Start-of-Semester Tips for Canvas

Submitted by Karen McPhaul on

With the new semester just days away, we can feel it in the air – everyone is working super hard to be ready to teach on Canvas. The list below can help you make sure you have critical items covered.

1. Set up the required Course Entry Quiz

Starting this summer, all instructors must use a standard, pre-written Course Entry Quiz in their online and hybrid/blended courses on Canvas for determining student entry into the course.

Instructors must import the standard Course Entry Quiz into their Canvas courses and follow some steps to set it up so it’s the first thing students complete.

For details on what you need to do, see Course entry process for online and hybrid/blended courses

2. Submit any special requests

If you want to combine multiple sections into one course, or use Proctorio for remote proctoring of online tests, you’ll need to submit requests for those at least 1 business day before your class starts (i.e. by this Friday for most classes).

See these links for details:

3. Update your syllabus

Make sure your syllabus contains up-to-date info on the new Course Entry Process and on the use of Canvas. Updated syllabus templates are available on Instructor Resources page of the Durham Tech website.

4. Learn how to set up online meetings in BigBlueButton (if using it)

For classes that have online synchronous meetings: the BigBlueButton tool is the same, but the way you set up conferences (i.e. create meetings) is very different in Canvas.

This short video (11 min) walks you through what you need to know: 

5. Publish your course

Instructors are expected to publish their Canvas courses by 8 AM on the course start date.

You may choose to publish your course before the start date. If you do this, please be aware:

  • Students will be limited to “read-only” access in the course until the start date. They will be able to view course content but cannot submit anything (or join a meeting) until the course start date.
  • If you post an announcement in a published course before the start date, a notification will NOT be sent to students. You can use the Canvas Inbox to send a message to students before the start date, if the course is published.

For more info, please read: Publishing your course

6.    Contact your students

Before your course starts, contact your students to welcome them and to let them know what they need to do. We recommend you include the following links in your email to students:

IMPORTANT: If your course is not published, you cannot use Canvas Inbox to contact students – you will need to contact them by email instead. To get a list of students’ email addresses, log in to selfservice.durhamtech.edu, click Faculty, then click on your course section. You’ll see a list of your students and their email addresses. Use the Export button in the upper right to download the list and copy/paste email addresses into Outlook.

Want more detailed checklists?

Here are some good ones we found that go deeper into the nitty gritty of Canvas: