Instructor Checklist to Creating Your Canvas Course
The beginning of a semester is an exciting time! This Instructor Checklist can help to ensure that your semester starts smoothly as you create your course in Canvas.
Pulling an all-nighter? Your Canvas questions can be answered any time of day or night!
Solutions are just a click or call away.
24/7 Canvas Premier Support is available via chat, email, phone: 844-334-0177. Look for the “?” button at the bottom left corner of each course to contact 24/7 Canvas Premier Support.
Canvas Migration Website has self-service resources, a schedule of workshops, numerous Canvas Guides including the Canvas HSU Faculty Guide, and more.
Course enrollment questions or support for apps/third party tools (Turnitin, Zoom, Clickers) can be directed to the AT team: at[email protected]
The links bellow will provide you information on any assistance you need with your course content.
Update any imported Announcements
Choose course homepage
Review course in “Student View”
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Ensure your quizzes are set up correctly
Check that the correct points are set for each question in Canvas.
Publish your quizzes.
If a quiz is taken in-class and not in Canvas, create a No Submission assignment for the quiz. This will create a column for the quiz in the gradebook.
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Check for broken links in Pages.
Verify that links refer to the current course.
Use the Link Validation tool in Canvas for easy checks.
Add the link to the HSU Canvas Student Guide and point to the Canvas 24/7 Support Help button on your course home page for student Canvas support
Bellow are some simple tips that will help your students. The small details are easy to skip, so be diligent in looking over these tips.
Conversation messages will not be delivered to users if the course is unpublished.
You cannot send messages using the Conversations tool to users not enrolled within your courses.
Use 11:59 p.m. instead of 12:00 a.m. midnight for course end dates as midnight is the start of the day you specify and not the end of that day.
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Check that term dates are valid.
If students are to have access up until 12:00 a.m. midnight on a specific date, make sure to set up the term end date for one day after your specified date.
View Visibility options can prevent students from seeing their courses in the courses
drop-down menu.
Overview on contacting your students before the semester.
If you need to communicate with students before the start date, you can send an email through HSU Faculty Center. Be sure to review the practices and decisions that have been made on the use of Canvas at HSU, e.g. enrollment, timelines, permissions, etc., Find out in the Decisions by the Canvas Approver Group. You can also send a link solely to the syllabus (if you are using the built in syllabus tool in Canvas), by following the directions below to make your syllabus visible publicly. If you would like to communicate with your student via Canvas, your course must be published AND the start date of the course must have passed.
Some students may be new to Canvas. Here are some guides to help them get started.
Canvas can also be used with smartphones and tablets.
You may want to hide unused course menu buttons from the left navigation menu to reduce confusion. In addition, hiding the “Files” button in your Canvas course restricts student access to your course files area. This means that your students will only have access to the files that you distribute throughout your course.
If you have an assignment that requires students to upload a document, make sure you choose “Online” Submission from assignment options. After choosing Online, be sure to “Allow File Uploads.”
Canvas runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, or any other device with a modern web browser. Canvas works best with the latest browser versions of Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. Internet Explorer is not recommended and may cause lack of certain functionalities. Canvas Browser Recommendations
"Change is good” is the motto for the Canvas Learning Management System. Enhancements or changes to the system can take place every 3 weeks, without the system being down. This allows Canvas to improve regularly and not wait for upgrades to add new features. Release notes are posted to the Canvas website three weeks in advance.
Use Student View to see your course exactly as your students will. This option is accessible from the course menu, Settings>Student View.
