HWS Canvas System: Course Site Procedures and Policy Contents Overview and Getting Started... 2 System Access... 2 Help and Assistance... 2 Settings... 2 Terms of Use... 2 Course Site Properties, Lifecycles and Enrollment... 3 Longevity and Storage of Sites... 3 Re-using Course Materials... 3 Adding Individuals to Course Sites... 3 Additional Related Systems Practices and Policies... 5 System Maintenance... 5 Communications... 5 Feature Requests... 5 Learning Tools Integration (LTI)... 5 Disabling of System Access... 5 Operating Procedures Review... 5 Canvas Course Sites Academic Year Timeline... 6
Overview and Getting Started The primary function of Canvas system is to support a virtual classroom environment to support teaching and learning at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. The system is located at http://canvas.hws.edu and is one component in a larger learning management system (LMS) environment which includes resources such as the Peoplesoft student information system. The Hobart and William Smith instance of Canvas is cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) and the hardware is neither housed nor managed on site at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Hobart and William Smith Colleges maintains a terms of agreement with Instructure, host of the Canvas system, as well as a local Operational Level Agreement to ensure strategic and coordinated partnership with Instructure and local HWS staff. System Access Access to the Canvas system is acquired by logging into http://canvas.hws.edu using HWS network credentials and is available to HWS Faculty, Staff and Students. In addition to particular sites in which individuals may be enrolled (course or organizational), HWS credentials automatically provide access to two resources: Personal File Storage in Canvas: The current default for storage allocation is a 1 GB per user eportfolio: All Canvas users are provided a personal wiki space to create a public e-portfolio Help and Assistance Training and support on the Canvas system are available from IT Services. For questions about logging in and basic system navigation, please contact the Help Desk at helpdesk@hws.edu, 315-781-4357. Faculty may also set up an appointment with the Digital Learning Team to explore Canvas one-on-one. Sessions will be tailored to address particular course goals and needs. Contact the Digital Learning Team at 315-781-4420 or dlc@hws.edu to schedule your session. IT Services maintains training materials and FAQ s for reference: http://www.hws.edu/itservices/canvas_resources.aspx The Canvas system also maintains media-rich training materials related to all system features, tools and functionalities: http://guides.instructure.com/ Settings Canvas users may adjust their system communications preferences by mode (email, text message, etc.) and frequency (ASAP, daily, weekly, etc.) More on these notifications functionalities are available at: http://guides.instructure.com/s/2204/m/4152/l/40323-how-do-notification-preferences-work Terms of Use All HWS Canvas users will be responsible for adherence to the HWS policy for Responsible and Acceptable Use of Electronic Resources. http://www.hws.edu/itservices/acceptable_use.aspx All HWS Canvas users will be responsible for adherence to copyright laws when using the system as outlined by Instructure, the service provider of Canvas. http://www.instructure.com/policies/dmca-notice Fair use guidelines and checklists are widely available for reference, for example, Cornell University's: http://copyright.cornell.edu/policies/docs/fair_use_checklist.pdf
Course Site Properties, Lifecycles and Enrollment Course Site Creation Course sites are created automatically from Peoplesoft data in April and November (Week 13) for the upcoming semester in an unpublished state; faculty and students are assigned to Canvas course sites based on enrollment in the Peoplesoft system. Course sites are created from a standard template that defaults to a wiki home page and is restricted to users enrolled in the site. Faculty may manually adjust a course site to be visible (without login) outside of the HWS user community and therefore publicly indexed by Internet search tools such as Google; this functionality may be accessed in course site Settings. The current default for storage allocation is 1 GB for each course site. Faculty may request additional space by submitting a Helpdesk ticket to IT Services up to a 10 GB maximum. End-of-semester Transition On January 15 and August 15 each year, course sites from the previous semester automatically enter a read-only state that freezes the course site for students but not faculty. In the read-only state, faculty will retain full functional access to course sites as outlined in Longevity and Storage of Sites. Students will maintain read-access to course materials but will no longer be able to actively participate within interactive tools such as Assignments, Discussions and Quizzes. Should faculty choose to do so, there are numerous ways to limit the availability of content to students at the end of the semester; more information on how to limit student access to previous course site materials may be found in the HWS Canvas FAQs: http://www.hws.edu/itservices/catalog/lms_canvas_faq.aspx Accommodating Student Incompletes In the event of a student incomplete, faculty may submit a request to the Helpdesk that the course site convert to an incomplete term which extends full access to the course site for students as originally configured by the faculty member (including digital file submission). Unless specified earlier, the course site will then transition to a read-only state at the deadline determined by the Registrar s Office for incompletes from a given semester. Longevity and Storage of Sites Course sites are automatically removed from Canvas after 4 years and archived by IT Services for an additional 2 years. Faculty may request that archived courses be restored to Canvas however there is no guarantee of preservation of all functionalities as the Canvas system constantly evolves. Faculty may also export course sites themselves and are encouraged to do so; Canvas uses Common Cartridge as its native export format that allows faculty to move their content between systems and vendors without having to recreate it. Please contact the Help Desk for assistance. Canvas course site export process: http://guides.instructure.com/s/2204/m/4152/l/41323-how-do-i-export-a-canvas-course Student grades must be downloaded separately: http://guides.instructure.com/s/2204/m/4152/l/55012?data-resolve-url=true&data-manual-id=4152 Re-using Course Materials Faculty may easily re-use Canvas course site materials in multiple ways: Copying a course site internally within the system Downloading specific course components such as files, gradebook, assignments Exporting sites. Canvas uses Common Cartridge as its native export format that allows faculty to move their content between systems and vendors without having to recreate it Adding Individuals to Course Sites Students registered to receive credit in the Peoplesoft system for a course will automatically be added to Canvas sites through the 11 th week of the semester; any additional access to a Canvas course site requires a manual process as outlined below Adding faculty: Faculty may request via the Helpdesk that additional faculty be added as instructors to course sites; in the event of an unexpected absence and a temporary assignment,
a Department Chair has the ability to request that another faculty member be added as an instructor to a course site ; if the Department Chair is unavailable, the Provost's Office may do so Adding student collaborators: Faculty may request that student collaborators (ex: Teaching Fellows, Writing Colleagues, etc.) may be added in a Teaching Assistant role via the Registrar's Office form: http://www.hws.edu/offices/registrar/student_collaborator.aspx Adding auditors and non-hws participants: Faculty may request that auditors and non-hws participants may be added in designated roles via the Helpdesk.
Additional Related Systems Practices and Policies System Maintenance Instructure is responsible for Canvas system maintenance. Planned maintenance is scheduled for off-peak hours and is communicated to HWS system administrators with ample notice. Unplanned maintenance and resulting outages, while rare, are also scheduled for off-peak hours and typically last less than15 minutes. Communications Instructure communicates system support plans and issues to HWS system administrators. IT Services communicates known systems outages via the Help Desk bulletin process as well as posting announcements within the Canvas system itself. Updates & Release cycles The update cycle is continuous and new releases are issued by Instructure every three weeks. Product release notes are published by Instructure: https://help.instructure.com/forums/337224-product-release-notes Feature Requests Faculty may contact the Help Desk with feedback and suggestions for system enhancement at 315-781- 4357 or helpdesk@hws.edu Learning Tools Integration (LTI) The Canvas system facilitates the integration of third-party educational app resources via LTI which are published by Instructure: http://www.edu-apps.org/index.html LTI functionality within Canvas at HWS is currently under pilot testing. Faculty may contact the Helpdesk at 315-781-4357 or helpdesk@hws.edu, ideally at least four weeks prior to planned usage, to request that an Instructure-approved LTI be turned on for a course site. Subsequently, the Digital Learning Team will follow up to learn more about the request; please note that ample time is required for the Digital Learning Team to test interoperability and function and review terms of service. Disabling of System Access Following notification from the Registrar s Office, IT Services will disable accounts of former students in December after graduation and therefore they will no longer have access to Canvas. One year (14 months) after a student s graduation date, on July 1 annually, all departed student accounts will be removed from the Canvas system. As a result, all student-related data, including but not limited to grades, discussion board contributions, assignment submissions, etc., will not be immediately available. Faculty will need to submit a request to the Help Desk to restore these materials. Upon notification from Human Resources or the Office of the Provost, IT Services will disable Canvas accounts of faculty members who leave HWS immediately upon termination unless extended by Human Resources. Accounts will then be deleted after 60 days, or per the current HWS account policy guidelines; following this 60 day period, faculty will not longer have access to Canvas. In anticipation of a departure, faculty may export Canvas course site materials. Canvas uses Common Cartridge as its native export which allows faculty to move their content between systems and vendors without having to recreate it. Operating Procedures Review Normally, this document will be reviewed annually by the FacIT Committee in collaboration with IT Services. Any proposed changes should be presented to IT Services by end of the Fall term to allow for feasibility and system testing in January. In the Spring term, IT Services and FacIT will evaluate the impact of suggested changes based upon testing; any recommended changes from FacIT will need to be firmed up by the end of Spring Break in time for course site creation for the subsequent Fall term in early April.
Canvas Course Sites Academic Year Timeline Fall Semester May- August New faculty are added as users to the Canvas system after completion of required Human Resources paperwork upon their official employment start date. Faculty are automatically assigned to Canvas course sites after Department Chairs have requested that they be added to the Peoplesoft system and indicated the courses to which they are assigned. Currently this process is run once a day. August 15 Previous spring course sites change to "read-only" state that freezes the course site for students but not faculty; faculty will retain full access to course sites as outlined in Longevity and Storage of Sites. Late August- Early September First day of classes. Peoplesoft enrollment data updates Canvas course sites 4 times daily (6am, 10am, 2pm, 6pm) to reflect student course additions and drops via the Registrar's Office Week 2 Last day to drop/add courses Canvas continues to update student enrollment after add/drop ends until Week 11 Week 11 At the conclusion of Week 11, Peoplesoft enrollment data ceases updating Canvas for the semester Early November Spring semester registration Week 13 Spring course sites are created in unpublished state; faculty assignment and student enrollment data are entered and maintained Faculty may request to have cross-listed courses and multiple course sections merged by submitting a Helpdesk ticket to IT Services. Faculty may request for individuals to be added to Canvas course sites, for more information, consult Adding Users to Course Sites Mid- December Last day of classes Late December Semester ends after last exam Grades Due to Registrar's Office Faculty must enter grades into the Peoplesoft system; Canvas gradebook does not export grades to Peoplesoft Spring Semester January 15 Fall course sites change to "read-only" state that freezes the course site for students but not faculty; faculty will retain full access to course sites as outlined in Longevity and Storage of Sites.
Mid January First day of classes Peoplesoft enrollment data updates Canvas course sites 4 times daily (6am, 10am, 2pm, 6pm) to reflect student course additions and drops via the Registrar's Office Week 2 Last day to drop/add courses Week 11 At the conclusion of Week 11, Peoplesoft enrollment data ceases updating Canvas for the semester Early April Fall Semester Registration Week 13 Fall course sites created in unpublished state; faculty assignment and student enrollment are entered and maintained Faculty may request to have cross-listed courses and multiple course sections merged by submitting a Helpdesk ticket to IT Services. Faculty may request for individuals to be added to Canvas course sites, for more information, consult Adding Users to Course Sites Mid May Semester ends after last exam Grades Due to Registrar's Office Faculty must enter grades into the Peoplesoft system, the Canvas gradebook does not export grades to Peoplesoft This document was reviewed and approved by the Faculty IT Committee (FacIT) May 2014.