Canvas Best Practices & New Features

As we embark on another academic year's beginning, here are some Canvas resources for faculty on best practices and new features that can be utilized to enhance teaching & learning in your courses.

Topics covered include...

Assigning Modules
SpeedGrader Screen Capture
"Message Students Who" Changes
Inbox Improvements
Smart Search & Discussion Summaries
Mobile Offline Support
Studio Automatic Publishing of Captions

Solution for Zeros Wrongly Populating in the Gradebook

Also, here is a solution for anyone experiencing zeros automatically populating in the gradebook prior to an assignment's due date...

This issue can happen when content is copied from a course that contains a late policy in the gradebook settings. When the course content is copied over, the missing work policy can recognize the due dates from the original course and record zeros for assignments that appear to be "past due." This can be avoided by first disabling the late policy in the gradebook settings in the course before copying content to a new course shell. Then, only enable the late policy in the new course after making sure all assignment due dates have been updated.

In order to correct a current issue with zeros that have wrongly appeared in the gradebook, first go into the gradebook and find the affected assignment(s). From the 3 dots menu to the right of the name of that assignment, click "Set Default Grade." Make sure the text entry box that appears is empty, check "Overwrite already entered grades," and click "Set Default Grade."

Here is a reminder on how to adjust due dates during a course import.

Here is also a reminder on how to bulk update due dates in case you ever find yourself needing to make multiple changes.