Preparing Canvas for Second Semester

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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.

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Smart Search Now Available in Canvas

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Canvas Smart Search

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.

Enabling Smart Search in a Course:

  1. Navigate to Course Settings > Feature Options
  2. Enable the Smart Search feature option

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.

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Using Book Creator with Canvas

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Did you know Book Creator revamped their Canvas integration early in 2024?

Prior to 2024 the Book Creator / Canvas integration was primarily just single-sign-on.  The features below are now included in the new integration:

  • Create Book Creator assignments in Canvas:

  • Let students turn in Book Creator books directly from Canvas:

  • Read and grade student work from Canvas:

Read all of the details of how to use Book Creator with Canvas here and how to improve your Canvas/Book Creator workflows here.

Also, the video below provides an excellent view of the new integration features as well:

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Remind Reminders–Preferred Language

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Communicate with every family in their home language—individually and at scale

Preferred language translation lets you effectively reach all families in their home languages—from direct conversations to district-wide notifications.

Reach families in the languages they understand.

With preferred language translation, messages are automatically translated into 90+ languages on the Remind app and on the web. Parents can select their home language for messaging on Remind, or teachers and administrators can manually update preferred languages for hard-to-reach families.

Support family engagement with two-way translation.

When you send a message to a multilingual group, all you need to do is compose your message in English. From there, you can see which languages your message will be translated into, confirm the number of recipients per language, and preview the translated text, all from one place—no copying and pasting from Google Translate required. Plus, translations are two-way so you can answer questions and build stronger relationships. When a parent responds to your message in their home language, it’s translated back to the preferred language you’ve set.

For more information on Preferred Language:

Preferred language translation FAQs

How do I send translated messages as a teacher, parent, or student?

How can I receive messages in another language?

How can I set a preferred language for my class participants?

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Canvas Module and Assignment Differentiation

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Did you know?   As of July 20th, we now have the ability to assign modules, pages, and ungraded discussions to sections and students!  Please see the resources below for all of the details on these robust new Canvas features:

  1. Canvas Release Notes from July 20th, 2024.
  2. Canvas Guide
  3. Feature Video:

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