Semester Start Checklist

Organize your courses on your Canvas Dashboard

Organizing the courses on your Canvas Dashboard will help you locate them quickly once the semester begins. You are also able to edit the course cards for your classes if you want to. Please see the following guides:

• Mastering Your Canvas Dashboard

Should you request to have your courses merged? 

If you are teaching multiple courses that are the exact same, are online, and are offered during the same start and end dates,  you may want to have your course merged into one. Doing this will enable you to set up one course vs several and is more efficient. Please fill out the Merge Course Request Survey to request to have your courses merged. 

The deadline for requesting courses to be merged is the Wednesday before the course's start date.

Note: If you have placed content into a course, or copied content into a course, that content will be deleted in the merge. Be sure to note that you are okay with the current information being deleted in the merge when you do your request. 

Check Your Course Content

Before copying content into your Canvas course, check your course under Modules to make sure it does not already contain content. Copying into a course with existing content can create duplicates. If your course already has content, please contact ATST@spcollege.edu before proceeding so the team can assist you.

We recommend removing or adjusting due dates while copying to make course setup easier. After completing your copy, review both Modules and Assignments to confirm you only have one copy of each item.

• Canvas Course Copy Instructions
• Selective Course Copy
• How to Remove Due Dates while Copying Course

Set Your Course Content Dates

Add dates to your course content to help your students know when things are due. Dates will automatically appear on your students' Canvas Calendar as well.

• How to Assign Due Dates in Canvas
• The difference between assignment due dates and availability dates

Check Your Links

Make sure links, especially those to external resources are working as expected. Canvas has a built-in Course Link Validator that will check all of your course's links. For more information on how to use this tool, see How do I validate links in a course? 

For any other technical assistance with Canvas, please email ATST@spcollege.edu.

Select a Grading Scheme for Your Courses

All SPC instructors are required to select the appropriate grading scheme in Canvas as part of course setup and confirm it again when submitting final grades to MySPC. Even if your course was copied or blueprinted, you should still verify that the correct grading scheme is selected at the beginning of each term.

• How to Select a Course Grading Scheme in Canvas

Start Strong with Your Gradebook

Keeping your Canvas gradebook up to date helps students stay informed about their progress and prevents issues at the end of the term. We recommend reviewing the Gradebook Integrity Check tool early in the semester and throughout the term to quickly identify missing grades, blank cells, assignments without due dates, and other common gradebook issues.

Reminder: All published assignments must have a grade entered, a 0, or be excused before final grades can be submitted.

• Gradebook Integrity Check

Update Your Syllabus 

All SPC courses are required to use the Simple Syllabus. Free free to check out the Simple Syllabus Page in the Faculty Support Titan Hub Group. This page includes links to trainings, guides and resources.

• Getting Started Using Simple Syllabus
• Simple Syllabus for Canvas

If you need assistance updating your syllabus in Canvas, please contact ATST@spcollege.edu.

Review/Update Your Faculty Page

As a reminder, all faculty should review and/or update their SPC Instructor Page at the start of each term. Your instructor page information is displayed to students in your Canvas course homepage. Please also make sure to add your Faculty page to so it’s important to make sure your contact information, office hours, biography, and links are current.

• Faculty Guide: How to Edit your Instructor Page

Set-Up Zoom Meetings

Zoom for Canvas: If you are teaching a section in the SPC Live Online modality, make sure to schedule your Zoom Meetings. With Zoom, you must integrate Zoom into your Canvas course via the modules, create a Zoom meeting, and then share the Zoom meeting link with your students. Zoom must be integrated into the modules, but we also recommend sharing the links with students via Calendar, Inbox, and Announcements. 

• Using Zoom with Canvas: How to add Zoom module, create meeting, and share it with students
• Teaching with Zoom: Zoom teaching best practices, Zoom features, and accessibility considerations
• All other Zoom Knowledgebase Guides

Set-Up Respondus LockDown Browser/Monitor

If you're using Respondus LockDown Browser/Monitor, be sure to activate and review it at the start of the semester. Select LockDown Browser Dashboard from Third Party Tools, verify your quiz/exam settings, and click Save.

When a course is copied, or synced from a Blueprint, Respondus LockDown Browser/Monitor settings may not be fully activated until the Dashboard is accessed and reviewed. If not verified before testing begins, students may be able to access exams in a regular browser without LockDown Browser or webcam checks.

• Getting Started with Respondus LockDown Browser/ Respondus Monitor in Canvas
• Respondus - Practice Quiz

Welcome Your Students to the Course

During the first week of the course, create an announcement to welcome students to the course. You might, for example, direct students to review the syllabus, purchase the textbook, or download any necessary software for the course. You may also consider sending the students a welcome message via Canvas Inbox. If you do send a welcome message before the course is available, students will have access to it in Canvas.

• Adding Announcements in Canvas
• Sending a Message to All Students in your Canvas Course

Need Help? Fill out the ATST Form! 

The Academic Technology Support Team (ATST) is here to help with Canvas, Zoom, Respondus, gradebook issues, Simple Syllabus, course setup, integrated tools, and more. We encourage faculty to submit the ATST Support Request Form for the fastest assistance.

Remember that courses become available to students 3 days before the official start date (usually the Friday before the day that courses open).

Have Questions? Contact the Academic Technology Support Team

atst@spcollege.edu 

 Phone at 727-341-3500

(Hours: Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. EST).

After-hours or weekend assistance? Contact the Technical Support Center at 727-791-2795 or onlinehelp@spcollege.edu

Want to Schedule a One-on-One or Group Session on Canvas or other instructional technology issues or opportunities?

Schedule 1:1 Support Help with a Member of the Academic Technology Support Team