Prepare and Manage Your Canvas Courses – A Quarter Checklist

Here is a list of tasks that help you teach your classes on Canvas before and throughout the quarter. You can click on each title to see more details about each item.

Special Note: This list primarily focuses on administrative and technical preparations necessary to ensure readiness for teaching with Canvas in the upcoming quarter. It is important to note that this differs from the process of preparing an online course. The creation of a quality online course involves upfront preparation time for course design. If you need assistance with course planning for your online courses, please contact ETM at etmhelp@spu.edu or (206) 281-2170.

Getting Started with the Quarter
During the Quarter
The End of the Quarter

Here’s a handy checklist to help you get started with the quarter. Simply click on each link for more detailed information.

Access Your Canvas Courses
Cross-list or De-crosslist Course Sections (if applicable)
Add Course Content in Canvas
Reuse Panopto Recording from a Prior Quarter (if applicable)
Streamline Course Navigation Menu in Canvas
Update Syllabus in Canvas
Organize Your Course Content in Canvas
Set Up Canvas Gradebook and Your Grading
Pair Your Canvas Course with Your Publisher Tool (if applicable)
Add Guest Speaker or Lecturer to Your Canvas Course (if applicable)
Set up Class Zoom Meetings in Canvas (if applicable)
Update the Followings in Canvas Before Publishing the Course
Preview Your Course As a Student
Publish Your Canvas Course

Access Your Canvas Courses

Log into Canvas by going to spu.edu and clicking the “MySPU” link on the top right, and then clicking on “Canvas.”
Alternatively, you can bookmark canvas.spu.edu.

The integration among CourseLeaf, Banner, and Canvas is set up to automatically create Canvas sites two quarters before the scheduled course offering.

If a registrar course is not listed on your Canvas dashboard, please check the following steps:

Check with your department (e.g., course scheduler) to ensure you are added as an official instructor status to CourseLeaf, the curriculum management software.

Check your course on Canvas 24 hours after you are assigned to the courses in CourseLeaf.

If you have been assigned to a course in CourseLeaf but still cannot see it in Canvas, please don’t hesitate to contact ETM at etmhelp@spu.edu or (206) 281-2170 with any questions or concerns.

Cross-list or De-crosslist Course Sections (if applicable)

Typically, instructors do not need to make any adjustments to their course section arrangement on Canvas. This step is applicable if you wish to cross-list or de-crosslist your sections for specific reasons related to managing course sites.

Course registration information is pulled from Banner, Canvas automatically combines multiple sections of one course taught by the same instructor into one course shell. This can be convenient for you, as you only have to build and maintain one course on Canvas instead of having to copy the same materials from one section to another.

However, you may choose to have these sections manually split into separate courses in order to keep them distinct from one another (e.g., the course content is released based on different class schedules.)

If you need help to cross-list or de-crosslist your Canvas course sites, contact ETM at etmhelp@spu.edu or (206) 281-2170.

Add Course Content in Canvas

Import Content from Another Canvas Course
(if applicable)
Add New Content from Scratch
Add Course Materials or Digital Resources

Refer to the “How do I import content from another Canvas course?” guide for step-by-step instructions.

You only have access to copy content from courses in which you are enrolled as a user with instructor permissions. If you need a course copy from a prior course that was taught by a different instructor, please contact ETM at etmhelp@spu.edu with one of two authorizations – either the permission of the instructor who taught the course or the permission from your Dean.

If you need to create a course from scratch, refer to the following instructor guides for general course-building basics.

Use Modules to add course content (e.g., add content pages, assignments, quizzes, discussions, and files)
Add content (e.g., docments, images, and video) using the Rich Content Editor within the Canvas page
Choose a Home Page (i.e., the course landing page) for your course

Need a course template to get started? ETM have designed a template for remote teaching that offers a framework that you can adjust and expand upon. For step-by-step instructions on how to import a template into a Canvas course, please refer to “Import Template into Canvas Course.”

If you need a course design assistance, please contact ETM for instructional design services at etmhelp@spu.edu or (206) 281-2170.

Consider reaching out to your librarian for library resources in order to provide free materials to your students.

Submit your textbook or course material adoptions through the SPU Bookstore Portal. This will help students see their required texts before they have access to their Canvas courses. Students also can access the course material information through the Canvas integration with the bookstore portal.

Additional Resources:

Reuse Panopto Recording from a Prior Quarter (if applicable)

There may be some reasons that you need to reuse Panopto lectures from a previous quarter that you taught before, but it is a good idea to review the content of the videos to ensure that they are still relevant to the current course and update them if necessary.

Refer to the “ Reusing Panopto Recording from a Quarter to Another Quarter” guide for step-by-step instructions.

Avoid reusing recordings that include previous students. This ensures that student privacy is protected and that the institution is in compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) regulations.

If you need to reuse Panopto videos from a previous quarter that was taught by a different instructor in a different course site, please contact ETM at etmhelp@spu.edu with one of two authorizations – either the permission of the instructor who taught the course or the permission from your Dean.

Streamline Course Navigation Menu in Canvas

With an instructor role in a Canvas course, you have the ability to customize which items appear in the course navigation menu for your students. It is important to note that research studies have shown that limited and consistent navigation links have a positive impact on reducing student confusion on course navigation. Specifically, students tend to prefer fewer links in their course navigation as opposed to a plethora of options that can be overwhelming.

Refer to the “How do I manage course navigation link?” guide for step-by-step instructions.

Update Syllabus in Canvas

When using Canvas, your syllabus can be displayed in various formats, such as a PDF or Word file, or even as a page through the syllabus tool. Regardless of the format you choose, there are some important reminders to keep in mind:

Keep your syllabus up-to-date to reflect the current quarter.

Refer to the Sample Syllabus provided by the Faculty Life Office (FLO) to ensure you include any required university policy information, such as class recordings and communication policy.

Disclose the use of Turnitin tool in the syllabus if you plan to use Turnitin for promoting academic integrity we recommend you transparently include it your course expectations.

Refer to the “Using the Syllabus as an Instructor” guide for step-by-step instructions.

Organize Your Course Content in Canvas

Creating a well-structured and logically organized course website can help your students focus on their learning. There are many different ways of organizing your course content in Canvas, we recommend using Modules to organize course content for your students because it allows you to customize how students approach your course content as well as streamline the student experience. It also helps you organize course content (i.e., files and assignments) all together in one place.

Refer to the Organizing your course content in Canvas for guide for step-by-step instructions.

Set Up Canvas Gradebook and Your Grading

Creating Assignments
Set up Assignment Groups
(if applicable)
Set the Grading Scheme
Set the Grade Posting Policy

To begin with setting up your Canvas gradebook, you can create assignments that you will actually grade later. A graded assignment generates a column in the Canvas gradebook.

If students turn in assignments on paper or in class, you can create an “On Paper” or “No Submission” type of assignment. Then, you can directly grade those assignments by entering the grades in the Gradebook.

For online assignments/Canvas submissions, you can create an “Online” type assignment, and use Canvas SpeedGrader to grade it later.

You don’t need to create a Canvas assignment for an activity that you won’t grade, such as reading an article. Instead, create a Calendar Event to remind students about the activity. This will add it to their To-Do list through Canvas notificaitons.

If you weigh grades instead of using a point system for grading, you can set up Assignment Groups in the Assignments area. Assignment groups can be also helpful in organizing your assignments and making them easier to locate in the gradebook using filters, even if you’re not weighting grades. This is particularly useful if you have a larger number of assignments.

Refer to the “Weight Assignments” guide for step-by-step instructions.

Additional Resources:

How do I weight the final course grade based on assignment groups?
How do I create rules for an assignment group? (e.g., dropping the lowest grade in an assignment group)

Grading schemes can be set up in Canvas as a way of converting grades entered as points or percentages into letter grades for final grades. It is important to note that the course grading scheme in Canvas should match the one you have in the syllabus or the one created by your department.

Refer to the “Setting up Grading Schemes” guide for step-by-step instructions.

The Canvas default Grade Posting Policy for all the courses is to post grades as soon as they are entered. If you do not want some students getting notifications that they have a grade while others are still waiting. In this way, it may cause confusion among students as to whether or not you received their submission. You may want to change the grade posting policy for auto-graded quizzes, you may want to change the policy to manual grading. If you have auto-graded quizzes you can change the posting policy on those to post automatically.

The Canvas default Grade Posting Policy for all the courses is to post grades as soon as they are entered. For assignments that require manual grading, some students may receive grade notifications while others are still waiting, leading to uncertainty about whether their submissions were received. To avoid this confusion, you may need to adjust the grade posting policy. For manual assignments, consider changing the policy to post grades only after all submissions have been graded.

Refer to the Manually Posting Grades guide for step-by-step instructions.

For auto-graded quizzes, you can choose to have grades automatically posted as soon as they become available to provide timely feedback to students.

Pair Your Canvas Course with Your Publisher Tool (if applicable)

If you are using a university-reviewed publisher tool for eBooks, courseware, and supplemental content in Canvas, especially for graded assignments, please contact your publisher representative to pair your Canvas course with your Canvas site before the quarter. The integration will determine how your assignments and gradebook are constructed in Canvas. For example, some publisher tools may automatically sync grades with Canvas, while others may require manual grade import. The specifics of the integration will depend on the publisher tool and how it is configured.

The available publisher tools (university-reviewed) includes:

Cengage MindTap
McGraw-Hill Connect
Cambridge Business – MyBusinessCourse
Pearson
Macmillan

If you plan to use a new publisher tool in your Canvas course, we recommend requesting a tool review as early as possible by emailing etmhelp@spu.edu. 3rd party tool integrations with Canvas can transmit student data to vendors, so a review process will ensure that the data is transmitted securely, and also ensure the tool is accessible and in compliance with university policies and contracts (e.g., FERPA compliant).

Tool reviews are conducted by ETM and CIS and turnaround for the tool review depends on workload, the review process, and vendor responsiveness. Requesting a tool review early allows ample time for the review process and testing, which can help to avoid any potential delays or issues that may affect the quality and effectiveness of your course. Typically a review will be over a three week period but it may take longer or be difficult to schedule.

Add Guest Speaker or Lecturer to Your Canvas Course

You can easily invite a guest speaker to your classroom or a Zoom meeting. To add an external guest speaker or lecturer to your Canvas course, you need to follow these steps:

Fill out the Non-Employee Access Form, which is a Human Resources (HR) form to set up the guest speaker as a NonPay.

Complete a Cybersecurity Awareness Training in Percipio, SPU’s online training repository.

Once the Non-Employee Access request is approved by HR and the guest speaker receives SPU’s credentials, it is mandatory for them to complete the Cybersecurity Awareness Training in order to access the university’ systems. If they do not complete the training, they will not be able to log into the systems such as Canvas.

Complete a FERPA Training in Percipio.

The guest speaker or lecturer needs to complete the FERPA training before being added to a course as an instructor, TA, or any other role that provides student data access, such as student assignment submission, grades, etc.

Set up Class Zoom Meetings in Canvas (if applicable)

If you use Zoom to hold synchronous online sessions, you can create and manage Zoom sessions within your Canvas course. This also allows students to easily access the Zoom meeting links directly from the course site.

Newly hired instructors may need to request a Zoom licensed account from the department of Computer and Information Systems (CIS) in order to access the full features of Zoom.
Refer to the “Requesting a Zoom Licensed Account (Faculty/Staff)” guide for step-by-step instructions.

Map Zoom class recordings to Panopto class folder (if applicable)

You can streamline the process of managing class recordings by setting up Zoom recordings to automatically upload to the Panopto folder on the Canvas site. Panopto is a video hosting platform. This feature simplifies the management of your class recordings.

Refer to the “Panopto – Zoom Integration” guide for step-by-step instructions.

Update the Followings in Canvas Before Publishing the Course

Update Calendar and Due Dates in Assignments

When due dates are set within Assignments, Quizzes, etc., in Canvas, a list of these activities and their deadlines are created in the Calendar and the Syllabus area under “Course Summary.” Check if the due dates reflect the current quarter.

Update Canvas Notification

Refer to the Canvas Notification Recommendation for Instructors guide for step-by-step instructions.

Verify Modules and content are published if you intend to make them available to the students.

To ensure that students have access to the content, double-check that both the module and the individual pages within the module are published. If a module is not published, none of the pages within it will be visible to students, even if they are published.

Verify points listed in the course site are consistent with your grading information in syllabus.

Preview Your Course As a Student

To ensure that your course is presented in a way that you expected, you can use the Student View to verify that all course materials, assignments, and other content are organized correctly and can be accessed by students.

Refer to the “Student View” guide for the step-by-step instructions.

Publish Your Canvas Course

Once your Canvas site is ready for students to access, you need to publish it.

Students will not receive announcements or Canvas emails from an unpublished Canvas site. Once the site is published, all announcements are sent!

Refer to the Publishing Your Canvas Course guide for step-by-step instructions.

Here’s a handy checklist to help you during the quarter.

Posting Grades and Provide Feedback
Providing Student Accommodation in Canvas (if applicable)
Take Advantage of Canvas Tools to Help Your Student Learn

Posting Grades and Provide Feedback

For assignments that are turned in on paper or in the class, you can enter grades directly into the corresponding assignment column you set up in the gradebook. For online assignments/Canvas submissions, you can create an “Online” type assignment, and use Canvas SpeedGrader to grade it.

Refer to the “Grading in Canvas” guides for grading tips and instructions.

Providing Student Accommodation in Canvas (if applicable)

SPU’s Disability Support Services will inform you of any academic accommodations your students may require. If you use Canvas to deliver your course material and assignments, you may incorporate the following common accommodations that are available in Canvas based on your course content and teaching context.

Additional Resources:

Take Advantage of Canvas Tools to Help Your Student Learn

Regardless of whether your course is taught in-person, online, or in a hybrid format, you can take advantage of Canvas tools to help you teach and help students learn. Here are a few examples, but there are many more to explore:

Communication for connection
Quizzes for knowledge check
Discussions for many other purposes
Rubric for consistent and efficient grading

You can use Canvas announcements to communicate important course-wide information like upcoming assignments, changes to the syllabus, or reminders about deadlines. By using announcements, you can ensure that all students have access to the same information at the same time, helping them to stay on track and plan their work effectively. You also can use Canvas emails for private or one-on-one communication with individual students or groups of students. For example, you can respond to student questions or address any concerns that students may have about the course via Canvas emails.

Refer to the “Contact Students through Canvas” guide for step-by-step instructions.

While the Canvas quiz tool is commonly used for exams, it can also serve a variety of other pedagogical purposes. For example, you can use quizzes for knowledge check activities by asking students a short series of questions before or after class. Quizzes in Canvas provide immediate feedback to students, making them a quick and easy way to gauge student understanding or prior knowledge as pre-class assignments. You can also use them to identify areas where students need additional support or to reinforce concepts covered in class, allowing students to identify areas where they may need to review the material further.

Refer to the following Canvas guides for step-by-step instructions:

Although the Canvas discussion tool is often used for asynchronous online class discussions, it can serve a variety of pedagogical purposes. For example, you can use Canvas discussions to encourage students to reflect on how they have applied course concepts to real-world situations. Discussions can also be used to facilitate peer review of student work and group projects. Additionally, you can use discussion forums as a means to hold asynchronous office hours or provide extra support to students by creating a “General Course Question Forum.” This forum allows students to seek help from both their instructor and peers, providing them with another opportunity to receive assistance.

Refer to the following Canvas guides for step-by-step instructions:

Rubrics help ensure consistency and efficiency in grading by outlining clear expectations and helping students understand how their work will be evaluated. In Canvas, rubrics are integrated into the SpeedGrader tool. This means you can access the rubric for each assignment while grading, select specific criteria and achievement levels, and the rubric will automatically calculate scores for each criterion and the total score for the assignment. This also streamlines grading and saves time.

Refer to the following Canvas guides for step-by-step instructions:

Adding and grading with a rubric

If you have any questions about the Canvas tools that can help your students learn, please don’t hesitate to contact ETM at etmhelp@spu.edu or (206) 281-2170.

Here’s a handy checklist to help you during the quarter:

Post Your Final Grades
Student Feedback (SmartEvals) in Canvas
Students with Incomplete in Canvas

Post Your Final Grades

You can manually enter your final grades in the Banner system. You also can Import Canvas Grades into Banner.

Before importing grades from Canvas into Banner, please keep in mind the following important reminders:

Review gradebook and grading scheme in Canvas and confirmed that your grades are correct.
Check for any blanks or empty grades in Canvas gradebook. Update any incompleted grades before exporting the final grade to Banner. Canvas does not count published ungraded work towards the total grade. So, for any published but upgrade work, you need to enter “0” to include them in the calculation on Canvas.

Refer to the “Import Canvas Grades into Banner” guide for step-by-step instructions.

Student Feedback (SmartEvals) Via Canvas

By default, all students are surveyed via SmartEvals for course & instructor feedback at the conclusion of every quarter. Students can log on to SmartEvals via Canvas to fill out surveys:

Log in to Canvas at https://canvas.spu.edu and navigate to a course
In the course navigation, click on Student Feedback

If you have additional questions about the Student Feedback, please contact the Office of Institutional Effectiveness. If students do not use SPU email, they may receive an error message when accessing SmartEvals.

Students with incomplete in Canvas

If any of your students are unable to complete the course within the designated quarter period and initiate an incomplete request, you can contact ETM for assistance. We can help you create an incomplete section to extend their access on Canvas, which will allow the student to continue accessing the course materials and assignments without affecting other students’ course settings. You can reach out ETM for support via email at etmhelp@spu.edu or by phone at (206) 281-2170.

A Quarter Checklist by ETM is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. This work is based on Managing Your Online Class by PennState College of Earth and Mineral Sciences under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.