Your access to UWM systems such as Canvas is driven by the HR hiring process and by the school/college process of assigning courses to instructors. 

Written Procedures

• When Your UWM Account Gets Activated
• Information About your UWM Account

1. Open your browser and go to Canvas using one of the following methods:
   • Option 1: Open the UWM Canvas website directly (https://uwm.edu/canvas).
   • Option 2: Visit the UWM website (https://uwm.edu). Click Faculty / Staff at the top of the page, and click Canvas.
2.  Click the Log In To Canvas button.
   
3. When prompted, enter your UWM email address and your password.
4. Click the Login button to continue.
   
5. Authenticate using your multi-factor authentication method. 

Contact the UWM Help Desk if you receive an error message.

Tip - Get Canvas on your mobile device with the Canvas Teacher's App. Learn more about teaching with the Canvas Teacher's App.

Instructors and TAs can download the Canvas Teacher App on an Android or iOS device and use the app for grading assignments, quizzes and discussions; communicating with students, posting announcements, and more. 

Tutorial Video

What Is the Canvas Teacher App

Written Procedures

• What Is the Canvas Teacher App?
• Grading Using the Teacher App
• Communicating via the Teacher App
• Updating Course Content Using the Teacher App
• Canvas Teacher App Features

00:07: What is the canvas teacher app? 00:09: Teachers can browse submissions and provide feedback to their students with a new and 00:13: improved mobile speedgrader embedded in the app. 00:17: Teachers can post announcements, send messages and participate. 00:21: In course discussions. Canvas teacher includes the message students, 00:25: who feature from the web version of canvas and allows teachers to easily send 00:29: messages to students about specific course, assignments. 00:33: Teachers can easily update, course, content, such as due dates and spelling errors. 00:37: They can also publish assignments. Manage discussion settings and 00:42: adjust quiz options. 00:45: This guide covered the canvas teacher app.

Increase your online presence by updating your Canvas Profile with:

• A profile picture
• Your contact information, biography, and links to your websites and so on
• Your preferred pronouns 

Your Canvas Profile picture appears in:

• Canvas Inbox messages 
• Announcements
• Discussion posts
• The People tab 

Students can click your Profile to see additional information like contact information.  

Tutorial Videos

Updating Your Canvas Profile

Configuring Canvas User Settings

00:06: How do I change the settings in my user account? 00:09: In Global Navigation, click the Account link. 00:13: Then click the Settings link. 00:16: Click the Edit Settings button. 00:19: If enabled, edit the appropriate settings: 00:22: Full Name is used for the Gradebook and Grades pages, Chat, People, and SIS imports. 00:29: Display name is how other users will see your name in announcements conferences 00:33: conversations and discussions. 00:37: Sortable name defaults to your last name first name and appears in sorted 00:41: lists. So admins can search for it. 00:45: Pronouns display after your name in various areas throughout Canvas. 00:50: Default email can be set when you have multiple notification email addresses 00:54: associated with your account. 00:57: Language can be set to your native language and is the language you want to use in canvas does 01:01: not apply if an instructor sets a specific language for a course. 01:06: Time Zone can be set to where you are located and displays assignments in your local time. 01:12: Password is the combination of characters you choose to use to log in to your Canvas account. 01:18: Click the Update Settings button. 01:21: This guide covers how to change the settings in a user account.

Written Procedures

• General Information on Canvas Profile and User Settings
• Change Your Account Settings
• Add a Profile Picture
• Edit Your Profile Information
• Select Personal Pronouns for Profile

Tip - Use Adobe's free online image resizer and select Custom Size to change the dimensions of your picture.

Tutorial Videos

• Select Which Notifications to Receive and When (Global setting that applies to all classes)
• Turn Off Notifications or Select Which Notifications to Receive for an Individual Class (Optional - Overrides global Notification settings for a single class) 

Written Procedures

• Select Which Notification You Receive and When (Global setting that applies to all classes)

• Turn Off Notifications or Select Which Notifications to Receive for an Individual Class (Optional - Overrides global Notification settings for a single class) 

• Receive Notifications via Text Message.

Tip - CC Yourself on Canvas Messages You Send through Canvas Inbox.

Overview

Blank courses for the new semester are automatically created in Canvas 60 days before the start date of the course (not the semester start date), and students and teachers are added to the class at that time. 

 Important: A newly-created Canvas class is immediately available to its instructors and TAs, but the class is not visible to students in Canvas until the instructor publishes the class.  

After courses are created in Canvas each semester, you need to add the courses to your Dashboard in order to see the classes when you first log in to Canvas. Published classes you have added to the Dashboard appear at the top of your Dashboard, and unpublished classes you have added to the Dashboard are located at the bottom of the Dashboard.

Written Procedures

If you cannot find a course, review Troubleshooting Guide: Missing Courses.

Tips - If your official Canvas course for the semester has not yet been created, you can ask for a blank sandbox course to be created for you to use to develop your course. The blank sandbox course is simply an empty course that does not contain students and is not connected to a semester. Once the official semester course is created in Canvas, you must copy your content from the sandbox course into your official semester course and then publish the course to make the content available to students. Click here to request a blank sandbox  for course development purposes. 

The Canvas Dashboard is the first page that appears when you log in to Canvas. The Dashboard contains shortcuts to your Canvas classes.

The Dashboard does not automatically update each semester. After courses are created in Canvas each semester, you need to add the courses to your Dashboard in order to see the classes when you first log in to Canvas. Published classes you have added to the Dashboard appear at the top of your Dashboard, and unpublished classes you have added to the Dashboard are located at the bottom of the Dashboard.

Tutorial Video

Locate Courses and Select Courses to Appear on Dashboard

Written Procedures

• Select Which Courses Appear on Your Dashboard 

Tip - If you cannot locate your courses, refer to the Troubleshooting Guide: Locate Missing Courses document.

Overview

If your class has multiple TAs, consider enabling the Large Class setting in Canvas. This setting filters SpeedGrader by student group, making grading faster and more efficient by showing each TA only the subset of students they’re responsible for grading.

Setup

First - Create a Group Set 

A Group Set in Canvas is a container that holds one or more student groups that are used for a single purpose. Typically, you create a Group Set to contain student groups for a collaborative project like "Collaborative Presentation Groups" or "Collaborative Essay Groups." However, in this case, you're creating a Group Set specifically for grading purposes, not for student collaboration.

1. Go to the People tab in your Canvas course.
2. Click + Group Set.
3. Name the Group Set (e.g., TA Grading Groups or BIO 101 TA Grading Groups).
4. In the Group Set description, list the purpose of the group (e.g., This Group Set is used only to for TA grading purposes. These groups are not used for student collaboration or group assignments).
5. Do not check Allow self sign-up.
6. For Group Structure, select Create Groups Later.
7.  Click Save.

Second - Create a Group for Each TA and Assign Students to Groups

1. Inside your Group Set, click the + Group button to create a Group for a TA. Use clear, consistent names such as: TA - Smith or Smith – Grading TA.
2. Do not enter a Group Membership Limit.
3. Click the Save button. Repeat these steps to create a Group for each TA.

Third - Add Students to Groups

1. After Groups have been created, add students to each TA Group by dragging and dropping students' names into the appropriate Group or by clicking the + icon to add students to Groups.

Fourth - Enable Large Course Setting

1. Go to Settings.
2. Locate the option labeled Large Course, and check the box for Launch SpeedGrader Filtered by Student Group.
3. Click the Update Course Details button.
   Now, each time you open SpeedGrader, Canvas will prompt you to select a Group. When you select your TA group, you see only the submissions from your students in SpeedGrader.

Note: You can turn this setting on or off at any point during the semester. For example, when you don't want to launch SpeedGrader by group, simply uncheck Launch SpeedGrader Filtered by Student Group. Check the setting when you want to filter by student group again. 

Optional - Inform Your Students

To avoid confusion, consider posting a short Announcement explaining why they have been added to a grading group. For example:

Subject: Note on Grading Groups
"To help streamline grading in this course, students have been assigned to TA grading groups. These groups are used behind the scenes in Canvas to help TAs grade more efficiently. You don’t need to do anything related to these groups; they won’t affect your participation, assignments, or grades."

Note: This setting affects SpeedGrader only. It does not filter the Gradebook. To filter the Gradebook by the Groups you've created, add a Student Group Filter to your Gradebook.

Using SpeedGrader When Launch SpeedGrader Filtered by Student Group Is Checked

After you have performed the setup steps listed above, when you click to open SpeedGrader for an assignment, you must first choose a Group to grade. 

UWM's Secretary of the University provides a page containing syllabus links, policies, and statements that you should link to or add to your syllabus.

UWM's Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) also provides sample syllabus statements for Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the classroom. Below are additional sample statements from other universities that you may find helpful:

• Illinois State University, updated January 17, 2023
• University of South Carolina (see Academic Integrity statement)

Both statements make it a point of wrapping the discussion of AI around academic integrity.

In Canvas, instructors can provide their syllabus to students in either of the following ways: 

• Method 1 - Upload a syllabus file (doc or pdf) to Canvas and insert the file in a module. Advantages of this method:
  • You have control of what gets added to the syllabus and the order things are added.
  • Students have a file they can print.

• Method 2 - Use the Canvas Syllabus tool to construct a syllabus directly in Canvas.
  • Linked assignments, quizzes, and discussions with due dates are automatically added and linked in the Canvas Syllabus. They are listed chronologically by due date. Items without due dates are listed alphabetically. Note that you cannot change the order of how these elements appear in the Canvas Syllabus.

Tutorial Videos

Uploading a Syllabus File to a Module

Using the Canvas Syllabus Tool 

Written Procedures

Uploading a Syllabus File to a Module

• To add a new syllabus file - Upload the syllabus file to your course Files area using the Add Files feature, then add the file to a Module. 
• To update a syllabus file that is already in your Canvas class – Avoid adding a new syllabus file to your course every semester. Instead, replace the old syllabus in the Files area. With this method, the syllabus is updated everywhere it was linked in your Canvas course.  

Using the Canvas Syllabus Tool

• • Canvas Syllabus Tool Overview
  • Edit the Canvas Syllabus
  • Adding a Table of Contents to Your Syllabus in Canvas

A key element of learning the Canvas Gradebook is understanding how your Gradebook is connected to the Assignments page.

Most of your Canvas Gradebook setup will be done on the Assignments page. The Assignments page controls the following:

• What columns are created in your Gradebook
• What columns are deleted from the Gradebook.
• The default order of columns in your Gradebook.
• What subtotal columns appear in your Gradebook (e.g. subtotal columns for Quizzes, Discussions, etc.) 
• Whether your Gradebook is weighted or unweighted.  
• Whether lowest or highest scores for certain types of assignments are dropped.

The following video explains the connection between the Assignments page and the Canvas Gradebook.

Tutorial Video

Canvas Gradebook and the Assignments Page

Written Procedures

Understanding the Assignments Page

All graded items (Assignments, Quizzes, and graded Discussions) reside on the Assignments page of your Canvas class. Each of these graded items on the Assignments page automatically creates a column in the Gradebook.

Assignment groups are categories on the Assignments page that contain and organize your assignments, quizzes, and graded discussions. By default, Canvas puts all your Quizzes, graded Discussions, and Assignments into Assignment Groups labeled “Assignments” or "Imported Assignments." Rather than using these default Assignment Groups, we recommend that you create your own Assignment Groups based on your syllabus categories, using names such as Quizzes, Exams, Essays, Discussions, and so on.Each Assignment Group automatically creates a subtotal column in the Gradebook. For example, if you organize your Quizzes into an Assignment Group that you title Weekly Quizzes, a Weekly Quizzes subtotal column automatically appears in the Gradebook.

Important - If you plan to use a weighted Gradebook, Canvas requires that you create one Assignment Group for each weighted category. 

Tutorial Video

Adding, Editing, and Deleting Assignment Groups

Written Procedures

• Adding Assignment Groups
• Moving or Reorder Assignment Groups
• Moving Assignments to Assignment Groups
• Creating Drop Lowest/Highest Score Rules for Assignment Groups
• Deleting an Assignment Group

Unweighted Gradebooks are also called points-based Gradebooks. In an unweighted Gradebook, Canvas calculates final grades based solely on each Assignment's point value. Assignments with higher point values will have more impact on the final grade, and Assignments with lower point values will have less of an impact on the final grade. The Canvas Gradebook is unweighted by default. 

What Is a Weighted Gradebook?

A weighted Gradebook organizes and calculates student grades based on the percentage value you assign to different Assignment Groups you create in your course. For example, if you create a Quizzes Assignment Group for your Quizzes and set the Assignment Group's weight to 25%, Canvas will calculate the average score of all of a student's Quizzes and will then make that score worth 25% of the student's overall course total.  When setting up a weighted Gradebook, make sure that the weights you assign to your Assignment Groups total 100%.

How Do You Set Up a Weighted Gradebook?

1. On the Canvas Assignments page, you create Assignment Groups for different categories of Assignments such as Essays, Discussions, Quizzes, Exams, Projects, etc. Note that it is helpful to students to label each Assignment Group with the word "total" at the end (e.g., Quizzes Total) because each Assignment Group appears as a subtotal column in the Gradebook. 
2. Once you create Assignment Groups, you add/move all your course's graded items (Assignments, Quizzes, Discussions, etc.) into the Assignment Groups you created.
3. Next, you enable Weighted Gradebook on the Assignments page, and you assign a weight to each Assignment Group. An Assignment Group's weight is the percentage its Assignments will count toward the total course grade. The percentage you assign to each Assignment Group should total 100%.

Tutorial Video

Setting Up a Weighted Gradebook

Written Procedures

Weighting the Gradebook in Canvas

Tip - If you have a weighted Gradebook, it is important that all Assignments within a weighted Assignment Group have the same point value in order for Canvas weighted Gradebook calculations to work out correctly. If items in an Assignment Group have different point values, then the items in the Assignment Group will not have the same weight. For example: if an Assignment Group contains Quiz A - worth 10 points and Quiz B - worth 100 points, Quiz B will be worth ten times as much as Quiz A in Canvas’ calculations for the Assignment Group.

If you are not using a weighted Gradebook, having assignments with different point values in the same Assignment Group is fine and will not adversely affect Gradebook calculations.

When you add a graded item (Assignment, Quiz, or graded Discussion) to your course, it automatically adds a column to the Gradebook; however, if you need a column in the Gradebook where you can simply enter a score and students do not have to turn in anything, you can create a No Submission Assignment through the Assignments page.  

Instructors create No Submission Assignments for things like awarding class participation scores, assigning grades for speeches, and more.

Tutorial Video

Adding a No-Submission Column to the Gradebook

Written Procedures

Do the following to add a column to the Gradebook where you can simply enter scores and students do not have to submit work to the Assignment:

1. Click Assignments in the left-hand navigation to go to the Assignments page.
2. Click the + Assignment button, and give the assignment a name and point value.
3. In the Submission Type field, select No Submission. 
4. Add additional assignment details as necessary, and click Save and Publish. 

This adds a column in the Gradebook and does not require students to submit work. Note that there is no need to add this Assignment to a Module because the purpose of creating this Assignment is just to add a column to your Gradebook.

In Canvas Gradebook, you set a Grade Posting Policy for the course that determines when students will see their grades and feedback for Assignments. Posted grades are visible to students in your course. Hidden grades are visible to instructors  and TA graders but not students. 

Grade Posting Policy Options

• Automatically Post Grades - As soon as an instructor grades a student's work in Canvas, the student can see their grades and feedback. 
• Manually Post Grades - Grades will be hidden from students until the instructor manually posts grades for an assignment (this publishes grades for a column in the gradebook).

Tutorial Video

Setting a Grade Posting Policy for Your Class

Written Procedures

• Using Grade Posting Policies in a Course
• Select a Grade Posting Policy for a Course
• Select a Grade Posting Policy for an Individual Assignment (this overrides the Grade Posting Policy for the course)
• Posting Hidden Grades for an Assignment 
• Student Grade Visibility Flowchart

In the Canvas Gradebook, you can set policies that Canvas automatically applies to missing and late work.

Missing work - Work is considered missing when the due date has passed and work has not been submitted to the Assignment. You can set a Missing Submission policy that automatically applies a grade you specify to all missing submissions. Only submissions with a status of Missing will be affected by the Missing Submission policy. In the Gradebook, cells that are shaded red are missing submissions.

Late work - A submission is considered late when work was submitted to an assignment after the assignment's due date. You can set a Late Work policy in the Canvas Gradebook to automatically apply score deductions for work submitted after an Assignment's due date. In the Gradebook, cells that are shaded blue are late submissions.  

Tutorial Video

Applying Late and Missing Policies

The beginning of this video explains how to apply Late and Missing Policies in the Canvas Gradebook.

Written Procedures

• Set Late Submission Policies
• Missing Submission Policies

Tip - Learn more about the meaning of Gradebook Icons and Colors before the semester starts.

When you import content from a previous semester, the imported content retains the past due dates and past available dates. While you could individually edit each assignment, quiz, and discussion to change their due dates, Canvas provides a way to change all your assignment, discussion, and quiz dates on a single page. Note that adding dates to assignments is not required.

• Due At - This is the date and time by which students should submit work in Canvas. Students can still submit work to the assignment after the assignment's due date, but the student's submission will automatically be marked as late in the gradebook. Note that this is the date for the assignment that appears in the Canvas Syllabus.
• Available From - This is the date and time the assignment opens to accept student submissions.
• Available Until - This is the date and time the assignment locks and no longer accepts student submissions.

Read more about the difference between due dates and availability dates.

Tutorial Video

Changing Dates of All Assignments on One Page

Written Procedures

Change Assignment Available and Due Dates 

The Canvas Calendar contains the following for every course and group a user is enrolled in: 

• Course items: Assignment due dates, Quizzes, Discussions. 
• Course events: instructor‑added course events (e.g., exam days, office hours, etc.)
• Scheduler appointments: office hours or TA session timeslots that students can sign up for.
• Zoom meetings: meetings scheduled through the Canvas Zoom tool appear on the course Calendar, the Syllabus Tool's event list, and the student To Do List.

Calendar Tasks for Start of Semester

1. Make relevant Calendars visible
   In your sidebar, verify that the appropriate course calendars are visible. By default, the first ten course/group calendars are selected.

2. Add course events
   While many dates like Zoom meetings and Assignment due dates are automatically added to the course Calendar, you must manually add events (e.g., first lab, no class, etc.). 
   

   • Go to your course > select Settings > Course Calendar > Add Event.

   • Click More Options and set title, description, date/time, location.

   • If your course has multiple sections (meeting on different days or times), create separate events for each section.

   • If the meeting is recurrent (e.g. weekly on Tuesdays at 10 a.m.), set the number of repeats, and duplicate as needed.

3. Set up appointment groups in Scheduler if you want time slots students can sign up for
   If you’ll run TA‑led appointments or office hours, use Scheduler to create appointment groups. Students will sign up, and those commitments show in both their and your Calendar.

As a teaching assistant, you share responsibility with the course instructor for ensuring that the Canvas course and all course materials are accessible to all students. This includes following accessibility best practices for documents, multimedia, and course design so that students with disabilities can fully participate. To support this, use CETL's Accessibility & Universal Design Checklist as a guide when creating, uploading, or reviewing course content. This checklist provides practical steps to help ensure that materials meet accessibility standards and align with universal design principles.

Additionally, consider attending a workshop on accessibility:

• CETL's Accessibility Training Workshops
• Accessibility Resource Center (ARC) Accessibility Workshops

• Contact the Accessibility Resource Center (ARC) with questions regarding student accommodations
• Accommodations in Canvas:

  • You can extend the deadline for Assignments and Discussions by adding a different due date for the student. 

  • In Classic Quizzes, instructors can use the Moderate feature to grant students additional time to take a quiz or additional quiz attempts. 

Overview

Publishing Modules and their items will make them visible to students once your course is published.

• A green check  appears next to published items; these items can be viewed by students.
• Unpublished items are not visible to students and are indicated by a circle with slash icon . Note that you must publish a module in order for students to be able to view any of the items in the module. 

Written Procedures

• Publishing/Unpublishing Modules
• Lock Module and Contents Until a Specific Date
• Selectively Publishing/Unpublishing the Contents of a Module
• Publish/Unpublish a Quiz
• Publish/Unpublish an Assignment
• Publish/Unpublish a Discussion
• Publish/Unpublish a Page

It's important to see how your course looks to your students, and clicking the Student View button allows you to view and interact with your course as the Canvas Test Student. Try navigating your course, accessing resources, submitting assignments, and taking quizzes in Student View. Viewing your course as a Test Student is especially useful in verifying what elements of the course are hidden from students and which are published.

When you click Student View, a row in the Gradebook appears with the name “Test Student.” This allows you to award grades and give feedback to the Test Student as you would any other member of the class. 

You can click the Reset Student button to reset the Test Student data at any time. This will clear the Test Student's assignment submissions, grades, quiz attempts, and more. Note that it will not remove Discussion posts made as the Test Student. 

In Student View, click the Reset Student button to erase all the Test Student's activity such as Assignment submissions, Quiz attempts, etc. Note that this will not remove Test Student interactions in Discussions. Reset Student is helpful when you want to do something like take a Quiz again as the Test Student when the Quiz only allows a single attempt.

Written Procedures

• Using Student View in CanvasLinks to an external site.
• Resetting the Test StudentLinks to an external site.

Tip - A great way to practice grading with SpeedGrader and working with the Gradebook is to upload an Assignment submission in Student View, and then leave Student View and "grade" the Test Student's work in SpeedGrader.

When Canvas courses are created, they are in an unpublished state, which means that students do not see the course on their Canvas Dashboards and they cannot access the contents of the course. 

You give students access to your course by clicking the Publish button to publish the course.

Because students will not see an unpublished course on their Dashboards, it is a best practice to publish your class well before the semester starts to alleviate student anxiety about not being able to see your course in Canvas.

If you need to restrict student access to course material, consider hiding modules in the class rather than leaving the whole class unpublished.

Written Procedures

• Publishing a Course
• Unpublishing a Course

Use the People page in Canvas to verify your course roster. The People page in Canvas displays all the students, observers, teachers, and TAs in your class. Select People from the left column menu to navigate to the People page in order to verify your Canvas roster (teacher, student, TA, etc.) for accuracy. 

• Students who are enrolled in your course in PAWS are automatically added to your Canvas student roster (People page).
• Note that once a student registers for a class in PAWS, it takes a number of hours for the student to be added to the class in Canvas.

Tutorial Video

People Page Overview

00:07: How do I use the People page in a course as an instructor? 00:11: In course, navigation, click the people link 00:15: The People page displays all information about the users in your course. 00:19: The page is designed with global settings at the top of the page, followed by the generated 00:23: user data. 00:26: Global settings include searching and filtering by user data to search, 00:30: for a specific user type, the user's name in the search field, To 00:35: filter by role. Select the roles drop down menu. 00:38: The filter will also display the number of users in each type of role EG 00:42: student. You can also add a user to the course. 00:48: The people paid also organizes all your student groups where you can manage 00:52: student groups. You can create groups to put students together to 00:56: complete projects or other activities. 00:59: Students can set up their own groups which will allow them to work collaboratively. 01:09: To manage course, level user options, click the global options drop-down 01:13: menu. 01:15: You can view user groups, user groups are the same as displayed in the global 01:19: settings, at the top of the page. 01:22: You can view prior enrollments in the course, prior enrollments are students 01:26: who were previously enrolled in the course and their enrollments have been concluded. 01:31: You can also view a summary of all student interactions in your course. 01:35: Interactions are recorded when you contact the student via conversations or when 01:39: you leave a comment on an assignment, 01:42: You can view registered services for each user in the course. 01:45: If a person has registered a social media account in canvas, you 01:49: can see that service listed and communicate with that person through any social media 01:53: site, they have registered 01:56: You can export a list of pairing codes for all students in your course, Pairing 02:00: codes are used to pair a student with an observer. 02:03: This option only displays of self-registration is enabled that your institution 02:07: and is only available for users with permission to generate Observer pairing 02:11: codes. 02:13: The People page orders users alphabetically by last name, search and 02:17: filter results display the following data, the user's name, login 02:21: ID sisid, section role, last 02:25: activity and total activity. 02:29: You can also view the status for pending an inactive enrollments. 02:33: Once the course, is published users receive an invitation to the course. 02:38: Users who have not yet accepted the course invitation display a pending status. 02:43: Users who are inactive in the course display and inactive status. 02:46: The inactive status, allows you to view a user's prior activity in 02:50: the course, but does not allow the student to access the course. 02:55: To resend course invitations, for pending users. 02:57: Click the resend Link at the top of the page. 03:20: To view the context card for a student, click the student's name. 03:25: To manage a user. In your course, click the options icon. 03:31: If you have permission in your course, you can resend course invitations and view 03:35: user details. You may also be able to edit the user's 03:39: course sections, edit, the user's role deactivate the user, or 03:43: remove the user from the course. 03:46: For Observer roles. You can also link and observer to a student 03:51: To view the People page as a student. Click the view as student button. 03:56: This guide covered how to use the People page in a course as an instructor.

Written Procedures

Using the People Page in Canvas

• When adding a TA to a course, if you need the TA to be able to grade, the TA will need to be added as a "TA Grader" in your Canvas course. 

It is important to communicate with your class before the semester starts to welcome and orient students and to set expectations. Your options for sending messages to students vary depending on whether your Canvas class is published:

• If the class is Published:
  • Instructors can post a welcome Announcement in their Canvas class. This will also send an email notification to students.
  • Instructors can send messages to the class with the Canvas Inbox.
• If the class is Unpublished:
  • Instructors can email their students through PAWS.

Tutorial Videos

Adding Canvas Announcements

00:07: How do I add an announcement in a course? 00:10: In course navigation click the announcements link 00:14: Click the add announcement button. 00:17: Type a title for the announcement in the topic title field 00:21: Add content in the rich content editor. 00:24: To add an attachment to your announcement click the attach link then 00:28: select a file. 00:30: View the attached file name. You can download or delete 00:34: the attachment to download the attached file. 00:36: Click the file name linked to delete the attachment hover 00:41: the cursor over the link and click the delete icon. 00:48: In the usage right drop-down menu select one of five usage rights. 00:53: If you are an instructor and are not sure which usage write applies to your file, please 00:57: consult your institutional admin for guidance. 01:01: I hold the copyright original content created by you. 01:05: I have obtained permission to use the file authorized permission by the author. 01:11: The material is in the public domain explicitly assigned to public domain 01:15: cannot be copyrighted or is no longer protected by copyright. 01:21: The material is subject to an exception EG fair use the 01:25: right to quote or others under applicable copyright laws excerpt 01:29: or summary used for commentary news reporting research or 01:33: analysis in education. 01:36: The material is licensed under Creative Commons. 01:39: This option also requires setting a specific Creative Commons license. 01:44: If known enter the copyright holder information in the copyright holder field. 01:50: To save your usage right settings click the save button you can edit usage 01:54: right settings by clicking the set usage rights icon. 01:58: By default canvas will send your announcement to all sections within your course. 02:02: To select specific sections for your announcement click the post to drop down 02:06: menu and select sections from the list provided. 02:11: In the options section, you can select various options for your announcement. 02:16: To allow other users to reply to the announcement click the allow participants 02:20: to comment checkbox. 02:23: To disallow threaded replies to an announcement click the disallow threaded 02:27: replies checkbox. 02:30: To require students to reply to a post before seeing other replies click 02:34: the participants must respond to the topic before viewing other replies checkbox. 02:40: To enable an announcement podcast feed click the enable podcast feed 02:44: checkbox. 02:46: To allow users to like announcement replies. 02:48: Click the allow liking checkbox. 02:52: By default the announcement will display immediately after you publish it and 02:56: it displays for the duration of the course unless you delete it. 03:00: However, you can set display dates for the announcement to specify 03:04: when the announcement should display set a date and time in the available from area. 03:09: To specify when the announcement should stop displaying set a date and time 03:13: in the until area. To delay the posting of your announcement 03:17: schedule the announcement for a future date. 03:21: Click the publish button. 03:24: View the announcement in the announcements index page 03:27: This guide covered how to add an announcement in a course.

00:07: What are announcements? 00:09: In course navigation click the announcements link 00:13: Course announcements display on the announcements index page 00:17: To communicate with students about the logistics of a course instructors 00:21: can add an announcement. Instructors can format and add content to 00:25: announcements using the rich content editor features. 00:29: Instructors can also use announcement options to allow others to reply comment 00:33: enable podcast feeds allow liking and to specify 00:37: a time frame for the announcement. 00:40: As soon as an instructor creates an announcement canvas takes care of notifying 00:44: students according to their preferred notification settings. 00:48: There are also unread and read indicators next to the announcements. 00:53: Instructors have the option of feeding posts from a blog or other information sources 00:57: directly into their announcements page using RSS. 01:00: RSS feeds can be filtered by keyword to prevent irrelevant content from 01:04: entering the course. Students who use RSS readers can 01:08: subscribe to course announcements outside of canvas 01:13: As an instructor use announcements to Remind 01:17: your students what they need to accomplish to stay on track Point students to 01:21: internal and external resources that will help them achieve course outcomes. 01:24: Leave a message for the entire class with video or audio comments. 01:29: Celebrate Student Success and important events that may be of interest to your students. 01:34: Feed a custom RSS fee related to the topic of the course to your students 01:38: automatically share blog posts written by your students on WordPress 01:42: blogger Etc with custom RSS feeds. 01:47: As a student you may be able to view and reply to course announcements. 01:51: You may also be able to add announcements in a student group. 01:56: This guide covered announcements

Written Procedures

• Adding Canvas Announcements
• Sending Messages Through the Canvas Inbox

Instructor presence involves an instructor's active engagement, communication, and facilitation of the course. Your active participation in your class can help build a sense of community, establish a rapport with your students, and set a positive tone for the course. 

Canvas Best Practices for Building Online Presence & Community

By implementing these strategies in Canvas, you can establish a strong online presence, build a sense of community, and create a supportive learning environment that enhances student engagement and success in your class.

Send a Welcome Announcement: Send out a warm and welcoming Announcement at the beginning of the semester. Introduce yourself, share your teaching philosophy, and express your enthusiasm for the course. This sets a positive tone and makes students feel more connected to the instructor from the start.

Create a Welcome Discussion: Set up a Canvas Discussion where students can introduce themselves. Encourage them to share their interests, academic goals, and any relevant background information. Respond to each student's introduction to show that you are actively engaged and interested in getting to know them. 

Create a Student Questions & Answers Discussion: Create a Discussion area at the top of your class where students can post questions about class technology, Assignments, etc., to the class. Make sure to reply to the questions in a timely manner, and also encourage other students to answer questions posted in the Discussion.

Personalize Communication: Address students by their names in your interactions. This simple act can make the online environment feel more personal and supportive.

Participate Actively in Discussions: Engage in Discussions regularly, pose thought-provoking questions, and encourage student participation. Acknowledge their contributions, provide feedback, and facilitate conversations between students to foster a sense of community. Periodically summarize and reflect on the main points discussed in the online Discussions. This demonstrates that you value student contributions and are actively engaged in the learning process.

Hold Virtual Office Hours with Zoom - This provides an opportunity for students to have one-on-one interactions with you, seek clarification on course content, and build a stronger connection.

Provide Timely and Constructive Feedback with SpeedGrader: Regularly review and provide feedback on Assignments, Quizzes, and other assessments. Prompt feedback demonstrates your active involvement in their learning progress and helps students stay on track.

Record weekly video announcements with the Canvas Media Recorder:  Help orient your students to the week and make your course more engaging by recording a short video each week. The following is an example of what your video could cover: 

• Start by giving students encouragement and reminders.
• Briefly talk about the previous week
• Discuss details of this week's assignments and give answers to questions about the assignments that students have asked in the past.

Send Reminders and Updates Through the Canvas Inbox or Announcements: Send out timely reminders about upcoming Assignments, Quizzes, and important dates. Regularly update the course content based on current events or relevant developments in the field.

Organize Group Projects or Collaborative Assignments with Canvas Groups: Group Assignments can encourage teamwork and foster peer interactions. Actively participate in Group Discussions and offer guidance as needed.

Additional Resources

• How to Establish a Strong Community in an Online Course
• Cultivating Community Building in Online Learning Environments