Author Archives: Shane Degen

Canvas Grading Lab

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Have you entered zeros in your gradebook for missing work? Are your assignment groups weighted the same way in Canvas as they are in your syllabus? Have you set your courses Grade Scheme to match your syllabus? Do you need assistance submitting final grades to WINS? During the Fall 2019 final exam period, the LTC will be offering opportunities to work on each of these with local support available.

Canvas Grading Lab 
We will be available to answer your Canvas questions during the sessions below!

DATE/TIMELOCATIONREGISTER
Wednesday, December 18th
1:30 – 4:30pm		McGraw 19c, Whitewater CampusIn-Person Registration
Thursday, December 19th
1:00 – 4:00pm		Allen Hall 03/04, Rock CampusIn-Person Registration

If you have any questions about these sessions, please reach out to the UW-W Learning Technology Center.

November 2019 Canvas Update

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Winterim 2020 and Spring 2020 courses are now available in Canvas.

  • Course Combinations.  Do you want to combine multiple sections of the same course into a single Canvas course?  Follow the steps in the Cross-Listing/Merging Canvas Courses guide.  If you need to combine courses that you are not the teacher for or if you have any questions please contact Canvas support.
  • Sync Grades to WINS (eGrading). Canvas does have the ability to send your course final grades directly to the WINS Grade Roster at the end of the semester. Get started by viewing the step-by-step instructions.

On Saturday, November 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.

  • Training Options: The Help Menu includes a new training portal link for instructors. This new training portal contains complimentary self-paced training resources and provides one-click registration for training webinars which are offered by Instructure.
  • Dashboard – Unfavorite a Course option: In the Course Card Dashboard, courses can be removed as favorites from the course card Options menu.
  • Pages – Microsoft Immersive Reader: The Microsoft Immersive Reader is being offered in Canvas as a trial feature. This will offer students some basic accessibility options for all Pages in courses. To learn more about this feature, see the Microsoft Immersive Reader website.

If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to the UW-W Learning Technology Center.

What’s New in Canvas? (10/21/2019)

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On Saturday, October 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.

  • Grades – Post Policy Icons Updates: The word Manual displays in the assignment header to indicate the assignment is set with the Manual Posting Policy. Additionally, the outlined Visibility icon only displays when entered grades need to be posted.
  • Navigation – Menu Visibility: A visual change has been made for Teachers to more easily tell which Navigation Menu items are visible to students. Icons not visible to students will be marked by the symbol of an eye with a slash though it.
    • NOTE: Some external tools are never visible to students, but do not receive the new icon.
  • Analytics – New Course and User Analytics: Existing course and user analytics have been replaced with the New Course and User Analytics functionality.

If you have any questions or concerns about the service pack updates, please contact UW-W Canvas Support.

Canvas Workshops – Fall 2019

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During the Fall 2019 Semester, the LTC will be offering opportunities to work on and learn about Canvas features.  For self guided assistance, please view the Canvas Service Page.

Canvas Open Lab 
We will be available to answer your Canvas questions during the sessions below! Whether you are working on your current course, or planning for the future – stop on by!

Date/Time Location Register
Tuesday, October 8th
8:00am – 10:00am		 McGraw 19c, Whitewater Campus In-Person Registration
Wednesday, October 16th
Noon – 4:00pm		 Williams 29, Rock Campus In-Person Registration
Wednesday, October 23rd
2:00pm – 4:00pm		 McGraw 19b, Whitewater Campus In-Person Registration
Tuesday November 5th
1:00pm – 3:00pm		 McGraw 19c, Whitewater Campus In-Person Registration
Wednesday, November 13th
8:00am – Noon		 Williams 29, Rock Campus In-Person Registration
Wednesday, November 20th
10:00am – Noon		 McGraw 19b, Whitewater Campus In-Person Registration
Tuesday, December 3rd
Noon – 4:00pm		 Williams 29, Rock Campus In-Person Registration
Wednesday, December 4th
1:00pm – 3:00pm		 McGraw 19b, Whitewater Campus In-Person Registration

Canvas Deep Dives (1 Hour)
We will focus on a single tool, and dive deep into various options and use cases for how that tool works.

  • Groups: This training will discuss what the toolis, how it differs from what we are use to in D2L, when it should be used, and when it shouldn’t be used.
  • Webex Tools: Webex is usable through Canvas, but does take some initial setup there.  If you are interested in using Webex for your classes, this is the workshop for you.
Event Name Date/Time Location Register
Groups Monday, October 7th
9:00am – 10:00am		 McGraw 19c, Whitewater Campus In-Person Registration
Webex Tools Monday, November 18th
9:00am – 10:00am		 McGraw 19c, Whitewater Campus In-Person Registration

If you have any questions about these sessions, please reach out to the UW-W Learning Technology Center.

[Resolved] “New Quizzes” Canvas Issue

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On Saturday September 14th, between approximately 9:40am and 6:53pm, users attempting to take or access the “New Quizzes” tool received “invalid launch” errors.

The fix implemented by Instructure technicians involved restoring database data from 9:00am, resulting in a potential loss of data entered between the times of 9:00am and 9:40am. 

What does this mean for me and how do I know if this affected my courses?

“New Quizzes” is a tool that is currently in Beta testing available for instructors to use to create and administer online quizzes.  Once this tool has been fully developed it will one day replace Quizzes.  

While both tools are available, the majority of instructors utilizing online quizzing are using Quizzes and will be unaffected.  UW-Whitewater currently recommends that you continue to use the current “Quiz” tool via the “Quizzes” menu inside of Canvas.

If you have any questions or concerns about the outage and whether or not your courses were affected, please contact UW-W Canvas Support.

Welcome Back Students! Have Canvas issues?

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Welcome to the Fall 2019 Semester!  Here is what you should know for the Fall Semester.

  • Courses may or may not have a Canvas component. Instructors have the option to use Canvas for their courses, but not all do.  If you aren’t sure if Canvas is utilized for your class, be sure to ask your instructor.  If you are just enrolling in a course now, be aware that it can take 24-48 hours for that enrollment to move from WINS to Canvas.
  • Canvas 24/7/365 support is available for all users.  Most students are already familiar with the D2L Support Form, but what happens when a student needs help with Canvas?  You can contact the Canvas 24/7/365 Support team.  You can find the Chat and E-mail options on both the Canvas Login Page and in the Help button in the lower left hand corner after you are logged in.
  • Self-paced Student Training Course is available. Anyone interested in receiving an introduction to Canvas before the start of the semester can self-enroll in the state provided Canvas Student Training course http://go.uww.edu/canvas-student-training

If you have questions regarding the Canvas Transition, please contact the UW-W Learning Technology Center.

Canvas Workshops – September 2019

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During the month of September, the LTC will be offering opportunities to work on and learn about Canvas features. We will continue to offer workshops throughout the fall semester.

Canvas Open Lab (2 Hours)
We will be available to answer your Canvas questions during the sessions below! Whether you are working on your current course, or planning for the future – stop on by!

Date/Time Location Register
Wednesday, September 4th – 2:00pm McGraw 19c In-Person Registration
Thursday, September 5th – 1:00pm McGraw 19c In-Person Registration
Monday, September 9th – 1:00pm McGraw 19c In-Person Registration
Tuesday, September 10th – 2:00pm McGraw 19c In-Person Registration

Canvas Deep Dives (1 Hour) Followed by Canvas Open Lab (1 Hour)
We will focus on a single tool, and dive deep into various options and use cases for how that tool works.  The second hour will be available as an Open Lab.

  • Grades: Weighting grades, Late policies, Muting Assignments, SpeedGrader, setting a default grade, and setting up extra credit.
  • Rubrics: This will start by touching briefly on rubric creation, but will focus on techniques to maximize the amount of value you can get by building rubrics directly in Canvas.
Event Name Date/Time Location Register
Grades Monday, September 16th – 1:00pm McGraw 19c In-Person Registration
Rubrics Tuesday, September 17th – 2:00pm McGraw 19c In-Person Registration
Grades Tuesday, September 24th – 1:00pm McGraw 19c In-Person Registration
Rubrics Wednesday, September 25th – 2:00pm McGraw 19c In-Person Registration

If you have any questions about these sessions, please reach out to the UW-W Learning Technology Center.

Canvas Course Templates: Additional Flexibility Available

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On Tuesday May 28th, UW-System approved a change in Canvas to allow for additional flexibility in the Course Navigation area and in the number of Announcements shown.  The following items can now be added or removed from the student view in the following order:

  • Assignments
  • Discussions
  • Grades
  • Announcements
  • People
  • Pages
  • Syllabus
  • Outcomes
  • Quizzes
  • Modules
  • Collaborations
  • Chat
  • Office 365

Instructors are now able to modify the number of recent Announcements that are visible in the Home area.  Announcements were previously set so that the three most recent were visible in the Home area.  This update will allow instructors to choose to allow between one and fifteen announcements to be visible.

These updates will not cause any visible changes in existing courses.  Any instructor wishing to take advantage of this increased flexibility will need to update their courses themselves.

If you have additional questions about Canvas please reach out to Canvas 24/7/365 support by going to http://uww.edu/canvas.