As we prepare to begin the second semester, there are two items that we would like to highlight in order to have a successful and smooth semester with Canvas.
1.) Information for all teachers using Canvas
Often January brings new students into our schools and classrooms. If these new students are added to a NEW roster in IC, teachers will need to open Canvas Teacher Tools and add the NEW roster to the correct Canvas course. Also note that if a new student is added to an existing IC roster, the student will automatically be added to the corresponding Canvas course within 24 hours. For a refresher on using Canvas Teacher Tools to add rosters, please visit Getting Started With Teacher Tools.
2.) Information for High School teachers using Canvas
Please review your Canvas courses and rosters that are currently being used in your Canvas courses. If you have any “A” Rosters (first semester only), it is best practice to manually CONCLUDE each student’s enrollment. By completing this action, you will provide the student a read-only version of the course since s/he is no longer actively enrolled in your course. This action will also allow you to continue using Grade Passback without errors.
You can now manually conclude rosters from Teacher Tools! Here is how:
3.) (Updated 2/14/25) One nuance that has been brought to our attention is that the above step does not remove “Test Student” from the section within the Canvas course. “Test Student” is created when a teacher uses the “Student View” in their course. “Test Student” populates in all sections of the course the first time the teacher clicks “Student View”. If a teacher uses “Student View”, and has A sections in their course they will need to manually delete the “Test Student” from the A section. Please open your Canvas course, go to course Settings and manually remove “Test Student” from all “A” sections.
Mystery Science is an innovative, standards-aligned, hands-on curriculum that teaches K-5 students how to think like scientists. Mystery Science offers open-and-go lessons that inspire kids to love science. The hook, visuals, and activity have all been prepared for teachers! If you are new to Mystery Science, take a look at the Video Overview below:
For teachers that are familiar with Mystery Science, you will find new content for the 2024-2025 school year!
These enhancements include:
Whether you’re a WeVideo newbie looking to learn the ropes, or a seasoned pro ready to flaunt your skills — jump in! Become a WeVideo aficionado, plus receive a certificate of completion. Those certifications build upon each other as well. Continue your learning to become a WeVideo Ambassador. There are even certification courses for your students!
To learn more about WeVideo certifications and ambassador programs please visit:
We are excited to announce that our newest Classwize feature, “Focus Library,” is now live for all Classwize users! Focus Library will allow teachers to create Focus Plans ahead of time, use the Focus Plan with any class in their Classwize dashboard, and save Focus Plans created in the moment for future use! Please view the video overview & resources below for more information and share them with your teachers!
A ClearTouch Technial Q & A Session was held at the ISC on Friday, October 4th. Our friends at Nisewonger AV created and shared this excellent ClearTouch troubleshooting PowerPoint:
Click the link below to download a copy of the presentation.
NAVC-Cleartouch TST_TSA Presentation
Thank you to Nisewonger AV for preparing these slides, and we hope you find this resource helpful in your ClearTouch troubleshooting efforts.
The Smart Search feature is now available for teachers to enable in their Canvas courses. Below is how Instructure defines the Smart Search functionality:
“Our Smart Search feature relies on an AI-adjacent technology called ’embeddings.’ This technology “reads” the course content and creates a complex mathematical representation of each piece of content. When you perform a search, the technology ‘reads’ your query and converts it into a complex mathematical representation. The tool then compares the mathematical representations of both your search and course content to return relevant results; this result is returned with a ‘Confidence’ rating.”
As of June 1, 2024, searchable items include content pages, announcements, discussion prompts, and assignment descriptions, with plans to expand.
We feel it is important to note this feature is designed to respect course permissions. In other words, if your students are not able to access files in your course prior to enabling the Smart Search feature students should also not be able to search for and access those files after the feature is enabled.
Once the teacher has enabled the feature it is up to the teacher if they want to add Smart Search to the course navigation. The teacher will still be able to access Smart Search even if it is not added to the course navigation for students. Please see the link here about managing course navigation links if teacher wants to enable Smart Search in the course navigation.
We hope you all enjoy the new Smart Search feature in Canvas, and for all of the detailed information please see the Help Guide here.