THIS IS NOT THE CURRENT EDITION OF THE OAT UPDATE
Browse all OAT Updates
New Announcements
Reminders
Browse all OAT Updates
New Announcements
Update to Canvas "New Quizzes" Time Line
As previously announced by OAT and Instructure, the deadline by which all Canvas quizzes must use the New Quizzes "engine" had been set for June 1, 2024. However, in light of the continuing challenges getting the new quiz tool up to parity with the existing Classic quizzes, while also add its promised new features, Instructure has announced they are abandoning enforcing any firm time line regarding Classic quizzes. Instead, a formal "end of life" has been eliminated from the status of Classic quizzes, and the tool will remain available from Instructure unless local campuses decide to disable it.
What this means for OAT's support of Stan State
New Quizzes is currently available in our system as an option whenever a quiz/test/exam is created (see figure, right). Moreover, some faculty are choosing to use New Quizzes now, because it meets their needs. It was enabled in January 2021 back when all clients were expected to transition soon.
However, given the various engineering issues that still exist with New Quizzes, OAT's strong recommendation is to favor the Classic quizzes engine instead, especially for new Canvas instructors. This can also be set as a course preference from the Quiz Engine dialog screen.
That said, OAT will not be disabling or pulling back from keeping New Quizzes available for those who want to continue using it. Any such decision about the availability of either quiz engine would need to involve discussion with relevant stakeholders, such as the Academic Technology and Learning Committee.
User support for New Quizzes also definitely exists. As usual, simply contact oatsupport@csustan.edu or open a chat/phone support session with Canvas from the Help menu.
More information about New Quizzes
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Reminders
Hypothes.is + JSTOR
OAT recently enabled the direct JSTOR connection inside Hypothes.is. Now, when creating a social annotation activity, instructors can chose to link directly to the stable URL of any article in JSTOR. This step eliminates the need to figure out how to download and host the PDF yourself - just keep the article in JSTOR and let Hypothes.is do the rest!
Step 1: Find the article in JSTOR and copy the "Stable URL"
Locate your article as usual. Open the article and locate the "Stable URL" shown on the lower left side of the page (indicated). Copy the URL (ctrl-C).
Step 2: Choose JSTOR in the Hypothes.is settings
Next, create a new Hypothes.is activity in Canvas (whether as an ungraded item in a module or as an assignment) and select JSTOR as the source for the document your students will be annotating.
Step 3: Insert Stable URL
Finally, paste the Stable URL you acquired in Step 1 into the box and click the "proceed" arrow to the right. This will generate a preview of the article, and from there you can continue with the rest of the assignment configuration.
Have questions about this or anything else related to Hypothes.is? Contact Glenn Pillsbury for help.
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Canvas: Create Non-Academic Course Shells
Instructors in Canvas now have the ability to create their own non-academic course shells for conducting university business. These shells typically are for departments or programs that need to use some of the features of Canvas to organize and share materials. While students can be added as users to these shells, the shells are not to be used for any kind of academic work by students by replacing or attempting to augment existing official course shells. Students cannot create shells.
To create a non-academic Canvas shell, open your Dashboard and click the button on the right to "Start a new course". Type a name for the course and it will be ready instantly. There is no need for any additional configuration or approval before it can be used. These shells are not actively monitored by OAT.
If you have questions about this new feature, please contact oatsupport@csustan.edu.
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Oct. 5 Hypothes.is Workshop Recording
On Oct. 5 OAT hosted an introductory workshop on using Hypothes.is for a variety of digital annotation activities in Canvas. The presentation also featured a discussion by Jey Strangfeld (Sociology), Staci Scheiwiller (Art), and Kellie Cotter (Psychology) about the ways they're using the tool and students' responses to it.
Learn more about Hypothesis
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Canvas: Removing Previous Instructors from Rosters
Has your teaching assignment changed? If you are no longer listed as the instructor or a course or section in PeopleSoft, please contact oatsupport@csustan.edu and ask to be removed from the Canvas roster for the prior course. Currently, changes to the instructor-of-record field in PeopleSoft are not automatically reflected in Canvas so that any previously assigned instructors are removed from the course roster (only added). Remaining on the previous roster when courses begin means you'll receive notifications about the course, and students may also be confused about whom to contact.
Removing you from a previous course is very easy to do, but it must be requested first!
OAT and OIT have begun working on a solution to automate these removals, but there is no ETA for delivery at this time.
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2022-23 Faculty Ambassadors for Canvas
This year, OAT is again sponsoring the FAC program, which makes experienced Canvas instructors available to each college, as a supplement to OAT staff. Instructors may find it more helpful to work with other instructors in their general discipline on questions related to Canvas, and are encouraged to contact these individuals.
2022-23 Ambassadors
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Accessible PDFs
Supercharge accessibility scores for your Canvas courses!
Now that the Fall semester is rapidly approaching, now is the perfect time to have our Document Remediation team make your PDF files accessible.
- Were your PDFs created by scanning printed pages?
- Is the image quality of your PDFs less than ideal? (e.g., skewed pages, handwritten notes)
- Is the PDF your only copy of the content?
If your answer is yes to any of the above questions, the PDFs are a perfect fit to submit to our Document Remediation team.
- Submit a document remediation work order: Select "Accessibility Work Request" in the Request Type drop-down menu, and "Make my document accessible for me" in the Service Type section
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