The author wishes to thank his colleagues on the ATS Learning Design Team for their feedback, and Digital Pedagogy Fellow Kinley LaBerge for valuable assistance in the compilation of this post.
Canvas has implemented features over the past months that can provide valuable support for your pedagogy. As we enter Summer Quarter 2024, we invite you to take a look at these features and see how they can work for you.
Article Contents
- Choose When and Whether to Publish Your Zoom Recordings in Canvas
- Use the Redesigned Grading Schemes
- Use the Find and Replace Functionality in the Rich Content Editor
- Use Some Content Types Offline in the Canvas Mobile App
- Further Resources and Getting Help
Choose When and Whether to Publish Your Zoom Recordings in Canvas
Publish functionality has been enabled for Zoom cloud recordings made using the Zoom-Canvas integration. Previously, any cloud recordings made using this integration were immediately available to all students enrolled in the Canvas course. Now, if you click on the Zoom–University of Chicago Main Account link in your Canvas menu, you will see a toggle switch marked Publish All Recordings. If this is toggled on, all recordings will be made available to your students.
If you do not wish all recordings to be available to your students, simply make sure that Publish All Recordings is toggled off. You will then see a Publish toggle switch next to each recording. That recording will remain invisible to students until you choose to toggle it on. You thus have fine-grained control over when your students can see your cloud recordings, and if you make a mistake, wish to edit a video, etc., you can leave it unpublished.
Use the Redesigned Grading Schemes
Canvas grading schemes are a useful tool for customizing your numerical-letter grade equivalents and making them correspond to your syllabus. You can access grading schemes by going to Settings in your Canvas course and checking the Enable course grading scheme box. This will allow you to choose among existing grading schemes, or to create a new one with the +New Grading Scheme button.
If you create a new grading scheme, the dialog box that appears makes it easy for you to set it up. You can organize your grading scheme according to Percentage or Points.
New functionality in the redesigned grading schemes allows you to edit a grading scheme that is currently in use, or to archive it. If you archive a grading scheme, it will be stored but will not be available for use until such time as you unarchive it. To use this functionality, simply click Manage All Grading Schemes and then choose the pencil icon to edit or the file icon to archive.
Note: If you are interested in creative applications of grading schemes, we invite you to check out our past post on “ungrading” with digital tools.
Use the Find and Replace Functionality in the Rich Content Editor
The Canvas Rich Content Editor (RCE) now offers easy-to-use Find and Replace functionality. Simply select Tools and then Find and Replace from the drop-down menu or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+F (PC) / Cmd+F (Mac).
A dialog box will then appear. Use this box to find and replace your chosen text.
Use Some Content Types Offline in the Canvas Mobile App
The Canvas Student App for mobile devices now supports offline browsing of course content. Students can sync content to their app and view it when internet connectivity is slow or nonexistent.
Offline mode does not permit assignment submission or use of external tools that require an internet connection, such as Hypothes.is or Gradescope. Also, for your students to view Panopto videos offline, you will need to give them download permissions so that they can download the videos to their devices in advance. For additional details, please see Canvas’ blog post on offline support.
Further Resources and Getting Help
- For fuller documentation on new Canvas functionality, please see the April 20 release notes and May 18 release notes.
- For UChicago-specific Canvas issues, such as difficulty logging in or inability to see course materials, you can email canvas@uchicago.edu or call 773-702-9944 (8:30 to 4:30 weekdays). For broader issues, you can contact Instructure, the vendor for Canvas, 24/7/365 via phone (833-564-8137) or live chat (use the Help link in Canvas).
- If you would like to learn more about using Canvas or other instructional technologies in your course, feel free to contact ATS, attend our office hours or workshops, or book a consultation with an instructional designer.
Cover image by mcmurryjulie from Pixabay
