Canvas

To provide UIW faculty, staff and students access to a modern and agile learning management system (LMS), Instructional Technology Service conducted a year-long pilot of the Canvas by Instructure. Canvas is the current industry leader in the LMS marketplace and offers UIW faculty, staff, and students a robust mobile experience, seamless integration with third-party applications, easy reporting capabilities, and customer-friendly support services. 

Eighty faculty members taught their courses in Canvas during the 2020 academic year. Over 1800 students participated in the pilot. Results from surveys distributed at the end of each semester showed that both faculty and students found Canvas easier to learn, easier to use, and better support for teaching and learning. UIW administration reviewed the survey data and the merits of the learning management system and made the recommendation to move forward with the adoption of Canvas as the university’s learning management system beginning in the summer term of the 2021 academic year. 

Blackboard Migration Schedule

• Summer 2020 Courses- Already in Canvas
• Fall 2020 Courses- Beginning of April 2021
• Spring 2020 Courses- Beginning of June 2021

Please let us know if there are courses not taught in 2020 that need to be moved to Canvas, please fill out the Bb Course Export Request linked below.

Bb Course Export Request

Master courses will need to be migrated manually. Fill out the Migration Request Form using the button below if you would like your Master course moved to Canvas.

Master Course Migration Request Form

Canvas Course Access Policy

• All instructors of record and students are given access through Banner – Canvas imports four times every day.
• Users added through Banner cannot be edited or removed by a Teacher, any adds or role changes must be processed through Banner.
• For now, Banner removals must be processed manually by the system administrator - email your removal request including user names and the course number to ITS@uiwtx.edu.
• Manual adds/removals of any other roles are managed by the course Teacher. Roles an instructor can add/remove include:

1. 1. Teacher : Most editing and viewing access of all the roles. A user with Teacher role can add, edit, and delete content, manage student grades, publish/unpublish the course, change the settings, and add/remove users.
   2. Colleague: A custom role for UIW faculty who share their courses but are not official teachers. This role gives access to view and edit content but not grades and will not notify the user of grading To Dos.
   3. Teaching Assistant : Similar to the Teacher role but is unable to manage Sections, final grades, Learning Outcomes, Observer connections to students add/remove users.
   4. Designer : Can edit and add content but is unable to access student grades. It is a great option for collaborating on course materials while protecting student privacy.
   5. Affiliate: A custom view only role for users contracted to provide a service to UIW, such as closed captioning for student support.
   6. Observer : View only role. Enrolling a guest with an observer role allows access to the course without being able to affect any course data or participation. When paired with a student, this role cannot submit work on behalf of the students they observe, but they can see student grades, assignments and events, and course interactions. Instructors can generate a pairing code for a student or link a student to an observer in a Canvas course.

How do I generate a pairing code?

How do I link a student to an observer?

All Blackboard Organizations are currently being reviewed for migration. There are several platforms at UIW that can host organizations in addition to Canvas and the needs of organizations are different from courses, so ITS will work with organization leaders to help them determine the best platform for them.

For questions about migrating your organization from Blackboard, please contact John Miller or Iris Solcher about migrating your Blackboard Organization.

Contact John Miller Contact Iris Solcher

Canvas Professional Development Series

All events can be attended on Zoom. 

Attend Live Session on Zoom

Miss a session? Check out our recorded sessions on YouTube.

Canvas Hours Channel on YouTube

Schedule of Upcoming Live Sessions

Calendar and Email
Presented by Shree Nair
Feb 25, 10 a.m.

Creating Discussions
Presented by Sandy Guzman-Foster
Feb 24, 1 p.m.
Feb 26, 3 p.m.

Managing Course Settings and Files
Presented by Noah Stoehle
March 2, 10 a.m.
March 3, 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Modules and Pages
Presented by Melissa Dagne
March 2, 2 p.m.
March 4, 3 p.m.
March 16, 10 a.m.

Planning Your Lesson
Presented by Deepti Kharod and Suleyman Tek
March 15, 2 p.m.
March 19, 11 a.m.

Creating Assignments
Presented by Nile Barnes
March 18, 10 a.m.
March 23, 2 p.m. 
March 25, 1 p.m.

Creating Assessments
Presented by Sarah Luna
March 31, 12 p.m.
April 5, 2 p.m.
April 6, 9 a.m.

SpeedGrader and Gradebook
Presented by Jakob Rinderknecht
April 12, 3 p.m.
April 14, 3 p.m
April 16, 10 a.m.

What to do with Video
Presented by Michael Clayton
April 15, 10 a.m.
April 19, 10 a.m.
April 22, 11 a.m.

Groups and Collaborations
Presented by Lucretia Fraga
April 20, 11:30 a.m.
April 21, 11:30 a.m.
April 23, 12 p.m.

Growing with Canvas will walk you through the basic features of Canvas and will give you a leg up when building your course. Finish the course for certification.

Growing with Canvas Course

A sandbox is a new, empty course shell created with you as the teacher. Use your sandbox to learn, experiment, or build an entire course. Later you can copy any and all of your work to your live course.

Request a Sandbox Course

Need trace-to-face instruction even if it's virtual? We're here for you. Reach out to the instructional design professional for your school or department from the list located in the right side bar of this page.

Get help with Canvas any time of the day or night.

Chat or call, visit the Help Menu at the bottom of the Global Menu Bar inside of Canvas.

Get familiar with Canvas in minutes.

Visit Canvas Cards

Get stuck while you're in Canvas? Help is at the bottom of the left-hand global menu inside Canvas.

Get help with Canvas any time of the day or night.
Chat or call, visit the Help Menu at the bottom of the Global Menu Bar inside of Canvas.

With 2GB of storage per course, Canvas courses are ideal for storing word documents, pdfs, and images.

Added Bonus: When you copy one of your courses in Canvas, the copy of your course comes in with all course content and a reset file limit of 2GB.

Larger media file types like audio, video, and larger Powerpoint files should be stored in Stream, OneDrive, or on a private YouTube channel and embedded in your course.

For more information on how to store media in OneDrive, Microsoft Stream, or YouTube, please refer to this page, under Storage.

Creating and using video

When using the audio/video feedback feature inside of Canvas, we recommend you limit your recording to 15 minutes per individual media recording.