Faculty FAQs

Jump to section:

• Access
• Setup
• Course Management
• Adding Resources
• Communication Tools
• Assignments & Turnitin
• Discussions
• Quizzes
• Groups
• Analytics & Logs
• Gradebook
• External Tools/Plugins
• Transition from Moodle to Canvas

Access

• Where are my upcoming courses?

  If you do not see your upcoming course(s) in Cougar Courses (Canvas):

  1. The course might be buried by your other courses. You can manage which courses show on your dashboard. You can also reorder the courses on the dashboard.
  2. If the course is not there, it is likely you have not been assigned to the course in MyCSUSM yet. Check MyCSUSM. If you do not see it there, contact your department. If you do see it there, be advised it can take up to 24 hours from when you are assigned the course in MyCSUSM to when you get added to the course in Cougar Courses.
  3. If it has been over 24 hours since you have been added in MyCSUSM and you have checked your All Courses page in CC and still cannot find your course, please email cchelp@csusm.edu with the course name and number.
• How do I access past Moodle servers?

  If you are looking for the content from past Moodle courses, it is likely already in Cougar Courses. Please see the Transition from Moodle to Canvas section below on how to find it.
  

  If you want to get the actual course (with student data) in Moodle, please see this help guide on how to access a past Moodle course. Please be aware that for security reasons in order to access you must either be on campus or connect to the campus network with a VPN (Global Protect or CougarApps). The above help guide has information on both.

• My Dashboard is a mess! I can't find the course I need. Help!

  Is your dashboard cluttered with extra courses? You can manage which courses show on your dashboard and which do not. You can also reorder the courses on the dashboard.  

• When will students be added to courses?
  Student enrollments are updated in Cougar Courses three times a day. Once a student enrolls in the course in MyCSUSM they will be automatically added to the container in Cougar Courses within 24 hours.
• How do I make my course available to students?
  For students to be able to access your course, you will need to publish it. Here is the help guide on how to publish your course.
• How can I unpublish my course?

  You can only unpublish a course if students have not yet submitted to activities in your course. If students have not yet submitted, you should be able to push the Unpublish button on your course homepage. If you cannot click the Unpublish button, it means students have already submitted.

  Why do you want to unpublish?

  1. I published too soon and don't want students to have access.
     • If students have already submitted, while you can't Unpublish the whole course, you can unpublish your modules that contain your pages and activities. To unpublish a module, please see this help guide. Keep in mind you can't unpublish an activity directly if students have already submitted to it. However, if that activity is in an unpublished module, students can no longer access it.
  2. The course has ended.
     • Students automatically lose access to a course two weeks after grades are due for that term. If you want to remove their access earlier (for example you have a winter intersession course or an 8 week course), you can change the course participation dates in the course settings. For more information on how to set the course participation dates, please see this help guide.
• Can I remove myself from a course?

  If it is an official course and you are no longer the instructor listed in MyCSUSM, please see the next question.

  If it is an official course and you are still the instructor listed in MyCSUSM, you cannot be removed. If you simply no longer want it on your Dashboard, you can manage which courses show on your dashboard and which do not.

  If it is a development/sandbox course, grab the link to the course and email it to us at cchelp@csusm.edu and we can either just remove you or completely delete the course.

• I am no longer teaching a course, when will I be removed from the container in CC? What will happen to the content I added?

  If you have been removed as the instructor from the course in MyCSUSM, then you should automatically be removed from the Cougar Courses container within 24 hours.

  Any content you previously added to that container is not automatically removed when you are removed. If you wish to retrieve any content and/or clear out the content for the new instructor, please contact cchelp@csusm.edu with the course name and number and we can copy it into a development container.

• I was just assigned a course and the previous instructor and/or their content is still in the course in CC. When will they be removed?
  If you are the new instructor and would like the previous instructor and/or their content removed from the course in CC, please contact cchelp@csusm.edu with the course name and number.
• How long will students have access to my course once the term is over?

  By default, students will have access to the course for two weeks after grades are due.

  If you would like all or some of your students to have access beyond the two weeks, please email cchelp@csusm.edu with the details such as the course name and number, who needs access (all or specific students), how long they need access, and level of access (read-only vs ability to participate/submit).

• How long will I have access to my course once the term is over?

  By default, courses will go into read-only mode 4 weeks after grades are due. Read-only means no changes (including grading) can be made.

  If you need editing/grading access after these 4 weeks, please email cchelp@csusm.edu with the details such as the course name and number and how long you need access.

• How do I give a student with an Incomplete access to a past course?

  In order to give access to a student to a past course, you will need to email cchelp@csusm.edu and provide:

  1. the course name and number
  2. the name of the student
  3. how long they will need access (please provide a specific date)

  With that information we will add a special section within your course that gives them (and you) access beyond the usual term dates. You will also need to assign new availability and due dates to the activities you want the student to have access to again.

Setup

• I am teaching multiple sections of the same course. Can I combine them into one course in Canvas?

  Yes, you can request your courses be cross listed. When you cross-list a course in Canvas you have one parent course (where you add the content) and the other sections are cross-listed to that course. The enrollments for these child sections are merged into the parent and the individual containers for the child sections are deleted. You will want to request a course be cross-listed prior to adding content and publishing to students.

  Fill out this form to request a course be cross-listed.

• I already manually created my upcoming courses in Canvas. How do I get that content into my official courses?
  Those manually created courses are just for your use. Students cannot be added to them. The good news is it is very easy to copy the content into your official courses. Here the the help guide to walk you through importing content from another Canvas course.
• I want to reuse content from a past course. How do I get that content into my official course?
  Here the the help guide to walk you through importing content from another Canvas course.
• Can I copy just a specific module or item into another one of my courses?

  Yes, you can easily copy an individual item or entire module to another course in Cougar Courses.

  1. From the Modules page, click the three dots to the right of the activity/page/module you would like to copy.
  2. From the dropdown menu select "Copy To."
  3. Start typing the name of the course where you want to send it, and select the course when it comes up.
  4. Optional: choose the specific module to copy it to.
  5. Click the Copy button.
• Can I rename my course?

  Is this an actual course with students? If so, the name cannot be changed. However, you can give the course a nickname which will display on your Dashboard and in the breadcrumbs in the upper left when in your course. Nicknames are only visible to you, not anyone else in the course. Please see this help guide on how to manage your Dashboard, including how to set nicknames.

  If it is a manually created development or sandbox course, please email us at cchelp@csusm.edu with the current name and the desired change.

Course Management

• Do I have to manually add students to my course?

  No, you do not have to manually add students. Students are enrolled in the Cougar Courses container automatically within 24 hours of enrolling in the course in MyCSUSM. Enrollments in Cougar Courses are updated three times a day.

  If you do not see students in your container in Cougar Courses, check to ensure you are in your official course and not a manually created development container/sandbox. Students cannot be added to development containers.

  If you do manually add a student to a course in Cougar Courses, please be aware that this does not indicate official enrollment in the course and the student will not be automatically added to the roster in MyCSUSM. For more information on official enrollment processes, please see this website.

• How do I add a TA to my course?

  To add a TA to your course:

  1. Click on the People tab on your course navigation.
  2. Click the +People button in the upper right.
  3. Enter the TA's CSUSM email.
  4. Choose the appropriate role:
     
     • TA - can add/edit content and grade
     • TA (Facilitator without Gradebook Access) - can add/edit content but cannot grade
     • TA (Grader without Design Access) - can grade but cannot add/edit content
  5. Click Next.
  6. Confirm the right person and role was selected and click Add Users.
• How do I remove someone from my course?

  Students who are dropped from the course in MyCSUSM will automatically be dropped from the Cougar Courses container within 24 hours. If you try to remove a student from a container and they have not yet been dropped in MyCSUSM, then they will just be added back once the enrollments update again.

  To remove someone you added manually (TA, other instructor, etc.), follow this help guide.

• Can I share my course content with another instructor?
  Yes! There are actually several ways you can share your course content with another instructor. See our help guide on sharing content for more information.
• How can I look at my course from my students' view?
  Please see this help guide on how to view your course in student view.
• I have accidentally deleted a page/activity/file/module from my course. Can I get it back?

  Most likely, yes! From your course homepage, go into the address bar and add /undelete to the end of the URL. For example:
  https://csusm.instructure.com/courses/1116/undelete
  
  This will bring you to a page that will list items that were deleted from your course. Find the item you want to restore, and click the Restore button.

  Note: This feature is not an official feature and therefore might not always work. If an item you deleted does not show up when using the above steps, please reach out to Canvas 24/7 Support to see if they are able to restore it.

• Can I hide modules/items from student view?

  Yes, you can unpublish items you do not wish for students to see. From the Modules page, go to the module or item and hover over the published icon (green check). The hover text will confirm you want to unpublish the item. Click the icon to confirm. Keep in mind unpublishing a module will unpublish all items within that module.

  To publish a module or item, from the Modules page click the unpublished icon (gray circle with a slash). The hover text will confirm you want to publish the module. Click the icon to confirm. Keep in mind publishing a module will publish all items within that module.

  For a visual, here is the help guide on how to unpublish or publish an entire module. 

• How do I delete something from my course?

  The process for how to remove or delete something depends on that item:

  • Delete an activity (assignment, discussion, quiz)
  • Remove an item from a Module
  • Delete a file from your course
  • Delete a page from your course
• Can I take attendance in Canvas?
  Yes! Please see these help guides on taking attendance in Canvas. Note: The Attendance tool has been installed at the admin level, you just have to enable it in your course. To do so, you need to add it to your Course Navigation. Here is the help guide on how to manage your Course Navigation.
• My course storage is full. Can you increase it?

  Each course has 1 GB of storage. For the majority of courses this is more than enough, provided you do not upload audio and video files directly to your course. Instead you should upload your audio and video files to a streaming server (Microsoft Stream, Youtube, etc.) and then place a link to the audio/video in your course.

  If you have reached your 1GB and have uploaded audio and video files in your course, you should remove them, upload them to a streaming site, and add the links in your course.

  If you have reached your 1GB and do not have any audio or video files uploaded to your course, please email cchelp@csusm.edu and we can work with you to figure out what is going on.

Adding Resources

• How do I add a file to my course?

  Here is how to upload a file to the Files area of your course.

  Once you have the file uploaded to your Files area, you can link to it in Modules or on a Page. Here is how you can link to a file in Modules. And here is how you can link to a file on a Page.

• How do I add an external link to my course?

  Here is how you can add an external link to a Page.

  And here is how you can add an external link to a Module.

• How do I add a video to my course?

  Do not upload a video or audio file directly to Canvas. Instead upload the video to a streaming server like Microsoft Stream or Youtube and then add the link to your Canvas course (see above).

• Can I set it so a module opens on a certain date?
  Yes, you can! Please see this help guide on how to lock your module.
• I can no longer upload files, because my course storage is full. Can you increase it?

  Each course has 1 GB of storage. For the majority of courses this is more than enough, provided you do not upload audio and video files directly to your course. Instead you should upload your audio and video files to a streaming server (Microsoft Stream, Youtube, etc.) and then place a link to the audio/video in your course.

  If you have reached your 1GB and have uploaded audio and video files in your course, you should remove them, upload them to a streaming site, and add the links in your course.

  If you have reached your 1GB and do not have any audio or video files uploaded to your course, please email cchelp@csusm.edu and we can work with you to figure out what is going on.

Communication Tools

• How do I send a message to all my students at once?
  You can post an Announcement, which will be emailed to all your students. Make sure your course is published first, otherwise it will not be sent out. Also, make sure it is after your course start date (announcements posted prior to this date will not be sent out to students). To see your course start date go to Settings.
• How do I set my notification preferences?
  You can set both site-level notifications preferences, and you can also set course-specific notification preferences.

Assignments & Turnitin

• How do I use Turnitin in Canvas?
  Please see our help guide on how you can create a Turnitin Assignment in your course.
• Can students submit as a group to an Assignment or Turnitin?

  Yes, students can submit as a group to an Assignment or a Turnitin Assignment using the Plagiarism Framework. Please see this help guide on how to enable a group assignment. Turnitin Assignments using the LTI method do not allow for group submissions.

• If students can submit as a group, can they also be graded as a group?
  Yes, you can grade as a group or assign grades individually, depending on the settings you enabled in the assignment. Here is the help guide on grading a group assignment.
• Is Turnitin down right now?
  To check if Turnitin is down for you and your students, visit the Turnitin Status page: https://turnitin.statuspage.io/

Discussions

• Can I set up a Discussion so that students must post before they can see the posts of the other students?
  See this help guide for how you can require that students first respond to the Discussion prompt before seeing the posts of their peers.

Quizzes

• Can I upload quiz questions from a publisher?

  Yes! The process depends on what format the quiz questions are in:

  • If the publisher labels the file as a Canvas format, that means it is a QTI file. Follow this guide on how to upload a QTI file to your course. Note: If the process says it has completed, but no quizzes or questions were created, it might be that you have to unzip the file and upload the individual chapters one at a time.
  • If the publisher provides the quiz questions as Word or Rich Text documents, you can use either:
    • use SDSU's quiz converter tool to convert the questions to a format you can then import into Canvas.
    • or use Respondus through CougarApps to upload the questions to Canvas
• Can I upload quiz questions from a Word document?

  If your have your quiz questions in a Word or Rich Text document, you can use either:

  • • Use SDSU's quiz converter tool to convert the questions from a plain text file (.txt) to a format you can then import into your Canvas course.
    • or use Respondus through CougarApps to upload the questions to Canvas
• How can I give a student extra time on a quiz?

  Please see this help guide on providing extra time for a student on a quiz/exam.

• What is the difference between Classic quizzes and New quizzes?

  Classic Quizzes is the original quiz tool, while New Quizzes is the newer version. At some point Classic Quizzes will no longer be available, but a date has not been set yet for that changeover as Canvas continues to improve New Quizzes and work out issues that continue to arise. For more information on the differences between Classic and New Quizzes please see this help guide.

  IDS Recommendation: At this point in time, we strongly recommend you use Classic Quizzes unless you need a feature that is only available through New Quizzes.

• Can students take a quiz as a group?
  No, currently students cannot take a quiz as a group, they can only take a quiz as an individual.
• Can I print a quiz?

  Yes, you can print a quiz (with or without the answer key), as long as it is not a randomized quiz (pulling questions from a question/item bank). The exact steps for printing a quiz depend on if the quiz is a Classic Quiz or a New Quiz:

  New Quiz:

  1. 1. From the Quizzes page, click on the three dots to the right of the quiz and from the dropdown choose Build.
     2. Click the three dots in the upper right of the page and choose either "Print Key (With Answers)" or "Print Blank Quiz" depending on your needs.
     3. Choose the desired text size and click Print Preview.
     4. Choose the destination (printer or PDF) and any other settings you need, and click Print.

  Classic Quiz:

  1. 1. You will need to convert your quiz to a New Quiz (don't worry, it just makes a copy, it will not delete your original quiz). From your Quizzes page, click the three dots to the right of the quiz and choose Migrate.
     2. Wait while it migrates the quiz. The New Quiz version of your quiz will have the same name as the original quiz, it will be unpublished, and it will be at the bottom of your list of quizzes.
     3. Once you have the quiz in a New Quiz format, follow the 4 steps under New Quiz above.

Groups

• How can I set up randomized groups?
  Please see this help guide on how to create random groups.
• Can students create or choose their own groups?

  Yes!. Please see this help guide on creating self-sign up groups to have students choose their group from a set you created. You must create the individual (empty) groups that the students will choose from. If you just create the group set but not the individual groups within the group set, students will not be able to sign up.

  Please see this help guide if you want students to be able to create their own groups. Keep in mind these groups cannot be used for graded activities.

Analytics & Logs

• Are there reports/logs that allow me to view a student's participation in the course?

  Yes, you can view course access reports for individual students. Here is the Canvas guide on viewing these student access reports.

  In addition, there are several other ways to view student analytics – here is the full list of Canvas Guides for Analytics and New Analytics.

Gradebook

• How can I enter grades for an activity student did on paper/in-person/outside of Canvas?
  Please see this help guide on how to create grade columns for no submission Assignments.
• How can I weight my gradebook?
  Please see this help guide on weighting the course grade.
• How can I give extra credit?
  Please see this help guide on how to give extra credit in a course.

External Tools/Plugins

• How can I get a publisher's tool integrated into my course?

  Plugins or LTIs must go through internal compatibility, accessibility, and data security checks before they can be approved and added to Cougar Courses. First, you should check the Plugins list to see if your plugin has already gone through this process. 

  If your plugin is not on that list, you can begin the Information Technology Review (ITR) process. Learn more about the ITR process, including what is required of you, and submit your request here. Be aware the review process can take 6-8 weeks and there is a deadline for requests for each term. Review the timeline and deadlines here.

  If the deadline for this term has already passed, you can use your tool externally to Cougar Courses. Your students will need to create an account on that site with their CSUSM email address but **NOT** (please stress that) their CSUSM password. Using their CSUSM password is a high-security risk for our systems.

• How can I use Collaborations in Canvas?

  Collaborations allows you to create an editable Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file right in your Canvas course that can be edited by anyone you add as collaborators. To learn how to add a Collaboration, please see this help guide.

  Warning: Once you create your Collaboration, the settings (including the collaborators) cannot be edited.

  Note: If it is before the add/drop deadline and you want to create a Collaboration that is available for your whole class, we advise that prior to creating the Collaboration you create a group for your whole class, and then choose that group as collaborators when creating the Collaboration. This is because you cannot edit the collaborators after a Collaboration has been created; however, you can edit the group enrollments. So for any student who adds the course after you have created the Collaboration, you just need to add them to the group on the People tab and they will gain access to the Collaboration.

• I want to add a student as a collaborator to an existing Collaboration. Can I do that?

  Did you assign the Collaboration to a group instead of specific users? If so, yes you can! You can simply add that student to the group on the People page in your course.
  
  However, if you assigned the Collaboration to individual students, unfortunately once you create your Collaboration, the collaborators cannot be changed. If the students have not yet added to the Collaboration, you can simply delete and recreate from scratch. If the students have already added content, you have two options:

  1. If you need to retain the editing data: open the Collaboration, click Share then Manage Access, choose People at CSUSM, grab that link, create a module or page in Canvas that is assigned to just those students who need access, and add the link to that module/page. 

  2. If you just need the content and not the editing data as well: open the Collaboration and download the file. Go to your OneDrive and upload the file. Go to Collaborations and create a new Collaboration linking to that uploaded file. Delete the original Collaboration.

  If you need help with either option, please reach out to us at cchelp@csusm.edu.

  In the future we recommend using Collaborations with groups so that you can easily change the collaborators by editing the group enrollments.

Transition from Moodle to Canvas

• Where are my past courses? Will you migrate my content from past courses in Moodle for me?

  We have mass migrated all Fall 2019 to Spring 2022 courses from Moodle to Canvas.

  If you do not see a past course on your Dashboard, it does not necessarily mean it wasn't migrated, it might just mean you have too many courses to see them all on your Dashboard. Manage which courses show on your dashboard and which do not.

  If your past course was missed, or was offered outside this time frame, you can manually move your own content from Moodle to Canvas. We recommend creating a development container to allow you to see how the content came over and decide how to proceed. Below are a few guides to get you started:

  • Access a past Moodle course
  • Create a Development course in Canvas  
  • Import Content into Canvas from Moodle 
  • Review and update your migrated content.
  • Canvas Getting Started Guide 
  • If you did create a development container, here is how to import that content into your official course.
• I see past Moodle courses listed in Canvas, but they are empty! Where is the content?

  If your past course container is in Cougar Courses (Canvas), but does not have content, it might be that there were issues migrating the content.

  You can manually move your own content from Moodle to Canvas. Below are a few guides to get you started:

  • Access a past Moodle course
  • Import Content into Canvas from Moodle 
  • Once you have the content in your container in Canvas, here is how to import that content into your official course.
• How do I access my past courses in Moodle to see the student data?

  If you want to get the actual course in Moodle, please see this help guide on how to access a past Moodle course.

• Can I remove some of these past course?

  First, you can manage which courses show on your dashboard and which do not.

  But if you truly do not want access to a past course, email cchelp@csusm.edu with the link to the course and we can remove you.

• How do I fix up the content migrated from Moodle?

  We have developed guides to assist you in the conversion process: 

  • Course Conversion Guide 
  • Getting Started Guide

  Additional resources can be found on our CSUSM Canvas webpage - see the Canvas Guides section at the bottom of the Canvas Support page. 

• Will all my content from Moodle come over?

  Likely most items in your courses in Moodle will come over. The core activity and resource types (files, pages, external URLs, Assignments, Quizzes, and Forums) all have very similar equivalents in Canvas and should come over. However, not every activity or resource will come over or come over exactly as-is. Check out our equivalencies guide to learn more.

  Note: if you see "stub" in your converted course it means the vendor was not able to import that item from Moodle and into Canvas. You will want to recreate/reupload that item directly into Canvas.

• I am feeling really overwhelmed by the transition and the time crunch. Help!

  We understand how you are feeling. To help ease the transition we have created a Simple Quick Start Guide to streamline the process and help you focus on what is most important when getting your course ready.

  During this transition time, keep your expectations manageable and your course simple. Remember that course development is a continual process. Just as you would not task your students with too much at all once to avoid cognitive overload, give yourself permission to focus on a simple beginning this semester.