Cheyenne Puetz – iSchool Help Desk

Tech Tip of the Week: Bulk Downloading Student Assignment Submissions

Did you know you can bulk download student submissions for assignments? As an instructor, Canvas allows you download all student submissions for an assignment as a single ZIP file.

You can use bulk downloads for multiple submission types, including file uploads, text entries, website URLs, and Google Docs submissions.

Canvas has a whole page dedicated to walking you through bulk downloading assignment submissions here, and if you have any questions, please reach out to the Help Desk!

Tech Tip of the Week: Giving Feedback on the Canvas User Interface

Canvas isn’t always the easiest to navigate, and there may be times where you would like to address certain bugs in Canvas’s interface. The Help Desk can find workarounds where possible, and we are always happy to help answer Canvas questions you may have! While the Help Desk cannot change certain aspects of Canvas, you can still improve Canvas by providing feedback directly to Instructure and adding to already existing conversations within Instructure. Directions and details on how to provide feedback for Canvas via Instructure can be found here.

As always, the Help Desk is here for you, and Canvas related questions are always welcome!

Tech Tip of the Week: Managing Course Navigation Links in Canvas

Did you know you can tailor your course navigation so students can only see and access certain navigation links?

Canvas has great documentation on how to hide, enable, and reorder different course navigation links like announcements, modules, pages, people, grades, and more. Instructions for managing course navigation links can be found on Canvas’s community site here.

Please reach out to the Help Desk if you have any questions!

Tech Tip of the Week: “What If” Grades on Canvas

Our Canvas Tech Tip for today is all about “What If” grades on Canvas.

You can view our video tutorial for “What If” grades here.

Don’t hesitate to reach out to the Help Desk with any Canvas questions you may have!

Tech Tip of the Week: Sharing Class Recordings on Canvas

Our Canvas Tech Tip for this week is about how to share class recordings on Canvas! You can view our sharing class recordings video walk-through here.

Please reach out with any questions you may have!

Tech Tip of the Week: Where to Forward Spam Emails

What Can We Do with Spammy Emails?

Perhaps during your time at the U of I you’ve received a spam email. Maybe something about giving money to a prince in a faraway land so that together you can unlock a fortune he will someday receive? First off, good work recognizing spam when you see it! Second off, there’s a step you can take going forward with that message. Please forward it to University Technology Services so future emails from that source will automatically be designated as spam. The address to forward spam to is report-spam@illinois.edu. To avoid having your email being marked as spam as well, please forward the spam email as an attachment. To do this, click on the three dots next to the arrow icon, and from the sidebar that appears, click Other reply actions. Another sidebar will appear, and you will want to select Forward as attachment. This will attach the email. By doing this, hopefully we will all receive fewer spammy emails!

Tech Tip of the Week: Learning Resources from CITL

Here at the University of Illinois we have an amazing resource with the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning (CITL), and they provide resources for both instructors and students. In their own words: “The Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning is a hub of innovation and hands-on support for those who want to discuss and work with higher education trends, models, projects, and resources. CITL uses leading pedagogical approaches, research-based methodologies, innovative instructional technologies, and comprehensive assessment practices to strengthen teaching efforts and improve student learning outcomes.” Today’s Tech Tip will break down some of the resources CITL provides for both online and in-person instruction and learning.

1. To learn more about CITL:
  - CITL Website
  - CITL Facebook Page (to keep up with events)

2. Student Specific Learning Resources

3. Instructor Resources

4. Visit the CITL Innovative Space!

- - “The studio is a 25-seat interactive visualization, makerspace, and VR classroom all in one. We have a video wall for visualizations, 10 VR/video editing/gaming workstations, and an array of emerging technologies, including virtual reality, laser cutting, 3D printing, 3D modeling, mixed reality, and much more. ” Check it out here!

5. Data Analytics

Tech Tip of the Week: Tech Services and Walk-In Appointment Scheduling

Tech Services at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign offers a variety of services for students, faculty, staff, and researchers. On their website here, you will find information on getting connected to campus wifi, accessing Adobe Suite services, Canvas resources, and much more.

For Fall 2021, Tech Services is allowing walk-in support by appointment only. To schedule an in-person appointment with Tech Services, you can fill out this form. Their hours for walk-in support are Monday – Friday: 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and Saturday -Sunday: 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., and your building access status will be checked via the Safer Illinois app or Boarding Pass website.

You can also contact them via email at consult@illinois.edu and via phone at (217) 244-7000 for remote support.

Tech Tip of the Week: Navigating Canvas Using the Sidebar

Today’s Tech Tip is all about navigating Canvas using the sidebar. On the sidebar you will find the following: Account, Dashboard, Courses, Calendar, Inbox, History, Commons, and Help. Below are descriptions for what you can find under each section and why you might use it while on Canvas.

Account: This is where you can access your profile, notifications, and settings. You can also logout of Canvas by clicking Account and then clicking Logout from the sidebar that appears on the right.

Screenshot of the sidebar on Canvas with Account selected

Dashboard: Think of this as the “home screen” of Canvas. If any of your instructors are using Canvas, this is where you will be able to see your course sites.
Courses: This is another place where you can access your courses. If you click Courses, an additional sidebar will appear to the right with a list of all your courses and the links to each of their corresponding course pages.

Screenshot of sidebar on Canvas with Courses selected

Calendar: This is where you can view when assignments are due in a calendar view. All of your courses will have due dates listed within your course site, but the calendar option is a great way to view assignment due dates for all your Canvas courses on a calendar. Note that each course corresponds to a color, so it is easy to distinguish which assignments are for each course.

Inbox: This is where you can view any messages your instructor or fellow classmates have sent you.
History: You can view what you have recently accessed on Canvas by clicking History.

Screenshot of Canvas sidebar with History selected

Commons: This may not be something you use frequently, but Commons is a learning repository that lets instructors find, import, and share resources. For more information on Canvas Commons, please see Canvas’s documentation here.
Help: You can access Canvas support links when you click here.

Screenshot of Canvas sidebar with Help selected

Keep an eye out for next week’s Tech Tip which will be a video walk through of what a Canvas course site will look like! As always, if you have any questions or want to learn more about how to use Canvas before the fall semester, please reach out to the Help Desk!