Reading Time: 4 minutesLast post, we talked about the new Turnitin Clarity features, what Clarity is, and how to use it. Even if you use Turnitin (either the standard assignment type or Clarity), you can still use Canvas’s SpeedGrader and rubrics for grading. SpeedGrader will still give you access to all of Turnitin’s reports and information about the submission – you just need to know where to look. When you open a Turnitin assignment, you’ll see this kind of table with submission information. Students name their submissions, and you can see that title directly under the student’s name. You can also see the submission date and time information, then there’s the “Grade” column (which you can just ignore – that’s for grading…
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Introduction to Turnitin Clarity
Reading Time: 2 minutesThis year, faculty has access to a new Turnitin feature – Turnitin Clarity – in addition to the standard Turnitin checker. Clarity gives you a little more information about your students’ writing process by requiring students to write directly into the tool in Canvas (students cannot upload a file in Clarity). Because students are writing directly in the tool, you can see additional information such as the amount of time students spent writing, the number of sessions they used to write, what sections of text students copied/pasted in, as well as a timeline recording of edits made to their submission. As you review the flags and data provided by…
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Accessibility Focus: Resources
Reading Time: < 1 minuteAs we jump into the semester, it’s time to take a moment and look back at the accessibility resources available to you! Over the summer, we focused on a subset of accessibility topics that are most relevant to what you’ll encounter through your work, but please remember that this is not an exhaustive list. Many of these items are assisted by the Canvas Accessibility Checker, but there are a few things that the checker doesn’t address. Let’s jump in! Canvas Accessibility Checker The Accessibility Checker is one of the most useful features that Canvas has added. With this checker, you can scan your entire course and get back a list of all the accessibility concerns it’s identified – and have a quick way to…
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Accessibility Focus: Alt Text
Reading Time: 2 minutesIn our last post, we covered how to properly create accessible tables. Today, we’re talking about a more common accessibility issue that can be annoying or at least very specific to deal with – alt text. What is alt text? Alt text provides a description of an image for screen readers so users who can’t see the image can understand what the image is and how it’s used in your content. If you leave the alt text field blank (or if it’s filled with a basic file name like image.jpg or figure1.png), the user will miss out on understanding the image and how it relates to your content because the screen reader will just relate what is (or isn’t) in the alt text field. What needs alt text? It’s easy to say,…
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Accessibility Focus: Tables
Reading Time: 2 minutesOver the summer, we explored some different accessibility concerns, how to fix them, and how Canvas can help. But there’s some things that need a little more attention before we jump into the school year – tables and alt text. Today, we’ll be chatting about tables! Accessibility for tables is fairly straightforward, but there are several details to watch out for. Pay attention to text accessibility rules When entering data in your table, you need to make sure that the different text styles you use can still be understood by screen readers. In tables, the most important text accessibility concerns are about bold/italics/underline and use of color. Use the defined row/column header styles Row and column headers are important for…
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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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Course Accessibility: Alt text, Tables, and Lists
Reading Time: 3 minutesIt’s time to dive back into the Canvas Accessibility Checker and chat about the rest of the issues it checks for. This week, we’ll be taking a closer look at image alt text, tables, and lists. Alt text Canvas checks for a few different issues that can pop up with alt text – if an image has alt text, if the alt text is different from the file name, and how long the alt text is. Canvas does automatically assign the file name as alt text when you upload an image, so you should rarely get the “no alt text error.” For any of the alt text…
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Course Accessibility: Headings, Links, and Color Contrast
Reading Time: 4 minutesToday we’re going to start our dive into the new Canvas Accessibility Checker and tackle a few of the issues it checks for. We’ll cover the rest of the items next week, but for now, we’ll focus on the text-based items. Before we start looking at the individual items, let’s chat about how to get to this tool and run the report. In your course, find the “Accessibility” link in your course navigation and click it. The first time you go to this page, you’ll get a note that says you have not yet scanned your course and a prompt to scan the course. Once the scan is complete, you’ll see a graph detailing the kinds of issues and a list…
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Course Accessibility: Intro
Reading Time: < 1 minuteToday, we’re kicking off a new series on accessibility – Canvas has a new tool they’ve launched, and we want to take this opportunity to also revisit accessibility principles and how they apply to each of us – regardless of whether your class is online or face-to-face. While these may seem like they’re just “extra work” or something that doesn’t make a difference, they’re still best practice. And by preparing our courses and materials to be ready for whatever needs a student may have, we’re showing our love for others in action. Across this series, we’ll explore how Canvas tools can help us in this journey – as well as what they don’t cover but we still need to address. We’re excited to dive in and explore all this with…
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Beginning of Semester Reminders and Tips
Reading Time: 2 minutesWelcome to the start of a new semester! Today we’re going be chatting about some tips and reminders to make the first week (and the rest of the semester) easier. We know there’s a big chunk of time between semester starts, so it’s easy for some of these things to slip your memory. Combining Canvas sections You may be teaching multiple sections of the same course but want to combine all your students into one section so you have a single place to work on the course. Canvas makes it simple to combine those multiple sections into one. A brief note: you’ll need to combine them before…