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Canvas Tips: Prepping for Winter Quarter

Hello CoE Huskies! 

We wanted to send a note because Winter quarter is just around the corner! You’ll note Winter and Spring Canvas sites are already available to start working on in Canvas. You can locate them on your Canvas dashboard in the Unpublished Courses section.  

If you would like assistance with preparing your Canvas sites, now is the time to submit your request by sending us an email at edhelp@uw.edu.  

  • For those that would like us to import your content into your Winter or Spring course site, please make sure to include a link to the previous Canvas course you would like to have imported.  
  • For those who would like us to adjust the due dates in your course site(s), please make sure to include your course schedule/syllabus for and we will make sure everything is appropriately in place with updated dates. 

For our DIYer’s we’ve included some helpful guides below to consider while setting up your course sites:  

  • How do I copy content from another Canvas course using the Course Import tool? 
    • We recommend using the selective import option to bring over only the materials you need but excluding items you may not want to reuse such as Announcements.  
  • How do I bulk update due dates and availability dates for assignments? 
    • If you are looking for something with a little more granular control, checkout the DesignPlus Multitool that includes a Due Date Modifier. 
  • How do I manage Course Navigation links? 
    • We recommend only having the areas that are being actively used by students in the course showing on the course navigation menu bar. Typically, this would include Announcements; Syllabus; Modules; Assignments; Discussions; People; Grades; UW Libraries; UW Resources; & Ally Course Accessibility Report. 
  • How do I publish or unpublish a module? 
    • When you add Modules in your course, they are unpublished by default. It’s important you remember to publish those modules when you want students to access them because even if the items within a module are published, if the module itself is unpublished, students won’t be able to access those items. 
  • How do I lock a module? 
    • If you want to set a paced schedule of module availability during the quarter, you can set unlock dates on the modules that will release the content to students on a set date and time. Keep in mind that modules need to be published for the lock dates to auto-release the content at the set date and time.  
  • How do I validate links in a course? 
    • This tool is super handy when checking for broken links throughout your course site!  
    • If this is the first time you’ve run the validator it will include any unpublished content. If everything in the course is updated with new dates, check the option to exclude unpublished content and re-run the validator. 
    • Also, important to note, if you use materials that are behind login portal or pay-wall, these items may be flagged as unreachable by the validator. If you click these links on the report and they function as normal than you are all set.  
  • How do I publish a course? 
    • Remember that Canvas courses are automatically set to unpublished status. Once you have everything in place and you want to release it to students, make sure to publish the course so students can access it. 

As always, if you have any questions or concerns about your upcoming course sites, Canvas or how you can apply instructional design best practices to your course, please don’t hesitate to reach out and ask for help! 

Catch Up on the Autumn 2024 ID Workshop Series Recordings

Thank you to all who were able to attend our Autumn 2024 Workshop Series! We hope you learned some new tricks to make accessibility easier in Canvas and grew your skills with DesignPlus. If you need a refresher or you couldn’t make one or more of our workshop sessions  – no worries! Below we will post recordings of the workshops for you to review at your convenience!

One technical note: The recordings are hosted via Microsoft Stream and may require you to login with your UW NetID credentials in order to access.

If you have questions about applying accessibility in your Canvas course or want to submit a future workshop topic request, email us at edhelp@uw.edu.

Want To Balance Design, Function, & Engagement? DesignPLUS Is Your Super Tool!

Have you ever wondered how we make CoE courses beautiful, scalable, and functional to deliver exceptional student experiences? We have a tool for that called DesignPLUS!

This past summer the creators of DesignPLUS, Cidilabs, offered a 5 part workshop series over called Summer School for Educators that highlighted how to use DesignPLUS from first time launch of the toolbar to advanced tips and tricks. Each day covered specific elements of the toolbar including:

  • Getting Started with DesignPLUS:
    Start with a tour of the DesignPLUS Sidebar and cover the basics of building content from scratch with Themes, Content Blocks, Images, and the Action Toolbar.
  • Elevating Canvas Content:
    See how to transform and elevate existing Canvas content with the DesignPLUS Sidebar; how to build beautiful and engaging course Home pages; and how to utilize our awesome, built-in Accessibility Checkers.
  • Course Building with Templates:
    Learn how to utilize Templates in DesignPLUS to make content building a breeze, and see how the Multi-Tool can help you quickly scaffold out an entire course’s Module structure.
  • Exploring the Tools:
    Explore our fan-favorite DesignPLUS elements and tools. We’ll see how to use Accordions, Dialog Boxes, Icons, Progress Indicators, Quick Checks, and more!
  • Course-Level Customizations:
    Still want more? Discover the joys of course-level customizations, with your own custom Content Blocks, Quick Styles, Snippets, Icon Categories, and Themes!

If you missed the live sessions, we have video recordings that you can watch on-demand in this video playlist.

Prefer to just dive in? You can launch the toolbar with some quick keyboard shortcuts anywhere in Canvas that has a rich content editor. There are also several helpful resources that you can reference if you would like more specific guidance you would like on different elements in DesignPLUS:

Canvas Tips: Prepping for Autumn Quarter

Hello CoE Huskies! 

We wanted to send a note because Autumn quarter is just around the corner! You’ll note Canvas sites are available to start working on in Canvas. You can locate them on your Canvas dashboard in the Unpublished Courses section at the bottom of the page.  

If you would like assistance with prepping your Canvas sites, now is the time to submit your request by sending us an email at edhelp@uw.edu.  

  • For those that would like us to import your content into your Autumn course site, please make sure to include a link to the previous Canvas course you would like to have imported.  
  • For those who would like us to adjust the due dates in your course site(s), please make sure to include your course schedule/syllabus for and we will make sure everything is appropriately in place with updated dates. 

For our DIYer’s we’ve included some helpful guides below to consider while setting up your course sites:  

    • We recommend using the selective import option to bring over only the materials you need but excluding items you may not want to reuse such as Announcements.  
    • If you are looking for something with a little more granular control, checkout the DesignPlus Multitool that includes a Due Date Modifier. 
    • We recommend only having the areas that are being actively used by students in the course showing on the course navigation menu bar. Typically, this would include Announcements; Syllabus; Modules; Assignments; Discussions; People; Grades; UW Libraries; UW Resources; & Ally Course Accessibility Report. 
    • When you add Modules in your course, they are unpublished by default. It’s important you remember to publish those modules when you want students to access them because even if the items within a module are published, if the module itself is unpublished, students won’t be able to access those items. 
    • If you want to set a paced schedule of module availability during the quarter, you can set unlock dates on the modules that will release the content to students on a set date and time. Keep in mind that modules need to be published for the lock dates to auto-release the content at the set date and time.  
    • This tool is super handy when checking for broken links throughout your course site!  
    • If this is the first time you’ve run the validator it will include any unpublished content. If everything in the course is updated with new dates, check the option to exclude unpublished content and re-run the validator. 
    • Also, important to note, if you use materials that are behind login portal or pay-wall, these items may be flagged as unreachable by the validator. If you click these links on the report and they function as normal than you are all set.  
    • Remember that Canvas courses are automatically set to unpublished status. Once you have everything in place and you want to release it to students, make sure to publish the course so students can access it. 

As always, if you have any questions or concerns about your upcoming course sites, Canvas or how you can apply instructional design best practices to your course, please don’t hesitate to reach out and ask for help! 

Working on Accessibility in Your Course? Start with TidyUp!

We’ve all done it – added dozens of files into the Canvas Files area of our course to provide content and supplements to our students. It is what the Files area is made for. But then as quarters go by and we change or add more content, the old files have a tendency to stick around and eventually, we open Files and are provided a list that makes doom scrolling look like child’s play.

How do we tackle cleaning up the old files we no longer use while keeping intact the current content that is being used in our course? Enter TidyUp! This handy course scanning tool identifies and can delete unused files from your Canvas course with ease while also offering the ability to provide a comprehensive look at all of the content in your course – including files, folders and Canvas content.

But wait – how does this help with accessibility? When you look at your course’s Ally Score Report, you’ll notice you are provided a score on the overall accessibility of your course. This score is based on the content of your course and even if files are unpublished or not provided to students in active areas of the course they are still considered as part of the score. To get an accurate picture of your course’s accessibility score, you need to remove those files but making sure you aren’t deleting something you actually use can be a bit daunting. Enter TidyUp, your file organizing superhero with features to help you declutter proactively!

Ready to get started? You can start tidying up your course files, folders, and content in minutes after reviewing the short training videos and best practices below!

Getting Started with TidyUp

Get started with TidyUP by enabling it in your Canvas course and scanning your content!

TidyUP Files & Folders

Explore the Files and Folders Tabs in TidyUP.

TidyUP Canvas Content

Explore the Canvas Content area of TidyUP!

TidyUp Best Practices & Tips

  • TidyUp is already enabled in all CoE Canvas courses! You should see it listed in your Canvas’ course navigation bar for each of your course sites.
  • Before you start deleting files, download all the files showing as “Unused” as a failsafe backup. This will download as a zipped file to your computer in case you need to recover a file.
    • Forgot to download a failsafe backup? No worries! You can always go into a previously taught section of the course and download files from there or copy them to the Canvas course site you are working on.
  • Do you use files in question banks in Canvas? Unfortunately, TidyUp cannot scan Canvas question banks so those files may appear in the “Unused Files” list. You may wish to implement these workarounds before scanning your course to avoid accidentally deleting those files:
    • Recommended: Create a Canvas page called “Question Bank Files”. On this page, embed any files or images used in a question bank and save the page but don’t publish it!
    • Add the standard naming convention “QB” to the beginning of file names for files used in question banks.

Questions? Please don’t hesitate to reach out to edhelp@uw.edu for support.

Canvas Tips: Prepping for Summer Quarter & Beyond!

Hello CoE Huskies! 

We wanted to send a note because Summer quarter is just around the corner! You’ll note Summer and Autumn Canvas sites are already available to start working on in Canvas. You can locate them on your Canvas dashboard in the Unpublished Courses section.  

If you would like assistance with prepping your Canvas sites, now is the time to submit your support request by sending us an email at edhelp@uw.edu.  

  • For those that would like us to import your content into your Summer or Autumn course site, please make sure to include a link to the previous Canvas course you would like to have imported.  
  • For those who would like us to adjust the due dates in your course site(s), please make sure to include your course schedule/syllabus for and we will make sure everything is appropriately in place with updated dates. 

For our DIYer’s we’ve included some helpful guides below to consider while setting up your course sites:  

  • How do I manage Course Navigation links? 
    • We recommend only having the areas that are being actively used by students in the course showing on the course navigation menu bar. Typically, this would include Announcements; Syllabus; Modules; Assignments; Discussions; People; Grades; UW Libraries; UW Resources; & Ally Course Accessibility Report. 
  • How do I publish or unpublish a module? 
    • When you add Modules in your course, they are unpublished by default. It’s important you remember to publish those modules when you want students to access them because even if the items within a module are published, if the module itself is unpublished, students won’t be able to access those items. 
  • How do I lock a module? 
    • If you want to set a paced schedule of module availability during the quarter, you can set unlock dates on the modules that will release the content to students on a set date and time. Keep in mind that modules need to be published for the lock dates to auto-release the content at the set date and time. 
  • How do I validate links in a course? 
    • This tool is super handy when checking for broken links throughout your course site!  
    • If this is the first time you’ve run the validator it will include any unpublished content. If everything in the course is updated with new dates, check the option to exclude unpublished content and re-run the validator. 
    • Also, important to note, if you use materials that are behind login portal or pay-wall, these items may be flagged as unreachable by the validator. If you click these links on the report and they function as normal than you are all set.  
  • How do I publish a course? 
    • Remember that Canvas courses are automatically set to unpublished status. Once you have everything in place and you want to release it to students, make sure to publish the course so students can access it. 

As always, if you have any questions or concerns about your upcoming course sites, Canvas or how you can apply instructional design best practices to your course, please don’t hesitate to reach out and ask for help! 

Canvas Discussions & Announcements Redesign Launching June 12th!

Hello CoE Huskies!

On June 12th, UW-IT will implement the redesign of Canvas Discussion and Announcements! The redesigned discussions and announcements has all of the same functionality of classic discussions and announcements, with a new look and a few additional features.

Discussions and Announcements Redesign: What’s New?

 You can now:
  • Use the split screen to view the original post and its replies side-by-side.
  • Create anonymous discussions for more candid responses.
  • Sort Discussion and Announcement posts by date posted or filter posts to “All,” “Unread,” and “Read”.
  • Use the search tool to find posts within a discussion.
  • Use the @ character and select a person to mention them when replying to a post in a discussion that isn’t anonymous. Students who have their Canvas notifications turned on for “New Mention” will receive an email message.
  • Quickly see if the person responding is a student or instructor by using role labels.

Want more information?

Here is a quick resource from UW-IT: UW IT Connect Announcement & FAQ.

Prefer to take a deep dive into the documentation? Check out the updated Canvas guides:

Canvas Tips: Prepping for Spring Quarter

Hello CoE Huskies! 

We wanted to send a note because Spring quarter is just around the corner! You’ll note Spring and Summer Canvas sites are already available to start working on in Canvas. You can locate them on your Canvas dashboard in the Unpublished Courses section.  

If you would like assistance with prepping your Canvas sites, now is the time to submit your support request by sending us an email at edhelp@uw.edu.  

  • For those that would like us to import your content into your Spring or Summer course site, please make sure to include a link to the previous Canvas course you would like to have imported.  
  • For those who would like us to adjust the due dates in your course site(s), please make sure to include your course schedule/syllabus for and we will make sure everything is appropriately in place with updated dates. 

For our DIYer’s we’ve included some helpful guides below to consider while setting up your course sites:  

  • How do I manage Course Navigation links? 
    • We recommend only having the areas that are being actively used by students in the course showing on the course navigation menu bar. Typically, this would include Announcements; Syllabus; Modules; Assignments; Discussions; People; Grades; UW Libraries; UW Resources; & Ally Course Accessibility Report. 
  • How do I publish or unpublish a module? 
    • When you add Modules in your course, they are unpublished by default. It’s important you remember to publish those modules when you want students to access them because even if the items within a module are published, if the module itself is unpublished, students won’t be able to access those items. 
  • How do I lock a module? 
    • If you want to set a paced schedule of module availability during the quarter, you can set unlock dates on the modules that will release the content to students on a set date and time. Keep in mind that modules need to be published for the lock dates to auto-release the content at the set date and time. 
  • How do I validate links in a course? 
    • This tool is super handy when checking for broken links throughout your course site!  
    • If this is the first time you’ve run the validator it will include any unpublished content. If everything in the course is updated with new dates, check the option to exclude unpublished content and re-run the validator. 
    • Also, important to note, if you use materials that are behind login portal or pay-wall, these items may be flagged as unreachable by the validator. If you click these links on the report and they function as normal than you are all set.  
  • How do I publish a course? 
    • Remember that Canvas courses are automatically set to unpublished status. Once you have everything in place and you want to release it to students, make sure to publish the course so students can access it. 

As always, if you have any questions or concerns about your upcoming course sites, Canvas or how you can apply instructional design best practices to your course, please don’t hesitate to reach out and ask for help! 

Your Old Canvas Courses Need Attention!

Courses created in Canvas before Summer 2018 will be deleted on December 18 of this year. If you would like to preserve any course content from this period, you can create a course archive by exporting your Canvas content ahead of December 18th. If you need assistance with this process, please submit a request to edhelp@uw.edu and we will help you create this export package.

How to check your Course’s Expiration Date

You can easily check course expiration dates on your All Courses page using the following steps:

  1. Sign into UW Canvas LMS by visiting Canvas.
  2. Once you’re logged in, click Courses on the Canvas global navigation bar on the lefthand side of the page.
  3. A flyout menu will open on the lefthand side of the page. Scroll to the bottom and click All Courses.
  4. When the page opens, to the far righthand side page there is a column that is labeled Expires and any dates listed in red are the courses that are set to expire and be deleted at the upcoming retention deadline.

Panopto Recordings

Beginning December 18, 2023, recordings created or last edited five or more years ago that haven’t been viewed in the last year will be deleted and will not be recoverable. Recordings not viewed in the last 18 months* will be archived.

The next set of courses to expire, from academic year 2018-2019, will be deleted June 30, 2024, and we will send additional reminders as that deadline approaches.

We are here to help! If you have questions or concerns, please reach out to us at edhelp@uw.edu and we can create a retention plan for your course’s specific needs.

Coming this Winter: Canvas Retention Policy

Content created in the UW Canvas LMS is retained for five years after the end of the academic year (considered to be June) in which the course section was offered. As this is the first year the policy will be implemented, courses from Autumn 2012 through Spring 2018 will be deleted on December 18, 2023.

To check which courses will be impacted by this change:

  1. Sign in to UW Canvas LMS by visiting http://canvas.uw.edu
  2. Click Courses in the global nav at the left.
  3. In the Courses flyout menu, scroll down to the very bottom.
  4. Click All Courses.
  5. Click the heading of the Expires column to list the courses set to expire this year first.

If you wish to keep the course contents, please review the archival instructions from UW IT.