by Jackie Hsu/ August 16, 2024

Starting a new semester for you as an instructor is always exciting. However, you might need more time to have classes ready before the 1st day of the semester, mainly if you use Canvas in face-to-face, hybrid, or online courses. To lessen your worries, we have prepared a pre-semester checklist, including tutorials, to make the preparation easier.

Have you requested all your Canvas Courses through “Course Request System” in AccessUH?

Tutorial: How to Request a Canvas/Teams Course

Note. Allow 24-48 hours for a course or instructor to appear in the Course Request System after entering it in PeopleSoft. Check with your department scheduler to find out when the course or instructor was entered into PeopleSoft.
Have you added TA or Co-instructor to the Canvas course if it is needed?

Tutorial: How to Add a TA or Co-Instructor to Canvas
Have you requested to merge courses, if desired?

You can merge courses as part of the initial course request and must request it before the class begins.
If the course(s) are already created separately, you must email canvas@uh.edu to merge them. If the course(s) need to be separated, you must email canvas@uh.edu to separate them.

Tutorial: How to Request a Canvas/Teams Course

Note. After the class begins, any merges or separation can result in loss of student data, these changes must be approved by a Canvas Administrator at canvas@uh.edu

Are you new to Canvas? If so, we recommend attending the FDIS Canvas training or viewing “Canvas Training Videos and Resources.”

FDIS Training

Canvas Training Videos and Resources
Is the course ready for students? If not, make your course unavailable.

Students will be loaded into Canvas 7 days before the first day of classes. Students can access your course as soon as they are loaded. If your course is not ready for students, unpublish it.

Tutorial: How to Publish/Unpublish a Canvas Course

Note. If you want students loaded earlier than 7 days before the first day of classes, email to canvas@uh.edu.

Have you adjusted the Course Navigation to add or remove links from student view?

Canvas includes a set of default Course Navigation links. Removing the links not used in your course is essential to avoid students’ confusion.

Tutorial: How to Manage Course Navigation links

Note: You can’t rename the default Course Navigation links. Links without content (Modules and Announcements) will show as not visible if they are empty.

Have you chosen the Course Home Page?

The Course Home Page is the first page seen for each course. It is associated with the “Home” link on Course Navigation. The Course Home Page defaults to the “Modules” page, but you can change one of five layouts. The five layouts are the Recent Activity Dashboard, Pages Front Page, the Course Modules, the Assignment List, and the Syllabus.

Tutorial: How to Change the Course Home Page

Have you updated the course dates?

Be sure to update all due dates and availability dates of your course contents when the course contents were copied from the previous semester, such as announcements, discussion forums, assignments, or exams. You can update due dates and availability dates for multiple assignments, discussions, and exams in one place.

Tutorial: How to Bulk Update Due and Availability Dates

Have you deleted/unpublished the graded assignments that are not used?

Any graded assignments, such as discussions, quizzes, or assignments, will have an associated grade column on the Grade book. You can’t delete any associated grade column from the grade book unless you delete the graded assignment. You can unpublish them if you want to keep them for the future semester. Students will not see the unpublished grade columns.

Tutorial: How to Publish or UnPublish an Assigment

Have you checked that all course links are working and are current?

Before the class starts, check all links to course contents are valid. You can check these links using the course link validator, which searches through course content and returns invalid or unresponsive course content links in published and unpublished content.

Tutorial: How to validate links in a course?

Have you added the Canvas Resources for Students?

The Canvas has created resources for students, and you are welcome to add it to your Canvas course.

Canvas Student Guide

How Do I Get Help with Canvas as a Student?

If you have any questions or need any assistance with Canvas, please contact your College Instructional Designers or Canvas Faculty Support 24/7.