As we begin a new quarter, we’ve put a together a list of housekeeping items and reminders to help you get your Canvas course ready for the start date:
- View your course as a student. Student View mode allows you to catch course issues and resolve prior to students noticing.
- If you have previously taught your course using Canvas, your course announcements from the previous offering were copied into your upcoming course and programmed dates were updated along with the rest of the content. Please take some time to review your announcement content and the Post by dates to ensure they are aligned with your upcoming course offering. View the guide: Announcement Dates after a Course Copy.
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Calendar events are copied over during the course import process. If you use Zoom through Canvas, each time a course is offered the previously scheduled Zoom meetings need to be removed from the current course calendar to prevent student confusion. Previous Zoom meeting will contain the previous section ID within the event title making them easier to identify and then remove: How to delete a Calendar Event.
- Missing assignments do not count against a Canvas student’s grade by default, which may cause inadvertent calculations in your grade-book. We recommend you apply a missing submission policy to avoid student confusion (this needs to be set each time you teach the course). View the guide: Why isn’t my total grade calculating correctly in Canvas?
- Check your assignment and grade settings in Canvas. For a quick guide to reviewing and editing your Canvas Grades setup, please view our Instructor's Guide to Setting up Grades in Canvas.
- If you have not already done so, complete the Course Review for Instructors. This guide calls attention to specific items you should be reviewing and includes step-by-step instructions on how to update some of the commonly overlooked areas that we, or your students, find.
- Stay up to date with system changes by viewing the Canvas Feature Releases and System Updates article.
- Check out the recently updated Extension Instructor Resource Center. All of the information you found in Growing with Canvas is there in an enhanced format, plus you will find new resources for using university accounts, designing your courses, and taking advantage of educational technology.
- If you are teaching Live Online you will find the Teaching Live Online Playbook to be a useful resource.
The following self-service resources are available to you at any time:
- UC San Diego Extension Online Learning Help Center, also reachable by clicking the Help menu item in Canvas, then Tutorials/FAQs
- Extension Instructor Resource Center located inside Canvas
- Sample Course Introduction to Online Learning inside Canvas
- The Canvas Community