Start of the Semester Basics
Use this checklist to ensure your courses are ready for the new semester. Students cannot access any of their courses until midnight the first day of term, so you can work on your course weeks ahead of time, worry-free. Click links to view short, how-to videos on the subject or to access specific ticket requests.
Step 1: Set up the Course
First, copy your course material and then adjust base functionality.
- 鈥� the most crucial ones are:
- Add other publisher content or resource tools (Perusall, etc) to your course navigation, if using.
- Ensure Announcements display correctly, if using.
- Add Banner Grade Exchange to your course navigation, if using.
- Remove any navigation links you don鈥檛 need.
- Although your students don鈥檛 have access to Canvas before the start of the semester, you can email them, if you wish, via Banner.
Step 2: Adjust Due Dates, Group Assignments & Gradebook
Next, make sure your materials work the way you intend and additional users can get in.
- Check Assignments and Gradebook
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- , if using (assignments or discussions).
- Verify your gradebook is arranged and reflects your grading policy.
- Set Late Submission or Missing Submission policies.
- Confirm Weighted Gradebook settings, if using.
- Change all your assignment due dates the FAST way (鈥溾��).
- Check Publication Status - Check visibility of individual items and modules as a whole (look for the green check mark!).
- Set assignment dates, lock modules or use prerequisites to control when students can access materials.
- Validate Publisher Tools 鈥� Click on your publisher tools (Perusall, McGrawHill, SmartBook, MyMathLab, etc) to ensure they function correctly. Be sure to tell your students how to use these tools, too. Each publisher will have student instructions you can add to your course.
Step 3: Check Accessibility
Then, ensure you are using video correctly and that your course is accessible.
- - Detect and fix common accessibility errors in Canvas.
- - create Canvas pages instead for better accessibility.
- Top 5 Action Items:
- Structure with Headings (not size/bold)
- Provide Meaningful Alt Text for Images
- Write Descriptive Links
- Ensure Color Contrast and Text-based Information
Step 4: Check Video
- - ALL videos should be placed in Studio. Do not add .mp4s directly to your course. They
will consume all your file space and may have accessibility issues. See
- Add YouTube videos to Studio, too. These will play without ads or suggestions for next viewing, and contain captions.
- - Once videos are added to Studio, embed the video in pages.
- - enable this feature to migrate existing YouTube videos for a distraction-free and uninterrupted learning experience.
Step 5: Add Special Users
Now it鈥檚 time to use tickets to add certain types of instructors and graders assigned to your course. Students are automatically added.
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Step 6: Final Review
Finally, view the course the way your students will.
- - Review your course content from Student View to experience your course from a student perspective.
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