Canvas Tips and Tricks
Tips, tricks and shortcuts to make your Canvas course easier to use and more engaging.
Create custom Canvas course navigation bar items.
Did you know you can create your own custom links to any URL that will appear in your course navigation bar for your students to access more quickly and easily? Just follow these steps.
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Here’s your new custom link!
Endicott Case Study for YuJa now online
Associate Dean of Academic Technology Kent Barclay was interviewed in June as part of a series of case studies by YuJa, the college’s media storage, management and distribution application. YuJa is showcasing on their website some select colleges and universities that are using YuJa to enhance teaching and learning at their institution. Endicott has been using YuJa since 2016 so the college was chosen to be one of these case studies. To read the interview and the case study on Endicott’s history and use of YuJa, click on this link yuja.com/case-studies
Small Bytes with Academic Tech is a success!
Around 15 faculty and staff dropped by LIB122 on Tuesday, May 3rd for the “Small Bytes with Academic Tech” open house. The free pizza, salad, drinks, fruit, and desserts were quickly dispatched. Some brought their tech questions, others just came to chat and eat!
Professor Allen’s Media and Culture students experience virtual reality
The team from Academic Technology demonstrated XR (eXtended reality, an umbrella term for VR, AR (augmented reality), and MR (mixed reality) technologies to the students in Prof Sara Allen’s CMM107- Media and Culture II class on Thursday, Nov 18th. A total of 25 students in two class sections came to the XR Lab in LSB403 and donned Oculus Rift 2 headsets to experience VR (virtual reality) for themselves, many for the first time.
Most students played a game called Beat Saber to get a feel for what VR is all about and some common remarks describing what everyone was feeling were “awesome!”, “amazing!”, “wow!”.
Hedrick Ellis, Endicott’s Coordinator of Instructional Technology and Immersive Learning has been evangelizing with Deans and faculty on the benefits of using XR across the curriculum. Some of the programs that have already adopted VR technology into their curriculum include Nursing, Architectural Studies, Anatomy and Physiology, Biology, Athletic Training, and several athletic team coaches.
Students try out the Oculus Quest in Endicott’s XR Lab
Lockdown Browser and Respondus Monitor Using Chromebook
Important Note: Endicott College requires a Windows PC or Mac laptop for students in most programs. These instructions are provided for exceptions to that general policy.
A Chromebook is a laptop computer that only runs Google Chrome browser, thus Lockdown Browser is installed as an extension to Chrome, not as a separate program. The Lockdown Browser extension requires Chrome version 88 or newer.
Just as with Windows and Mac computers, students with Chromebooks who attempt to take a Canvas quiz will be prompted to download Lockdown Browser, unless they have already installed the extension:
Clicking on the link will bring Chromebook users to the Chrome Web Store’s Lockdown Browser page. Click “Add to Chrome” and then “Add Extension” to install. Successful installation will show this screen:
Log into Canvas and navigate to the quiz
Click on Take the quiz (button) and enter an access code (optional)
LDB extension will automatically be loaded
If LDB extension does not load, then clear Cookies and Browsing Data by typing CNTL + SHIFT + BACKSPACE (those three keys together), then Clear Data, and try again.
When complete click submit and then close LockDown Browser — click X in the top right corner
Press the continue button to Exit LockDown Browser
Log back on to Canvas.
Jim Lacey 9/10/2021
Using Blackboard Ally in Canvas to make your course more accessible
Blackboard Ally accessibility reporting is now available in all Canvas courses. You may have noticed the small icons 
that look like fuel gauges next to files that you have uploaded into your course.
To learn what those icons mean and how you can use the accessibility reports to improve your course, watch the short video below.
Zoom now available for web conferencing
Zoom is available as the standard web conferencing application to any faculty, staff, School or department by request. To request access, please visit Freshservice and create a ticket or email support@endicott.edu
Introducing Canvas’s New Gradebook
Overview
On Wednesday, September 11, Canvas’s New Gradebook replaces the current gradebook in all Endicott courses. The New Gradebook offers a number of new and enhanced features to help you input, manage, and release grades to students.
New Feature Highlights
- More filtering and sorting options: Instructors use the View menu to arrange assignment columns by name, due date, points, and modules. You can also filter by assignment group, module, section or student group.
- Crosshairs: The New Gradebook offers crosshairs and highlighting for improved orientation and rows use alternating colors to help with navigation.
- Submission status color coding: Instructors can customize the color associated with a Gradebook Status: late, missing, resubmitted, dropped, or excused. Any changes an instructor makes to the default status colors will persist for that instructor throughout all of his/her courses.
- Grade detail tray: The grade detail tray displays a grading summary by assignment and student, a link to view and download the submission in Speedgrader, submission status options, and comment field. Additionally, you can click the next and previous links at the top of the tray to advance to another student or advance directly to another assignment for that student.
- Late and missing submission policies: Instructors can set course-level grading rules to automatically apply to late and missing submissions. Review the Late Policy Instructor FAQ to learn more.
- Post and hide grade policies: Instructors can set a course-level policy that controls when and how grades are released to students with the Post and Hide Grade Policy options – Watch this video for details
Learning Resources
- Watch the New Gradebook Overview Tutorial – 6 min Video
- Read the Canvas’ New Gradebook Guide for detailed information.
- Register and attend a hands-on New Gradebook workshop offered in August and September.
August and September 2019 Workshops
To help you get ready for the Fall 2019 semester, consider attending one or more of our upcoming Fall 2019 workshops that are listed in the Google Calendar below. (click here if calendar does not load) You can register for workshops by:
- Clicking on the session title in the calendar view for workshop description, location, and registration link. OR use links below:
- Register for August workshops
- Register for September workshops