Communicate Syllabus changes Announcments Advise Students Student Practice of Canvas tools

Communicate

Intentionally plan how you will communicate with your students remotely: email, Canvas Messages, or Canvas Announcements? Will you prefer to stick with one, two, or all three of these? Make sure you let your students know how best to locate information from and communicate information to you! Be specific.

Syllabus Changes

Post language in your syllabus alerting students to potential changes.

This adjustment includes, but is not limited to: posting videos, conducting virtual office hours, and assigning online discussions, quizzes, and/or assignments. For Example: "If the course grading guidelines are changed as a result, the syllabus will be amended and you will be provided with information about the new course structure as soon as possible."

Use Announcements

Send out an announcement before any potential change or event.

Let your students know how you intend to run the day/week/unit/etc., as far in advance as possible. Send out announcements as frequently as needed to promote continued student success. Within reason, more information is always better, and students appreciate having advance knowledge and a feeling of control over their education. Using Canvas announcements or posting a weekly video at the start of the week that summaries the week before and prepares students for the week.

Advice & Prepare Students

Urge your students to prepare in advance

Advise them to:

- Make sure their contact information and email in Canvas is correct and up to date. All Canvas notifications will go to the email they used to register for school, and by default, it is the one in Canvas. Students can add another email in Canvas to receive notifications if they have one they use more frequently.
- Encourage them to add an email or cell phone number that they do use regularly. They can add these by going into Account --> Settings, after they've logged in to Canvas. Inform them that ALL communication will occur through Canvas and it is their responsibility to make sure they receive that communication.
- Encourage them to set Notifications, globally and per course. Check to make sure those settings are correct. Basically, they can control how frequently they get information. Items such as announcements should be set on immediately, while other items can be set on daily digest, weekly digest, or never.
- Download the Canvas app. Here is the iOS (Apple) link (Links to an external site.) and here is the Android link (Links to an external site.) Note: Most students will just go into the Apple Store or Google Play and search for "Canvas" and this works fine, too!
  - Important: while the Canvas Mobile App for iOS and Android is an excellent tool, it is intended to serve as a complement to online teaching and learning, and it does not support all teaching and learning activities that occur in a course.
- Sign up for alerts so they always have current notifications.

Student Practice of Canvas tools

Let your students test the tools you will use in Canvas before it becomes a crisis.

Give students low-stakes online assignments at the beginning of class that use the Canvas tools you will be using during the quarter, ensuring they can perform basic tasks such as logging in, navigating a class, uploading a file, submitting an assignment, posting to a discussion board or using Panopto, Zoom, Canvas conferences. Stick with the tolls you will be using that quarter for that course. This gives you and them an opportunity to see if difficulties arise before the stakes are higher.

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