If you have created a Graded Harmonize Discussion assignment in Canvas, you must enable a due date and a milestone for student work to appear in SpeedGrader.

In the absence of due dates, Milestones, and Auto-Grading, only the students who created a post will have their work displayed in SpeedGrader. Here’s the expected behavior of SpeedGrader:

• SpeedGrader will likely have an incomplete view (ie some students will have activity shown, some will not) if you use it before an assignment is due
• We recommend using the Activity button within Harmonize if you want to review student work prior to the due date as that will always have a complete view
• Harmonize is designed to only make activity viewable in SpeedGrader when we are reasonably sure the student has completed a discussion
• We do this because as soon as we ship the activity to SpeedGrader, the assignment will drop off the student’s ToDo list in Canvas.  Our usability research showed that the ToDo list was a critical way the majority of students keep track of what they need to work on.
• Here are the triggers in a discussion for when activity is viewable in SpeedGrader:

Harmonize Activity Screen

If prefer to not use due dates and milestones, you can still easily grade student activity by viewing the Harmonize Activity screen for your graded assignment. Simply click on the Harmonize Assignment, and then click on the Activity button to the right of your instructions.

To copy content from one Canvas site into another (e.g. your fall course into spring) begin by going to the Home page of the empty course and clicking on “Import Existing Content” from the panel in the upper right:

From the dropdown menu, choose “Copy a Canvas Course”

In the search bar, find the course you would like to copy. You may search by department/course number (e.g. EDL508) or by the course name.

Next, you may choose to import all content or specific content. If you choose specific content, Canvas will ask you to identify the content you’d like to import prior to beginning the import process.

You may also select “adjust events and due dates” which will adjust due dates based on the start and end date of the class, or remove due dates altogether.

Once you’ve selected your content click “Import.” Canvas will let you know when the importing process has been completed.

Import the Canvas Commons home page option into your course. Use the notes below to help you customize the home page.

Important Notes:

• Be sure to edit the content on the home page, add your photo, and edit your information on the Instructor Information page, if you choose to use it.  
• Update ALL the home page links to the modules in your course. Edit the home page, highlight the module link and/or click on the linked image, click on the Links button > Choose Course Links > Modules > click on the module. the new link to your module. Save the page.
• If you delete the links and insert them again, the button styling will be deleted. Each <a> will need a class style (class=”btn”) added to it again. The link should look be added is below. Canvas will insert all of the link, except the class.

<a class="btn" title="Module 13" href="$CANVAS_OBJECT_REFERENCE$/modules/g058d530cfac3258f9d32f8618205435e" data-api-endpoint="https://uispringfield.instructure.com/api/v1/courses/2880/modules/9700" data-api-returntype="Module">Module 13</a>

• To set a page as the “Front Page” of your course, go to the Page, click on the kebab menu for your selected home page option, and then choose “Use as Front page.” Next, go to the Home link in your course menu, click on the “Choose Home Page” button, and choose “Pages as Front Page.” Be sure to click “Save.”
• You may delete the page and image(s) that you do not need for your course. 
• The images on Home Page Option 2 may not appear properly on people using the browser Safari (version 13. 1 or later). 

Students may designate a preferred first name, which certain University systems, including Banner, Email, and Canvas, will then use.

In Canvas, the preferred name will appear in place of the legal first name. In Banner, both the legal first name and preferred first name will appear. A preferred first name may take several days to roll out to all systems.

By default, courses for upcoming semesters are set to Unpublished. Instructors can open a course, or make it available, before the start of a term.

Any students enrolled in the course site will not have a Canvas Card for a course on their Dashboard until the instructor “Publishes” the course site.

• Instructors can add other Instructors, TAs or Course Designers to the site and they will be able to access an unpublished course site.
• Instructors cannot message the students through Canvas Inbox if the course site is unpublished.
• Course Announcement emails will not be sent from an unpublished course site

To publish a Canvas course site:

1. Go to the course Home Page.
2. Under Course Status, click Publish.
3. Publishing your course gives your students immediate access to the course site. Note: This is a change from Summer and Fall 2020 course settings.

Once you Publish a Canvas course site, you do not have to publish it again if you add new content. You only have to Publish the site once.

You can Unpublish the course by going to the Home page and clicking Unpublish. This will remove the Dashboard Card link from all student accounts.

To Allow Student Early Access to a Canvas Course

1. Go to the Course.
2. Click on Settings.
3. Click on the Course Details Tab.
4. Uncheck the box for “Restrict students from viewing this course before start date.”
5. Click Update Course Details.

Note: Once you have graded a student assessment, you can no longer Unpublish the course site.

Course content created in Blackboard can be imported in Canvas by following these steps:

Remove Excess Grading Categories from your Blackboard Grade Center

Open the full Blackboard Grade Center

Go to Manage and choose Categories

You may see several empty grading categories. These appear and multiply each time you copy Blackboard content from one semester to the next. While these categories do not affect Blackboard, they can cause serious issues with the Gradebook and Assignments page in Canvas and, therefore, must be removed.

To remove the excess grading categories, click “show all” at the bottom of the page

Next, click on the box to the left of the word “title” (this will “select” all empty grading categories) and click delete to remove excess grading categories.

Here is a video demonstration of this process.

Create Export Package

Once you’ve deleted the excess grading categories, you’ll need to create an Export Package (zip file) with your course content that can be imported into Canvas.

First, go to your Blackboard Control Panel and click on Packages and Utilities:

Choose “Export/Archive Course” and click on “Export Package.”

From there, choose the content you would like to import into Canvas. You may select “all” or choose individual content areas and tools:

Click “submit.”

When your Export Package is ready, you will receive an email message in your UIS email which tells you “the operation has been completed.”

When you go back to Packages and Utilities > Export/Archive course, you will see the Export Package ready to download.

Click on the link to save it to your downloads.

Import Your Content to Canvas

Open your Canvas course.

On the right side of the home page, you will see a button called Import Existing Content:

Under Import Content, select your content type (Blackboard 6/7/8/9) from the dropdown menu:

Under “source,” choose the Blackboard Export File from your downloads. Choose “all content” or “select specific content” and then click “import.”

You’ll see a green indicator when the process has completed:

You’ll then be able to begin creating, rearranging, and updating your Canvas modules with your newly imported content.

Note: Canvas courses have a size limit of 500 MB. Export packages larger than 500 MB will not import properly. If your course exceeds the size limits, you may need to upload videos to Kaltura and/or move files to Box which can be shared to Canvas.

Here is a video demonstration of the export/import process.

The dashboard is the first thing you will see when you log into Canvas. It helps you see what is happening in all your current courses, and it gives access to unpublished courses that have not started yet. If you have not favorited any courses, by default the dashboard will automatically display up to 20 courses alphabetically. Any courses you have with an instructor role will be listed first, followed by TA or course designer roles. Your courses with student roles are listed last.

When a term closes on Canvas, those courses will automatically disappear from your dashboard – but you can still access them from the blue Global Navigation menu on the left-hand side of Canvas.

To access all of your Canvas courses, including those from past semesters, click the “Courses” link in the Global Navigation menu, and then click “All Courses.” In this view, you may choose certain courses as favorites by clicking on each star next to the course name. If you favorite certain courses, only those courses will appear on the dashboard.

In order to prepare students for remote learning this fall, COLRS has create a short orientation module that can be imported into any UIS Canvas course site. The materials have been reviewed by UIS faculty and posted to Canvas Commons for easy inclusion in your course(s).

1. Log in to Canvas with your NetID and password.
2. Click on Commons in the blue Canvas menu.
3. Search the Commons for “Remote Learning at UIS” and click on the green MODULE (for a version that will not hide navigation links in your course) or click on this direct link to the Remote Learning at UIS content.
   [Note: the blue course import that will appear during this search will hide your navigation links upon import. We apologize for the work that has caused some faculty. We have created this modules version to prevent that issue. The content is the same.]
4. Click on Import/Download on the right side of the screen.
5. Check the boxes for any courses into which you wish to import the module
6. Click “Import into Course.”

The materials are also accessible through the “More” menu in Canvas. Click on the “Remote Learning Orientation” to view the materials.

Guest accounts cannot be created for Canvas. All users must have a NetID to have access to UIS Canvas.

If an instructor or unit needs to provide access to a person who does not have a NetID, the unit may request an External Affiliate UIN and NetID.

An External Affiliate is typically a person who is not an employee, student, or faculty member that requires a UIN and NetID. This could be a visiting scholar, guest, etc. This is not to be confused with a person requiring only WiFi access, which can be provided by other methods. A new request for an External Affiliate status will typically pertain to three types of people

• A person who has an active NetID on any campus, this implies a UIN has previously been assigned.
• A person who previously had an active NetID and/or UIN on any campus, e.g. a graduate 10 years previous, who is now a guest instructor or vendor.
• A person who has never had a relationship with any University of Illinois campus, a new UIN will be required.  

A sponsor will have been assigned to assist the requester before this request is initiated. The sponsor must be a university employee that will assist in the submission of the new request and is the point of contact for any questions during the process. The employment status of of the sponsor will be validated at submission time.  

The unit sponsor will complete this External Affiliate request form. This form must be completed on campus or while connect to campus by VPN.

The sponsor will be required to provide this information for the affiliate who needs a NetID:

1. First Name (Required by i-Card)
2. Last Name (Required by i-Card)
3. Date of Birth (Required by i-Card)
4. Gender (Required by i-Card)
5. Personal email address for the affiliate (Utilized for status notifications or for additional information follow-up)
6. University email address of sponsor

Optional information

1. Middle Name
2. UIN (If known from current or previous University relationship) 
3. NetID (If known from current or previous University relationship)

If a NetID and UIN from a current or previous university relationship is entered, this will expedite the approval process. Otherwise, the iCard office will search for a previously utilized UIN/NetID.

Please note: Enrollments in academic courses are handled automatically and synced hourly with available data from Enterprise/Banner. The instructions below apply to non-teaching courses, such as departmental or committee courses. If you have any questions regarding adding additional people to an academic course, please contact COLRS.

To add a user by NetID, select the login ID button [1].

In the text field [2], enter the NetID for the user. You can copy and paste multiple NetIDs at one time by placing a comma or line break between login IDs.

Select User Details

In the Role drop-down menu [1], assign the user(s) a role for the course based on available course roles.

In the Section drop-down menu [2], assign the user(s) a section in the course.

If you want to limit the user(s) to only interact with other users in their section, click the Can interact… checkbox [3].

Click the Next button [4].

Note: If you are adding multiple users at the same time, all users inherit the same role and section.

Add Existing Users

If Canvas finds an existing user, you can confirm the user before adding the user to the course [1].

The user’s name displays in the page along with the user’s information you used in the user search. Although Canvas may display additional search columns, existing information in a user’s account will not be displayed.

When you are ready, click the Add Users button [2].

If Canvas did not find your intended user, you can click the Start Over button [3].

If you cannot locate a user, they may not yet have a Canvas Account. Please have the user log in to Canvas, which will automatically create their UIS Canvas account.

Your Canvas course will become unavailable to students on the Friday before the next term begins. Instructors do not need to take any steps to close their courses.

If you are new to UIS, or you are an employee who has never accessed Canvas before, you will need to activate your Canvas account before you can begin working in Canvas.

Step 1

Visit the Canvas login page at go.uis.edu/canvas.

Step 2

Log in with your UIS NetID and password. Important: A NetID is required to access Canvas.

• Request or locate your campus NetID
• Set or reset your password

Step 3

Once you have logged in to Canvas, your account has been activated. If you are a student who needs access to an orientation or advising course, you should contact your program coordinator or advisor to let them know that your account has been activated and to request access to the course in Canvas.

Special considerations

• Academic advisors and online program coordinators: Please share these instructions with newly admitted students who are not yet active in Canvas, whom you wish to enroll in your advising or orientation courses. You will not be able to manually add these students until they activate their Canvas accounts.
• Committees and departments: UIS employees who have never accessed Canvas must manually activate their Canvas accounts before they can be added to committee and department courses in Canvas.
• Guest accounts: Instructors who wish to grant guest access to their courses will need to sponsor a guest NetID. Alternately, if you were planning on simply using Canvas to share documents and resources with your guest, consider using Box instead.

Please note: This guide replaces the Course Combination Request Form that was formerly used for Blackboard courses.

WATCH A VIDEO TUTORIAL ON HOW TO COMBINE CANVAS COURSES.

Cross-listing allows you to move enrollments from individual courses and combine them into one course. This feature is helpful for instructors who teach several sections of the same course, or whose courses are cross-listed in several different departments, and only want to manage course data in one location. Instructors can allow students to view users in other sections or limit them to only view users in the same section.

WARNING: Cross-listing should only be done at the beginning of a semester or before a semester has begun. Student progress, including assignment and quiz submissions, will not move with the section enrollments. If you cross-list your course after students have begun working on their coursework, their progress (including grades) will be lost.

Step 1: Determine your primary course.

Your primary course is the course where you will manage your course materials, assignments, and grades. Student enrollments in all other Canvas sections will be moved to your primary course.

Step 2: Find your SIS ID.

• Enter your primary course in Canvas.
• Click on Settings > Course Details.
• Copy the SIS ID.

Click the image to enlarge.

Step 3: Merge your sections into your primary course.

• Enter one of the sections you wish to merge into the primary course.
• Click on Settings > Sections.
• Click on the title of the section under the Course Sections header.

Click the image to enlarge.

• Click on Cross-List this Section.

Click the image to enlarge.

• Paste the SIS ID of your primary course in the Search for Course field, and select the course name when it appears.
• Confirm that the selected course is correct, and then click Cross-List This Section.

Click the image to enlarge.

Step 4: Repeat step 3 for any additional courses you wish to merge into your primary course.

NOTE: If you accidentally merge the wrong section, and you need to de-cross-list it, contact COLRS at colrs@uis.edu. Student progress in your course, including assignment submissions and grades, are not preserved in the cross-listing and de-cross-listing process, so this should only be done before your course has begun.