Reading Time: 2 minutesSince we’re still close to the start of the semester, now is the perfect time to make sure your gradebook is set up properly. It may feel like you have lots of time left before this is absolutely necessary, but that’s not the case. If you take the time now, both you and your students will see accurate grades across the semester. So let’s talk about three things to check to make sure your gradebook is set up how you want. 1. Setting up the grade breakdown Canvas makes it easy to take your syllabus’ grading system in percentages and apply it to your course. You’ll set…
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Save Time by Scheduling Canvas Announcements
Reading Time: 2 minutesAs you keep thinking about next semester, you may be interested in using a Canvas feature that will allow you to save some time across the semester when communicating with your students. Canvas provides an announcements feature – you can use this to quickly and easily send messages to your entire class. Announcements is an excellent place for you to touch base with your students, notify them of resources, or give updates and reminders. But did you know that you can schedule announcements? Now this won’t work for every instance (e.g., “No class Tuesday”), but you can look ahead across the semester and identify places where you know…
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How to Transfer a Course to a New Semester in Canvas
Reading Time: < 1 minuteIt’s still the ideal time to be thinking about your courses in Canvas for next semester. If you need to start from scratch, check out our post on Three Tips to Quickly Build a Course in Canvas. But what if you have a course already in Canvas that you want to reuse? Canvas makes it simple to transfer content from one section (or semester) to another using the Course Import Tool. With this tool, you can transfer all of the content from a course, or you can pick and choose which pieces you want. After you’ve decided what content you want, you can opt to have…
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Three Tips to Improve Accessibility in Your Course
Reading Time: 2 minutesLet’s make sure we all start on the same page by defining our terms. When talking about “accessibility” related to the web or course materials, it’s easy to think about it in a context of screen readers and disability accommodations. But it’s more than that. According to the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative, accessibility means that products are not only designed in a way that people with disabilities can use them but also people who have “situational limitations” (being in a location where they cannot use their device as they typically would) or “temporary disabilities” (an injury that affects how they handle their devices). Today we’re going to…
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Three Tips to Quickly Build a Course in Canvas
Reading Time: 3 minutesIt may seem like it’s early, but next semester is quickly approaching. Now is the perfect time to start thinking about your courses if you don’t want to spend time during break to pull them together. If you’ve already set up the course in Canvas, it’s a simple process to import the content and change the dates. But if you need to start from scratch (or a Moodle backup), here are three tips to help you speed up the process. 1. Make a game plan and template Take the time upfront and look over your course. Identify which pieces are consistent across it to make a template.…
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TurnItIn: Three Tips for Accurate Similarity Report Assessment
Reading Time: 2 minutesCedarville University (CU) provides all faculty and students access to TurnItIn to help improve writing and prevent plagiarism. TurnItIn accepts user documents and compares them to material located on the Internet and in TurnItIn’s document repository. After the documents are compared, TurnItIn produces the Similarity Report which shows the parts of a student’s paper that are similar to other sources. Here are three tips to help you read the Similarity Report. Tip 1: Familiarize yourself with what Canvas and TurnItIn can do Get up to speed with all of the functionality the Canvas and TurnItIn integration has to offer by viewing or downloading the Canvas Plagiarism Framework…
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Canvas Release Update: Course Navigation Visual Changes
Reading Time: 3 minutesCanvas is implementing visual updates to course navigation on October 19, 2019. But don’t worry – this change will not affect how the navigation functions. This update will improve accessibility and clarity, especially regarding hidden menu items. So, what are the changes? Currently, course navigation displays items visible to students in black, items hidden to students in a light grey, and the current page with a blue highlight. When you hover over an item, it displays a light grey background. These style elements did not meet accessibility guidelines. The contrast between hidden and visible items was too low, and the hidden/visible status was only defined by color.…
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Sandy Yang: Kudos for Canvas Chat
Reading Time: 2 minutesOver the summer I taught three sections of Introduction to Humanities (85 students) in order to get a better grasp on Canvas, knowing that I would be coaching instructors new to the Canvas environment in the fall. My favorite part of the process was frequent—sometimes daily—encounters with my friends at Canvas Chat. Left navigation bar, last icon down, circle with a question mark. That was my go-to place for immediate help. Chat with Canvas Support (Faculty). Yes. Start Chat. Yes. Autofill my contact information. Choose severity: I can’t get things done until I hear back from you. Start Chat. Hello, _____, How can I help you today?…
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Adding External Tools to Your Course
Reading Time: 3 minutesWe’ve previously talked about how to use Ensemble for screen capture and webcam recording. We’ve also talked about how to add annotations, edit, and upload your video. But once you’ve uploaded your video, how do you get it into Canvas? Ensemble is integrated with Canvas as an external tool, so it’s a simple process to add media to your course. We’re going to use Ensemble as an example here, but you’ll follow the same initial process to add any external tool to your course. Add an external tool to a module If you want your video or other item from an external tool to be available directly…
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Canvas Transition: Canvas Tips Roundup
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe beginning of the semester is quickly approaching, so we’re all in the thick of learning Canvas and setting up courses. You may be excited to use this new tool and marveling at how some processes are easier to complete. You may be a little nervous to dive in, especially if you weren’t working in Moodle previously. Either way, let’s pause for a second and take a deep breath. Okay? Good. Now that we’re ready, let’s take a quick look at some of the Canvas tips and tricks that we’ve talked about over the summer, all gathered together here for a one-stop primer to get you jump…