It’s Friday, August 16th 2018, and we’re at the starting line of a new academic year. Every store has a buzzing back-to-school section, local traffic is picking up again, NOAA just issued a cautious Hurricane Season forecast, and courses have appeared on your Canvas dashboard labeled “Fall 2018.” It’s time to get your course shells set up and published so that your students can hit the ground running as soon as the semester starts.
Speaking of hitting the ground running, FAU’s Canvas activity stream for the Fall 2018 semester is already bustling. So far:
- 13,426 assignments have been created
- 4,841 discussion topics have been posted
- 144 media recordings have been created
- 88,515 files have been uploaded
- 477,325 pages have been viewed
These numbers only account for the last two weeks! Now that we’re going into our second full year with Canvas, it’s exciting to see our faculty and staff contributing so much time and effort toward their courses and organizations.
Maybe you’ve been with us for many years and you’ve already populated your courses with materials from previous semesters. Or perhaps this is your first time teaching a class at FAU. Either way, we’ve listed some quick tips and resources below to either get you started using Canvas or check your already built courses for some must-have details.
We’ve also updated and documented new tools and integrations added to Canvas. Visit Instructional Technologies’ Additional Tools page and subscribe to the Instructional Technologies blog to receive the latest updates and view discounted pricing options for subscription-based integrations.
Canvas Course Must-Have Checklist
- Make it easy for your students to contact you
- Somewhere near the beginning of the Home Page of your course, display the preferred contact method that you would like your students to use to get hold of you.
- Check that your inbox notifications are up to date.
- Upload your course syllabus
- Add Assignments
- Assignments can vary from empty placeholders to full exams. Canvas groups all quizzes, assignments, and graded discussions into the “Assignments” page of your course. And, if you assign due dates, they will populate your students’ calendars as well as notify them when they are due. Here’s how!
- Publish your course and its materials
- Your students will only see pages, assignments, quizzes, and modules that are published. Each of these items features a “Publish” button or icon that you can use to toggle your course content’s “Published” state.
- Your entire course needs to be published as well. Once you are ready to open your course to your students, click the “Publish” button at the top-right of your course’s home page.
Instructional Technologies is always available to answer any questions you may have about Canvas and its integrations. You can submit a help desk ticket or schedule a time to visit us for a workshop or a one-on-one session.