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Managing Course Settings

by adminAdvaced Features / Canvas Course Design

There are a variety of tools and settings that an Instructor can access from Settings. When viewing the Settings page, there are two primary areas of action: Center page and Sidebar.

Center Page

In the center of the page are four tabs:

  • Course Details – This tab allows Instructors to set course start and end dates as well as a variety of student permissions within the course.
  • Sections – This tab allows Instructors to create and mange students in Sections. Example: Clerkship 6.1, 6.2, Anatomy SG Section 1, Anatomy SG Section 2, etc
  • Navigation – This tab allows instructors to show, hide, and rearrange navigation links for the course.
  • Apps – This tab allows instructors to add a variety of 3rd party tools, called LTIs or Apps, to a course.

Sidebar

The Sidebar provides instructors with access to:

  • Student View – This feature provides Instructors with a view of the course from the student perspective without needing to login with a separate username/password.
  • Course Statistics – This feature provides instructors with general summaries for recent activity within the course.
  • Course Calendar – This link opens the course calendar. Right click (control + click) on the link to Open in a New Tab.
  • Course Action Options
    • Conclude Course (Not Recommended)
    • Permanently Delete this Course (Avoid at All Costs)
    • Copy this Course
    • Import Content into this Course
    • Export Course Content
    • Reset Course Content (Not Recommended)
  • Current Users Summary

To learn more about Course Settings:

  • view the specific links in Center Page and Sidebar above
  • view Course Settings Overview Video on this page
  • read the Course Settings Tutorials listed on this page

Course Settings Tutorials

Please contact the Geisel Instructional Technology Staff for questions about these tools.

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Grading with SpeedGrader

by adminCanvas Course Design

Canvas accepts a variety of document formats and even URLs as assignment submissions. The SpeedGrader™ provides instructors with the ability to to view the assignment submission online and then annotate, comment, and grade student assignment submissions.

Per Canvas documentation, Instructors can use SpeedGrader™ to:

  • Sort submissions by student 
  • Hide student names for anonymous grading
  • Evaluate assignments for each student, including resubmitted assignments
  • Use rubrics to assign grades
  • Leave feedback for your students
  • Track your grading progress and hide assignments while grading

To learn more about the SpeedGrader, feel free to watch the SpeedGrader Overview Video and view the SpeedGrader Tutorials.

SpeedGrader Tutorials

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Managing Grades

by adminCanvas Course Design

Grades allows instructors to easily input grades as well as track the progress of and communicate grades/feedback to students. Grades can also automatically calculate weighted grades based on the Assignment Groups created in the Assignments tool. 

Grades opens to the Canvas Gradebook. Columns are automatically created in the Gradebook when instructors create:

  • Assignments
  • Graded Discussions
  • Graded Quizzes
  • Surveys
  • Graded External Tool Assignments

Canvas also includes a tool called SpeedGrader™ that integrates the feedback and grading process with the gradebook.This is a great feature for grading submitted assignments and quizzes.

To learn more about Grades, feel free to watch the Grades Video and review the Grades Tutorials.

Grades Tutorials

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Manage Conversations

by adminCanvas Course Design

Similar to email, Conversations is also sometimes called “Messages” or the “Inbox”. Conversations compiles all messages sent throughout Canvas and it is the only communications tool in Canvas that instructors can use to send direct, private messages to users in a course. 

Conversations can be accessed from the Inbox link in the Help Center menu at the top right of the Canvas page.

The default Notifications Setting is for Conversation messages to be sent via email. Messages received via email can be replied to either

  • from Blitz by selecting Reply
  • from within Canvas, by selecting the URL link in the email and logging into Canvas

Important: If the Conversation Message Notification is turned off, it will be necessary to log in to Canvas to view messages sent by students via Conversations as these messages will not be sent via email. 

To learn more about Conversations, feel free to view the Communications Tutorials listed below.

Conversation Tutorials

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Making Announcements

by adminCanvas Course Design

Announcements are used to communicate course logistics to the class. Once an Announcement is created, Canvas will notify students according to their preferred Notification Preferences.

By default, Announcements in Canvas allow students to reply/comment. If you do not wish students to comment on Announcements, it will be necessary to disable comments within Course settings.

To learn more about Announcements, feel free to view the Announcement Overview Video and the Announcement Tutorials on this page.

Announcement Tutorials

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Add/View People

by adminCanvas Course Design

In Canvas, the People link is similar to Users and Groups in Blackboard. Within the People link instructors can:

  1. View all the users participating in the course.
  2. Manage users.
  3. Add people to the course.
  4. Manage user groups in the course.
  5. Search for a user.
  6. Filter users by role.

As with Blackboard, most rosters will be loaded into the system prior to the start of the course. It should only be necessary for instructors to add additional instructors or TAs to the course.

To learn more about the People link, feel free to view the People Overview Video and the People Tutorials on this page.

To learn more about customizing the Course Navigation menu, feel free to view the Navigation Tutorials.

People Tutorials

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Discussions Tool

by adminCanvas Course Design

Canvas Discussions can be created as an assignment for grading purposes and seamlessly integrates with the Canvas Gradebook. The Discussion tool in Canvas include some very nice assessment options including:

  • Graded Individual Discussion
  • Graded Group Discussions
  • Peer Reviewed Discussions

The Discussion option “Users must post before seeing replies,” requires students to post their own original response to the forum before they can see what their peers have write. This is a great option to ensure diverse opinions and engaging discussion.

To learn more about Discussions, please watch the Discussion Video and explore the Discussion Tutorials listed on this page.

Discussions Creation Video

Discussions Tutorials

To discuss how Discussions could be used effectively in your course, feel free to contact the Geisel Instructional Technology Staff to schedule a one-on-one consultation.

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Quiz/Suvey Tool

by adminCanvas Course Design

The Quiz tool can be used to create and administer online quizzes and surveys. You can also use quizzes to conduct exams and assessments, both graded and ungraded. The Quiz Types include:

  • Graded Quiz – The intention of a Graded Quizzes is that it will be used to assess student knowledge and understanding of the content in the course.
  • Practice Quiz – Students do not receive a grade for Practice Quizzes, even though the quiz results display the number of points earned in the quiz.
  • Graded Survey – A Graded Survey allows the instructor to give students points for completing the survey, but it does not allow the survey to be graded for right or wrong answers.
  • Ungraded Survey – An Ungraded Survey allows  instructors to solicit opinions or other information from the students, but students do not receive a grade for their responses

To learn more about Canvas Quizzes, feel free to review the Quiz Videos and Quiz Tutorials listed on this page.

Quiz Question Type Tutorials

Quiz Creation Tutorials

Quiz Grading Tutorials

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Course Navigation

by adminCanvas Course Design

The first thing you should do before publishing the course is to edit the Course Navigation. Unlike Blackboard, the instructor control of the Canvas Course Navigation is a bit more restrictive.

Course Navigation items include:

  • Home (Required)
  • Announcements
  • Assignments
  • Attendance (Hidden unless made available)
  • Chat (Hidden unless made available)
  • Collaborations
  • Conferences
  • Discussions
  • Files
  • Grades
  • Modules
  • Outcomes
  • People
  • Pages
  • Quizzes
  • Syllabus
  • Settings (Visible to Instructors and TAs)

Instructors can reorder the tabs and even hide some of them. Tabs cannot be renamed. The purpose of this restriction is to attempt to streamline and simplify the menu options presented to students.

Course Settings Video

Skip to 2:57 to view the section on Editing the Course Navigation.

To learn more about customizing the Course Navigation menu, feel free to view the Navigation Tutorials.

Course Navigation Tutorials

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Managing Sections

by adminCanvas Course Design / Content types

Courses and sections work together in Canvas. Sections help subdivide students within a course and offer section-specific options such as varied due dates for assignments, discussions, and quizzes. Sections can also be used to create student groups.

Think of the Course as the location where students will:

  • access course content
  • interact with the instructor
  • interact with other students

Sections are groups of students created to manage administrative differences within the course. Each section still has access to the content within the course as well as the instructor and other students. However, the Sections allows the instructor to:

  • Manage different instructional timelines
  • Vary assignment due dates by Section
  • View/Manage grades by Section
  • Assign TAs or Facilitators to specific Sections for grading

At the Geisel School of Medicine, Sections will likely be used to:

  • Manage Clerkship Rotations
  • Manage OnDoctoring Facilitator Groups
  • Manage Small Group discussions

To learn more about Sections, feel free to view the Course Settings Video and the Sections Tutorials on this page.

Course Settings Video

Skip to 2:11 to watch the portion of the video on Sections.

Sections Tutorials

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