The end of the year is approaching and you may wonder what you need to do with your Canvas course(s). Here are some reminders to support you as you wrap up this year and start thinking about next year.
Grading
As the end of year approaches, you will want to make sure all your grading is completed and properly synced to Skyward (if you are syncing). Here is a checklist of possible to-do’s:
- Complete grading in Canvas (whether in Speedgrader or directly in the grade book)
- Check for missing assignments
- Confirm your assignment groups match your Skyward assignment categories and if weighting those match as well (please contact your Ed Tech TOSA if they do not match).
- Consider setting your missing assignments to a specific score or treat ungraded as 0
- Complete final sync to Skyward
- Download a copy of the grade book for your records LEARN HOW
Course Content
Your course will automatically be archived and moved to past enrollments for your students. You will also find that after the grading term closes your course moves to past enrollments. This means you will no longer be able to edit pages and content or grade. You will still have access to content. This is when you get to make a decision about how you’d like to prepare your content for next year. You might decide to copy your current Canvas course into next year’s courses when they are created in August, but you might also choose to create a Sandbox course that you can edit and fine-tune to your heart’s content.
The advantage of creating the Sandbox course is that you can:
- Unpublished all the content so that you have more control over the publishing aspect when you start your new course
- Leave off due dates for an easy import (though it will auto adjust dates to match the term if they are already there)
- Always have access to editing it
- Move content around for Semester or Trimester based content terms (this will be a change in 2021-2022)
- Set your course navigation and the home page (these updates transfer with course content)
- Add other content team members as co-teachers and work together on building content, you will all have access to copying this content into your future courses
For more on creating a Sandbox course, read our previous post: Canvas Course Content
Reflect
This is a great time to reflect on how your course went this year. You can use the grade book and overview of how content was delivered to make informed decisions about your process next year. You might think about how you can update your delivery or even think about the next steps you can take in making it work even better for you and your students. Here are some considerations:
- Were there any assignments or activities that students struggled with? Could those be re-written, substituted or eliminated?
- Did you use course rubrics? Could those be updated or better aligned to your standards?
- Is there new content that you could incorporate into your course? Perhaps additional videos or presentations that will support learning.
- Could you use additional Canvas features to make your course more dynamic?
As always, if you would like support with Canvas or any other tech tool, please ask your Ed Tech Lead or Tech TOSA!
