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Arts Student Canvas Site: includes how-to guides and student resources

Canvas Guides

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UBC Library Online Course Reserves (LOCR)

LT Hub Canvas Instructor Guide

Exam Practice Run & Arts Students Resources

How do you set up bonus mark questions?

Adding extra questions to a Quiz on Canvas can be used to provide bonus marks to students. These questions allow for extra points to be added, but will not detract from a student’s mark if marked as incorrect. 

Please note that the following method require bonus marks to be manually added to each student’s mark in SpeedGrader, which may be time-consuming for a large class. 

1. Create a quiz in Canvas by clicking on the +Quiz button on the Quizzes page in Canvas. 
   
2. In the pop-up window that appears, select either Classic Quizzes (recommended) or New Quizzes, and click Submit.
   
3. After the quiz has been created, add the questions that will be considered for bonus marks. Ensure that all extra questions for bonus marks are worth 0 points.
   
4. After students have completed the Quiz, open SpeedGrader.
   • For Classic Quizzes, access SpeedGrader on the right side of the page when you are on the Quiz.
     
   • For New Quizzes, SpeedGrader must be accessed by clicking on the three dots icon (1) next to the Quiz’s name in the Gradebook. Select SpeedGrader (2) from the drop-down.
     
5. For each bonus question, add points as necessary to be counted as bonus marks.
   • For Classic Quizzes, type a number in the field on the top right of each question box to add marks.
     
   • For New Quizzes, click on the up and down arrows next to the box to the right of each question to add or subtract marks (or manually type in a number).
     

How do you set up a quiz for students to access from different time zones?

In online-only sections of courses, instructors may want to assign quizzes to students based on the time zone that they are in.  This is achieved by using the Assign section of the quiz settings. Please note that all times will need to be inputted as the equivalent time in your own time zone (eg. PST).  

1. Click Edit on the Quiz being assigned.
   
2. Scroll to the Assign section.
   
3. Enter the students’ name in the Assign to box.
   
4. Enter the Due Date, Available From and Available Until times equivalent to the time in the other time zones. Make sure the time is entered in as PST times.
   
5. Repeat steps 3-5 to accommodate another time zone.
6. Click Save on the bottom of the page.

Should you use New Quizzes or Classic Quizzes?

It is recommended that instructors in Arts at UBC use Classic Quizzes on Canvas rather than New Quizzes. Although New Quizzes have additional questions types, there have been noticeable performance issues, and access for Course Designers are restricted. Below are notable limitations of both types of quizzes:

Classic Quizzes:

• There are limited question types available (no matching, ordering, hotspot, or categorization-type questions).
• Classic Quizzes have limited moderation and accommodation features.

New Quizzes:

• There have been performance issues regarding accessing New Quizzes for large classes. This has disrupted synchronous summative assessments. We recommend splitting the students in the course into groups of less than 100 and staggering their start times by 5 minutes if you choose to use New Quizzes.
• Course Designers do not have access to New Quizzes in Canvas – they must either use Classic Quizzes OR create a New Quiz in a different Canvas shell and import it over.
• SpeedGrader is accessible with New Quizzes, but must be accessed through the Gradebook section on Canvas, as opposed to being accessible through the Quiz page for Classic Quizzes.

For additional comparisons, refer to Canvas’ Quizzes comparison chart.

How do you set up self-signup group assignments?

When Self Sign-up is enabled, students can move between groups indefinitely until you disable it. Please consider the following for self-sign-up groups to operate smoothly: 

• Notify students that there will be a designated period to self-sign-up.  
• Disable self-sign-up at the end of the period. 
• Publish the group assignment after self-sign-up is disabled to guarantee that grades will apply to finalized group members only. 

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How do you create a video submission assignment?

You can set up a Canvas assignment so that students could submit via Kaltura. The advantage with this method is that submissions will be viewable within SpeedGrader, making grading easier and removing the need to download each one which can take up your local computer’s storage.

• How to create a video submission assignment?

How do you add exceptions for students in an assignment?

Instructors often need to be flexible to valid student needs. There will be instances where students will need to be accommodated with different availability and due dates. Follow these steps to create exceptions in Assignments for students.

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How do you set up peer reviews assessments on Canvas for formative work?

Canvas Peer Reviews are used when instructors would like students to give each other feedback on their work. They can be both assigned anonymously or with student names visible. 

To Enable Peer Review on an Assignment:

1. Enable the Require Peer Reviews option.
2. Choose if you would like to manually or automatically assign students.
3. Choose if you would like students to remain anonymous for this peer review assignment.
4. Scroll down > Click Save.
   
   

Note: The assignment’s grade posting policy needs to be set to automatic for students to be able to see each other’s comments. You can change the grading policy to automatic by following these steps:

1. Go to Grades.
   
2. Find the assignment column.
3. Hover over the assignment name > Click on the three dots next to the assignment name.
4. Click Grade Posting Policy.
   
5. Choose the Automatically option.
6. Scroll down > Click Save.

Anonymity Tips for Peer Review Assignments:

• Let students know that it is an anonymous peer review assignment so they should not put their names on their submissions.
• If an assignment is set as anonymous, students will not be able to use the annotation tools, but their comments will remain anonymous. Alternatively, a rubric can be set for students to enter marks and provide feedback on specific grading criteria. Here is a summary on how to set up a rubric for an assignment.
• Attaching a reviewed file on the comments section removes the anonymity of the reviewer.

Organization Tips for your Gradebook:

The exclamation mark icon in the gradebook means that there is a submission but the instructor has not graded the submission yet. Students grading each other will not show up on the gradebook unless the instructor enters a grade.

How do you create different weights for assignments?

Instructors are able to assign specific final grade percentages to assignments using the grade weighting option on Canvas. For example, a midterm assignment that is graded out of 100 points can be counted as 25% of the final grade on the Gradebook. 

If there is more than one assignment in an assignment group, the final grade weight for that assignment group will be distributed among these assignments according to how many points they are worth.

Creating Assignment Groups:

To apply grade weighting on assignments, the assignment groups will need to be created first. To create assignment groups:

1. Go to the Assignments page.
   
2. Click on +Group button.
   
3. Name the assignment group > Click Save.  
   
4. Now you can either create new assignments under the newly created Assignment Group or drag the assignments that you have already created. 

Editing the Grade Weights:

Canvas will automatically calculate the final grades based on the assignment weights that you have set on the Assignments page.    

To apply weights on assignment groups:  

1. Go to  Assignments.
   
2. Click on the  three dots at the top right of the page. 
   
3. Choose  Assignment Group Weights.
   
4. Enable the Weight final grade based on assignment groups option.
   
5. Set percentages for the assignment groups. 
   Note: Make sure that the grade percentage total is 100% because the final grades on the Gradebook will be based on these percentages.
   
6. Click  Save.
   

How can TAs filter their Gradebooks?

SpeedGrader allows Instructors and TAs to grade assignments and quizzes submitted by students. The SpeedGrader interface allows users to grade by clicking through student names, but it can also filter the grading by your assigned section. 

How to Enable Grading by Student Group:

Canvas has a setting that allows instructors to enable the feature to launch SpeedGrader filtered by Student Groups. These instructions will lay out how to enable this feature.  

1. Click Settings in the course menu.
2. Click Course Details in the panel at the top of the page.
   
3. Scroll to the Large Course section > Check the box beside Launch SpeedGrader Filtered by Student Group.
   
4. Scroll to the bottom of the page > Click Save.

How to View Sections on SpeedGrader:

1. Open the Assignment/Quiz that needs to be graded.
   
2. Click SpeedGrader on the right side of the page under Related Items.
   
3. To filter, click on the arrow pointing down beside the Student’s name.
   
4. Click Showing: All Sections > Select the section to be graded.
   
    

How do you highlight incomplete/late submissions on Gradebook?

Late and missing submissions are already highlighted in Canvas as blue and red respectively, sorting the list by late/missing will display Students with incomplete/late submissions first.  

1. In the course > Click on Grades. 
   
2. Find the Assignment > Hover over the assignment name > Click on the three dots.
   
3. Click on Sort by > Click on Missing or Late.
   
   The list of students will be automatically sorted by Missing or Late for the assignment, depending on which item was selected.
   

Note: Since this rearranges the list of students within Gradebook depending on their submission statuses for a particular assignment, the steps will have to be repeated for every assignment to view by missing/late submissions.

How do you set up Gradebook to release grades?

The Gradebook helps instructors view, enter, and post grades for students. Only the graded discussions, graded quizzes, graded surveys, and graded assignments are included in the Gradebook.  

Using the Gradebook, grades can be posted automatically or manually depending on the assignment types used in the course. Specific late submission policies may be applied for missing and late submissions. 

• How do I select a grade posting policy for a course in the Gradebook?
• How do I select a grade posting policy for an assignment in the Gradebook?
• How do I post grades for an assignment in the Gradebook?
• How do I apply a Late Submission policy in the Gradebook?
• How do I apply a Missing Submission policy in the Gradebook?

What do the different symbols in Gradebook mean?

In the gradebook, there are different colours that represent the status of the student submissions: late, missing, resubmitted, dropped, and excused.

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How do you set up module pre-requisites?

Canvas Modules allow instructors to set up Pre-requisites for individual modules. Students will be unable to view the information in a module until they have completed the pre-requisite modules. Canvas allows instructors to set up required tasks in order to complete the module.  

• How do I add requirements to a module?
• How do I add prerequisites to a module? 

How do you set up the Calendar for appointment groups?

Scheduling time slots for students to sign up for course activities, such as office hours or oral exams, is a valuable tool to stay organized. The Canvas Calendar has a feature that is perfect for this.

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How do you import content from other courses?

Importing content from an existing course or template may simplify the process of course creation. Here, we will highlight the best practices of importing content from one course to another.

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What is a status code 400 error?

Error 400 refers to a file space issue where you have exceeded your course storage quota (4.2GB). This can be checked by clicking “Files” in the course navigation menu and scrolling to the bottom of the page where there is an indication bar. To free up storage and resolve the error message, please consider the following options:

Deleting Unused/Duplicate Files: 

1. Go to Files in your course navigation menu
2. Hover over the file and click the triple dots
3. Press Delete
   
   

Using Media Gallery:

If you have to share videos, we recommend using Kaltura instead as it is integrated within Canvas. It allows for up to 2GB per file and does not count towards your course storage. To upload a video:

1. Go to the My Media tab on your course navigation menu
2. Click Add New and select Media Upload
3. Upload your file and fill in the appropriate fields, including Name and Copyright Permissions. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save
4. Go to the Media Gallery tab and select + Add Media
5. Check the box on the left side of the recording and click Publish on the top right corner. The video should now be viewable through the Media Gallery tab