Wrapping up Spring, Looking Ahead to Fall!

May 1, 2023

Dear Mona,

As the spring semester comes to a close, we offer guidance on how to use Canvas to collect student work, set up exams, and finish up the grading process.

Fall courses are ready in Canvas! If you want to start preparing your course site now, take a look at our suggestions below.

We also want to remind you that our contract with Blackboard is coming to an end. Blackboard will go permanently offline next summer! Please consider whether you still have old course material on the platform. You’ll find more info about how to retrieve it at the bottom of this newsletter.

As always, if you need help, contact the McGraw Center’s Canvas team at canvas@princeton.edu.

Submit assignment on behalf of a student

You can submit a file upload assignment on behalf of a student. This feature is useful if a student has technical difficulties and submits their assignment to you via email.

Helpful Canvas hacks

In our Field Guide to Canvas at Princeton, we have collected a number of helpful actions that might come in handy, including how to restore deleted content and share content with other instructors.

Collect student work

Canvas offers multiple options for collecting students’ work online:

Use the assignment tool for file upload and text entry assignments. You can set an availability window for submissions.

Canvas quizzes are suitable for timed assessments and allow students to answer auto-graded questions and upload files.

Gradescope, which integrates with Canvas, supports various submission formats, including paper-based assignments that can be scanned. A key benefit of Gradescope is the ability to grade “horizontally,” enabling multiple graders to grade the same submissions simultaneously.

To ensure a correct setup, use Student View in Canvas to preview assignments from your students’ point of view.

If you use the quiz tool or Gradescope, we recommend creating a low-stakes practice exam to familiarize both you and your students with the format.

Grade every assignment

To ensure Gradebook accuracy, make sure to grade every assignment. For any missing assignment, record a grade of “0.” If an assignment is excused, enter an “ex” in the Gradebook.

Weight your grades

Canvas allows you to assign weights to grades that align with your course syllabus. Access the Assignments section and click on “+Group” to create a category for assignments (such as quizzes or homework). Assign existing assignments to their respective groups. Enable Assignment Group Weight and enter the percentages, e.g. 30% for quizzes, 25% for homework assignments, etc.

Review the grading scheme

If you are using letter grades, Canvas allows you to set a grading scheme that converts points to a letter grade.

Post grades

By default, grades are not visible to students until the instructor posts them. Unposted grades in the Gradebook are identified by a crossed-out eye icon. To post the grades, click on the “3 dots” and select Post grades.

Fall ’23 courses

Fall courses are now available in Canvas. You can access them by going to canvas.princeton.edu and signing in with your NetID.

Locate a past course

If you want to find a course from a previous semester, go to Courses in the left global navigation and scroll down to All Courses. Previous courses can be found under the Past Enrollment section.

Import a past Canvas course

You can easily import a previous version of your course into your fall ’23 site by selecting 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.

Combine your courses

If you wish to combine your courses, please email canvas@princeton.edu.

Set up the gradebook sooner rather than later

Instructors can prevent future issues and save time by setting up the gradebook at the beginning of the semester. Along with one-on-one consultations, we also provide training sessions on assessments and grading using Canvas.

Bulk update assignments

On the assignment page, click the option icon and select the Edit Assignment Dates option. You can view and edit the Due At, Available From and Available Until columns.

Get help from the McGraw Center

Our instructional designers are happy to help instructors and course teams with any Canvas-related questions.

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 departmental 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.

Blackboard is going away soon!

This summer will be a great time to retrieve any course material that is still left in Blackboard! You will have direct access to Blackboard until the end of fall break (October 22, 2023). After that, you will have to contact OIT at blackboard@princeton.edu to recover old content. After June 30, 2024, we will no longer have access to the Blackboard platform.

For information on retrieving course material from Blackboard, click the button below.

How to Retrieve Course Material from Blackboard