Introduction

Blog Post: Canvas now available for staff

Blog Post: Canvas now available for staff

Canvas is still undergoing development and there are some further, minor changes to branding, course menus and options to come. However, the system availability date has been brought forward to provide staff with as much time as possible to develop their courses in LJMU’s new VLE; we are therefore pleased to announce that the Canvas production system is now available, for all staff.

Please read the following important information.

Access

Logging into Canvas

A Canvas desktop icon will be available, in due course. In the interim, you can login to the system at https://canvas.ljmu.ac.uk.  Your login credentials are your username@ljmu.ac.uk, and your usual LJMU password.

If you choose to launch Canvas on an LJMU client PC in Internet Explorer or Edge, then you will be signed in automatically. If you launch in a different browser e.g. Chrome, then you will need to sign in using your LJMU credentials.

Adding Yourself to a Course

When you login to Canvas you should see the 2016-17 courses that you are also currently registered on, in Blackboard.  The TEL Team are in the process of developing a tool that will allow you to manage your course lists, in Canvas.  In the interim, Canvas Support or the TEL Team can add you to any additional courses, on request.  Once a member of staff has been added to a course, they are then able to add/remove other Tutors.  This functionality has the additional benefit of also allowing Tutors to enrol post-graduate students as Teaching Assistants, and External Examiners as ‘Non-Teaching’ staff.

Course Development

Starting Afresh

Each course has an equivalent Master course (formerly Master Module in Blackboard) which can be used for general testing and to develop new content.  No students will be enroled on these courses. Having this course, in addition to your 2016/17 version, allows you to either edit your existing content or to create your course afresh, by exploring the new features of the VLE.  These courses are denoted by the course code, only and have no year or term attached to them.

Developing Your Existing Content

All 2016/17 courses will be available and populated with content, imported from Blackboard-this content will require editing; the skills acquired in the mandatory training session will help you to do this. If there are issues with this imported content, beyond the requirement for editing, then please contact the TEL Team, via the LJMU Helpdesk.

New Courses for 2017-18

New course shells for the 2017/18 academic year will be available in Canvas at the start of August.  If you have developed content in your Master course, this can be easily copied across. You can also copy from your existing 2016-17 course.

Managing Courses in Canvas

General Advice

  • Please delete any imported Assignments (Blackboard and Turnitin). All new assignments will need to be created in Canvas.
  • Please delete any imported Announcements. The students will be alerted to new announcements through the Canvas notifications system.
  • Please delete any imported external examiner folders containing student work, grades or feedback.
  • Imported Blackboard quizzes do not need to be deleted and can be re-used.
  • All courses are unpublished, by default; you will need to publish them when you are ready to make them available to students (courses are not yet populated with student enrolments).

Support

Tier 1 Support

All first line support will be provided by Canvas.  This service is available 24/7, 365  for all users (staff and students).  The TEL Team have provided Canvas Support with a detailed user knowledge base; in the event that Canvas are unable to assist, they will advise you who to contact or will escalate the call to the appropriate team, in LJMU. You can log calls by phone or email, or you can use the Chat facility; all appropriate support links are available in the Help section, in every course and a Help number is listed in the footer of your Canvas dashboard.

The TEL Team will provide all support relating to third party applications, including Turnitin, Panopto, MeToo and Respondus.  They will also provide all second-line Canvas support.

Blackboard will continue to be supported by the TEL Team-requests and incidents should be logged via the LJMU Helpdesk.

Canvas will provide the TEL Team with a weekly breakdown of all logged issues to ensure that users receive full and continuous guidance and support whilst using Canvas.

Written Guidance

All Staff and Student Help guides are located in the Canvas Community. You can also search the Canvas Guides by clicking on the link in the Help section, in any course.

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