You can find the supported operating systems and browsers HERE.
- Courses that are cross listed in Banner will show up just as they do in Blackboard, as a single course based on the lowest CRN. Although a cross listed course in Banner has multiple sections, it would count as only a single course in Canvas (or Blackboard).
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Faculty should make every effort to work with their department scheduling office and the registrar's office to cross list courses in Banner, but there is a way to merge courses in Canvas, as long as you are careful to abide by FERPA regulations. See our guide: Cross-listing Courses in Canvas.
Below are the dates when courses and organizations for a particular semester will be added to Canvas.
| Semester | Date Loaded |
| Fall 2023 (202310) | Early Mar 2023 |
| Spring 2024 (202320) | Early Oct 2023 |
| Summer 2024 (202330) | Early Oct 2023 |
| Fall 2024 (202410) | Early Mar 2024 |
| Spring 2025 (202420) | Early Oct 2024 |
| Summer 2025 (202430) | Early Oct 2024 |
Yes, there are student and instructor mobile apps available for iOS, iPadOS, and Android. Announcements, Discussions, Quizzes, Assignments, and Grades can be accessed from the student app. The instructor app allows annotations in the Canvas DocViewer. Download either app from your device's app store. For more information, go to Canvas Apps 101.
Features and Functionality
Due to multimedia storage constraints in Canvas, all multimedia content (.mpg, .mov, .mp4, .wav etc.) should be stored in Kaltura. Make sure the media content is uploaded to Kaltura and is linked to or embedded in your Blackboard course prior to the migration. There is a 2 GB multimedia file limit set per course in Canvas.
In the management of any course, instructors may come across students who are unable to complete a course. This typically results in a grade of "I" being submitted to Banner. Previously in Blackboard, instructors typically allowed the student to complete the course in the existing course shell they started in.
As we transition to Canvas, the process for provisioning course content that will allow students to complete their coursework will be slightly different.
- Faculty that have incompletes should minimally export the gradebook for the course prior to the discontinuation of Blackboard.
- Faculty that know they have courses that have student incompletes where students will be returning can request the course content be migrated to Canvas prior to the discontinuation of Blackboard.
- If courses need to be recovered after the discontinuation of Blackboard, email itshelp@odu.edu to request to have the course restored. ITS will notify you once it is restored.
You can find detailed instructions with screenshots in our guide: Managing Incompletes in the Transition from Blackboard.
When a course remains unpublished, students do not have access. A course must be published for students to see it on their Dashboard, assuming it is being published within the term dates set in place. Once the course is published, you can determine how much content you want students to view. Once the instructor has graded a submission, they will no longer have the option to unpublish the course.
Students will be able to access the course immediately after publishing, assuming it is within the start and end default term dates. Also, please note that you will be unable to unpublish a course if you have graded an item in the gradebook.
There is a way to restrict student access to a course after you've published, if you want to keep students from viewing content before the class actually starts. See our guide: Making Courses Unavailable to Students.
Supported file types are listed in the Canvas Guides: How Do I Create an Online Assignment?
Zoom has been defined as the University standard for web conferencing.
The conferencing tool that is packaged with Canvas is Big Blue Button. It does have several limitations. These include recordings that are only kept for 2 weeks (14 days) and are not downloadable, attendee limit of 24 etc. Additionally, video recordings are not automatically transferred to Kaltura.
Yes. See the How Do I Create a Formula Quiz Question With a Single Variable? page. You can also use the Canvas Formula Quiz Question Helper Functions.
Yes. See the How Do I Create a Formula Quiz Question With a Single Variable? page. You can also use the Canvas Formula Quiz Question Helper Functions.
The Canvas Calendar has a great agenda feature that will allow you to create office hours. More information can be found in the Canvas Guides.
Users can upload an image to display behind the course card in the Canvas Dashboard. Accepted images include JPG, JPEG, GIF, and PNG files. For more information on how this is done, see the Add an Image to a Course Card page.
Canvas Self-Enroll is being evaluated and how we would approach using that option. We believe that Canvas Catalog is a viable solution and will be providing more information on that in the near future.
Yes, Canvas offers course and department-level groups. Go to the "What are Groups?" page for more information.
Maybe. Though it's not 100% effective, you may have some luck with the method outlined in this Canvas blog post: Undeleting things in Canvas
When you favorite at least one course, the Dashboard only displays favorited courses.
When no courses are favorited, the course list displays up to 20 courses alphabetically. After 20 courses, however, courses start to drop off the list. To see all of your courses, click the Courses icon in the menu bar.
For more information, see this Canvas guide: How do I view my favorite courses in the Card View Dashboard as an instructor?
Integration
All Zoom cloud recordings can be accessed through "My Media" in Canvas. From there, you can embed Zoom recordings.
Yes. The conferencing tool that is packaged with Canvas is Big Blue Button. It does have limitations, though. For example, meetings are limited to 24 attendees, recordings are only kept for 2 weeks (14 days) and are not downloadable. It is highly recommended that faculty use Zoom, the University's standard web conferencing tool.
Turnitin has been selected as the University-supported plagiarism tool and will be integrated with Canvas. Faculty received training on this new product in January 2022. You can watch a recording of this training or browse resources on Turnitin's web page.
First, the instructor will need to link Google Drive as a Service.
Second, a Google Doc can be either embedded in a Canvas Page or you can use the Collaboration Tool to share the document with one or more students.
All Pearson apps will work similar to how they did in Blackboard.
Kaltura videos that already exist in your My Media can be embedded into Canvas. The same Kaltura Mediaspace is accessible in both Canvas and Blackboard at ODU.
Get Started with Canvas
Configure your Course Modules
Manage your Course Files in Canvas
Add and Organize your Course Content
Add Assignments to your Course
Communicate with your Students
To communicate with your entire course prior to the course start date, use the Canvas Inbox to send messages to all enrolled students. To accomplish this follow the directions provided in How do I send a message to all course users.
Add Quizzes & Surveys to your Course
Question types with partial credit options are outlined here on the Understanding Multiple Answers Questions page.
Use your Course Gradebook
You can choose from a few options for displaying test/quiz results - on a certain date, after it has been graded, etc. Here you will find the different options for setting up a quiz.
Canvas outlines a few ways you can administer extra credit. See the How do I give Extra Credit? page for details.
Instructors can create as many assignment groups as necessary to accomplish variations of weighting. Please view the How Do I Weight the Final Course Grade Based on Assignment Groups? and How Do I Create Rules for an Assignment Group? pages in the Canvas Guides.
Columns in the Gradebook are only created by adding an assignment in Canvas. If you need to create a column in the Gradebook to use for manual grading, you can create a No Submission or On Paper assignment.
Accessibility
Canvas is built to be an accessible platform, but development of accessible content within a course is the instructor's responsibility and still needs to adhere to university accessibility guidelines. For more information, please refer to Educational Accessibility Resources for Faculty and Staff.
Instructure has stated that the Rich Content Editor's accessibility checker tool is an ongoing project, and they are continuing to improve the 11 different checks that it currently performs. More information can be found in the Canvas Community.