Most faculty build their courses in development shells and then copy them to live shells. We learned that this caused a duplication of all course templates and caused extra time for faculty who had to delete these duplicated materials. The shells are blank now and ready for you to copy development shells or build materials. There is one exception: The syllabus feature still has templated information so that you have access to the latest versions of the required and recommended statements as well as the AI statements.

It is important to create a landing page that shows students how to navigate your course. Starting students on a page that immediately shows your modules is a bit impersonal. The home page offers them a resources page that prepares them to be successful in your class. In fact, you can use the homepage to link directly to modules, assignments, and quizzes, and then have the option to remove those tools from the navigation to reduce confusion.

If you want to take your course content up a notch and offer your students an inviting course design, then watch this short video on how to create a home page for your course.

You may not want students to have access to every navigation/menu option that is available. To hide tools, click SETTINGS and then NAVIGATION and you can drag tools to the bottom, which will hide them from students. Be sure to SAVE the changes by clicking on the Save button at the bottom of the page.

It is recommended that you hide tools that you are not using to minimize confusion for students.

Raider Canvas shells for official live courses are created automatically. The schedule for the creation of live RaiderCanvas courses is:

Fall — First Monday of July

Spring — First Monday of November

Summer — First Monday of April

They will be visible when you click “All courses.”

Here is the link to Request a RaiderCanvas Development Shell.

Your courses can be combined so the enrollments are combined into one course. You can request to have your courses combined by copying table and emailing the completed table to RaiderCanvas Support. Complete each field for each of the sections you want to cross-list. It is best for this process to be done prior to content being added to the courses. (Please use multiple tables for multiple sets of courses to cross-list)

Note: This needs to be done prior to the courses beginning and we cannot undo this process after the semester begins.

Yes! You can copy course content such as assignments, modules, pages, and discussions from previous Canvas courses into existing courses. You only have access to copy content from courses in which you are enrolled as a user with instructor permissions. You can also copy course content from courses that are personally shared with you or shared in the Commons.

Import Course Content From Another Canvas Course

Follett Discover enables faculty and faculty proxies (e.g., a departmental administrative assistant) to easily discover, research, and adopt course materials in a single interface. Follow these step-by-step instructions to adopt learning materials.

View as Student is located at the top, right side of most pages in the course. The icon looks like a pair of glasses. If you are on a page that does not display the Student View option, simply click on Home on the left sidebar. View as Student will appear at the top right of the page. 

To Exit Student view click the "Leave Student View" button in the purple bar at the bottom of the window This will return you to the instructor view.

The Canvas dashboard is the landing page for Canvas and the first thing students and instructors see when you log in. For instructors, the dashboard allows you to quickly view upcoming assignments, due dates, student activity across your courses, your ‘to do” list for items that need attention and navigation between your courses.

Canvas provides a variety of accessibility featuresdesigned to ensure that all students, including those with disabilities, can navigate and engage with course materials effectively. Here are some key accessibility components in Canvas:

• Screen Readers and Browsers
• Canvas Navigation with Screen Readers
• Keyboard Shortcuts
• Accessibility Checker in the Rich Content Editor 

Yes, the courses sizes will still be 2.5GB. Video files can take up the majority of that space, linking the Mediasite link in Canvas will prevent issues regarding adding content to your course.

There is a size limit for files. However, if you embed a short video (no more than 20 minutes or about 300 MB) in a Page, that does not count toward your storage size. Pages almost act like a cloud storage, as long as you don’t upload the short video file to your course files first.

Yes! Canvas has a mobile app for both students and teachers. They are available from the iOS and Google Play app stores. From the Canvas Teacher app teachers can grade, communicate and update their courses. The Canvas Student app gives students access to view grades and course content, as well as submit assignments.

Knowing how to create an assignment in Raider Canvas is essential. Your entire course depends on each assignment created for your students. Take a look at the following video on how to create assignments in Raider Canvas.

Yes! There are great resourcesfrom Tophat that show how to connect your courses in RaiderCanvas, how to add your student roster, how to sync your grades and more.

Review the Instructor Guides to learn more about quizzes in RaiderCanvas. Watch the video below to learn how to create New quizzes:

Canvas does allow instructors to create question/item banks, which are collections of questions that can be reused in quizzes. When creating a quiz, instructors can pull random questions from these banks (or sets) to construct the exam.

Yes, you can give students extended time on quizzes or tests in Canvas. Canvas provides a feature that allows instructors to set accommodations for individual students, including extended time on quizzes. How to give students extra time in a quiz.

You can also give individual students or groups of students access to a quiz or test. How do I give a student or groups of students' extra attempts on a test.

Students can view assignments in a number of places. The first place is on their Dashboard.

1. On the right side of their dashboard, a To Do List is visible that shows all assignments for all courses in which they are enrolled.
2. The next place students can view their assignments is within the actual course. When they click on a course, a To Do list appears in the same place on the screen that it does on the Dashboard.
3. The next place they can see their assignments is on the Course Calendar. The Course Calendar button is located on the right side of the screen above the To Do list. When students click on this link, they can see their upcoming assignments for all of their courses. Watch this short video on the value of the Course Calendar tool.
4. Students can also view their assignments on the Course Summary that is automatically created when you create new assignments. The Course Summary displays a list of all assignments, discussion, quizzes, and course events.

Learn more about assignments RaiderCanvas.

Rubrics are a handy tool that offer explicit expectations for your assignments. Rubrics can be attached to assignments, discussions, and quizzes in RaiderCanvas. You can use a rubric for grading. If you set up a rubric and use this rubric for grading, then each cell in the rubric will assign the score indicated and automatically add up the grade in the Speedgrader. Learn more about rubrics.

Watch the following video to guide you:

Groups are a small version of a course and used as a collaborative tool where students can work together on group projects and assignments. Review the FAQs for Groups.

aPlus+ Attendance is integrated with RaiderCanvas and Raider Success Hub (RSH), enabling a student's success team to access real-time attendance data in RSH and conduct outreach to students with patterns of missed or late attendance. Because of this integration, we recommend using this tool over Canvas Rollcall. The other two options (i.e., Roll Call and Tophat) do not sync with Raider Success Hub.

If you are using the aPlus+ Attendance, we want to share an important clarification to ensure a smooth check-in process for your students.
Students who scan the aPlus+ QR code with their phone's default camera app (instead of through Canvas) may be taken to random and sometimes inappropriate websites. This is not a security breach. It happens because the phone's camera app treats the 5-character attendance code as a term for a web search, and the random code can occasionally match an existing website URL.
To avoid this, students MUST launch the aPlus+ Attendance tool from within your Canvas course first and then scan the code.
Please instruct your students to follow these exact steps:

1. On their mobile device, open the Canvas Student app or a web browser and navigate to your course.
2. Click on aPlus+ Attendance in the course navigation menu.
3. From within the aPlus+ tool, tap the button to scan the QR code or manually enter the 5-character code shown on the screen.
   
   

Using the scanner inside the aPlus+ tool ensures the code is used correctly for attendance.
Help us get the word out!

The Canvas Gradebook is extremely user friendly. There are filter options down to the module, as well as filtering by assignment type.  A grade can be automatically added for missing submissions.

The main differences between Blackboard and Canvas for the gradebook are:

• Students can calculate their hypothetical total scores using the What-if feature.  
• You can curve grades for an assignment using a bell curve based on a manually entered average score.  
• Row colors alternate to improve readability and icons show you what still needs to be graded.  
• You can create late and missing policies to automatically apply grades to late and missed assignments.

In Canvas, you cannot:

• Hide rows from the instructor.
• Manually create a column in the gradebook without creating an offline assignment. However, you can create a non-submission assignment in RaiderCanvas that will create a grade column to manually enter grades.
• Create weighted, average, minimum-maximum, or total columns. You can weight final grades based on Assignment Groups
• Weight individual assignments (weighting is done by Assignment Group)
• Override the maximum point value of a column 

The gradebook in Raider Canvas offers so many helpful features. Learn more about grades and the gradebook. Please watch the following video that answers the most common questions about using the gradebook:

*For an extended tutorial on how to use the gradebook, we recommend watching How to use Gradebook.

There are many advantages to using a weighted grading scheme. For example, you don’t need to manipulate points to make your total points work out to a nice even number (like 1000), and you don’t need to shuffle points around when you add, remove, or change an assignment. Also, you can easily ensure that major assignments, like essays or exams, will be worth more than multiple small assignments, such as a series of homework assignments or participation points without worry about the math.

To use weighted grading in Canvas, you will need to find assignments on the left-side navigation and click the +group button. Type of the name of each desired group, for example, “discussions” and “participation.” When you have finished creating your groups, click on the option button next to assignments button (option = three dots and select assignment groups weight. Check the box that says “weight final grade based on assignments groups” and enter the weight of each category as a percentage.  These percentages can be changed at any time and students will be notified when any changes are made.

In the Canvas gradebook, the total grade column displays the percentage grade for all graded assignments that have received a grade. In other words, the total column displays the “running grade,” which does not include any assignments or students that have not been graded. By default, Canvas displays the Total Grade in the instructor gradebook and the student's grade view as a percentage. If you use unweighted assignment groups in your course, you can display the total grade as points. If desired, you can display the total grade as a letter grade by going to settings and viewing the course details page. When you enable the course grading schema, the total grade will be displayed as both a percentage and a Letter Grade (based on the grading scheme).

You can submit your grades from RaiderCanvas using the ILP Grade Integration tool. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind:

• The total column has to be include a letter grade. This configuration is located in course Settings.
• Check grades before you submit them, once they are submitted and go to Raiderlink, they can't be changed without an official grade change.
• If the ILP Grade Integration link is visible in the course navigation, students will see it, but they will not be able to do anything with it. We recommend keeping it hidden until you are ready to submit your grades.
• The ILP Grade Integration webpage provides detailed steps about how to submit your grades using the tool.

The SpeedGrader allows instructors to view and grade student assignment submissions in one place using a simple point scale or complex rubric. Canvas accepts a variety of document formats and even URLs as assignment submissions. Some document assignments can be marked up for feedback directly within the submission. You can also provide feedback to your students with text or media comments.

Learn more about Speedgrader in the Canvas Guides, view Speedgrader FAQs, or watch the following video:

Are your students telling you they are unable to see grades you know you have entered? If so, these next steps will quickly guide you to a solution.

Grade Posting Policy

1. Open the specific RaiderCanvas Course.
2. Click on Grades.
3. Find the assignment in question.
   1. You can locate the assignment by either using the scroll bar at the bottom of the page, or you can enter the name of the assignment in the Assignment Names search bar located at the top of the page.
4. Click on the hamburger menu for the assignment in question
5. Select Grade Posting Policy
6. Setting the assignment to "Manual" will keep the assignment muted or not visible to the students until you are ready to release the scores to all students.
   1. NOTE: It is important to set the grade column to Manual before the semester begins
   2. When you are ready to share the scores, return to that grade column, select the hamburger menu, and select Post Grades.
   3. The grade column will display Manual when the column is not visible to the students.
7. By setting the grade column to "Automatic", scores are visible to students immediately.
8. Double check visibility by entering Student View and checking to see if you can now see the assignment students were unable to see.

Option 1—Add extra credit points to a graded assignment:

1. During or after assignment grades have been entered, the instructor may manually add extra points to a student’s score.
2. To avoid confusing the student about the points earned vs. points awarded, it is recommended to note both the original score and the points added in the grade comment field.

Option 2—Add one extra credit assignment to an existing assignment group:

1. Create a new assignment and give it a clear label (for example, Midterm Extra Credit).
2. In the assignment settings, leave the point value at zero.
3. Then, in the Gradebook, enter the extra credit points for only those students who earned it.
   1. Or, to save time when most or every student will be awarded the extra credit points, use the gradebook column header options to “Set Default Grade.”

Option 3—Set up an extra credit assignment group:

1. In the Canvas Assignments Tool, create a new assignment group and label it “Extra Credit.”
2. Use the Assignment Group Settings (3 dots in the upper right of your window) and select “Assignment Groups Weight.”
3. Checkbox “Weight final grade based on assignment groups.”
4. Assign percentage weights to total 100% for all non-extra credit groups and then assign a percentage to the extra credit group that represents the total percentage of extra credit possible for the entire semester, usually 3%-10%, but that is up to the instructor.
5. Then add as many extra credit assignments as you wish to this group, but for these assignments, do enter a points possible value (not zero) in the assignment settings.
   1. Since the letter grade scheme is based on only 100% of the points, any points in the extra credit group will increase student scores.
   2. One advantage to this option is improved transparency. In the student view of the gradebook, the students will clearly see the grade they earned and separately the extra credit awarded.

*Gradebook Tip*

Activate the “test student” row at the bottom of the gradebook. Do this by following these directions:

1. Navigate to the student view of the RaiderCanvas course.
2. Select the Grades tool.
3. Next, leave the student view.
4. You will now see the test student row in the instructor view of the gradebook.
5. Next, award the test student full credit for every column in the gradebook.
6. The total column will then show a percentage in excess of 100% (whatever maximum extra credit you assigned).

Learn more about how to give extra credit.

Adding a Teaching Assistant is not a function faculty can perform directly. Instead, ask your departmental scheduler to add the Teaching Assistant as an instructor of record in Banner with a 0% responsibility.

The option to add users to courses in the LMS is a function that must be completed by the LMS Support Team. The RaiderCanvas User Access Control Requirementsdocument will help you determine who can be added to courses and in what role they can be added. To request to have someone added to a course submit the RaiderCanvas User Access form.

The option to add users to courses in the LMS is a function that must be completed by the LMS Support Team. To add an instructor to a previous semester course in the LMS, email the request to RaiderCanvas Support; include the complete course information, semester information and instructor information in the ticket.

After logging into Raider Canvas, click the “Inbox” link on the left sidebar. To create a new email, click the Compose a new message icon on the top, right side of the page:

Select the desired course in the “Course” field. If you want to send individual messages to each student, check the “Send an individual message…” box. In the “To” field, select the desired audience of the email recipient(s). Select either all in the audience or the individual person you want to email from the audience. Enter a subject in the “Subject” field and compose your email in the email body window.

There are two answers to this question. You can create a general announcement or a video announcement. With a general announcement, you can create announcements on the spot, or you can create all your announcements in advance and delay/schedule posting. Watch this short video on how to create general announcements:

A video announcement can be created with the Canvas app and is great for accessibility. Students can even use this feature. Watch this short video on how to create video announcements:

When you send your students a message using the Inbox feature in RaiderCanvas, they receive the message in their TTU Inbox and in their TTU email. They can reply to the message through their RaiderCanvas Inbox or their TTU email.

In order for you to receive the students reply in your TTU email you will need to have your RaiderCanvas Notifications set correctly. Here is what needs to be set:

• Go to Account in your Global Navigation.
• Select Notifications.
• Scroll down to Conversations and be sure all three options under Conversations are set to Notify Immediatly.
• You will see an icon to the right of the setting, and it needs to be the bell icon. If it is not, click on the icon and change it to Notify Immediatly.

• Discussions in Canvas allow peer interaction as well as student/instructor interaction. The Discussion assignments can be set to be graded or used as a Q&A area for students.
• How do I  use the Discussions Index Page? Your students can even reply to a Canvas discussion with a video by using the "Media Recording" tool within the rich text editor, allowing them to record a video directly within the discussion and submit it as their reply.
• It is very easy to create group sets in a course so that students can have small group discussions with their peers. This is also very helpful with peer review assignments and group projects.
• How to create a group discussion.

Yes, there is a setting that allows students to reply to course Announcements. The option to disable this is located in the course Settings. Navigate to your course Settings, under the “Course Details” tab, check the box that says “Disable comments on announcements” if you do not want students to be able to reply to announcements.

In Canvas, there is no dedicated "blog" or "journal" tool, but you can effectively create a journaling or blogging function by utilizing the Discussion tool and setting up individual group discussions for each student so that it simulates a private space for them to post journal entries while allowing you to grade the entries and provide feedback. You could also create a standard assignment with a text submission.

Feedback Fruits Interactive Tools

Interactive course tools take the material you are using and make them interactive. This includes videos, documents, and presentations. These tools also include peer review tools and feedback tools.

Engaging learning solutions to support professors in online, blended and hybrid teaching. Design engaging learning activities in your LMS under 10 min. Created by educators. Organize engaging courses. Solutions for higher education. Tools to support teachers.

The Canvas Commons is a learning object repository that allows instructors to share and import educational resources.

NOTE: If you use share course content via Commons, all Canvas community members can user and source your materials.