Month: October 2016

Grading Schemes in Canvas

Here is how you can choose what grade scheme you want to use before sending your final grades to the Faculty Center.

1. Go into your course and click on Settings.

Click on Settings

2. Under the Course Details tab, scroll down until you see Grading Scheme.

3. Check the box next to “Enable course grading scheme” (if it’s not already checked) and then click on “view grading scheme”.

Enable course grading scheme

4. The grading scheme that you’ll see is a default in Canvas that does *not* follow the OSU scheme. So, click on “Select Another Scheme” to choose something else.

Select Another Scheme

5. On the left side is a list of schemes. Choose the OSU Standard Scheme if you don’t plan on rounding up grades. There is also an S/U scheme if you want to use that. If you want to round up your grades, click on OSU with rounding. Regardless of which scheme you choose, make sure to click on “Use this grading standard”.

Use this grading standard

6. If you have chosen the scheme you want to use, click on Done.

Click on Done

7. IMPORTANT! Make sure to scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on “Update Course Details”.

Update Course Details

Links in Canvas: How to Bypass “Insecure” Warnings in Firefox

When scrolling through your Canvas course you may have noticed that some links (to Panopto recordings, OSU websites, or outside websites) will show a preview on the page, and some will instead show a warning of “insecure content” and no preview.  The warning appears in red text in the screen shot below.  Generally, these links are safe to follow, but always exercise your best judgment when you receive a warning such as this.

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The Instructure Guide to Canvas has a page explaining this phenomenon and several others issues that may arise depending on the browser you are using to access Canvas.  That guide is here: Which Browsers does Canvas Support?

For those who use Firefox, here are a few quick tips so you or your students can still access this content.

When the insecure content warning comes up, you can view the link in a new tab by simply left-clicking on the link (circled in green here). This is the easiest solution.  If you want to view the link within the Canvas page, click on the padlock icon in the address box (circled in blue).

A dialogue box will open up. Click the arrow circled below:

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Next, click “disable protection for now”.  This should allow the video (or webpage) to load in the box below the link.

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If you are accessing Canvas through another browser, such as Google Chrome, see the link above that will help you troubleshoot issues.

As always, feel free to contact us if you have specific questions!

Carmen vs. Canvas

This year, OSU has gone through a major change with the evolution of Carmen to Canvas. As with any redesign, it is important to find out how people are responding to the changes to see what improvements, if any, need to be made. I interviewed two first-year students and two second-year students to see what they like, and dislike, about Canvas.

The second-year students generally like the old Carmen system compared to the new Canvas system. The common theme seems to be the old system was easier to navigate. Multiple people told me Canvas has too many tabs compared to Carmen, which had one main tab called the Content tab. They also said it was less challenging to view grades, look at upcoming events for classes, and turn in assignments last year in Carmen. However, they did like that Canvas separates each course so that they are independent of each other. Students can now pick a class and view the assignments for that one class individually, contrary to Carmen that combined all of the assignments from every class into one area. One friend even marveled at the usefulness of the announcements/discussions/assignments/files icons located on the front cover of every course.

My first-year friends tended to have more positive things to say about Canvas. They said the system is pretty easy to use and they haven’t had many problems learning how to navigate it. The parts they like best about Canvas are the announcements tab and the calendar. They said the announcements section is an easy way for them to find updates and important e-mails about their classes.  When I asked them what their favorite part about Canvas is, they said the calendar tab. The calendar tab shows when assignments are due throughout the week, which allows them to manage their time more efficiently. This opinion contrasts with the second-year students who said they dislike the calendar tab because it is more confusing than the upcoming events tab in Carmen. The only complaint the first-year students have about Canvas is that their teachers sometimes struggle with the system, resulting in assignments, or even whole courses, not being posted.

Since the first year students have never fully been exposed to Carmen before, it seems they have not had a hard time adjusting to the new system. Being a first-year student myself, I would pick Canvas over Carmen because that is what I am most familiar with and I can’t personally compare the pros and cons of each system. Since the second-year students have had to make the adjustment to a new system, it is understandable why they would prefer Carmen because it is what they are most comfortable with.

Both the first-years and the second-years agree that the new Canvas system is better with regard to technology. They really like the convenience of the Canvas mobile app, which the old Carmen system did not have. With continual practice, I believe everyone will adapt to the new Canvas system and see it as a positive step forward in learning technology at OSU.