Discovering Canvas

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Switching to a new Learning Management System (LMS) can be overwhelming at first especially when time is short and you need to get your course up and running at lightning speed.

This self-help guide aims to alleviate some of that pressure by guiding you step by step through all that you need to know to get your course fully operational on Canvas.

Curated here are some important Canvas resources to help you better understand your course interface; customise settings; build your course; communicate through Canvas and use the Assessment tools. It is recommended that first-time users work through the resource sequentially.

Alternatively, you can click on the links to target specific self-help resources.

This resource is continuously updated as Canvas releases new features and content.

Getting Started

Building your Course

Communication Tools

Exploring the Dashboard Your Profile and Settings

Building your Modules Adding Content Adding Discussions Uploading and Managing Files Setting up your Home Page Changing to Student View

Conversations Overview Announcements Calendar Overview Notification Settings

Assessments

Canvas Resources Find Support

Assignments Overview Quizzes Overview Gradebook Overview Rubrics Overview

Canvas Guides & Community Canvas Mobile App

Find Support

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Content in this course can be considered under this license unless otherwise noted.

Exploring the Dashboard The Dashboard is the first thing you will see when you log into Canvas. The Dashboard helps you see what is happening in all your current courses.

You can return to your User Dashboard at any time by clicking the Dashboard link in Global Navigation Canvas Overview video

Your Dashboard may display one of two views: Card View or Recent Activity View.

Card View​: displays course cards for quick access to all your favourite courses (the same courses display in the Courses link from the Global Navigation Menu) ● Recent Activity View:​ displays all recent activity for all courses ●

Here are some ideas about how you can extend your use of the Dashboard: Give Course Nicknames​: Each Course Tile will show you the official name of the course. Many institutions have pre-assigned course names based on their course codes. A Course Nickname can assist you to keep track of the courses you choose to keep visible and organised on your dashboard. ● Change the colour of your Course card:​ Click the vertical ellipsis (3 vertical dots) and you'll see a palette of colours. Whatever colour you pick is just for you. Every user can customise their own colours. Colours are important and will also represent that course in your Calendar. Need more colours? Check out the color-hex. ● Apply an image to your Course card: ​Instructors can select an image that will apply to the course cards for all enrolled in that course. This happens in the Course Settings. This makes it very easy for students to pick out which course is yours. ● Remove the Colour Overlay: ​Super important if you're using images in your Course cards and you don't want it to look "hazy" because the colour is overlaying it. Click the gear icon on your Dashboard and unselect "Colour Overlay". ●

Need more information? For more help on your Dashboard check out this ​Dashboard Guide

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Content in this course can be considered under this license unless otherwise noted.

Well done! Let’s level up to ​Profile Settings

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Content in this course can be considered under this license unless otherwise noted.

Your Profile and Settings User Profile and Settings lets you control your personal information in Canvas.

User Settings and Profiles video​

Some other items you can customise are listed below: User Profile Pictures: ​When you interact with other users (in Conversations, Discussions, and when you give Feedback) your picture will appear ● Ways to Contact:​ Fully customizable, additional email addresses and/or your mobile phone to enable text notifications can be added ● Web Services:​ Skype, LinkedIn and Twitter can be enabled here as additional ways to receive notifications ●

Here are some additional user profile settings you can check out: High Contrast UI ​can be enabled as an Accessibility feature for colour contrast enhancement ● Underline Links ​can be enabled as an Accessibility feature, and will underline all hyperlinks throughout Canvas ●

Need more information? Check out these Canvas Guides: ● ●

Profile and User Settings How to change the settings in your user account as an instructor

Well done! Let’s level up to ​Building your Modules

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Building your Modules

Modules is a space for you to organise your content by concepts; topics; weeks; units; sessions, or whatever you choose. The Modules tool resembles your online classroom space, where students find information, interact with each other, take quizzes, and submit assignments. And like a physical classroom, the way you organise and structure what is inside, will ultimately shape your students’ learning experience.

Modules Overview video Check out these Modules attributes: ● Flexible structure: ​Create Modules (think ‘folders’) in the way you regularly structure your course. Modules can be Weeks, Units, Chapters etc. ● Flexible content: ​Add Assignments, Quizzes, Pages, Discussions, external URLs, External Tools (such as Google), and much more to each Module ● Easy to customize: ​Reorder your Modules and the individual items within the Modules with easy drag and drop interface ● Create course flow: ​Students see a "Next" and "Previous" button to guide them through your Modules You can do even more with Modules by trying the following: ● Add prerequisites and requirements to​ guide and control students as they experience the course the way you planned it ● Use text headers and indentation​s to visually organize content within a Module ● Lock Modules to​ open up automatically on a set date ● Personalise your​ course using MasteryPaths Need more information? Check out this Canvas Guide: ● How to add a Module ● How to edit a Module

Well done! Let’s level up to ​Adding content to your Modules with Pages

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Adding Content to your Modules with Pages Pages store content and educational resources that are part of a course but don’t necessarily belong in an assignment, for example you will use the Page tool to add text, documents, links to URLs or even discussion forums.

Pages Overview video Some ideas for how you can use Pages are: ● Build with the Rich Content Editor (RCE)​: ​Add images, files, record or upload multimedia content, and embed external tools like YouTube, Khan Academy and other LTI tools ● Content Selector for more: ​Using the content selector from the right side you can add direct links to other Pages, Assignments, Quizzes, Announcements, Discussions, Modules or other course navigation areas ● Make sure it's accessible: ​It has an awesome accessibility checker More things you can do with Pages are: ● Easy to duplicate Pages​ from the selector in Module view ● Use them for collaboration​. Pages can work like collaborative wiki pages that students can edit while allowing the instructor to see and curate the edits Need more information? Check out these Canvas Guides: ● Page Guide ● How to edit a Page in a course

Build with the Rich Content Editor Canvas has a simple, yet powerful, content editor that is used for creating new content.

Rich Content Editor video The Rich Content Editor is used in features such as: Announcements, Assignments, Discussions, Pages, Quizzes, and Syllabus.

Although clean and streamlined, the Rich Content Editor is sophisticated enough to support embedding video content, math formulas, and other rich media.

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Content in this course can be considered under this license unless otherwise noted.

Need more information? Check out this Canvas Guide: ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

How to use the Rich Content Editor How to create hyperlinks in the Rich Content Editor How to record media with the Rich Content Editor How to use the Math Editor in the Rich Content Editor How to upload and embed media in the Rich Content Editor How to embed images from Canvas into the Rich Content Editor How to use the Accessibility Checker in the Rich Content Editor How to insert a table using the Rich Content Editor How to link to a Youtube video in the Rich Content Editor

Well done! Let's level up to ​Adding Discussions

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Adding Discussions The Discussions tool allows lecturers to create dynamic asynchronous forum discussions for their students in Canvas.

Discussions Overview video Discussions is a very flexible tool. ● Graded or ungraded: ​Choose to use discussions for ungraded conversations - such as a Q & A - or for graded discussions ● Customizable​: Require students to submit their work before they see peer work, choose to allow students to edit/delete their posts Some additional ideas for using Discussions are: ● Don't have to be text-based. ​Discussion replies are created in the Rich Content Editor, so your prompt and student responses do not have to be limited to only written work. Students can submit podcasts, files, images, audio/video submissions, and more. ● Easy to duplicate discussions​ from the selector icon in Modules ● Don't miss a thing by subscribing to​ individual discussions and be notified if a new post is made ● Add a rubric for​ clear student expectations and easy grading

Need more information? Check out this Canvas Guide: About Discussions

Well done! Let's level up to​ ​Uploading and Managing Files

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Uploading and Managing Files Store your files within your Canvas course in the Files space

Files Overview video

Things to know about your Files space: ● Easy to build:​ Files uploaded to your Files space in your course can be easily shared in any content you create ● Easy to share:​ Files can be hidden or available to students; individual files within the space can be restricted from student view Here are few more tips about the Files space: ● Folder structure is flexible​ and allows for subfolder structure ● Files become a part of your course​ when it is copied from one teaching block to the next Need more information? Check out these Canvas Guides: ● How to bulk upload files to a course ● How to restrict files and folders to students in Canvas

Well done! Let’s level up to ​Setting up your Home Page

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Setting up your Home Page The Course Home Page is the first view your students will have when they enter your course.

Customising your Home Page Course Home Page Customization video What you need to know about the Home Page is: ● The choice is yours: ​Pick from the Course Activity Stream, Course Modules, Assignments List, Syllabus or a Pages Front Page that you design to be the home page of your course ● Information at your fingertips: ​Users will see course navigation on the left, and the "To-Do" list and "Coming Up" on the right Two more ways you can use the Home Page: ● Add Announcements by​ changing the course settings to allow up to 15 recent Announcements to show on the Home Page ● Guide students to​ the important areas of your course with banners, buttons, and text

Need more information? Check out these Canvas Guides: How to change a Course Homepage How to set a Front Page in a Course

Well done! Let’s level up to ​Changing to Student View

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Changing to Student View Student view allows you to see the course as your students will experience it.

Student view activates a Test Student who can submit activities as an enrolled student.

Some more information about Student View: ● ● ● ● ●

Test Student​ is automatically enrolled in your gradebook Use it​ to be sure your course is just the way you want/need it Double check​ that everything is published and available Participate in your course​ as Test Student to verify Canvas functionality Submit work as Test Student​ to have student submissions to test Canvas grading options

Reset Test Student​ when you need to clear out data and start over Need more information? Check out this Canvas Guide: How to view your Course as a Student

Well done! Let’s level up to ​Conversations Overview

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Conversations Overview The Canvas Inbox displays all Canvas Conversations - the internal messaging system in Canvas.

Conversations Overview video

Benefits of using the Canvas Inbox and Conversations are below: ● Easy to use​: Connected to your main email address; you can receive copies of your Canvas Conversations at the email or any Notification pathway and answer right from there. It will appear to students that the communication was all contained in Canvas ● Purposeful​: The only people who can contact you through a Canvas Conversation are those who are connected to you through a Course or a Group ● Contacts loaded:​ Users attached to your Course are pre-populated in your address book Here are some more ideas about how using Conversations can make your life easier: ● Conversations has a simple interface for composing​ and includes the ability to easily create an audio or video message

Well done! Let’s level up to ​Announcements

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Announcements Announcements allow instructors to communicate with students about course activities and post interesting course-related topics.

Announcements Overview video

Check out how you can use the Announcements space: ● Broadcast information:​ Send to all members of a course or to all members of sections within a course ● Maintain​ ​a running record of communication:​ Course announcements are retained ● Allow students to interact: ​Students can respond to and like Announcements ● Delay posting:​ Time-sensitive Announcements can be built and sent at your discretion Here are more ideas on how you can use the Announcements space: ● Enable a RSS feed​ to auto-post Announcements from a news source ● Enable a podcast feed​ for audio Announcements

Need more information? Check out these Canvas Guides: ● How to add an announcement in a course ● How to subscribe to the Announcements RSS feed

Well done! Let’s level up to ​Calendar Overview

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Calendar Overview The Canvas Calendar has layers for each course associated with the user.

Calendar Overview video

The Calendar has so many benefits and uses. Check them out below.

Choose what you see:​ Courses can be enabled/disabled in the Calendar view ● Different views:​ User can choose month, week, or agenda view ● Calendar, Assign Dates in course, and Syllabus work in conjunction: Change date in one place and it updates all the others! ● Icons are clear:​ Assessments, when assigned, will appear on the calendar with an icon representing which assessment type it is (Assignment, Discussion or Quiz) ● Upon student submission:​ Items will cross off on the student calendar ● Items cross off on the instructor's calendar:​ When the due date has passed and all items have been graded ● Events can also be added:​ They appear with the calendar icon Here are some additional ways users can make the Calendar work for them: ● The Scheduler​ tool is a way to allow students to sign up for appointment slots ● Calendar can sync​ to another calendar software using the iCal calendar feed link ● Assignment shells​ can be built directly from the Calendar

Need more information? Check out this Canvas Guide: Canvas Calendar Guide

Well done! Let's level up to​ ​Notification Settings

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Content in this course can be considered under this license unless otherwise noted.

Notification Settings Notifications are a way to alert you to a variety of actions occurring in Canvas.

Important things to know about Notifications are: ● User determines the frequency:​ Notifications are received: right away, daily summary, weekly summary, or not at all ● User determines where the Notification are received​: Email address, SMS message, and/or Push notifications Here are some additional things to consider about Notifications: ● Can be customized at any time​. The user is in control of his/her own Notification experience ● Lecturers can reinforce student use​ of Notifications by strongly suggesting critical Notifications for the course being delivered ● Default Settings for Notifications​ are listed in this document

Need more information? Check out this Canvas Guide: Notification Guide

Well done! Let's level up to ​Assignments Overview

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Content in this course can be considered under this license unless otherwise noted.

Assignments Overview Assignments in Canvas can be used to challenge students' understanding and help assess competency by using a variety of media.

The Assignments page shows students all the Assignments that will be expected of them and how many marks each assignment is worth.

Assignments can be assigned to everyone in the course or differentiated by section or user.

Some things to know about Assignments include: ● Graded Assignments add columns to the Canvas Gradebook ● All about the Settings​: Edit the assignment settings to meet your needs ○ You can use the ‘On Paper’ or ‘No Submission’ to enter grades for classroom work ○ You can have students submit work online ○ Students can submit work to external tools such as Turnitin ● Populates Calendar/sends Notifications:​ If you enter a due date to assignments, this due date will automatically show up in the Syllabus, Calendar and on the "To-Do" list on the Home Page You can also do the following when creating Assignments: ● ● ● ● ●

Restrict file types​ in online submissions Easily accept multimedia assignments Add a rubric​ for clear student expectations and easy grading Easily duplicate​ Assignments from the selector in Module view Engage students​ in expectations with Peer Review

Need more information? Check out these Canvas Guides: ● All about Assignments ● How to create an Assignment

Well done! Let's level up to​ ​Quizzes Overview

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Quizzes Overview Quizzes in Canvas are assignments that can be used to challenge a student’s understanding and assess their comprehension of course material.

Canvas has four different types of quizzes: ● A graded quiz​ is the most common quiz and rewards students points based on their quiz responses ● A practice quiz​ is a learning tool to see how well students understand course material without providing a grade ● 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. ● An ungraded survey​ obtains opinions or other information without providing a grade

Quizzes Overview video

To view subtitles for this video, click the CC button in the toolbar.

After watching the videos, you can read the following help guides for more details on each question type.

Note: if you teach a course that involves numbers ​in any way​ from simple addition to advanced algebra and trigonometry, please take a few minutes to view the ​Numerical Answer​ and Formula (​simple formula​ and ​single variable​) question types.

● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

Multiple Choice True/False Fill-in-the-Blank Fill-in-Multiple-Blanks Multiple Answers Multiple Drop-down​ (can be used for ​Likert scale​) Matching Numerical Answer

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● Formula (​simple formula​ and s​ ingle variable​) ● Essay ● File Upload Need more information? Check out these Canvas Guides: ● All about Quizzes ● How to use the Moderate Quiz page upon publishing a Quiz ● Options to regrade a quiz in a course

Well done! Let's level up to​ ​Gradebook Overview

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Gradebook Overview The Gradebook helps instructors easily input and distribute grades for students.

Grades for each assignment can be calculated as points, percentages, complete or incomplete, pass or fail, grade point average (GPA) scale, and letter grades, and assignments can be organized into groups for weighting as well.

Gradebook Overview video You can also use SpeedGrader to help you: ● ● ● ● ● ●

Sort submissions by student and hide student names for anonymous grading View submission details 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 View submissions in moderated assignments

Speedgrader Overview video

Set Late Policies The Late Policies tab allows you to apply late policies in your course.

The ​Missing Submission Policy​ allows you to automatically apply a grade for submissions labeled as Missing [1]. A submission is labeled Missing when the due date has passed and the assignment has not been submitted.

The ​Late Submission Policy​ allows you to automatically apply a defined penalty to submissions with a status of Late [2]. A submission is labeled Late when it is submitted past the due date. Additionally, you can define a threshold under which a student will not be scored, regardless of how late the submission is.

Create Grade Posting Policies The Grade Posting Policy tab allows you to ​change grade posting policies for your course

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To automatically post grades and make them visible to students as soon as they are entered, select the ​Automatically Post Grades​ option . The posting policy is set to Automatically Post Grades by default.

Be sure to check out the ​Gradebook Guide​ to learn about Gradebook functionality.

Well done! Let's level up to​ ​Rubrics Overview

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Rubrics Overview A Rubric is an assessment tool for communicating expectations of quality. Rubrics are a way to set up custom or outcome-based assessment criteria for scoring. Rows are used to define the various criteria being used to assess an assignment. Columns are used to define levels of performance for each criterion.

Rubrics Overview video

Some other rubrics considerations: ● Variety of assessments:​ Create and use rubrics for assignments, graded discussions and quizzes. ● Flexibility with scoring​: Rubric criteria can include a set point value or a range ● Streamline your grading: ​Select criterion boxes to automatically assign points ● Find Rubric:​ See your full bank of available Rubrics across courses ● Share an assessment with a Rubric:​ This will also share the attached Rubric ● Account-level Rubrics: ​ Create these for account level access Need more information? Check out these Canvas Guides: All about Rubrics How to add a Rubric to an Assignment How to add a Rubric to a Discussion How to use a Rubric In SpeedGrader

Well done on uncovering some important tools for building your course!

Check out ​Canvas Guides & Community​ to hone your skills even further.

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Canvas Guides & Community A visit to the Canvas ​Guides​ will reveal everything you need to know to master ​Canvas​ as a lecturer. You can also join the Canvas community to collaborate with fellow users.

Visit: ​https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Guides/ct-p/guides

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Content in this course can be considered under this license unless otherwise noted.

Canvas Mobile App The Canvas app is the mobile version of Canvas that helps you stay current with your courses anywhere you are. Download the free Canvas app on Android and iOS devices.

Teacher App Android Smartphone/Tablet Download Canvas Teacher App ​Google Play (Android) Canvas Guide for IOS Teacher App​ ​Canvas Teacher Android Guide iPhone/iPad Download Canvas Teacher App​ ​iTunes (iOS) Canvas Guide for IOS Teacher App​ ​Canvas Teacher iOS Guide

Student App Android Smartphone/Tablet Download Canvas Student App​ ​Google Play (Android) Canvas Guide for IOS Student App​ ​Canvas by Instructure Android Guide

iPhone/iPad Download Canvas Student App​ ​iTunes (iOS) Canvas Guide for IOS Student App​ ​Canvas by Instructure iOS Guide

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Content in this course can be considered under this license unless otherwise noted.

Find Support

Log a ticket on​ ​https://witshelp-ism.saasiteu.com/

Alternatively: Email:​ ​wits-e@wits.ac.za Call:​ (011) 717 1717 option 2 or​ (011) 717 7179 / (011) 717 7178

This course content is offered under a ​CC attribution noncommercial sharealike​ license.

Content in this course can be considered under this license unless otherwise noted.