Learn@OregonState

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I request a new feature or tool in Canvas?

Yes, you can submit a feature request in the Canvas Community. It’s a good idea to check the Canvas Community to see if any other users have requested the same or similar feature. You may also contact the Learn@OregonState team if you have questions about the process or would like to submit a request for a third-party integration or would like to know more about our evaluation process for integration requests.

Can I request a new feature or tool in Canvas?

Top Hat: Is it possible to prevent students from responding to questions outside of class?

It is possible to determine if a student is physically located within the classroom for attendance purposes with Top Hat, but it is not possible to completely prevent students from responding to questions asked in class with Top Hat. However, Top Hat does have two features that will help to minimize students' ability to respond remotely.

Method 1: Secure Attendance

Top Hat offers a feature called Secure Attendance which enables a faculty member to determine who is physically located in the classroom when using the Attendance feature of Top Hat. Faculty have the option of using geolocation only or geolocation and proximity to determine student attendance. Secure Attendance does NOT prevent students from responding remotely to questions asked in class.

Method 2: Minimize Remote Responses to Questions

To minimize the ability of students to respond remotely to questions asked in the classroom, faculty can enable the option to prevent students from seeing question details on their mobile devices. To enable this feature:

From within Top Hat, click your name in the top right corner.
Select Course Settings
Select Advanced Options
Check the box next to the option "Students cannot view the details of a presented question, they can only see the response options (students will need to see the question projected on a screen)"
Click Save Changes

Top Hat: Is it possible to prevent students from responding to questions outside of class?

Can students access a Canvas site to finish an Incomplete?

Yes, if instructors give an Incomplete, the instructor may request to have the course re-opened for the instructor and the student so they can access quizzes, assignments, etc. Please review the full documentation for details.

Can students access a Canvas site to finish an Incomplete?

Can I get statistics/analytics for my media?

Yes, check out our Knowledge Base article on viewing statistics/analytics about your Kaltura videos.

Can I get statistics/analytics for my media?

Top Hat: How do I give different versions of a formula question to each student?

For courses that require students to calculate numerical responses using formulas, Top Hat's Formula Question, exclusive to Pages and Test, allows instructors to offer a different number for students to use for calculating the formula so that no one gets the same question! Check out this Top Hat support article for instructions on setting up a Formula Question.

Top Hat: How do I give different versions of a formula question to each student?

What accessibility and inclusivity tools are available in Canvas?

Accessibility and Inclusivity tools in Canvas include Ally, Accessibility Check, and NameCoach.

Read the article about Ally in Canvas on this website
Read the article Accessibility Check in Canvas on oregonstate.teamdynamix.com
Read the article Use NameCoach to record name pronunciation and set preferred pronouns on oregonstate.teamdynamix.com

What accessibility and inclusivity tools are available in Canvas?

Can I adjust the due date on an assignment for one or a subset of students?

Yes, Canvas refers to this as creating a differentiated assignment and these assignments allow an instructor to provide an alternative due date for one or more student or assign a graded activity in Canvas to a subset of students, e.g. a graduate student-only assignment.

Can I adjust the due date on an assignment for one or a subset of students?

Top Hat: What is the best way for students to create their account?

Creating an account through the Top Hat course menu item in Canvas is the preferred method for students to create and access their Top Hat account. If your instructor is using Top Hat and does not have a Top Hat menu item in their Canvas course, let us know at classroom.response@oregonstate.edu and we can reach out to the faculty member.

Navigate to the OSU Beaver Store to purchase your Top Hat subscription code and choose a 1-term or 1-year subscription.
Go to one of your Canvas courses that is using Top Hat, click on Top Hat in the course menu on the left.
Click on Sign up to create a Top Hat account. Make sure to use your OSU ONID email when creating your Top Hat account.
Agree with the Terms and Conditions and click Next to proceed.
Click Continue to and enter the subscription code you purchased previously at the OSU Beaver Store (see step #1 above).
Complete the purchase and click on Go to my Lobby to see any Top Hat course(s) in which you are a student.

NOTE: It is very important that students register their Top Hat account using their OSU ONID email address. Creating a Top Hat account using a non-ONID email will prevent student Top Hat scores from synchronizing with their grades in Canvas. Using the steps above will automatically link your Top Hat account to your ONID email address, as long as you have not changed your default email in Canvas. If you used a non-ONID email address for your Top Hat account, use these instructions to change your Top Hat account setting.

Top Hat: What is the best way for students to create their account?

Is Turnitin compliant with FERPA?

Yes. Data is kept secure at all times and is only used for purposes of assisting the instructor in assessing the assignment. Students always maintain ownership of any work submitted to Turnitin.

Is Turnitin compliant with FERPA?

Gradescope: Can I create an instructor-submitted group assignment?

Yes. While Gradescope does not have an official instructor-submitted group assignment option, there is a way to achieve the same result with just a few steps. Read our article on instructor-submitted group assignments in Gradescope for details.

Gradescope: Can I create an instructor-submitted group assignment?

Top Hat: How can an instructor add a student as a TA in their Top Hat course?

OSU students can be added as TAs to a course using the same email (ONID) address. Please read Top Hat's support article here for more details.

Top Hat: How can an instructor add a student as a TA in their Top Hat course?

What are merged and crosslisted course sites in Canvas?

When a course is listed under two different names, e.g. listed as both an undergraduate version and a graduate version OR listed under different designators, it is a crosslisted course. In other words, if the two versions of the course are taught at the same time and place, they should be crosslisted. In order for a course to be technically crosslisted, the crosslist designation must be set in Banner by the Registrar's Office. Once the courses are crosslisted in Banner, a crosslisted course site will appear in Canvas. The crosslisted course will have the same Canvas course code as one of the original sections with the exception of the addition of an "X" to the front of the section number.

If you are teaching or co-teaching multiple sections of the same course, you can use the Course Merge tool in Canvas to create a single merged Canvas course with the multiple sections contained within the course. The tool can be used to merge multiple Ecampus sections together, or to merge multiple on-campus sections together. Ecampus sections cannot be merged with on-campus sections.

What are merged and crosslisted course sites in Canvas?

What is Accessibility Check?

Accessibility Check (also called UDOIT) is a tool for faculty to quickly identify and fix common accessibility issues in their Canvas course content. This tool is not visible to students in Canvas. A few of the accessibility issues that the tool will detect include missing alternative text for images, poor color contrast, and missing descriptive link text.

Read the article Accessibility Check in Canvas on oregonstate.teamdynamix.com

What is Accessibility Check?

Top Hat: If students experience connectivity issues, is there something I can do to help?

Here are some tips that may help students with connection issues:

Advice students to connect to OSU Secure WIFI before answering Top Hat questions.
Advice students to keep their browsers up-to-date and check to make sure their systems meet the Top Hat system requirements
Encourage students to report connection issues to Top Hat

Top Hat: If students experience connectivity issues, is there something I can do to help?

Can I add someone to my Canvas course?

Instructors can add an OSU individual to their Canvas course as a Canvas teaching assistant (TA), Grader, Designer, or Observer via the Add TA...* link on the course navigation menu. Instructors cannot add students to their Canvas courses. Learn how to use the Add TA... tool and the permissions of each role.

Can I add someone to my Canvas course?

Learn@OregonState

Using Canvas

Using Media

Using Student Response

New to OSU or Teaching?

Training Opportunities

Other Tools in Canvas

News + Updates

Calendar of Events

Issues, Outages and Updates

Frequently Asked Questions

Method 1: Secure Attendance

Method 2: Minimize Remote Responses to Questions

Contact Info