Category Archives: Canvas

Planned Maintenance Outage – Sunday 1/12

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There are two planned outages happening on Sunday, 1/12 that will impact a number of services including Canvas.

  • On Sunday, January 12th between 12:00 AM (midnight) at 8:00 AM, DoIT in Madison will be performing scheduled Network Maintenance. During this window, there may be periods of time where services are not available. This may impact some Canvas and Kaltura logins, as well as other services listed in the DoIT announcement.
  • On Sunday, January 12th between 12:00 AM (midnight) and 1:00 AM, Instructure will be performing maintenance on the Quizzes tool in Canvas. During this window, there may be periods of time where quizzes are not available.

If you have any questions, please contact UW-W Canvas Support.

Spring 2020 Canvas Course Prep Session

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On Friday, January 10th there will be a three hour Open Lab in McGraw 19C, spotted with five-minute mini sessions about targeted reminders on a wide range of topics. The LTC and LEARN Center would like to help you work on anything on your start of semester to-do list. Even if the mini session don’t touch on your tasks, there will be people here to help with anything during the Open Lab times.

  • 1:00pm-1:30pm Canvas 24-7 Support vs HelpDesk followed by Open Lab
  • 1:30pm-2:00pm Transferring content from one Canvas course to another followed by Open Lab
  • 2:00pm-2:30pm What goes into a syllabus, and what resources are available? Followed by Open Lab
  • 2:30pm-3:00pm Gradebook setup followed by Open Lab
  • 3:00pm-3:30pm Designing good assignments in Canvas followed by Open Lab
  • 3:30pm-4:00pm LEARN Center offerings for Spring followed by Open Lab

If the above is too much to keep track of during this busy time of year, just stop in during any time that works for you, and we will be here to help you get done the things YOU need to get done.

While walk-ins are encouraged, if you plan on joining us at any point, please consider signing up in advance so we know to expect you.

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

[RESOLVED] Respondus Monitor Slowdown

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On Monday, December 9th, 2019, between 9:15 AM and 10:20 AM CDT, Respondus Monitor experienced a slowdown due to a database issue. This was causing intermittent connectivity issues for instructors accessing the LockDown Browser dashboard. It was also causing slowdowns or errors for students trying to start a Respondus Monitor session.  Everything was operating normally as of 10:20 AM CDT.

Please contact Canvas 24/7/365 Support with any questions or concerns.

What is Respondus Monitor?

Respondus Monitor is an additional product that works with Respondus LockDown Browser to use the student’s webcam to utilize video to further prevent cheating during online quizzes.  It is currently licensed only for use by specific courses in the College of Business and Economics.

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 Transition Update

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Thank you for your hard work transferring your Desire2Learn courses to Canvas! Starting with the Summer 2019, 100% of our for-credit courses are on Canvas!

While the end of this giant undertaking is in sight, there are still some important things to keep in mind as we close out the Desire2Learn service:

  • Desire2Learn Courses will be set to Read-Only on January 17th, 2020. Are you still using Desire2Learn for a department or ongoing course? If so – now is the time to get your course migrated over to Canvas! Request your Canvas ongoing course using this form.
  • Desire2Learn Student Activity exports now available! We have an export report available that allows us to export student activity for: Checklists, Content, Course Files, Discussions, Dropbox, Grades, Group contribution/locker, Homepages, News, Quizzes and Release Conditions. Fill out this form to request a student activity export. Please allow 7 business days for processing. Requests must be received by March 1st, 2020.
  • UW-System will be removing access to Desire2Learn in June of 2020. All information you would like to keep must be exported out of D2L before June of 2020. Whether it’s an old for-credit based course, or an ongoing course – make sure all material is backed up. Once our access is removed, we will not have any way to obtain this data. Don’t delay, save your course files today!
  • View the Desire2Learn Retirement timeline for additional details.

Tell us about your Canvas support experience. Overall, we have had great success with Canvas 24/7/365 Phone/Chat/Email support. Whether you got an awesome answer from Canvas Support, or if you were wishing they would have provided more information – let us know! We review all support interactions on a regular basis – and we want to make sure you get the support and answers you need! Submit your feedback by going to http://uww.edu/icit/services/canvas and clicking on the Vendor Support Feedback button.

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

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.