August 31, 2022

Dear Mona ,

Over the summer, we have been working on a handful of important Canvas projects. We built two new resources: a tab for students on academic policies, and a tool for collaboration policy & learning support. We also renovated the photo roster and the add user tool. See details below!

With the fall semester rapidly approaching, we are sharing ideas and resources on how to take advantage of Canvas in your course.

New Collaboration Policy & Learning Support tool

In your course navigation menu, you will find a new tool called Collaboration Policy & Learning Support. It replaces the old Academic Integrity tool and allows instructors and instructional staff to tailor information about permissible collaboration and learning support in their course.

New Academic Policies tab

You will find a new Academic Policy resource in the global navigation menu in Canvas. Its goal is to communicate important academic policies to students, especially around attendance and academic integrity.

Updated Add User Tool

Our updated tool is designed to improve roles and permissions and better reflect official student enrollment. An undergraduate student can be added only in the following roles: Tutor/UCA, Waitlisted Student, or PU Observer. As a general rule, faculty, teaching assistants, and staff can be added as either Instructional Staff, Course Builder, or PU Observer.

Updated Photo Roster

The Photo Roster tool has been redesigned to improve the print and search functionality as well as an updated user interface. We will continue to release updates to this tool throughout the fall semester.

Share your syllabus

You can either upload your syllabus to the Syllabus Library or to the built-in Canvas syllabus tool. With the Syllabus Library, you share your syllabus not only with the students in your course, but also with other Princeton students, faculty, and staff. The Syllabus Library can be accessed by anyone with a Princeton NetID.

Use reserves for library material

Readings and other course material can be placed on reserves, guaranteeing their availability for classroom use during the semester. To enable reserves, click the Reserves link in the course menu, select Fall 2022, then select Create Course.

Access for non-enrolled students

Most Canvas courses are by default set as Public to the Institution during the first two weeks of classes. This allows non-enrolled students access to your course site during the add/drop period. The access is read-only, and will, for instance, not allow non-enrolled students to submit assignments. You can remove guest access by following the instructions in the Canvas Field Guide.

Import a past Canvas course

To import a previous version of your course into your Fall ’22 site, select Import Course Content and then Copy a Canvas Course under Settings.

To avoid overriding the basic settings of your course, choose Select specific content and then select everything but Course Settings. Please note that items placed on reserves will not come over with course import.

Review and publish your course

Review your course in Student View to make sure that your students see what you intend for them to see. When you are ready for your students to access your course, click Publish on the course home page.

Locate a past course

Only current courses will display on your Canvas dashboard. To access a course site from a previous semester, go to Courses on the left in global navigation and then select All Courses. Previous courses can be found under the Past Enrollment section.

Teaching a large enrollment course can be a challenge, but several tools in Canvas can help teaching teams communicate more effectively, grade more efficiently, and keep students engaged. Here are some ideas:

Target course messages

Canvas Announcements allows you to post section-specific announcements using the Post to field.

Reduce repetitive questions

Create an FAQ or Q&A forum for commonly asked questions. Ed Discussion is particularly useful as it allows instructors to define categories and create threads. Ed allows students as well as teaching staff to answer questions. Instructors can endorse answers, as well as pin important threads.

Use filters in SpeedGrader

By default, SpeedGrader displays student submissions alphabetically, from all sections. Reduce the overall load time in SpeedGrader by filtering submissions by section. The Gradebook also provides filter options to make grading more efficient.

Streamline paper-based grading

Use Gradescope to collect and grade paper-based assignments and exams. Gradescope supports multiple graders, rubrics, dynamic point adjustment, and “horizontal grading,” i.e., grading on one question or question set at a time.

Limit AIs to their section

Canvas allows you to limit access for users to only interact with students assigned to their section. Section limitations allow AIs to view and grade submissions from students in their section only. To enable this feature, reach out to canvas@princeton.edu.

Make lectures interactive

Tools like iClicker Cloud and Mentimeter can be used for knowledge checks and polls. Asking questions in this way during lecture promotes active learning, encourages reflection, and provides instant feedback.

iClicker Cloud

A cloud-based, in-class, student response system, iClicker is free for use for both faculty and students. You can use iClicker for attendance, low-stakes knowledge checks and polls. We are hosting an iClicker training session on 9/1 at 11am.

Harmonize Discussion

Harmonize is an asynchronous discussion platform fully integrated with Canvas’ assignments and Speedgrader. It has a participation-friendly interface, including a grid view of posts, and provides many opportunities to add images, text, links, and to record and annotate video and audio. It allows faculty to define milestones and assign student facilitators.

Perusall

This tool allows your students to jointly annotate readings, and share questions and comments. It offers extensive analytics as well as helpful insights on students' engagement. It also allows faculty to generate a Confusion Report that summarizes general areas of questions and uncertainty.

Get help from McGraw

Our instructional designers are happy to help instructors and course teams prepare their Canvas sites for teaching.

Faculty, AIs, and course assistants are welcome to schedule a consultation by emailing canvas@princeton.edu. Use the same email address for all other questions as well!

Canvas Field Guide

Our Princeton-specific guide to Canvas has lots of useful information for faculty, preceptors and staff.

Training sessions

We offer a range of training sessions for faculty, instructional staff, teaching assistants, and department staff.

Canvas 24/7 support

Faculty, staff, and students also have access to Canvas’ 24/7 support, which can be reached by phone, email, or chat. You can find their contact info by clicking on the Help icon in the global navigation bar in Canvas.

Self-paced Gradescope tutorial

Instructors in many STEM and large-enrollment courses have benefited from using Gradescope to streamline their process of grading online and paper-based assignments and exams.

The instructional design team in the McGraw Center has designed a resource to introduce you to Gradescope. To be taken at your own pace, the tutorial covers Gradescope basics as well as recommendations for how to use Gradescope with your Canvas course.

Enroll in Tutorial