Each new semester brings changes. After copying over content from a previous semester, take the time to go through your courses and update any old or irrelevant information, clarify things that might have generated questions last semester, remove unused or unwanted content, fix typos, and generally make improvements.
Are there changes to the syllabus? New edition of the textbook? Are you ready to try using a new tool in your Canvas course? How about integrating with publisher content? Need to improve any assignment instructions?
Make changes before the new semester begins, so your students have the most accurate and effective content!
Dates are an important part of any course, and must be updated to reflect the timing and schedule of a new semester. Due dates affect when students are allowed to submit work, and content Availability dates allow instructors fine control of student access to content.
Faculty can reuse course content from one semester to the next by simply importing content from an old course into a new course.
Canvas is generally very reliable, but users may occasionally experience delays or errors. Be sure to check the status of various Canvas services and get information on any current or recent issues that might be affecting performance.
The Canvas Teacher mobile app can give you easy access to grading, communicating and updating your courses.
Instructors can easily send a Message about an assignment to students directly from within the Gradebook. You can choose to send a message to students who have:
Canvas automatically generates a running total of each student’s current grade. However, this only includes assignments that have a grade entered. If no grade is entered, the assignment is not counted in the Total grade calculation, which can lead to students misunderstanding their current grade.
Faculty may wish to add other instructors to their course for a variety of reasons. Please keep in mind that official enrollments are handled automatically, so there is no need to add instructors who are already assigned to a course.
Faculty have the ability to create new Canvas courses for experimentation and course development. These courses are often temporary in nature, and rarely used with students. Over time, they can accumulate and should be deleted if no longer needed.
Instructors may preview a Canvas course as a student at any time. This is an essential part of developing and testing a course before it is actively used by students.
