Please keep the following situations in mind at the start of the semester around your Course in Canvas:
Publishing Your Course
When your course is ready to be viewed by your students, make sure the course is published. To publish the course, you will see an Unpublished/Publish button on the Home Page of your course.
When clicking on the Publish button, this button will turn green allowing your students to now enter and view the course. Once the term has started and the course is Published, it cannot be unpublished.
This publish function also has other effects as well. You will only be able to send messages or announcements to your students if the course is published. If you attempt to send your class a message using the Inbox conversations, your course list will not be available to be selected as recipients. When creating an announcement before the course is published, the announcement will be saved correctly but no student will receive this announcement. The announcement, however, will still reside in the course to which the students can see after the course is published.
Once the term has started, a published course cannot be unpublished.
Communication With Students
Communication with your students through Announcements or messaging in Canvas is available after publishing the course. If you would like to send messages directly to one student or the entire class, this will be performed from the inbox that is located on the global navigation pane. Sending Messages to Class
Hiding Unused Course Navigation Items
Hiding unused course menu items will help your students stay focused on what you want them to view on the menu. To control this, select Settings from your course menu and select the Navigation tab. The right pane will show you exactly what the student sees as well as the order. You may drag and drop the items in any order that you would like your course menu to look at and disable menu items so you control what your students can view. Once it is set in the order you wish, select Save at the bottom of the page.
Cross-List Your Course Sections
You may have taught multiple sections of a course in the past but had to update every section individually which can be time-consuming and unproductive. Cross-listing those sections will allow you as an instructor to deliver your course content to all sections by only updating and driving one course. Other advantages to cross-listing would be that you may deploy assignments/quizzes/announcements/etc. to separate sections if you wish from one course. Grading can be easier as well since you will grade assessments within one course, with the option of viewing sections by themselves in the grade book.
If you wish to Cross-List courses, please visit the ITS website and fill out the 'Canvas Cross-Listing Form'. However, it is wise to request this before the course starts. If a cross-listing of a section occurs after assessments have been completed by students, those assessments in the copied (child) section will NOT follow those students to the main (parent) class. Please keep this in mind when submitting this request.
Once a cross-list occurs, the students will see only the main section of that course instead of the section they originally were enrolled in.
Nicknaming Courses - Dashboard
To help you identify courses on your dashboard more efficiently, you may create a nickname and change the color of the course cards that are available to you. To do this, click the 3 dot menu in the upper right corner of a course card and here you may change the display name and color of the card. This change will only affect the way you see the card on your dashboard and in no way will affect the student's dashboard view.
If you have any questions or issues, contact Technology Support Services
419-434-4357