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Instructor FAQ

  • Updated

 

Table of Contents

Announcements

How do I send an email message to all my students?

The best way to send a message to all students is to make a course announcement. This will both immediately send an email to everyone and make the message public on the course so that if someone has a junk filter on their email inbox, you can show that the message went out to everyone on a certain date.

    1. While a student could turn off immediate emails for announcements, the system starts out with students receiving immediate emails by default. Perhaps make an explicit message to your students that they need to keep the immediate notification for new announcements on.
    2. You could use the Inbox tool in Canvas to send everyone in your class a message. Take a look at the article How do I send a message to all my students?.

 

Why is there a user with the avatar “U” in my announcements?

The U in a circle is the avatar of the Extended Studies Canvas system administrator. These avatar marks are here from when Extended Studies imported your course from Blackboard. You need to copy the content of each of these announcements and recreate the announcements as you. Then you can delete the system administrator announcements that resulted from the transition from Blackboard.

 

Why do I see blue dots by some announcements and discussions?

A blue dot next to an announcement or discussion simply indicates that you (or the test student if you are in Student View) have not yet viewed the item. It is an ‘unread’ marker to help users see what they have note read yet in the course.

 

Syllabus

Can I turn the Course Summary off?

Yes, you can turn your course summary off. It will remove not only the list of Canvas Assignments and Due Dates, but also the course calendar and grade weight displays on the Syllabus Page. Extended Studies recommends turning off the Course Summary if you have to start your course before you are finished designing all of the components. Take a look at the article How to turn off Course Summary feature.

 

Why does the Course Summary show assessments that are not available yet?

When you publish a graded component, students can see that component exists and how it contributes to their final course grades. Even if you do not have that component in a module yet, and even if the availability dates mean students can’t look at the directions or submit yet, they can see the graded component exists and how many points it has in Grades and, if it is turned on, the Course Summary. It is important to note that it is good for students to see that the graded component exists; just make sure you have your due and availability dates set correctly.

 

Modules

Why are discussions, assignments, and quizzes in the Modules area?

Modules is central to the way Canvas expects you will teach your students. The easiest way to grasp this is to understand that, from the Canvas perspective, you just need

  • Home,
  • Announcements,
  • Modules,
  • People
  • and Grades

in your Canvas menu. Modules is your entire course outside of announcements, the class roster, and the grade book. Instead of trying to reveal more and more course navigation menu items, build these same items clearly into your Modules area. Take a look at the article How to Add Course Content as Module Items.

What is the difference between publish/unpublish and availability dates?

This is one of the most important concepts to understand in Canvas. First, you want to publish everything that is in your course when it is ready to be part of your course – normally before the course begins, but possibly as you finish a course while it is running. To control student access to assignments, modules, and graded components (Canvas Assignments) use the ‘delay until,’ ‘lock until,’ and ‘available from,’ settings, respectively. Take a look at the articles How to Publish/Unpublish content in Canvas and How to adjust due dates and availability dates in Canvas.

Why do I get a warning message when I add requirements and prerequisites?

Once students enroll in your course, Canvas would like to be extra careful to notify you when you adjust any of the module requirements and prerequisites. If your course has not started yet, you can ignore the warning and click OK. If your course has started and students have started to work in the modules, pay careful attention to the warning. It let’s you know you are changing requirements and prerequisites and that students could be impacted by your changes.

How do I insert a course link when it is not an option when I use the add button in a module?

Canvas does not allow you to add a course link at the Modules level; instead it is in pages that you can insert links to other Canvas pages within the same course. Please follow this guide: How do I link to other Canvas pages in a course?.

 

Discussion

How do I fix the display order of the discussions in the Discussion area?

Canvas automatically sorts the display order of Discussions, placing the Discussion with the most recent post/reply on top, and then the next, and so forth. You may pin Discussions at the top of the Discussion page by dragging them there or clicking on the three dots to the left of the Discussion and clicking on Pin. You can reorder pinned Discussions at the top of the page by dragging and dropping them into the desired order. These pinned Discussions will not reorder based on recent activity in them.

 

Why do I see blue dots by some announcements and discussions?

A blue dot next to an announcement or discussion simply indicates that you (or the test student if you are in student view) have not yet viewed the item. It is an ‘unread’ marker to help users see what they have note read yet in the course.

 

How do I create a new Discussion post?

Please see this article for directions on how to create a Discussion: How to Create a New Discussion

    1. If you click on Discussions, you will see a +Discussion button in the upper-right hand corner. You have the power to post new discussions, but students do not (unless you have enabled this option in your Course Settings). Make sure you check the allow threaded replies checkbox unless you do not want replies to be organized under the posts class members are replying to.
    2. You can give students the power to post new discussions by clicking on Settings in the course navigation menu. Go all the way to the bottom of the page and click on More Options. Click on the checkbox for Allow Students to Post New Discussions.
    3. We have Canvas set up to allow students to Reply to discussions but not to add new discussions because students could clutter your discussion board. One solution is to Pin your discussions and allow the student discussions to float in the normal queue of discussion, which are sorted by the most recent activity.

Assignments/Quizzes

How do I unhide the Assignments area?

While you will be tempted to show your students the Assignment menu item if you are coming from a background working in Blackboard, in Canvas you should leave the Assignments area hidden from students. Students see assignments in three ways:

    1. In the Modules area (if you have added these assignments in Modules), check out the article How to add an Assignment to a Module.
    2. In the Course Summary area of the Syllabus page (if you have left it turned on)
    3. In the Grades area. Students can always see published graded components in Grades.

How do I unhide the Quizzes area?

While you will be tempted to show your students the Quizzes menu item if you are coming from a background working in Blackboard, in Canvas you should leave the Quizzes area hidden from students. Students see assignments in three ways:

    1. In the Modules area (if you have added these assignments in Modules), check out the article How to add a Quiz to a Module.
    2. In the Course Summary area of the Syllabus page (if you have left it turned on)
    3. In the Grades area. Students can always see published graded components in Grades.

How do I set up extra credit points?

If you do not use weighted Grade Groups in your course, you simply create an assignment worth 0 points but then score the assignment with the extra credit points you wish to award. These points will be weighted just like all the other points in your course.

If you use weighted Grade Groups, when you add the extra-credit assignment, you will need to add it to one of your weighted Grade Groups. This way, any extra credit points you assign will have weight in the final grade for a student. Please be aware that the extra credit points you add will be weighted according to the Grade Group where you have added the extra credit assignment.

For example, if Homework assignment group is weighted at 10% of the final grade, and if there are 100 points worth of homework assignments currently in the Homework grade group, then adding 10 extra credit points to an extra credit assignment worth 0 points for a student in this group would add 1% to the student’s final grade. (What might have been 10/100 in the final grade could become 11/100.)

 

How do I give students free points on a quiz? To regrade or modify a quiz that students have already taken:

    1. For giving everyone points, use quiz regrade. Edit existing quiz questions, click on the correct arrow, and tell Canvas to recalculate student grades.
    2. For giving individual students points, use quiz fudge points. Manually add or remove points from a single student’s overall quiz score. This feature is only available in SpeedGrader.
    3. As a last resort, you could add a ‘no submission’ assignment. Create an assignment worth the number of points that you need to give the students additionally for the quiz. Add the assignment into the same assignment group as the quiz. Navigate to the gradebook, mute the assignment, and enter the points into the column. To input the same score for all students, set a default grade for the assignment.

 

My Media

Can I access my My Media recordings in my new Canvas course?

Yes, your My Media recordings are available in all your Canvas courses. Simply click on the Embed Kaltura Media icon above any rich content editor box while editing. Take a look at this article How to Embed a Kaltura Video in your Course (Instructors, Canvas)

 

Why does My Media not appear in the navigation menu for my courses?

The My Media (Kaltura) area takes users to their own personal collection of media items that they have recorded or uploaded. When a user accesses My Media (Kaltura) they have have the option to create new media, upload an existing media file (mp4, mov) edit media and manage media settings. Extended Studies has the My Media menu item hidden in courses by default due to the nature of the tool. You may access My Media (Kaltura) anytime by clicking on the Kaltura firework icon located on the Canvas global menu.

mymedia_globalnav.jpg

Additionally, all of your My Media recordings are available to you in all of your courses when you click on the Embed Kaltura Media icon above any rich content editor box while editing.

 

Zoom

Do I have to use my @ucsd.edu credentials for Canvas?

No; you may use a Yahoo!, Gmail, iCloud, etc. email client with Canvas. Not using your ucsd.edu email address as your primary email with Extended Studies, however, will complicate your using the Zoom tool integration in your Canvas course

 

Can I use Zoom Pro synced with Canvas while using Canvas with my non-@ucsd.edu credentials?

No. If you would like to use Zoom through your Canvas course then you will need to update your email address to your @ucsd.edu address through Instructorlink.

 

How do I share my recorded Zoom class meetings with my class after 30 days?

    1. Zoom meetings are not automatically recorded, so make sure to record any meetings you would like to share.
    2. You have to wait to get a message from Zoom that your recording is ready.
    3. 30 days is when messages are automatically deleted from the Zoom server. You will receive warning messages about upcoming deletions.
    4. Go to the recording at Zoom.us
    5. Download the recording (there may be more than one recording depending on the size) as .mp4s to your local machine.
    6. Upload the recordings from your local machine to My Media in your Practice Course
    7. Deploy the recordings in your course by simply clicking on the Embed Kaltura Media icon above any rich content editor box while editing.

If I have synced my non-USCSD zoom account in Canvas, how do I remove it so I can sync my UCSD Zoom Pro account?

You must place a request with Online Learning by going into the Canvas course, clicking on Help, and clicking on Report a problem.

 

Kaltura

How do I share a Kaltura video with another instructor for editing/posting?

In the My Media area, you may click to edit a recording and then click on the Collaborate tab to select another user to be able to publish, edit, and/or view one of your Kaltura videos.

 

How do I record my lectures?

Extended Studies recommends you use Kaltura to record your lectures. You may take a complete tutorial on setting up Kaltura and recording your lectures in the Using Kaltura section in the Extended Studies Instructor Resource Center course in Canvas.

Teachers are free to make or re-use recordings however they like. That means you can use PowerPoint or other slideshow presentation software applications to create audio over slides. You also can use Camtasia, YouTube, etc. to create videos. Please be sure to learn about Kaltura and its My Media area in Canvas even if just to use if for sharing recordings in your courses.

To learn how to record using Kaltura, check out Recording or Adding Lecture Content with Kaltura (pdf).

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