Author Archives: Shane Degen

Summer 2024 Course Prep Boot Camp

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New to Canvas, or need a refresher? Looking for someone that can walk you through what Canvas can do while you prepare for Fall 2024? Now is your chance! Join us for hands-on workshops.

Photo by MART PRODUCTION from Pexels

These sessions are designed for instructors looking to learn what Canvas has to offer, and how to use it. Whether you are brand new, have content ready to be moved from paper into Canvas (e.g. moving a quiz or rubric into a digital form), or a long time pro looking for reminders, we can help. This series of workshops will provide you the know how and time to complete specific tasks to get your course set up. Enroll in one, a handful, or all of them; even if it is just for a way to schedule your work time.

Getting Started

Tuesday, May 28: 10:00a.m.-11:30 a.m. | Signup

Building Your Content

Wednesday, May 29: 10:00a.m.-11:30 a.m. | Signup

Assignments and Setting Up Grades

Thursday, May 30: 10:00a.m.-11:30 a.m. | Signup

Accessories

Tuesday, June 04: 10:00a.m.-11:30 a.m. | Signup

Collaborations

Wednesday, June 05: 10:00a.m.-11:30 a.m. | Signup

Wrapping Up

Thursday, June 06: 10:00a.m.-11:30 a.m. | Signup

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Learning Technology Center. If you are interested in a consultation, please fill out our consultation form.

COMING SOON! Canvas Discussions Redesign Deployment

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In Summer 2024, Canvas Discussions will be undergoing a visual refresh and additional features as part of Instructure’s “Discussions Redesign”.  While Discussions will still function primarily in the same manner and offers all of the features currently available, additional new features will include:

  • Anonymous posting
  • @Mentions
  • Instructor tag
  • New thread viewing options

If you are interested in a brief video overview, please watch this short video from Instructure.

To prevent this change from happening while summer courses are active, UW-Whitewater will be turning on the Discussions Redesign after grades are due on Tuesday, May 14, 2024. On this date, all discussions will automatically upgrade to the redesign with no action needed from instructors.

While we recognize the best way to get use to a tool is to spend time working with it, we recommend the Instructor Guide – Discussions Redesign and Student Guide – Discussions Redesign guides for supplemental support.

Of the changes being made, the one we here on the UWW campus are most excited for is still on the horizon. This new tool will be adding “Checkpoints”, which would allow instructors to set a separate date for when an initial post needs to be made, and when the discussion is due. Sadly, this feature is not yet implemented, but stay tuned for details to come!

If you have any questions or concerns about this update, or even just curious about how it can help you, please contact UW-W Canvas Support.

Canvas to WINS Final Grade Submission – Spring 2023

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The Spring 2023 WINS Grades Roster is open from Wednesday May 10, through noon on Tuesday May 16. The eGrading process allows instructors to transfer final grades from their Canvas Gradebook directly to their WINS Grade Roster.

Each semester, grades need to be entered into WINS. While many instructors do this manually, Canvas can help automate some of the steps for you. The Learning Technology Center is providing training on the three steps needed to push grades from Canvas so they can be accepted in WINS.

  1. Finish grading (including entering 0s) and setting the Grade Scheme
  2. Transfer grades from Canvas to WINS
  3. Verify and accept grades in WINS

Please be mindful that any ungraded items can result in different final grades showing to Teachers, Students, and/or the Student Information System (WINS), depending on the settings used by each individual. Check here for information about ensuring Total Grades are as intended: https://kb.wisconsin.edudle/page.php?id=91483

In person support sessions on this process are also available: https://my.uww.edu/SignUp/Registration/Details?id=17479

If you have any additional questions, please contact Canvas 24/7 Support. 

Canvas Update (Spring 2023)

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On Saturday April 15, Instructure deployed the latest release to the Canvas environment, and the final one before Summer 2023. The highlights of this release are listed below. The full release notes are also available.

  • Gradebook – Submit Assignment on Behalf of Student: instructors can submit a file upload assignment on behalf of a student in the Gradebook. The submission includes the timestamp and who submitted the assignment. Additionally, the instructor can submit multiple files at a time for a single student and submit beyond the availability date.
  • Gradebook – Sort Assignments by Excused Submissions and Unposted Grades: In the Gradebook, instructors can sort individual assignment columns and rows by excused submissions and unposted grades.
  • Equation Editor – Equilibrium Button: In the Rich Content Editor Equation Editor, an Equilibrium button is available.
  • Pages – Schedule Page Publication:  When editing an unpublished Page, instructors can set a publication date. Scheduled pages remain invisible to students until the publish date and time.

      New Quizzes Improvements: While New Quizzes has been available for several years now, many instructors still opt to use Classic Quizzes. Multiple updates have been made to improve New Quizzes, which will not be made in Classic.

      • New Quizzes – Allow Clearing of Multiple Choice Question Answers: In the New Quizzes settings, instructors can enable Allow Clearing Selection (Multiple Choice) allowing students to clear multiple choice answers.
      • New Quizzes – Fill in the Blank with Multiple Word Bank Improvements: In New Quizzes, when building a Fill in the Blank question with multiple word bank choices, distractor words display in a separate section for instructors. Also, word choices can be used more than once when Allow Word Bank Choices to be Reused is selected and duplicate answer choices are graded correctly. Additionally, for students, Fill in the Blank questions with multiple word banks display all word bank choices in the answer blank drop-down menu.
      • New Quizzes – Grade by Question in SpeedGrader: SpeedGrader supports grading one question at a time in New Quizzes. When in Grade by Question mode the question navigation bar is available and the Update score button location has been updated. Additionally, hyperlinks have been added to questions requiring manual grading
      • New Quizzes – Share Item Bank to Current Course Checkbox: When creating a new item bank in the New Quizzes Build page, instructors can share the bank to the current course. This change reduces extra steps to share an Item Bank and improves instructor workflows when building New Quizzes.

      If you have any questions or concerns about the service pack updates, or even just curious about how they can help you, please contact UW-W Canvas Support.

      2023 Course Prep Boot Camp

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      Strapped for time and looking for a guiding hand on all the things you need to do to get a Canvas course up and running for Spring?  Now is your chance! Join us for hands-on workshops broken up between quick demonstrations and supported work time.

      Photo by MART PRODUCTION from Pexels

      These sessions are designed for instructors looking to get their Spring 2023 course up and running but all faculty and staff are welcome. Come with previous content ready to be updated or moved from paper into Canvas (e.g. moving a quiz or rubric into a digital form). This series of workshops will provide you the know how and time to complete specific tasks to get your course set up. Enroll in one, a handful, or all of them; even if it is just for a way to schedule your work time.

      Getting Started

      Tuesday, January 3: Noon-1:00 p.m. | Signup

      Building Your Content

      Wednesday, January 4: Noon-1:00 p.m. | Signup

      Assignments and Setting Up Grades

      Thursday, January 5: Noon-1:00 p.m. | Signup

      Accessories

      Tuesday, January 10: Noon-1:00 p.m. | Signup

      Collaborations

      Wednesday, January 11: Noon-1:00 p.m. | Signup

      Wrapping Up

      Thursday, January 12: Noon-1:00 p.m. | Signup

      Canvas Update (11/19/2023)

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      On Saturday November 19, Instructure will deploy the latest release to the Canvas environment. The highlights of this release are listed below. The full release notes are also available.

      • Outcomes – Outcome Alignment Summary Tab:  Instructors can quickly view a summary of alignments to the Outcomes in their course. Additionally, instructors can use a filter to view all Outcomes, view only those with alignments or those without alignments. 
      • Pages – Schedule Page Publication: The Schedule Page Publication default status has been updated. Instructors can delay pages for publication on a specific date and time. Scheduled pages remain invisible to students until the publish date and time.
      • SpeedGrader – Multi-File Submission Display as Single Submission for Third Party Tools: When using third-party tools to upload assignments, multiple files submitted together will display as a single submission in Speedgrader. This update allows instructors to view submissions with multiple files together in SpeedGrader.

      If you have any questions or concerns about the service pack updates, or even just curious about how they can help you, please contact UW-W Canvas Support.

      [RESOLVED] Canvas Unplanned Outage (09/21/2022)

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      RESOLVED: Between 1:00 PM and 1:45 PM on Wednesday, September 21st users may have had issues accessing Canvas. The issue has been resolved. Please reach out to Canvas 24/7 support for any additional issues.

      Beginning at roughly 1:00PM on Wednesday, September 21st users may have started receiving timeout and gateway errors when accessing Canvas. The vendor was aware of the issue and promptly began investigating.

      Resolved: 1:45PM the issue was resolved, and service was restored.

      Canvas Update (04/16/2022)

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      On Saturday April 16, Instructure will deploy the latest release to the Canvas Environment. The highlights of this release are listed below. The full release notes are also available.

      • Gradebook – Apply Score to Ungraded Assignments: This change allows instructors to apply scores to ungraded submissions en masse from an assignment group and Total column menus in the Gradebook.
      • New Quizzes – This Course Item Bank Filter: In New Quizzes item banks, the “this course” filter has been added to the filter options.
      • Submission Comments – Emojis in Submission Comments: When adding submission comments, instructor and students can add emojis using Emoji Picker.
      • Course Settings – Assignment Default Due Time Field: The Assignment Default Due time can be modified at the course level to allow assignments to have the default Due time be for any hour. 
      • Gradebook – Enhanced Gradebook Filters: When the Enhanced Gradebook Filters feature preview is enabled for a course, instructors can create filters that can be saved or used one time. Setting on this feature were adjusted for greater instructor flexibility. 

      If you have any questions or concerns about the service pack updates, or even just curious about how they can help you, please contact UW-W Canvas Support.

      Canvas Update (03/19/2022)

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      On Saturday March 19, Instructure deployed the latest release to the Canvas environment. The highlights of this release are listed below. The full release notes are also available.

      • Gradebook – Enhanced Gradebook Filters:  When the Enhanced Gradebook Filters feature preview is enabled for a course, instructors can create filters that can be saved or used one time.
      • Rich Content Editor – Equation Editor Update: When a user creates equations in the Rich Content Editor, the Equation Editor displays an updated user interface.
      • New Quizzes – Item Bank Filtering Terminology Adjustments: In New Quizzes item banks, the All My Banks and All My Course Banks filters have been replaced as the All Banks and Banks Shared to Course filters. Additionally, the This Course filter has been added to the filter options.

      If you have any questions or concerns about the service pack updates, or even just curious about how they can help you, please contact UW-W Canvas Support.