Texas Tech University utilizes Canvas as its Learning Management System (LMS). Here
you'll find features to develop quality online courses and take advantage of more
opportunities to engage students online. In the RaiderCanvas Support Portal, you can
create a case in ServiceNow that the RaiderCanvas Support team will work to resolve,
request a Development Shell, and access the RaiderCanvas Knowledge Base.
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.
Customize the Navigation/Menu area?
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.
Add a Teaching Assistant?
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.
Add a Graders, Course Builders, and Facilitators?
The option to add users to courses in the LMS is a function that must be completed
by the LMS Support Team. The LMS User Access Role Requirement document 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 send an email to raidercanvas.support@ttu.edu please include, name and R# of the person that needs to be added to the course, the
course CRN numbers, the role they need to be added in and the justification for the
user access.
Add an instructor to a previous semester course?
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; inlcude the complete course information, semester information and instructor information
in the ticket.
Get my official class shell? How can I request a blank “development” shell as a sandbox?
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.”
If you wish to pre-build content and later import it to the official class shell,
you can request a development course by sumitting a RaiderCanvas Development Shell Request Form.
combine multiple sections into a single course in Raider Canvas?
Your courses can be combined so the enrollments are combined into one course. You
can request to have your courses combined by emailing RaiderCanvas Support. Include all of the courses you want combined and the course that will be the "parent
course" (this is the course that all of the content will live).
Note: This needs to be done prior to the courses beginning and we cannot undo this process
after the semester begins.
access Student View?
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.
make grades visible?
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
Open the specific RaiderCanvas Course.
Click on Grades.
Find the assignment in question.
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.
Click on the hamburger menu for the assignment in question
Select Grade Posting Policy
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.
NOTE: It is important to set the grade column to Manual before the semester begins
When you are ready to share the scores, return to that grade column, select the hamburger
manu, and select Post Grades.
The grade column will display Manual when the column is not visible to the students.
By setting the grade column to "Automatic", scores are visible to students immediatly.
Double check visibility by entering Student View and checking to see if you can now
see the assignment students were unable to see.
give extra credit?
Option 1—Add extra credit points to a graded assignment:
During or after assignment grades have been entered, the instructor may manually add
extra points to a student’s score.
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:
Create a new assignment and give it a clear label (for example, Midterm Extra Credit).
In the assignment settings, leave the point value at zero.
Then, in the Gradebook, enter the extra credit points for only those students who
earned it.
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:
In the Canvas Assignments Tool, create a new assignment group and label it “Extra
Credit.”
Use the Assignment Group Settings (3 dots in the upper right of your window) and select
“Assignment Groups Weight.”
Checkbox “Weight final grade based on assignment groups.”
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.
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.
Since the letter grade scheme is based on only 100% of the points, any points in the
extra credit group will increase student scores.
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:
Navigate to the student view of the RaiderCanvas course.
Select the Grades tool.
Next, leave the student view.
You will now see the test student row in the instructor view of the gradebook.
Next, award the test student full credit for every column in the gradebook.
The total column will then show a percentage in excess of 100% (whatever maximum extra
credit you assigned).
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.
Where can students see the assignments I’ve created for them in RaiderCanvas?
Students can view assignments in a number of places. The first place is on their Dashboard.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
create an announcement for my students?
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:
How do I use the gradebook in RaiderCanvas?
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.
Access the Speedgrader?
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.
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:
can I simply copy the information from the previous course to my current course?
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.
Learn about the Course Import Tool or watch the following short video on how to Import Course Content:
Access the Canvas Commons?
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.
can I find ongoing Canvas updates?
On the navigation panel (left margin of your Raider Canvas screen), click on the ‘help’
question mark at the bottom of the panel. It will take you to the Canvas Guides.
Create Groups in Raider Canvas?
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.
Use Follett Discover Adoption Resources?
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.
Uploading a gradebook with newly added columns will fail if the columns are added *after* the “totals”
columns in the CSV file (this assumes you are using a previously downloaded CSV from
Canvas). Add your new columns *before* the Totals columns to prevent the problem.
Midterm grades will normally ignore missing grades. If you checkmark “treat missing grades as zero”
in EITHER the gradebook or the eGrades gear setting, your gradebook may not match
what is imported into eGrades. If a workaround is needed, you could export the gradebook
to find the column for “current total” with numeric percentages. Rename the column
to something like “midterm grades” and import the .csv file. You can now point eGrades
to this temporary column as the source for the midterm grade.
Grade submission at the END of the semester can be misleading if you do not first checkmark “treat missing grades as zero” in
the gradebook settings. If you fail to take this step, the displayed grade will ignore
missing scores and pretend they don’t exist, but those missing scores become zeros,
with no way to stop the process, when you submit through eGrades. Thus, the onscreen
displayed grade may be higher than what is actually submitted to eGrades.
When students have taken a quiz and are unable to see which questions they answered incorrectly, check the quiz settings. If the settings are set to show one question at a time,
students cannot see which questions were incorrect. When that option is off, students
can see which questions were answered incorrectly.