Canvas has made several adjustments and improvements to the student assignment experience. Take a look below.
If you choose “Text Entry” for the student turn-in option, student work will auto-save and they can submit directly on the page.
Scroll through the gallery below to see other assignment options.
If you feel these enhancements will not serve your students, you can toggle them off under Settings/Feature Previews.
Please make sure your 2020-2021 courses are closed. We have heard from a few students and parents that are still seeing their 2020-2021 courses. You’ll want to ensure your courses are closed or unpublished.
Navigate to https://pccsk12.instructure.com/courses or click on the “Courses” icon on the Course Navigation Menu and click “All Courses” You’ll see a list of your courses that are still published.
You may be able to open the course and click “Unpublish.” If you are unable to do that, please submit a tech ticket.
Also keep in mind that any manually-created courses like a counseling group, club, or media center course should be closed out if they are no longer needed. Or students that have moved up to a new building level should be removed from the course.
These closed courses will still be accessible in a view-only format to students in “Past Enrollments.”
In late August, the P-CCS Canvas Best Practices were published. https://tech.pccsk12.com/canvas-best-practices/
To help you carry out these practices, the Technology Integration Specialists plan to offer brief (20-25 minutes) sessions before school on Monday mornings. We will provide a rationale for the practice, a quick tutorial, and examples when appropriate. Be sure to bring your favorite morning beverage!
Start Times (feel free to attend at a time that works best for you):
Topics:
Please note that each teacher must manually publish the course(s) they want to be visible to students.
Publishing your course only takes one click! From the Course Card on your Dashboard, click “Publish” (see screenshot below).
Alternatively, you can open the course home page and click the “Publish” button on the right side of the screen (see screenshot below).
As a reminder, your courses in MISTAR have been auto-populated in Canvas and auto-rostered with students. These are the course(s) you should publish and actively use with students. Any manually created courses should either be copied or cross-listed with your auto-populated courses. You can also cross-list multiple sections of the same course following the instructions provided in one of our previous posts.
We hope you had a relaxing and rejuvenating summer break. As you work on getting your Canvas course(s) up and running, we want to offer you support. On Wednesday afternoon (September 1) we will offer office hours via Zoom from 12:30-3:30 pm. Add to your calendar.
If you are looking for other forms of support, the Help option on the Course Navigation Menu has several great options. See the image below.
You can also schedule a one-on-one coaching session with a Canvas representative, also known as a Panda Pro. https://tech.pccsk12.com/panda-pros-coaching/
As we enter our second year with Canvas as our district’s learning management system, it’s important to continue to have it serve as the digital centerpiece for our classrooms. In an effort to foster a more uniform experience for our students and families, staff are encouraged to construct and maintain their Canvas courses bearing in mind these P-CCS Canvas Best Practices.
If you have questions or would like assistance implementing any of these practices, please consider attending a “WorkLab” session on Thursday, August 26 during Canvas Camp or one of the Canvas Q & A sessions on either Thursday, August 26th or Monday, August 30th.
Finally, know your friendly, district Technology Integration Specialists will also plan sessions for each of these items during the first six weeks of school (and sessions will be recorded and posted) as embracing these best practices will help our students.