Canvas Insider

From the Admin side of the desk. Practical writing for Canvas LMS administrators and the people who manage them, published since 2022. This is the canonical archive; the publication continues at canvasinsider.blog.

Tech Supportiquette #2

I have a picture on my office wall where I’m surrounded by various friends and family. In this photo there is a war veteran & retired law enforcement official, a church minister, a vice president of a bank, a graphic designer, an executive business coach, and my mother. When I ask my friends questions pertaining to their field of expertise they respond kindly and are often informative. I know they have spent years, if not decades, obtaining wisdom about their respective vocations. Yet they never expect me to know what they know. That would be silly. ...

Tech Supportiquette - Visual Receipts

When you are needing to fix something in your course and contact your Canvas tech support, which one of these responses would you want to receive? 1 - “Click this link to follow the steps in our online guide to resolve your issue: https://guides.bigbusiness.com/kb/asd89a7fsa98sdv7a98s7cs987d” 2 - “Done.” 3 - “To fix your problem you first [long run-on sentence devoid of commas using ambiguous, confusing directions made by a support person using their own heavily-customized computer assuming everyone has the same configuration.]” ...

Tailoring Grades in Canvas

I recently made a video for my faculty clients showing some ways they can make changes to their gradebook scores; hiding scores, posting scores, applying late score deductions, and more. While there is an extensive guide to using gradebooks on Instructure’s website, I’ve received more nuanced requests for help with grading from my clients, so I made a quick video for additional consideration…with some cheeky easter-eggs in there for entertainment purposes. :) ...

Customize Your Rubrics

After a few consults with some faculty clients, I noticed they asked similar questions about their assignment rubrics. Even though Instructure has an extensive overview of rubrics on their site, Here is a quick video to share some tips and ideas for improving your grading experience with rubrics… -Chris [email protected]

Setting up Accommodations in Canvas Quizzes

Instructure’s Canvas LMS has extensive documentation online about moderating your Canvas quiz. However, ther may be more steps needed to accommodate additional time for students taking a quiz. Keeping in mind my University is still using legacy/classic quizzes, teachers of Canvas courses might find some value with the two-step process in getting students additional time for time-limited quizzes. Check out this quick video to learn more. -Chris [email protected]

Attachments in Course Announcements

Instructure Canvas LMS has an extensive guide for teachers to post an announcement in their course. Teachers, if your students tell you they can’t view your attachment, it may be due to an important area of your course being hidden from student view. Check out my video to learn more. -Chris

Receive Email Notifications for Specific Discussions

One of my WWU professor clients asked if there was a way to, “…notify me…via email when someone asks as question in a particular discussion forum?” Why yes there is! As you will observe in my video, there is a small icon to click that will enable email notifications for a particular discussion board in a Canvas course. Here is a link to Instructure’s official documentation for teachers to subscribe to discussions: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-subscribe-to-a-discussion-as-an-instructor/ta-p/1106 ...

Working with your Canvas Calendar

My University has an Account Calendar which contains important dates and deadlines pulled from the Registrar’s webpage. Even though the Account Calendar is available to all who use Canvas at Western Washington University, it’s not that easy to locate. I made a six-minute video showing how one can access the Account Calendar for important dates, as well as: Changing calendar colors per individual preference Show/Hide calendars to improve focus Three ways to view your calendar list of events and due dates How to quickly change a personal calendar event from all-day to a to/from time How to remove the Account Calendar. Even though this video was created for my clients at WWU, I thought all y’all might enjoy a refresher of some Canvas Calendar tips and tricks. Thanks for watching! ...

Modules - The Manila File Folder of Canvas Courses

This summer, Instructure made some changes to the look and feel of Modules, especially involving who can see specific Module sections. I made quick video showing the new-ness, plus added some tips and ideas for utilizing Modules in your course. Stay tuned for more helpful video tips in the near future. Thanks for watching! A bit of a disclaimer - With the exception of one post back in January 2023, all of the content you see in this Canvas Insider Substack was created and written by Chris Powell, your Canvas Insider. No AI touched the videos or writings in my work.

Canvas Calendar and To-Do Items

Let’s revisit our Canvas Calendars and how we might be able to leverage our To-Do list along with those assignment due dates! Also, big thanks to my fabulous Insiders Matthew and Beth for catching Instructure’s decision to revert the “assign to:” location right after I shared my previous video. (I removed it from the list to avoid confusion.) Don’t forget to say hi! I’m at [email protected]. Thanks for watching.