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.
I missed you, Canvas Insiders. Let’s start this upcoming school year off with some updates and changes…to our Canvas Dashboard and our account profiles and settings! Don’t forget to say hi! I’m at [email protected]. Thanks for watching.
I recently helped a student who had a blank page appear in their course’s assignment window. No assignment content info, no submit button, nada, nope, negative Ghost Rider. Check out how we were able to get the assignment text and information screen to reappear in this quick video. As always, I appreciate your time in checking out my screencasts… Chris
One of my fabulous Canvas Insiders asked, **“How do you calculate an extra credit assignment in Canvas?” ** Great question! Here’s one way to consider using extra credit assignments in your Canvas course. As always, your mileage may vary… Keep those cards and letters coming my way! Thanks for your time, -Chris
When a teacher drops the lowest score in an assignment group, how do the students spot which one was dropped? Check out this quick screencast for more. (…and yes, I know I started my video with “Canvas Admins” instead of “Canvas Insiders. I always do a one-take recording, and figured by now you know who you are. Yer part of my Canvas Insider journey on Substack, you fabulous person!) ;-) ...
I recently made a video for faculty at my University showing how course content looked in the Instructure Canvas Student mobile app. Then I said to myself, “Self, some of your fabulous Insiders may not be aware of what students see on their mobile device.” So here is a quick video showing the desktop Canvas course content side-by-side to an iOS device. As always, I appreciate your time in checking out my screencasts… ...
A while back, I had made a video showing teachers of Canvas courses the student’s perspective when it came to Peer Review assignments. I’ve seen an increase in questions from my faculty clients about Peer Reviews in their courses, so I wanted to make an updated video sharing the different types of Peer Reviews available… in my usual one-take, cheeky perspective. Before you go… After viewing this screencast (thank you for checking it out, by the way!) if you would like to see more of these screencast-style tips in the future, shoot me a quick email? If you think I should hang up my screencast gear moving forward, shoot me a quick email! ...
Even though Instructure has excellent, extensive documentation about how a student can sign up for a Scheduler appointment in their Canvas calendar, some students aren’t aware that the reservable time slots are not immediately visible in their calendar view. Check out this quick screencast to show how a student can locate those time slots! Thank you for your time and attention! If you found value with this tip, shoot me an email to let me know. ...
Recently I had a student contact me stating they got an “Access Denied” message when trying to view a file in their course’s modules. Other students didn’t have this problem. After learning that the student was using a macOS desktop computer, and the built-in Safari web browser, I figured out what was giving that student the “Access Denied” message. Check out this brief video to learn more… Thank you for your time and attention! If you found value with this tip, shoot me an email to let me know. ...
Recently I met with a professor who was concerned that their students weren’t seeing the content page on the date they wanted it added to their To-Do lists on the right-side column of their course. I discovered something interesting about keeping your To-Do lists up to date. As always, Instructure has some extensive online documentation for learning more about student To-Do lists, but to learn an Insider tip about your student’s To-Do lists, check out this quick video for more! ...
One of the recent updates to Canvas course assignments is the option to enable anonymous instructor annotations. While Instructure has a very informative and extensive documentation webpage here: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-enable-anonymous-instructor-annotations-in-student/ta-p/665 …I wanted to share a little more about what is actually hidden in an assignment with this enabled. To see three different perspectives on anonymous instructor annotations, check out my brief video screencast above! Thank you for your time and attention! If you found value with this tip, shoot me an email to let me know. ...