Please Note: Canvas support will be unavailable from December 24 - January 2.
Support will resume on January 3.
Issue Contents
Announcements
- Grade Book Configuration: Make sure your Canvas grade book calculates as expected (including extra credit!)
- January Workshops: Join OAT to learn about peer review and social reading in Harmonize + What's New in Canvas
Reminders
Missed an update? Browse the OAT Update archives
Announcements
Grade Book Configuration Tips
With the end of the semester upon us, it's important to make sure your course grade books are up-to-date and configured correctly. Correct set-up ensures semester grades are calculated as expected.
Tip 1 – Use assignment groups if your activities are weighted
In Canvas, weighted categories (i.e., groups) are configured on the Assignments page of the course, not the Grades page. If your syllabus specifies percentages for various types of activities, then you must configure the groups on the Assignments page to match.
- Open the Assignments page
- Use the +Group button to create the assignment group/categories. Think of these as 'folders' where the various activities in your course will be placed.
- Drag all assignments into the proper group. Also, keep your grade book tidy by deleting any unused or empty groups such as those labelled "Imported Assignments". They're just folders, so they can be deleted without worry.
- Configure the specific weights of the groups. Learn how
Tip 2 – Grade everything
Canvas only includes graded items in its total grade calculations. This means that any ungraded items will artificially inflate a student's grade at the end of the semester.
- Open the Grades page
- Review each cell in the grade book and manually type an appropriate score, such as '"0", into any cell with a "-" currently in it. The dash means the student has not been graded for that assignment. You must supply some sort of grade in order for the total grade to be accurate.
- Carefully Try This: automatically assign "0" to any ungraded or missing submission item all at once. Full instructions
- Open the Grades page and click the Grade book settings icon ('gear') on the right, above the table.
- Click the Automatically apply grade for missing submissions checkbox. Selecting this checkbox will automatically apply the grade you set for any missing submissions in the course. By default, this will be 0.
Warning! You must return to the course and deselect that checkbox before you import the contents of this course into a future term. Failure to deselect the option before importing will likely cause 0's to be placed immediately in all assignments in the new course (since everything is technically missing because all the due dates will be in the past). This will result in all students having a grade of F immediately. That will cause much freaking out and consternation...
Tip 3 – Extra credit
Canvas does not have a magic setting to designate certain activities and assignments as "extra credit." Instead, you must manipulate the value of assignments depending on the kind of extra credit you want to make available and award.
Scenario 1 – Your extra credit will add regular points to the overall course point total (unweighted grade book) or to the point total of a specific category (weighted grade book):
- Create your assignment as normal but specify the point value as "0".
- If the activity is a quiz, create each question and set its value to 0. The sum of the points will then be 0.
- If the activity is specifically a New Quizzes quiz, you can set the 0 right on the main settings page and it will override the point values of the questions.
- After submission, assign the extra points directly on the Grades page or via Speedgrader, even for a quiz. Since the value of the activity is 0, no one is penalized for not doing it. Note: You do not need to grade students who chose not to do the extra credit activity.
Scenario 2 – Your extra credit will add percentage points to the overall course percentage (weighted grade book)
- After creating the regular assignment groups that add up to 100%, create an additional group on the Assignments page. Name it "Extra Credit" and set its weight to the maximum percentage amount the extra credit activity/activities can contribute (e.g., 3%). Your overall course maximum percentage will now be greater than 100%.
- Create your assignment(s) as normal and specify a real point value for each one. This is necessary in order to create a percentage score for the new group.
- Place the assignments into the Extra Credit group.
- After submission, grade the submissions as normal and apply the appropriate points out of the total possible.
Note: You do not need to grade students who chose not to submit the extra credit assignments.
Need help with extra credit? Try the Extra Credit Self Service tool to guide you through the choices!
Contact OAT with any questions.
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January Workshops
Join OAT to learn about peer review and social reading in Harmonize + What's New in Canvas!
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Reminders
A4L Accessibility Hot Tips
Design & Remediation Hot 🔥 Tips
1. Downloading PDFs from Canvas Shells with UDOIT and Submitting for Remediation
AI Video Demo and directions for downloading PDFs from course shells:
Open your Canvas shell, look for 'Check Accessibility With UDOIT' on the left side*, open UDOIT, grant it access to scan your course. After scanning is complete, click on 'Home' at the top and scroll down to find/open the high impact scorecard, click on "PDFs", review your PDFs and download any that present with an error such as "File lacks tags needed for navigation by assistive technologies" or "Image-based file detected."
The error of "File is missing a title element" is very simple to fix on your own so we recommend you stick to submitting those with the more complex errors as listed above.
To submit PDFs for remediation, simply open our TDX form and submit a ‘Accessibility Work Request - On-Demand File Remediation’. Our student team will take care of the technical part! After your files are remediated and returned to you, simply go back to the Course Files tab in UDOIT and individually replace them by clicking "Replace file with an uploaded file" and UDOIT will do the rest for you!
* Students cannot see UDOIT or TidyUp links
2. Be Careful When Using with Tables in Canvas | Tables Are Not For Layout
Tables are sometimes used to create visual layouts on a web page, such as text arranged into two "columns", or to position an image next to a block of text. Back in the early days of the web, this was a common work around for the lack of regular HTML to do fancy page layout kinds of things.
We do not recommend this practice anymore. Tables should be used only for tabular data or content. Using tables to lay out regular page content will cause problems for screen reader users. For example, tables on web pages (i.e., Canvas pages) must have header rows and/or header columns so the screen reader can navigate through the table structure. If you're using a table to do page layout, your "table" doesn't have a structure like that, and that's confusing.
Have questions about how to lay out pages or images without tables? Contact OAT!
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Turnitin Updated December 1
On December 1, OAT enabled an upgraded Turnitin experience in all Canvas courses. The new interface only affects newly created Turnitin assignments and copied assignment in new courses. Existing assignments at the time of the update will not be affected.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I create a Turnitin assignment?
In the updated method, instructors create Turnitin assignments from the 'three-dot' menu of the main Assignments home page, as shown below.
Step 1: Click the 'three dot' menu on the Assignments home page of the course. It's no longer necessary to click "+ Assignment" to create full Turnitin assignments.
Step 2: Choose "Turnitin" from the Assignment menu.
From the Turnitin modal window that appears, instructors configure the details of the assignment, such as point value, instructions, and due date. As with the previous integration, instructors can configure any number of additional options about the student experience.
What are some benefits of the change to LTI 1.3?
- Simplified workflow to create a Turnitin assignment in Canvas
- Improved Feedback Studio grading and feedback tool for instructors
- Immediate course roster syncing in the inbox to see who has and has not submitted
- Ability to submit on behalf of a student if necessary
Watch a guided overview of the new Turnitin experience!
Note: the guided overview implies that instructors can import existing Canvas rubrics into Turnitin's Feedback Studio. This is not possible. See below regarding using Canvas rubrics.
What changes to existing workflows do instructors need to be aware of?
In new Turnitin assignments, student submissions will not show in Speedgrader. Instead, all grading, rubrics, and feedback are expected to occur in the Feedback Studio interface of Turnitin. Scores will be passed back to the Canvas gradebook automatically and students will be able to review feedback from the assignment's link in Canvas. Other LTI 1.3 tools operate this way (e.g. VoiceThread), with grading done inside the tool rather than in Speedgrader.
How can instructors continue using Canvas rubrics and Speedgrader with Turnitin reports?
Instead of creating a Turnitin assignment, this can be done in a standard Canvas assignment by enabling Turnitin Plagiarism Review within the assignment settings. See "Enabling Basic Plagiarism Checking on a Canvas Assignment" for more information. Turnitin Plagiarism Review is not the same type of integration as the LTI 1.3 Standard Assignment under discussion here.
What will happen to existing assignments using the current LTI 1.1 configuration?
Once a course is copied forward into a new term, previous Turnitin assignments will be automatically converted to the new Standard Assignment of Turnitin.
Why is the change happening?
This update provides our campus with the ability to take advantage of new product developments in Turnitin going forward.
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Exam Integrity in the Age of A.I.
Did you know Stan State has a site license for Respondus's LockDown Browser, and it can be required for the completion of any Canvas quiz? If you are concerned about students generating quiz answers by copying and pasting your quiz questions into ChatGPT, then requiring the use of LDB to complete the quiz may worth considering.
What is LockDown Browser?
LockDown Browser is a custom web browser that restricts the user to just their Canvas account. Within a course, LockDown Browser locks down the testing environment for a quiz. It prevents students from capturing screen content, opening other tabs or websites on the Internet unless those sites are part of a quiz question, and using any other programs on their computer. Only after the student submits the quiz are they permitted to quit the browser. At that point, all normal functionality on the computer is restored.
Watch an overview of LockDown Browser
How is LockDown Browser enabled?
- On the settings page of the Canvas course, open the Navigation list and enable the LockDown Browser tool. It will appear as a link in the course navigation (hidden from students)
- Open the LockDown Browser link to view the LockDown Browser dashboard
- Open the configuration arrow for the specific quiz that will require use of the LockDown Browser and click "Settings"
- Enable the LockDown Browser requirement
- Review the "Advanced Settings" if desired
- Click "Save + Close" to complete the set up process. No other changes need to be made to the quiz itself.
What is the student experience?
First, students generally must use a standard laptop or desktop computer to take a quiz that requires LockDown Browser. Mobile devices are not supported except for iPads and then only if the instructor enables that setting (not recommended). All campus computer labs have Respondus LockDown Browser installed.
Second, students will be prompted by the exam to download and launch the LockDown Browser application if they access the quiz using a regular web browser.
When launched, LockDown Browser goes directly to Canvas and the student logs in the same way they do in a regular web browser (including the Duo authentication). The student then opens the course and proceeds to the quiz. The usual "Start the Quiz" button appears and the rest of the quiz experience operates as normal.
Share this student overview video with your class: https://web.respondus.com/lockdownbrowser-student-video/
Things to consider:
- LockDown Browser makes cheating on a Canvas quiz harder and more time-consuming but not impossible. In an unproctored environment, it cannot prevent actions that occur on other devices that students might have in their possession.
- For more control over the quiz-taking environment, consider enabling the webcam recording settings of LockDown Browser, Respondus Monitor.
- Students must have a practice quiz available beforehand. This allows them to get acquainted with the LockDown Browser process. Do not overlook this! Create a simple quiz with one or two questions, and configure that quiz to require LockDown Browser.
- Idea: consider using Canvas's module requirements feature to make the practice quiz a formal prerequisite for taking the real quiz. Learn more.
- Canvas quizzes with LockDown Browser enabled cannot accommodate an "open note" or "open book" quiz policy if those materials are only stored in Canvas. However, specific web domains can be allowed if configured in the LockDown Browser settings. Remember, the point of LockDown Browser is to "lock down" the environment to just the quiz.
Resources for more information
Have more questions? Contact OAT!
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