Do’s and Don’ts in Canvas

The Do’s

• Use only supported browsers to work in Canvas.
• If you plan to share class recordings with students, follow this article to set up the Zoom and Media Gallery integration correctly.
• Disable navigation links students won’t need (i.e. files, pages, assignments, quizzes etc.); organize course content by adding particular files, pages, quizzes, etc. to Modules instead. 
• Students prefer Course Announcements to course emails. If you need to use email, use Canvas Inbox. Replies from a connected email address may not send attachments correctly.
• Enter a Due Date for each assignment so that they will appear on the To do and Coming up lists on Dashboard. 
• Back up a copy of the grades by Exporting grades.
• At the end of the semester, monitor your SRTE response rate at https://rateteaching.psu.edu. 
• If you will teach the same course again, you may end the course by making it invisible or read-only.

The Don’ts 

• Do not teach from a Master Course or a Manually Created Course if the students need a grade.
• Since LionPath feeds course and roster information to Canvas, do not manually enroll a student in a for-credit class. The student will not be able to receive an official grade if he/she remains unenrolled in LionPath. 
• Do not ask the registrar to make changes in LionPath as you will lose all student-generated data. Such changes include closing a course, changing class dates, dividing a course into more sections etc. If you must do so, be aware that this process may take 2 to 3 days. Prior to requesting the change, back up all the content material and export the course gradebook and student submissions from the original course.