10 Canvas Favorite Tips

I have posted a sheet of tips that I currently use with Canvas and have updated this fall. Some of these are old but some may be new to you. I have attached the link to the document to keep this post to a minimum. After each tip there are a few labels that you can look for on the 99 and will take you to a previous screen cast on the subject.
10 Canvas Favorite Tips White paper only, no video here.

Speed Grader Specific Class Selection

When you wish to change from "view all classes" in Speed Grader to a specific class you have to move your curser very fast or the gap between drop downs will cause the specific class selection window to disappear. It can be a little frustrating if you don't move fast. Check out the clip on this post for a quick demo.

Update! It looks like Canvas has patched this problem but you never know if it will rear its head in the future.

Speed Grader Class Selection

Dashboard Course Card Color Overlay

For quite some time we have been able to place an image onto our course cards in Dashboard mode. The problem has been that each image had to have a color tint overlay. I just noticed yesterday that we now have an added option of turning that color overlay off so that the image is clear and free of the tint. Students will still have the option of turning on or off the color tint overlay as it is machine specific. Click the gear at the upper right and also click on or off the overlay. The image below on the left has the overly on and the image to the right has the overlay clicked off. You can still control the color of your class name by clicking the three dots at the upper right of each course image.

Importing Modules - Update

Hey there. I hope your summer is still in full swing and still awesome. Sorry, there is no video in this post. I was noticing that the 2016-2017 courses have been moved and the "controls" taken off. In case you have not yet moved your course or modules into a safe place for this next school year, fear not. It appears that while your courses have been moved out of your "favorites" section they are still, at this time, available in your "all courses" section. You just have to figure out which ones are from last year. You can still import modules or even entire courses normally as I mentioned in my June 20 post. Have a great rest of the summer.

Saving Canvas Content for Next Year

I was just thinking to myself if I had moved my Canvas course content from the completed year into my template so that when headquarters makes access to 2016-2017 unavailable I could still get to it. The answer is that I am moving content as I write this.

Below is a quick step by step, in case your forgot, way to move all your course content into your template for easy access and editing for this fall. Access may not be halted but there is always a chance and I don't want to take that chance. These steps are very easy and take no time at all to complete. Also, if you do not have a "template" you can email the help desk and they will make one up for you with the title that you request. They will not touch "template" titled courses when they archive.

This procedure has not changed. I am just listing it step by step for anyone not remembering how to pull this off.

Start in your course, from this past year, and edit each module title by adding the year of your choice. You may want to add 2016-2017 or what ever you will recognize as coming from last year's course when it gets imported to your template as they will be added to the template and not be replacing any modules. You will want to do this to each module. Also, if you like your home page, edit that page's title (by clicking edit on the page) in such a way that you will recognize it in the tons of pages that you now have created such as "home page for year 2017" or something like that. This is necessary because using this method will import all your pages as well and they will join or even duplicate any that are already in your template.

Open your template course and click settings.

On the right margin click Import Content into this Course.

Content Type: Copy a Canvas Course

Select a Course: Select the course from this last year in which you want to import. You will have to do this to as many course that you wish to import one at a time.

Content: Select All content. You usually check the Select specific content throughout the year.

Options: You can shift dates or remove dates. I would choose remove dates as this will eliminate assignment due dates. I have seen conflicts in setting new dates if the old dates are not removed.

Click Import.

This process should take quite some time depending on how much content you have.

The final step, which I usually wait for until I am ready to import at the start of the new year, is to delete any module that has an old date next to it as the years go by. These modules with old dates can remain it is just that when your template course gets rather large it take forever for it open or even load when you want to look through it for items throughout the following year.

This entire process should have taken you less time than it did to read through this.

Google Drive "Force Copy"

If you have been struggling with students continuing to submit documents that are blank due to their inability to determine which document they actually wrote on, this may be your solution. By sharing your hyperlink in a "force copy" condition students will be forced to make their copy initially and then place it into the proper folder for later retrieval. Thanks to a discussion with Duke Lines I learned how to pull this off. After posting your hyperlink you can go into the URL for that document and replace the term "edit" with "copy." This does not change the "sharing" permissions in the original document it only changes the order to make a copy without sharing the blank document. For this reason the document hyperlink URL has to be posted somewhere first before you change it to "copy."
Google Drive Forced Copy
Forced Copy Part 2

Speedgrader Tips

This post is about the Canvas Speedgrader. There are a couple of settings that might come in handy. One is that if you want to really fly you could set up a rubric at the start of your assignment build and click the box that says you want to use the rubric score as your final score. That appears at the lower left of the rubric setup and needs to be checked before saving. That way, when you click the rubric and save in Speedgrader, the score will appear in the score box automatically saving you a couple of clicks. All you have to do is click the arrow for the next student. Another tip is to set your gear settings at the upper left of Speedgrader and choose how you want your students to be organized. The choices are alpha, by date, and who needs to be scored yet.
Speedgrader Tips

Rubric Tips

This 99 topic is a couple of Canvas Rubric Tips. Remember the best way to build your rubric is to do it right at the start. It is way difficult to locate and put together later and in many instances impossible to do. You will have to rebuild your assignment completely. In the case of Google Cloud Assignments, you must build your rubric first. If you forget (and don't want to start from scratch) you can click the submission type back to "no submission" and save. Then, return to Edit, build your rubric, and reset the submission type to External Tool and choose the Google Cloud Assignment LTI. Of course from there you select the actual Google document your wish to push out with your assignment.
Rubric Tips

Google Cloud Assignment - Deep Dive

Here is an update on Google Cloud Assignments. I love this concept and have tested it out in my classes. While in theory it is a fantastic option but while in Beta I have had a few students in each of my classes not being able to access the document or get their Google Drive associated in its entirety. For now, I am suspending use until I get a few answers concerning these problems. It is, after all, in Beta.

Today's post is definitely a deep dive. You will have to have already set up Google Drive's LTI tool and have that firmly placed into your navigation menu at the left of your screen. I have posted P1 and P2 video tutorials below in case you missed that setup a few weeks back. The advantage of using Google's Cloud Assignment setup is that after you make up your assignment and place the required document into the assignment shell students have the option to simply "submit" directly from that location. I am always having students submit the wrong or blank document. This way Google Cloud makes it possible so that when a student clicks to open the assignment a copy is automatically generated and saved to their Google account.  Students will again associate their Canvas to Google Cloud but this is a simple agreement that only requires a click. Google Cloud is still in Beta so there may be a few bugs, yet.

Google Apps P1
Google Apps P2

Google Cloud Assignment

Jeopardy Flippity

This Google Drive Spreadsheet document will allow you to make up a Jeopardy type game sheet and has the controls to make it seem very real and professional. There are lots of games of this type out there but this one is way cool.
Jeopardy Flippity
Jeopardy Game Instructions

Padlet for Canvas

Padlet is a sticky note app that allows students to participate collaboratively. You can post a live Padlet board within Canvas by pasting in the iFrame code provided. (That is what makes it live within Canvas.) You can also link to Padlet if you wish to use it outside of Canvas and you may also post it to web pages.
Padlet for Canvas

Explain Everything

This app is not new but has been opened up to be downloaded to the Chromebook as well as your HP laptops and desktops. It was formerly only available to iPad. This is a write on whiteboard sort of app that you can record your audio and video very similar to the Show Me app. It is free and includes a 30 day free premium trial. I use the free version and it does everything I want. Students can download it to their Chromebook and create and comment collaboratively.
Explain Everything 

Here is a huge clip demonstration from Teacher Cast
TeacherCast Podcast 27:50

Adding Apps to Canvas (LTI) Deep Dive

There are a number of apps that can be added to Canvas making the student experience richer. You can access math, music, and other LTI tools and many are free. You can also add Google Apps and Office 365 if you have accounts. PHM users have Google accounts so you are all set. You may or may not have your own Office 365 account. If your content has material available to you in Word documents you can add the Office 365 LTI and insert them directly into your modules, pages, and anything that has the editor directly without the need to download and upload into your files. You can embed directly. Of course, you can always upload your Word documents into Google Drive and insert them in that manner as well.
Adding Apps LTI

Google Drive Video Upload - Update

As of yesterday, posting a video clip to a Google Drive Slide Presentation just got a whole lot easier and way better. (This works on Slides only.) If you saw my January 21 post, where I demoed how to post a video the "cool" way by hyperlinking an image, you can now insert the video directly onto a slide using the "insert" tool in the tool bar. You could always insert a video but only from the Internet or YouTube. You still have to initially upload the video file to Drive but now you can search your Google Drive and place it directly into your presentation. The purpose for doing this is to cut the ties completely with YouTube to help protect your students from accessing YouTube from your posted videos.
Google Drive Video Insert (New and improved by Google)

Course Card GIF

This video screencast is focused on making GIFs for your course cards. It works like posting images on your cards but instead of an image you load a GIF. It is a short movie of sorts probably 10 seconds in length, or so. You can find your own or actually build one with the LICEcap free GIF builder. Download the free program and you are up and running. The color tint overlay is still in play but they are working on making a clear overlay soon.
Course Card GIF

Note Anywhere and Visor - Chrome Extensions

I was alerted by TeacherCast of a couple of Chrome Extensions that could come in handy. The first one is Note Anywhere. Students may add a sticky note to any web page or document, even Canvas, and when the page is closed or refreshed the note remains. The second one could be very useful for students who have tracking problems or just more trouble tracking on web pages on the Chromebook. It is Visor and works like an adjustable visor that can be moved as students read down the page.
Note Anywhere and Visor

Question Banks - Deep Dive

This is another "Deep Dive" video tutorial. These three 99second videos feature making and using Canvas Question Banks. If you build your quizzes using question banks and label them correctly in a way that makes sense you can build your quizzes around them so that each quiz that your students take will be randomized from a particular question bank. For example make up more questions than you want on the test, say 20, and have the test choose 10 from that bank. If you do a retake, the retake will automatically choose another group or a mixed group of questions from your bank. You can set the point values and also choose specific questions that you want every test to include such as vocabulary or a must-have important concept.
Question Banks P1
Question Banks P2
Question Banks P3

Google Apps - Canvas Deep Dive

This post is a "Deep Dive" into Canvas and the jury is still out as to how handy this will be in the long run. This trick is designed to take "clicks" out of your postings to Canvas. It makes use of Google Drive and makes it possible to either post a link, like you usually do, or embed a document without actually getting the iFrame embed code. It is a one click stop for linking or embedding a Google document or video into Canvas.
Google Apps LTI P1
Google Apps LTI P2

Announcements - Closed for Comments

Our district has made a change in how Announcements are posting and that is by default they are closed for comments. If you want to open or close yours on demand you have to do this little trick.
Closed for Comments Announcements

Teacher Kit / Student Callout

Again, there are tons of class management apps available at no cost (in app purchases, of course) to teachers but my choice for a number of years has been Teacher Kit. The only feature I use, and there are many such as emailing directly to parents, is the seating chart and Student Callout features. After I take individual photos of my students at the start of the school year I can place the chart any way I like. I email the screen shot from my iPad to myself on my school desktop and then have it for print, subs, sub desktop, etc. After downloading the app to my phone I can use the Student Callout as I walk around the room during discussions. There is some initial setup at the start of the year but it pays off over the entire year. You can even move students into a class and out as their schedule changes.
Teacher Kit

Google Drive Seating Chart - Deep Dive

I believe the best choice in Google Drive for making and using a seating chart lies with Slides. You can automatically move the student around the page without any changes. You can also link that student to his/her personal performance Google Form Sheet and it could be shared with the parent in real time.
Individual Student Report  - Google Drive Seating Chart

Google Doc Seating Chart

This post is connected to using Google Docs to make up your class seating chart. There are tons of seating chart/class management apps out there that are probably much better at doing this but I wanted to explore just how Google could be used to accomplish it as we are familiar with the Google platform.
Google Doc Seating Chart

QR Code

This episode demonstrates making and using QR Codes.
QR Code
QR Code P2

PDF Embed in Canvas - Deep Dive

You may have figured out that you can grab an iFrame code from any object and paste it into Canvas via the HTML side of your editor. You just have to know where to find the code. Some objects such as video and audio clips can simply be embedded natively but you can also embed without an icon in the tool bar. Check out this PDF embed.
PDF Embed

Quizlet Embed to Canvas - Deep Dive

Instead of posting a link to Quizlet try this little trick to embed a Quizlet student practice game to a Canvas Content page. This works within the Canvas LMS platform and keeps students close to the learning. Students can still access Quizet directly from within the embed if they wish to explore other Quizlet features.
Quizlet Embed

Dynamic Google Drive Embed to Canvas - Deep Dive

If you want to embed a Google Drive document into Canvas and don't want or need to allow students the ability to "make a copy" in order to edit the document you might want to consider this trick. It makes for a professional looking Google Document post without the editing tools that go along with a Google Drive document. Check this out.
Dynamic Google Drive Embed

Canvas Power Point Embed - Deep Dive

You can embed a Power Point or Google Drive Slide presentation into a Canvas content page and it looks really slick. Students can access the slide show without gaining access to the edit page and it also hides the "make a copy" feature when you don't want students to be able to write on the slides.
Google Slide Embed

Course Card Image

You can place or make an image to go on your Course Card for your Canvas dashboard. Your students will see the image when ever they look at your course.

Course Card Image

ScreenCast-O-Matic

There are many screencast recording software available but if you want to make regular screencasts you want something easy to use and consistent.

This is a screencast of a screencast in order to introduce you to my favorite screencasting software. I recorded this using Quick Time Player on a MacBook in order to capture ScreenCast-O-Matic in action. Quicktime is very rough, in my opinion, as it is not easy to edit, start and stop at will, truncate, delete little parts, or basically do any of the things you want to do on the fly when making quick screencasts. This Internet based software does all the above and probably much more than I have explored.
ScreenCast-O-Matic

Google Drive - Video Upload

After you have downloaded or made up your own video/screencast you can upload it to Canvas directly or place it into a Google Document or Slide presentation.

You first must upload your video to Drive in order to obtain a URL. Then, you can paste that URL into a document or a Slide presentation. It will run the video from Google Drive. Be sure to give it the proper share permissions so your audience can view it.
Google Drive Upload P1
Google Drive Upload P2

YouTube Download - Deep Dive

The only way to totally separate your video posts from YouTube is to download them directly to your machine as a video file. Of course you can make your own video/screencast and that will be separated from YouTube as well unless you first upload it to YouTube. YouTube has a way to always link back to itself if you link even when altering the iFrame code first.
YouTube Download P1
Download YouTube P2

Single Space

If you have typed short sentences or bullet points onto a content page in Canvas and have wanted to single space instead of the default double space, this tip is for you.
Canvas Single Space

Additional Folder

In case you have ever run into the problem in Google Drive of wanting to place a shared document into a new folder but did not want to disconnect it from your colleagues who shared, here is a way to do that. Move the document into an additional folder without making a copy. Making a copy will cut the ties from other collaborators and prevent it from automatically updating when changes are made by others.
Google Drive - Additional Folder

Undelete

This quick trick could save your life. If you have deleted a quiz/assignment etc. in canvas on purpose or even by accident you can get it back and all its information.
Undelete

Hyperlink Secret

This little trick allows you to make a hyperlink in Canvas so that when students hover over the link a little message pops up in which you can make a directive or tip of what they are to do with that particular link. You make use of the Command + K keys. Actually, these keys allow a link-to in any application but in Canvas it adds the secret popup message capability.
Hyperlink Secret

Google Form

Check this short Google Form how-to. I was sick of my own voice so I made it "silent." It took two parts to demonstrate the Form with a button at the end to produce a "quiz."
Google Form P.1
Google Form P.2

Navigation Menu

These two clips explain how to set and order your Canvas navigation menu at the left margin of your course. You can add direct links that your students and parents may access to see specific information making it very easy and eliminating the need to post them in your announcements or modules. They show up each time they log in without the need to search for them.
Canvas Navigation Menu Applications P.1
Canvas Navigation Menu Applications P.2

Calendar

This clip gives a few tips on using your Canvas Calendar. When you schedule a due date on an assignment or quiz it automatically populated onto your Canvas Calendar. Currently, the Canvas Calendar does not integrate with your Google Calendar.
Canvas Calendar

Avatar

This how-to clip demonstrates how to set or change your Canvas Avatar (picture image).
Canvas Avatar

Dashboard

This clip shows you how to set up your dashboard favorites so that you see them and not too many each time you log in to Canvas.
Dashboard

Buttons / Home Page

The short version of how to build a cool button for you home page as well as how to hyperlink it.
Buttons P.1
Buttons P.2
Buttons P.3

Sign Out

This uses Google Forms to create a sign out/in tool where students sign themselves out automatically and back in when they return. This give you a time stamped out and then back in and students use the orange cone to indicate to you and other students that one student is out at a time. You also can see who is your class leader as well as how long these exits are taking.
Sign Out/In

End of School Year - Canvas Modules

These two clips demonstrate a good procedure for transferring your modules from your current year back to your template so that you can access over the summer.
End of School Year P.1
End of School Year P.2

Hyperlink in Canvas

This clip demonstrates a better hyperlink procedure so there is a hover over feature.
Hyperlink in Canvas

Notifications

Set your Canvas notifications so that you are notified when and with what you want.
Notifications

Plato

These two clips demonstrate setting up a Plato lesson in Canvas.
Plato P.1
Plato P.2

Snip Tool

The following clip demonstrates the use of the snip tool on PC and Mac.
Snip Tool

Warning Ticket

This clip is about a classroom management tool for tracking student class behavior making use of a Google Form.
Warning Ticket-Canvas