New to Teaching

This video series provides an introduction to the basic features of Canvas, the approved system at the University of Minnesota for creating and hosting course websites for instruction. Links to supplemental information about the Canvas features described in the video episodes are also provided.

• Watch Episode 1. (Kaltura, 3:09 mins)
• Login directly to Canvas at canvas.umn.edu.
  • Note: The Safari web browser (Mac OS) may not be compatible with all features of Canvas. We suggest Chrome or Firefox.
• Customize your Canvas account profile and add a profile picture.
  • Set your preferred name and pronouns.
• Review and configure your account notifications to stay current with course activities.

• Watch Episode 2. (Kaltura, 4:16 mins)
• Every U of M academic course has an auto-generated Canvas site. Login to canvas.umn.edu to locate your site/s. Unused Canvas sites remain hidden from students.
  • Optional: Import content from a previous semester.
  • Optional: Use the CEHD Canvas template to organize your course site.

• Watch Episode 3. (Kaltura, 10:05 mins)
• Create a chronological structure for your course using Modules.
• Include an orientation module for your course, including:
  • Your contact information and office hours.
  • An orientation to the course site.
  • Links to tool-specific help tutorials if used (Zoom, VideoAnt, etc.).
  • A place to ask questions.
  • Information about how to access textbooks and readings.
    • Contact the University Bookstore about required textbooks and materials, including information about CourseWorks, the digital textbook platform.
    • Contact the libraries for support in choosing and integrating materials. Online reserves are available from the Library and can be accessed by your students via the Library Course Page in Canvas.
• Create Pages for text, videos, links, or other content that don’t necessarily belong in an assignment.
  • Create an “Overview” page for each Module that lists relevant learning objectives and a brief description of the topics, activities, and assignments for that Module. These are included features in the CEHD Canvas template.
• Upload files to Canvas.
  • Links to files can be added to modules or a Canvas page.
  • Add links to resources on the web (videos and readings from other websites)
• Create Assignments, Quizzes, and Discussions. These are the three types of graded activities in Canvas.
  • Use Canvas Assignments when students will need to submit content. This might include text, website URLs, media recordings, or files.
  • Add Canvas Discussions when student-to-student and instructor-to-student interaction is needed. Discussions use text for asynchronous discussion. They can be graded or ungraded.
  • Group work can be conducted in Canvas. Depending on your goals, configuring groups can be complex. Contact [email protected] if groups are a significant feature of your course.
  • Use Canvas Quizzes to create a check for understanding quiz, graded or ungraded survey, or an exam. Quizzes have a variety of question types including multiple-choice and essay. Quiz questions and responses can be randomized to increase exam security.
• Use the Canvas Syllabus feature and automated course schedule.
  • In addition to assignment due dates, late submission policies, etc., also include acceptable file formats for submissions (Word, Google Doc., etc.).

• Watch Episode 4. (Kaltura, 7:42 mins)
• View the course gradebook by selecting Grades from the course navigation menu.
  • Canvas Guide: How do I use the icons and colors in the gradebook?
  • For more information, view Assessment: Gradebook Guide - Canvas
• Configure assignment groups in your course to apply drop scores or use weighted categories for course grade calculation.
  • How do I create rules for an assignment group? (a.k.a., Drop or keep scores).
  • Add an assignment group in a course (a.k.a., Creating gradebook categories).
  • How do I weight the final course grade based on assignment groups? (a.k.a, How do I set up weighted gradebook categories?)
• Use a grade posting policy to control when scores and feedback become visible to students in your gradebook.
• Establish a grading scale for your course final grades by enabling the course grading scheme in the course settings.
• Use SpeedGrader to annotate and score assignments.

Canvas Guide: How do I get to SpeedGrader from an assignment, quiz, or graded discussion?

• Watch Episode 5. (Kaltura, 3:35 mins)
• Customize your course navigation bar for student ease of navigation.
• Publish all Modules, course content, and activities that students need to access.
• Evaluate your Canvas site using the student view to ensure that the site will function properly for students.
• Publish the course so that students can begin interacting with the course.

• Review and revise your syllabus as you follow the steps below. This will be your roadmap as you develop your course site.
  • Consider using a planning document, like this Course Planning Template, as you plan each week and align course materials and activities to your learning objectives. Doing this in advance will make building the Canvas site that much easier.
• Write out your course learning objectives and include these in your syllabus.
• Plan your course topics, activities and assignments.
  • Which topics are essential elements of your course?
  • Align assignments with your learning objectives.
  • Decide how you will present course content - lecture, written documents, recorded slide presentation, and/or videos.
  • What will students do? Canvas activities include discussions, quizzes, and submission assignments.
  • What activities will be graded?
    • Make success transparent. Plan to communicate with students what success looks like.
  • Provide students with choices and multiple ways to access the same or similar content.
  • Determine if you will supplement your course with any online or synchronous activities (using Zoom). If you decide to hold synchronous activities, plan how you will communicate with your students to set a day and time that works with their schedules.
• Develop your course schedule.
  • Match your course topics and activities with your academic calendar.
  • Is the pace of your course manageable for all of your students? Does the sequence of activities accommodate a variety of cognitive processing speeds?
• Plan how you will orient students to the course and how you are using Canvas.

• What materials, readings, and media do you already have via links or files on your computer?
• What new materials will you need to find?
  • Consider free or low cost resources.
  • Take advantage of materials available from the libraries.
• What additional materials will you need to create? See Step 5 below.
  • Consider accessibility best practices.
• Clearly communicate to students which materials are required and which are optional.

The following steps will assist you in creating a Canvas site that provides a clear student path for interacting with you and the content: 

1. Locate your new Canvas site.
   • All U of M courses have auto-generated Canvas sites. Login to canvas.umn.edu to locate your site/s. Unused Canvas sites remain hidden from students.
     • Optional: Import content from a previous semester
     • Optional: Use the CEHD Canvas template to organize your course site
2. Upload your updated syllabus (including schedule) to Canvas.
   • In addition to assignment due dates, late submission policies, etc., also include acceptable file formats for submissions (Word, Google Doc. etc.).
3. Create a chronological structure for your course using Modules.
4. Include a module for important course information, which might include:
   • Your contact information/office hours.
   • An orientation to the course site.
   • Links to tool specific help tutorials if used (Zoom, VideoAnt, etc.).
   • A place to ask questions.
   • Links to textbooks and readings.
5. Upload files to Canvas.
   • To aid in accessibility, keep files in their original formats (.docx, .ppt, etc.) and avoid converting to PDF.
   • Links to files can be added to modules or in a Canvas page.
   • Add links to resources on the web (videos and readings from other websites)
6. Create Pages for text, videos, links or other content that don’t necessarily belong in an assignment.
   • Create an “Overview” page for each Module that lists relevant learning objectives and a brief description of the topics, activities and assignments to orient students in that Module.
   • These are an included feature in the CEHD Canvas template.
7. Create Assignments, Quizzes, and Discussions. These are the three types of graded activities in Canvas.
   • Use Canvas Assignments when students will need to submit content. Student submissions might include text, web site URLs, media recordings, or files.
   • Add Canvas Discussions when student-to-student and instructor-to-student interaction is needed. Discussions use text for asynchronous discussion. They can be graded or ungraded.
   • Group work can be conducted in Canvas. Depending on your goals, configuring groups can be complex. Contact [email protected] if groups are a significant feature of your course.
   • Use Canvas Quizzes to create a check for understanding quiz, graded or ungraded survey, or an exam. Quizzes have a variety of question types including multiple choice and essay. Quiz questions and responses can be randomized to increase exam security.
   • Consider Alternatives to Exams
     • Consider alternatives to exams such as a capstone project or presentation, video project, or final paper—either individually or as a group.
     • Consider replacing exams with a number of shorter and lower stakes quizzes delivered over the length of the course. Assignment groups and weights can be used to make a group of quizzes worth the same total point value as a single exam.
   • Recommendations for Online Exams
     • Review the CEHD's Online Exams Guide.
     • Use Canvas Quizzes for exams. A Canvas Quiz also includes settings that make it possible to use a Quiz for a variety of assessments including ungraded surveys and exams. Note: We recommend using “classic” quizzes rather than the “new quizzes” option, as some important assessment options are not yet fully supported with the "new quizzes" tool.
     • Consider making the exam open-book or open-note. You may need to revise your questions. Use fewer choose-the-correct-answer type questions and more open-ended questions that ask students to provide evidence to support their response, to demonstrate the steps taken to arrive at a response, or apply what they have learned. Note: Communicate with students that they will need to prepare for an open-book exam in the same way they would for an exam that is delivered face-to-face.
     • Consider having a practice exam at the start of the term with the types of questions that you anticipate asking. This will allow your students to get accustomed to the format and give you feedback on how the questions work.
     • Break the exam into multiple parts. This gives online learners more opportunities for time management. For example, put multiple choice, true false, and matching questions in part one and essay questions in part two. Note: Each part will have its own entry in the gradebook.
     • Give students a range of days, for example, one week before the due date, to complete the exam. In Canvas set an available-from date in addition to a due date. Note: Canvas will automatically save a student’s progress on a quiz or exam. They can return to the exam until the due date and time or until they click submit.
   • Exam Security
     • Consider the following options to increase exam security:
       • Ask students to review the Avoiding Scholastic Dishonesty page.
       • Set a time limit. Give students more time than you would when delivering the exam face-to-face.
       • Randomize question order with Question Banks.
       • Shuffle the order of responses to multiple choice questions for each student.
       • Consider adding long-answer, open-ended or essay questions.
   • Accessibility
     • Course materials should be made as accessible as possible from the onset of the course. Using the 7 Core Skills will cover the majority of requirements. Connect with the Digital Education and Innovation team ([email protected]) if you have questions.
     • Honor current accommodation letters for students with disabilities, and encourage students to contact their Disability Resource Center (DRC) access consultant if different accommodations may be needed.
     • Be flexible and willing to explore a variety of options when considering what practices facilitate effective and reasonable access and participation for students – particularly students with disabilities – in the new alternative instruction environments.
     • Ask your students about their access needs and what accommodations they may need in the new environment. Provide safe ways for them to communicate this information to you. For students who have DRC accommodation letters, the access consultant listed on the accommodation letter can be a resource regarding specific accommodations. Contact access consultants for more information on remote accommodation possibilities at [email protected].
     • Canvas has several features to help when students need more time to complete a quiz.
       • Add different due dates for specific students.
       • On timed exams or quizzes, give specific students more time to complete.
       • Give specific students additional attempts on quizzes or exams.
8. Organize your Gradebook
   • As graded items (assignment, quiz, discussion) are entered to Canvas, the gradebook auto-creates an associated gradebook column.
     • Columns can be adjusted according to your preference.
     • Assignments can be weighted.
   • Select a grade posting policy to determine when students see their grades
   • Apply the U of M grading scheme.

As the semester progresses, provide feedback to student submissions using Speedgrader.

Provide multiple methods for communication to support interaction between the instructor and students and students with each other. Share your communication plan with students as part of your orientation materials. 

• Share with your students, through your syllabus and course orientation materials, how you prefer to be contacted (email, Canvas Inbox, online office hours) and the amount of time students should expect to wait for a response from you (e.g. “I check email from 8AM to 5PM CT and will respond within 24 hours”).
• Review Canvas Notifications
  • Canvas allows instructors and students to control when they will receive email notifications about activity in Canvas courses. As you determine your communication plan, think about how notifications can support timely interactions.
  • Prompt students to set up their personal notifications as part of your orientation materials.
  • Create a discussion board in Canvas for “questions about this course.” This space can be used by students to ask for clarification from the instructor and each other. Having a central location for questions and answers can serve more students in less time and with fewer email messages.
• The Canvas Inbox (also known as Canvas Conversations) is an email tool within Canvas.
  • Use the Inbox to send a message to all students in a course or send a message to one or more specific students.
  • Filter Inbox conversations to help you stay organized and manage your messages.
• Instructors can post an announcement to everyone in their courses through Canvas.
  • Leave the “Announcements” section viewable in the left navigation so that the archive of information is available to students.
  • Manage announcement replies to allow or restrict further student conversation.

Creating videos of yourself can increase instructor presence and help students feel connected in an online environment or to supplement your work in face to face classrooms. Videos can include announcements, quick summaries, and lecture replacement. Instructional videos do not need high production value to be effective. 

Submit a request to z.umn.edu/cehdhelp if you need software installed on your device.

• Read our guide on how to create an instructional video without presenting slides.
• Read our guide on how to create an instructional video with slides.
• Edit: Consider these additional video editing options.
  • iMovie is a video editing application that comes installed on most Apple computers and is free for recently purchased iPhones and iPads.
  • Adobe Express is a free tool, available on a web browser on desktops and in an app on devices. You can upload pre-recorded videos and add images, text, and music.
  • Use the editor in Kaltura or Kaltura Mediaspace to trim and delete portions of your video .
• Publish: There are many ways you can publish and share your video in Canvas.
  • Kaltura appears in Canvas as part of the Account menu item on the far left (titled Media Gallery). You can add Kaltura videos to an individual course by embedding them in a page or activity or by adding to the Media Gallery course navigation item. Videos uploaded to Kaltura are automatically captioned and these captions should be reviewed before they are shared. Kaltura videos can be embedded to Canvas announcements, assignments, quizzes, discussions, and pages.
  • Kaltura Mediaspace gives you access to video hosting and sharing outside of Canvas. Playlists can be created and shared to organize videos around specific topics. Videos uploaded to Kaltura Mediaspace are also automatically captioned and these captions should be reviewed before they are shared.
  • Another option for hosting and sharing videos and video playlists is YouTube. You can sign in using your U of M Google account and set your video as unlisted so that it is not widely available to the public.

Considering a class with multiple modalities?

Determine if/when synchronous class sessions using Zoom are necessary. While synchronous class sessions may seem like a logical way to replace a face-to-face class, there are many technical challenges to hosting and presenting in a large group meeting. If your main goal is delivering content, recording a video may be a simpler option. If you do determine a live class session is best the option for you, consider active learning strategies to deepen student understanding of the content. 

Zoom is the University’s video conferencing tool that enables real-time class sessions. All instructors and students at the University have access. Login at umn.zoom.us. 

Zoom Recordings

• Storage capacity for Zoom cloud recordings is limited.
• Cloud recordings are stored for 180 days. Be prepared to download from the cloud within 180 days or consider recording to the computer.

Communicate with students ahead of time about:

• The Zoom URL and dates and time frames.
• Your expectations for the meeting, such as online meeting etiquette.
• Tell your students to review and test Zoom before the first meeting: Zoom: Best Practices in a Meeting

Additional Resources

• Course Design: Guide for Remote Class Sessions - Zoom
• Course Design: Creating Hybrid Courses - Canvas

View the Digital Accessibility page for support and strategies. 

Become familiar with accessibility best practices to create an inclusive online learning environment for all of your students. Basic accessibility can be achieved in straightforward ways in many of the applications you likely are already familiar with. 

• The Office for Digital Accessibility is a good place to start with the 7 core skills, which is about 20 minutes of reading.
• The Office of Information Technology has compiled a page of tips for accessible design in Canvas. 

Canvas has a built-in accessibility checker, UDoIT (Universal Design Online Content Inspection Tool). If you’re new to accessibility or still learning, using this tool may be a bit intimidating. Contact the Digital Education and Innovation team for assistance. 

After building your course site, double-check the accuracy and clarity of the following: 

• Verify assignment and activity due dates. Due dates automatically appear in the course calendar and the Syllabus page as convenient reminders for students. “Available from” and “Until” dates that will unlock and lock the activity are optional.
• Verify instructions are accurate and clear.
• Verify that groups and group sets are populated correctly.
• If using a weighted grading system, verify assignments are weighted correctly.
• Verify discussion settings, including post options, grade (if applicable), group settings, and due dates.
• Verify alignment between course total points and course syllabus total points.

Make sure all links work (use the Canvas site checker to validate links in course content).

Once your course site is ready, you will need to publish it and communicate with students.

• Publish all modules, headers, pages, quizzes, discussions, and assignments.
• Publish your course before the official course start date (whenever it is that you want students to be able to access the course).
• Send an email from your U of M account  to your students telling them how to access your course in Canvas. (Email from Class Roster in MyU.) Canvas InBox messages will not be delivered until students have logged into the course site for the first time.
• Communicate expected behaviors and respectful contributions statements. 

Teaching online requires flexibility, motivation, and discipline for both students and instructors. Online instruction also provides interesting opportunities to engage students in different ways that may be more personal and individualized. 

• Classroom management tips for online learning
  • Set aside at least as much time to conduct and manage your course as you would a face-to-face course
  • Outline expected netiquette for your course with your students
• Online teaching efficiencies
  • Create an “Ask Questions About This Course” discussion board to reduce email
  • Use Announcements to broadcast information to all students or sections of students
  • Share with your students, through your syllabus and course orientation materials, how you prefer to be contacted (email, Canvas Inbox, online office hours) and the amount of time students should expect to wait for a response from you (e.g., “I check email from 8AM to 5PM CT and will respond within 24 hours”).
  • Use differentiated due dates to allow one or more students more time or to create distinct due dates for separate course sections.
  • Use the Canvas calendar. Drag and drop items to update all Canvas system data automatically.
  • Items that don’t have due dates can be listed in the calendar as events, such as synchronous class sessions or reminders to students.
  • Use Analytics to see when students are participating, if there are missing or late assignments, and to contact all students with particular scores or participation.
• Establish and Build Relationships in Remote Learning Environments.

Course evaluation and reflection are vital strategies in a continuous improvement process. Combining reflective practices with gathering feedback from students can provide insights into how students experienced your course site, what is working, and what could be improved. 

Add a Course Site Evaluation to Gather Feedback from Students

We recommend that instructors provide students with a way to give feedback on the Canvas course site.  We have created a Canvas course site evaluation using Google Forms. This survey is specific to the Canvas course site and does not overlap with the Student Rating of Teaching. To use the survey:

1. Log into your U of M Google Drive.
2. Select this link to make a copy of the Canvas Course Site Evaluation (forced copy, Google Form).
3. When prompted, select Make A Copy. This is your copy and will not be shared with anyone (unless you choose to).
4. Re-title the new document to include the course your students will evaluate.
5. Review the evaluation and make any necessary modifications to your course.
6. When ready, select the Send button.
7. On the pop-out window, select Send via. Then select the link icon to copy a URL.
8. Add the URL to your Canvas course site so that students can participate.

Support Your Reflective Practices with a Course Reflection Log

We have developed a Google Sheet to record your reflections and experiences teaching and working with Canvas during the term. Use this resource to make notes about your course as they happen, which can inform instructional decisions and design revisions in future terms. Adopt a routine of reflecting each week or after grading in order to maximize the potential benefits of this practice. 

1. Log into your U of M Google Drive.
2. Select this link to make a copy of the Course Reflection Log (forced copy, Google Sheet).
3. When prompted, select Make A Copy. This is your copy and will not be shared with anyone (unless you choose to).
4. Re-title the copy to include the course you will be reflecting on.
5. Use the log throughout the term  to make weekly entries about what is working and what could use improvement.
6. Refer back to your log when developing the course for a new term.

• Students will not receive any Instructor-generated announcements or messages sent from Canvas until the course is published AND students have accepted the Canvas Terms of Service.
• Pay attention to the clock hour setting on any activity or assignment where you have set a date. In Canvas, use 12:00 AM, midnight, as the first minute of the day and 11:59 PM as the end of the day.
• All of your content will be deleted if you click the Reset Course Content button.
• Do not click the Conclude this Course button. Doing so will restrict both the instructor and students to read-only access to the course.
• Do not click on the Delete this Course button.