the capabilities of both of these tools, but there is no further information on this so far. Since we do not know when exactly Microsoft will release new tools, there are some simple workarounds to use after June 15. If you are using Teams Classes, your Team will still exist…
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Submitting Final Grades from Canvas to the Registrar
Reading Time: < 1 minuteIt’s a simple process to submit your final course grades to the registrar from Canvas. Before you start this process, however, you’ll want to follow these three tips for checking your Canvas gradebook to make sure you’re all squared away. Once you’re ready, follow these three steps: 1. Click the “Submit Grades to Registrar” link in your course menu. If you don’t see the link there, click “Settings” in the course menu then the “Navigation” tab. Drag and drop “Submit Grades to Registrar” from the inactive items list to the active items list and click “Save.” 2. Scan the information on the “Submit Grades” page. Is…
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Three Tips for Checking your Canvas Gradebook before Submitting Final Grades
Reading Time: 2 minutesFinals are soon approaching, so it’s time to start wrapping up your courses and preparing to submit your grades. Submitting grades is a quick process, but there are a few items you’ll need to do before you click that button. 1. Check your course grading scheme You should have a grading system in your syllabus with the values defined for each grade letter. Canvas can display that letter grade to both you and your students, but you need to make sure you have this setting enabled with the correct values set. 2. Check your grade breakdown The grade breakdown is different from the grading scheme! Go to the…
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Canvas Update: New Quizzes Moderation Settings
Reading Time: 2 minutesCanvas is revising how New Quiz moderation works in their April 23 update. Most of the adjustments included here are smaller – Canvas is tweaking some labels in the process of adding additional time for a student. But there is one very important change coming with this update. Instructors will now be able to add additional time while a student is taking the quiz. Previously, if a student was taking a quiz, an instructor was not able to add any kind of time adjustment to it – but now, when on the “Moderate” page, instructors can use the pencil icon while a student is taking the quiz…
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Canvas Update: Fixing SpeedGrader for Discussions
Reading Time: 2 minutesWhen Canvas recently added the discussion checkpoints feature, the way SpeedGrader operated for all discussions changed, too, removing the option to see a single student’s posts in one place and instead showing the entire discussion thread. On Wednesday, March 12, that will change as Canvas modifies the SpeedGrader interface once more to give instructors the choice of how to view their students’ discussion posts. If you want to view discussions how they were before – only showing one student’s responses at a time – you won’t have to do anything! Canvas is reverting to that being the default state for discussions in SpeedGrader. If you want to…
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Discussions and SpeedGrader – What’s Going On?
Reading Time: 2 minutesYou may have noticed that SpeedGrader is now looking a little different for discussions. When you opened SpeedGrader, you’d see all of a student’s posts on the left and have your grading tools on the right. If you wanted to see context for their responses, you could toggle the view and see the discussion in its entirety. When Canvas added discussion checkpoints (see Canvas Update: Multiple Due Dates for Discussions for full details on this feature!), they also tweaked how SpeedGrader works. Now, when you open a discussion in SpeedGrader, you’ll see the entirety of the discussion on the left with the student’s posts highlighted. In your…
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Canvas Update: Multiple Due Dates for Discussions
Reading Time: 4 minutesCanvas has brought a new and highly useful update to discussions – instructors are now able to set separate due dates for initial responses and additional responses. This update released January 18, and the change isn’t limited to just due dates. Instructors can also set separate point values for initial responses and additional responses. Does this feature work with EVERYTHING in Canvas? Before we jump into the “how,” there’s a couple of restrictions for where, when, and how this new feature can be used. Setting up discussion checkpoints Using discussion checkpoints is simple – you only need to toggle on one setting, then add the…