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.”

If you wish to pre-build content and later import it to the official class shell, you can request a development course by submitting a RaiderCanvas Development Shell Request Form.

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.

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:

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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 manu, 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 immediatly.
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 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.

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.

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:

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.

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.