Six must-knows about Canvas right now (Teaching Tip)

In response to changes made by Canvas and faculty feedback, here are six must-knows about Canvas right now. This information will assist you whether you are new to teaching with Canvas or have many years of experience.

1. Represent grades accurately in Canvas. To align the student and instructor views, make sure you assign students a ‘0’ (zero) score rather than ‘-‘ (dash) as appropriate. Learn more by reading the CELT guide to grade posting policies, reviewing the Canvas student grade visibility flowchart (PDF), and following the steps to hide assignment grades and hide grades from SpeedGrader.
2. Extend assignment deadlines. To provide an extension for individual students, follow the Canvas extend deadlines guide. If a student needs extra time on a quiz, see the setting up accommodations in Canvas page.
3. Monitor the status of the New Quizzes tool in Canvas. ISU will not enable the New Quizzes tool until New Quizzes includes support for proctoring tools, has garnered substantial support from our fellow R1 peer institutions, and obtains feature parity with the existing Quiz tool.
4. Review the Concluded Course status in Canvas. Courses created before fall 2020 are now automatically changed to the concluded status. Read about the process via this course conclusion announcement.
5. Find answers. Discover the most frequently asked questions for October 2020 received via celt-help@iastate.edu, which creates a ServiceNow ticket for easy tracking. This month’s top items included grading schemes, the grade posting policy, Studio in Canvas, Webex, and more!
6. Address academic integrity. Academic integrity and responsible behavior are a part of learning and teaching, no matter the course modality (online, hybrid, or face-to-face). Focus on prevention through these academic integrity strategies.

With a joy for teaching,
Sara Marcketti, Director
Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching