Winter courses in Canvas are scheduled to be created on November 10th. Spring courses in Canvas are tentatively scheduled to be created on December 8th. It is important for every faculty member teaching for either of these terms to log into Canvas after these dates to check their Canvas Dashboard to see if their courses have been created correctly. Remember, the Canvas Dashboard now shows published and unpublished courses separately. Look for your new winter or spring sites in your unpublished courses section of the Dashboard.
We are aware in some situations that not all sections may be combined as expected. Depending on whether you are teaching online or face-to-face can make a difference and you should review the FERPA guidelines before requesting any changes. Here’s how to check your Canvas course(s).
Change request process
If you have checked your courses (i.e. looked in Settings and the Sections tab in your course), and you want to request a change, you must complete the Canvas@UD Course Combination Change Request form. Please do not email anyone directly with a request as you will be sent to the form. The form will first go to the Registrar’s Office for their approval of your request. If approved, IT Academic Technology Services (IT-ATS) will manually make the adjustments. We will be doing these change requests on a first-come-first-served basis, so please do not delay in completing the form if changes are needed. Changes can include combining sections you expected to see combined into one site (i.e. sections 194 and 195 were not combined into one site) and separating out sections that were combined (i.e. an 080 Honors section that needs its own site). This process will ensure that course sites created in Canvas meet FERPA guidelines which provide a secure learning space for our faculty and students. Remember once the term starts, changes can no longer be made for that term.
If you are requesting a change to sites you have already developed or made several changes to, back up your site(s) by exporting your Canvas course content. This can be done through Settings>> Export course content.
If you are working in a staging site, continue to work on that site until all changes have been made to your official sites and then copy your content over.
Getting ready for winter and spring
If no changes are needed, or if the manual course site adjustments have been made, you can complete the development of your course for winter or spring. You can copy content into your course site from an existing staging site or a course from a previous term. You can also start new. If starting new, there is a Canvas template out in the Canvas Commons that you may want to consider reviewing. It may help give you a framework or structure in your Canvas course to begin working.
Canvas Commons is a digital resource repository that enables educators to find, import, and share Canvas resources. A digital library full of educational content, Commons allows Canvas users to share learning resources with other users as well as import learning resources into a Canvas course. The ATS-UDel Template Winter 2021 and ATS-UDel Template Spring 2021offer a set of Canvas Pages customized for the University of Delaware. Each template provides a starting point from which instructors can edit and build their own course. Instructions are located in the first module.
To find, preview and download the template, click on the Commons link from the blue global navigation bar on the left (you should have already logged into Canvas). The templates are featured right there. Click on it to preview. Download or import it from the blue link on the right of the preview page, if you would like to add it to your course site.
Couple of reminders
- If you are already using a template in your staging site, no need to download again, just copy your staging site to your course.
- Students are already enrolled in your site. As long as you do not publish your site, they cannot see anything.
Do not hesitate to reach out, if you have questions about your course preparations. We have staff (instructional designers, educational technologists) that can help you. The Faculty Commons virtual welcome bar is open Mon-Fri, 8:30-4:30. Join using Zoom on your computer: https://udel.zoom.us/j/3028310640
You can also reach the LMS team directly with your Canvas questions by emailing: canvas-info@udel.edu.
