Copying Course Content to a New Course

July 3, 2018 by bejenkins

Copying Canvas Course Content to a New Course

Canvas will allow you to copy course setups from one semester to another so that you do not need to recreate your courses from scratch every year. Once you have a course set up how you want it, you can simply copy it to future courses and then make any adjustments you may need to.

Here is how you do this in Canvas.

  1. Go into the course into which you want to copy course material.
  2. Click on Settings at the bottom-left of the page.
  3. On the right of the Settings page, click on Import Course Content.
  4. From the drop-down menu, select Copy a Canvas Course.
  5. Type in the course name that holds your content you wish to use and then select the course in the list of courses that show up.
  6. Check the checkbox for Select Specific Content.
  7. Check the “Adjust events and due dates” checkbox.
  8. We highly recommend you select Remove Dates to avoid having incorrect due dates.
  9. Click on Import.

Once the import completes, your course should look exactly like your old course, but with no due dates set up.

Cross-listing Sections into Other Courses

by bejenkins

Cross-listing Sections into a Single Course

Cross-listing sections into a single course allows you to manage assignments for all sections of a course that you teach in one course in Canvas.

Follow the steps below to cross-list sections into a single course.

Setting up the Target Course

  1. Pick one of the courses that was synced over from IC to cross-list the other sections into. Do not cross-list into a master course that you created by yourself. Grade syncing will not work if this is done.
  2. Click on the Settings option for the course.
  3. Verify that the course is in the right term. It should look something like 2019-Star Valley High School-S1.
  4. Change the Name to something obvious. I suggest something that includes the semester number and year in it to make it easier to cross-list to the correct course. (i.e. Comp Sci III S1 18-19)
  5. Click on Update Course Details at the bottom of the Settings page.
  6. Once this is done, copy the assignments and other course material from your master course into this course.

Cross-listing Sections Into the Selected Course

For each section that you would like to cross-list to another course, follow these instructions.

  1. Go into the course for the section you would like to cross-list into another course.
  2. Click on Settings.
  3. Select the Sections tab at the top of the window.
  4. Click on the section name.
  5. Click on the Cross-list this Section button at the left side of the window.
  6. Under Search for Course, type in the name of the course that you set in the previous steps. It should pull up a list with that course in it.
  7. Click on the section in the list.
  8. Push the Cross-list this Section button.

Once you have done this, the section will show up in the course you cross-listed it to.

Syncing Grades with Infinite Campus

December 12, 2017 by bejenkins

Things to Remember

These have come up from past experience, so please pay attention to them to avoid errors in the grade sync.

  1. You no longer need to set up grade calc options in IC. There is no need to set up anything in IC for grade sync to work.
  2. Right now, only Star Valley High School and Swift Creek High School are syncing all their grades to IC. If you are at another school and want your grades to sync, email or call the IT Dept.
  3. Grade syncing does not work with standards-based grades.
  4. Assignments will only sync over to IC if they are in an assignment group that has a weight greater than zero. If you don’t want to sync an assignment, move it to an unweighted assignment group. This is the only way to make sure that an assignment does not affect the grades in both IC and Canvas.
    1. Muting an assignment does not actually change the grades for a student – it only adjusts what you and they see. The actual grade still includes the muted assignment. Muting an assignment is meant to be used by teachers to see how removing an assignment from being graded would affect grades.
  5. Do not use assignments for handouts that do not have grades. Only items that you want to show up in the grade book should be assigned as assignments. For other documents, share them on pages.
  6. All assignments counting toward the final grade must be published.
  7. In order to check to see if this is working, go to the grade book in Infinite Campus and look at the individual assignment grades there. If the final grade matches what is in Canvas, it is working. Do not check their final grades outside of the grade book. This is filled in by our import so that eligibility reports will be accurate. If you go into the grade book, the final grade is calculated from the grades in the grade book and will differ from that in Canvas if an assignment didn’t sync correctly.

Setup in Canvas

  1. There are two options for managing several sections as one course.
    1. If you want to have all your sections of a class in a single course, cross-list your sections into one course. Do not cross-list into a master course that you created by yourself. Grade syncing will not work if this is done.
    2. If you want to have your sections in separate courses, but still want to manage the content from one master course, set up a blueprint course. (Instructions coming soon. Email Bernt if you want help doing this this year.)
  2. If you already have all your assignments set up in another course, you can copy your existing course setup into this course.
  3. Set up your Assignment Groups. (These are known as Categories in IC.)
    1. Click on the Assignments link on the left of the window.
    2. Create the assignment groups you want to use.
    3. Once all of the assignment groups are set up, click on the three dots to the left of the +Assignment button and select Assignment Groups Weights.
    4. Check the “Weight final grade based on assignment groups” checkbox.
    5. Set each assignment group’s weight and make sure they add up to 100%.
    6. I highly suggest having a group that is weighted 0%, so that you have a place to dump assignments you don’t want graded.
  4. Set up your Assignments.
    1. Each assignment will require a due date that lands within the beginning and ending dates of the semester.
    2. When you set up a new assignment, makes sure that the “Include this assignment’s grades when syncing to your school’s Student Information System” checkbox is checked.
      1. This can also be done from the main assignment’s page by ensuring that the grade sync enabled is showing up as green.
    3. Each assignment must be published, even if there is no submission required for the assignment. You can wait to publish until the students need to see it or until you need to enter grades.