What’s that we see on the horizon? Is that the end of the semester?
Indeed, it is! The weather in Philadelphia has done a good job at trying to trick us into thinking it’ll be winter forever, but we’re actually well on our way to finishing up the Spring 2015 term here at the University of Pennsylvania. In case you were wondering, the last day of Spring 2015 classes is Wednesday, April 29th, exactly three weeks from today.
Now, you might be saying to yourself, “Whoa, hold your horses, pal! Three weeks plus the reading period and the final exam period amounts to six weeks, which is plenty of time to wrap things up. What gives with the early reminder?” For those of you thinking this, I couldn’t agree more–six weeks out from the last day of finals does give sufficient time to finish up the semester. In fact, my motivation for writing this is to emphasize that instructors and TAs who start prepping for the end of the semester now, particularly final exams, projects, or assignments and grades, will benefit immensely from it, especially where their Canvas sites are concerned.
Canvas Issues Are the Last Thing You Want at the End of the Semester
For many instructors and TAs, their workload at the end of the semester looks a lot like this:
When issues in Canvas arise at this time, frustration can reach a fever-pitch, leaving you feeling like this:
Having guided many instructors and TAs through their end-of-semester Canvas travails, we at Courseware Support have learned many things about the common problems affecting Canvas sites that have led us to this conclusion:
Many of the End-of-Semester Canvas Problems Instructors & TAs Face Are Preventable
The bulk of these problems result from misunderstandings of how certain tools and features in Canvas work. Knowing this doesn’t help much when it’s the end of the semester, but knowing what you can do to prevent problems from happening can be immensely helpful, which is where we come in.
Come to Canvas Workshops & Office Hours for Help!
If you think there might be an issue with how your Canvas site is set up, or if you would just like a Canvas specialist to check your site to make sure everything is set up correctly, please come to our Canvas office hours. If you want an overview or a refresher of Canvas or Assignments and Grading in Canvas, please come to one of our workshops on these topics. Please click here to register for Canvas workshops and office hours.
Last Updated: 8 Apr 2015