Canvas for TAs

1. Canvas for TAs
Lea Susan Engle, Noah Stroehle, and William O. Mills IV
Canvas Specialists
canvas@utlists.utexas.edu
canvas.utexas.edu/help

3. Presentation Goals
• Participants will:
• Be introduced to the Learning Management System, Canvas
• Understand the basics of:
• Communication
• Main Canvas components
• Assignments
• SpeedGrader
• Gradebook
• Know where to go for help & support

4. Start Here (Change the World)
canvas.utexas.edu

5. Canvas Site Navigation
• Help in top right
• Global vs. Course Settings
• Notification Preferences
• Left column – black vs. grey

6. Communication
Canvas Instructor Guide – Conversations Inbox
New Message

7. Attendance
• Canvas has a special Attendance tool that you can have turned
on in your course by contacting Instructure Tier 1 support
from the Help menu in the upper right hand corner of the
Canvas interface
• You may take attendance with iClickers (or other classroom-
response systems)
• Can be graded or ungraded
• Most faculty do not use this feature as it doesn’t give the
flexibility they want
Canvas Instructor Guide - Attendance/Roll Call

8. Files
Canvas Instructor Guide – Files
Listed alpha-numerically

9. Pages
• Similar to a webpage
• Can add text, images, links
• Allows some HTML
• Used many different ways
• Course home page with images and text
• Resource lists with lots of links
• Place to embed videos and slideshow presentations

10. Modules
Canvas Instructor Guide – Modules
Organize your class by week, topic, text book chapter, etc. Modules are
made of links to assignments, files, pages, quizzes, external links, and
more.

11. The Agony and the Ecstasy of
the Little Grey/Green Cloud
This course is UNPUBLISHED only teachers can see it –
edit away!
BUT . . .

12. The Agony and the Ecstasy of
the Little Grey/Green Cloud
Make sure you publish EACH COMPONENT of the course
or students can’t see it.

13. ONLY INSTRUCTORS CAN PUBLISH
CANVAS COURSES
You can publish components (assignments, discussions,
pages, etc.), but the instructor needs to publish the
course.

14. Student View:
SeeWhatTheySee,SubmitTestAssignments,CheckOnlineTests,etc.

15. Exit/Reset Student View
Canvas Instructor Guide – Student View

16. Assignments
• An assignment is anything that students are required to do
• Whether or not there is an online or paper submission
• Whether or not it’s graded
• Creating an assignment creates a column in the Gradebook
• You cannot create a column in the Gradebook without going
through Assignments or Quizzes (online assessments)
Canvas Instructor Guide - Assignments

17. Assignment Rubrics
Canvas Instructor Guide – Rubrics

18. SpeedGrader
Canvas Instructor Guide – SpeedGrader

19. Entering Grades
• You can enter grades via SpeedGrader
• You can also enter grades directly in the Gradebook
• You would use this for any assignment turned in on paper

20. Muting/Unmuting:
Releasing the Hounds Grades

21. Muting in SpeedGrader

22. Muting in Gradebook

23. Muting/Unmuting an
Assignment

24. Gradebook
Canvas Instructor Guide – Gradebook

25. Gradebook Options
Canvas Instructor Guide – Gradebook

26. DON’T USE THE CURVE GRADES
FEATURE – IT CAN’T BE UNDONE, AND
IT’S NOT GREAT

27. Quizzes – Adding Questions

28. Quizzes
Canvas Instructor Guide – Quizzes

29. Final-Grade Prep
• You MUST manually change dashes to zeros before you can
submit final grades
https://utexas.instructure.com/courses/633028/pages/final-grade-submission-preparation

30. Canvas Resources
• UT’s Canvas Help Resources
• canvas.utexas.edu/help
• One-on-one or small-group consulting with CTL
• canvas.utexas.edu/appointments
• Canvas Guides
• Canvas Instructor Guide

31. Canvas for TAs
Lea Susan Engle, Noah Stroehle, and William O. Mills IV
Canvas Specialists
canvas@utlists.utexas.edu
canvas.utexas.edu/help