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Canvas

Getting Started in Canvas

Are you new to working in Canvas, or do you just need a place to practice some basic skills? Online Education offers a self-paced Canvas basics course called Let's Get This Canvas Started. You can use Let's Get This Canvas Started as a reference guide or take it as a course, completing the homework assignments at the end of each Module. A Canvas expert will give you feedback on your submissions. Get started by joining the ongoing course in Canvas.

Summer Term Course Shells

The annual Summer term and associated course shells are available in Canvas on a rolling basis starting on April 1. Instructors can log in to the Canvas dashboard and will see their summer course as unpublished. 

If we are not seeing your course, the issue is probably that you have yet been added to the class as the instructor because:

  1. your appointment letter is still in the process
  2. you need to accept your appointment or 
  3. you are a new hire who has not yet received their appointment letter
If none of the above apply to you, or if you have other Canvas related questions, please email canvas.help@ucsc.edu available virtual office hours: https://its.ucsc.edu/fitc/hours.html
Instructors can also consult the Canvas FAQ for Faculty.

Add the Summer Intro Module

Please add the Summer Introduction Module to your Canvas course and open it one week before your class starts. (You’ll have to publish your course first. And remember that you can publish modules and individual items selectively, which means that you don’t have to publish anything but the Introduction Module before the first day of instruction.) 

There are two ways to add the Introduction Module to your course:

  1. Import it from Canvas Commons. On the homepage of your Canvas course, click on “Import from Commons” and search for “UCSC Summer Introduction Module.”
  2. Contact the Online Education office at online@ucsc.edu, and they’ll do it for you.

In either case, you can preview the Introduction Module here. 

Opening your Introduction Module as early as possible will:

  1. Cut down on unnecessary emails to you about how and when to get into the class.
  2. Put students’ minds at ease.
  3. Ensure students are aware of the unique summer deadlines and policies around adding, dropping, and the waitlist. 

Default Open and Close Dates

Summer Session Canvas courses open on the first day of the course session and close on the last day.