Reading Time: 3 minutesCanvas has been working on modifications to both assignments and discussions – and the changes are now ready to be live! In these two weeks leading up to the release of the updated assignments and discussions, we’ll be going through everything you need to know about the changes. This week, we’re looking at the assignment enhancements. These are primarily student-facing interface adjustments to track the “life cycle” of an assignment more easily. Let’s take a look! Here’s a screenshot of an updated assignment page. With the update, Canvas has moved or added a few things: The next chunk of the page is very much the same as…
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Canvas Update: Instructors Can Upload Files to Assignments for Students
Reading Time: 2 minutesCanvas has recently added a feature to allow instructors to upload files to assignments for students. To use this feature, you need to start in the gradebook. Click on the student’s cell for the assignment you want to upload, then click the arrow. Canvas will slide out a panel from the right side of your screen. Click the “Submit for Student” link. Drag and drop or use the file picker to add the assignment file(s), then click “submit.” If you upload multiple files, they will be added as one submission. The file is now available to be graded in SpeedGrader! Any files uploaded using this method will…
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How Can I Quickly Adjust Multiple Canvas Assignment Due Dates and Times?
Reading Time: 2 minutesPreviously, Canvas has made it easy to adjust due dates for all assignments in a course. You’d go to the assignments page, click that little “three dots” icon in the top right to expand a menu, and select “Edit Assignment Dates.” Canvas would display all assignments from the course and any dates associated with them currently. From there, you could either manually change dates or use the checkboxes and “Batch Edit” button to update multiple dates at once. But with these, you were stuck with whatever times were associated with an assignment. And if there wasn’t a time associated with an assignment, Canvas would default it…
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Canvas Feature: Microsoft Immersive Reader
Reading Time: 3 minutesWe’ve talked a lot about the Canvas/Microsoft partnership and how more Microsoft products and features are being incorporated into Canvas. Today, we’re revisiting one of those features – the Microsoft Immersive Reader. The Microsoft Immersive Reader is now available through more of Canvas. Initially only released on Canvas pages, it’s now also available on the syllabus, assignments, and a course’s home page. This reader presents the page text in a more accessible format where the user can choose the text preferences, grammar options, reading preferences, and to have the page content read to them. To launch the reader, click the “Microsoft Immersive Reader” button at the top right of a Canvas…
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Canvas Feature: Annotation Assignments
Reading Time: 2 minutesCanvas has added a new way for students to complete assignments – annotating a document you upload. In this kind of assignment, students have access to all the annotation tools you use in SpeedGrader and create the annotations in the same kind of view. This assignment type can only be used for individual assignments – it will not work for a group assignment. But you might be thinking “Okay, this sounds cool. But what would I even use it for?” Having your students annotate a document is flexible and can be used for a myriad of assignments. You could have your students interpret lab results or statistics. They could practice peer editing of…
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Canvas Reassign Assignment: An Easy Way to Ask Students to Resubmit Work
Reading Time: < 1 minuteCanvas has added a new tool in SpeedGrader to simplify your workflow. Imagine a student submits an assignment, but they dropped it in the wrong assignment or just grabbed the wrong document to upload. Previously, you’d message the student or leave a comment in SpeedGrader. The student would then need to see that note and remember to complete the request. Now Canvas has added a button in SpeedGrader that will add an assignment back to a student’s to-do list. Before we get into the how of this feature, there are some limitations you need to know about. Using the submission reassignment feature is simple. Navigate to SpeedGrader for an assignment. If your assignment meets the criteria above, you’ll see a…
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Why Did Some of My Grades Disappear in My Gradebook?
Reading Time: < 1 minuteLet’s imagine a scenario. You have an assignment in your course. Most of your students completed it, and you graded their work. One student didn’t complete the assignment, but you agreed to give them an extension. You went into the assignment settings, opened the assignment back up to them, and merrily went on your way – until you later went to grade their work and discovered you could no longer see the submitted work from any of your other students. You checked the gradebook, and sure enough, the grades you’d previously entered were no longer there either. Even though this is a scary scenario, this can be…
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How Can I Get a Deleted Item Back in Canvas?
Reading Time: < 1 minuteSometimes you’re working in Canvas, decide to remove an item from your course only to later realize either you did actually want the item in your course or you accidentally deleted the wrong item. Before you panic or start stressing, Canvas does make it easy to restore most items (and it’ll even try to restore the student data)! Go to the Canvas course where you want to restore an item. At the end of the URL, add “/undelete” – it should be right after the course id number. Your URL should look like the following: cedarville.instructure.com/courses/####/undelete. Canvas will take you to a “Restore Deleted Items” page that lists the items you can bring back. Scroll through…
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How Can I Send a Piece of Course Content to Another Course or Instructor?
Reading Time: 2 minutesHave you ever been working on a course and realized there was a piece of it that you wanted to use in another of your courses? Or has another instructor asked you for a piece of content and you were left with trying to figure out the best way to get it to them? Canvas has a feature that makes this easy. When you want to transfer a single item (or a few items), you can use the direct share feature to copy or send the item. These two options function a little differently – one sends the item to a user, while the other copies it to…
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A Midsummer Guide to Canvas Setup
Reading Time: 2 minutesDeep in thought and focused on my very important game of Sudoku, my wife broke my concentration with sudden alarm and proclaimed, “Oh my goodness, it‘s only 6 months until Christmas Eve!” While six months is still a little while, what is drawing closer is the start of the 2019-2020 school year. In less than two months, Cedarville University will welcome students back and embark on a journey of transformation for the Word of God and Testimony of Jesus Christ. Fall 2019 brings a change from Moodle to Canvas for the entire campus, and everyone will be adjusting to the new normal. For faculty, the challenge may…