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   Using Canvas

  • Help with your gradebook
  • Add a teaching assistant
  • Plagiarism checking on assignments

more Canvas resources ...

  Using Media

  • Install Kaltura Capture
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more Media resources ...

  Using Student Response

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more Student Response resources...

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Other Tools in Canvas

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other tool resources ...

News + Updates

  Summer 2025 Updates - see what's new in Canvas, Perusall, Poll Everywhere, and more

 

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Frequently Asked Questions

What are Kaltura specifications, retention & transfer policies, and reporting procedures?

Click any of the following links for more information on any of these topics:

  • Kaltura specifications
  • Kaltura retention and transfer policies
  • Reporting offensive or infringing content
What are Kaltura specifications, retention & transfer policies, and reporting procedures?
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?
Top Hat: How do I create an account?

Please follow these steps to create an instructor account:

  1. Navigate to https://tophat.com and click register
  2. Click Educator 
  3. Enter your ONID email address, and click Next Step
  4. Click Log in with school account
  5. You will be redirected to OSU's login portal where you should enter your ONID credentials
  6. You will be redirected back to Top Hat where you will be prompted to create your Top Hat account
  7. Agree with the Terms and Conditions and click Next
Top Hat: How do I create an account?
Do I need to inform students that Turnitin is being used in my class

Yes, any course using this software should include a statement in the syllabus. You may use or adapt the following:

“Your instructor may ask you to submit one or more of your writing assignments to the Turnitin plagiarism prevention service via Canvas (do not submit directly to the Turnitin website). Your assignment content will be checked against Internet sources, academic journal articles, and the papers of other OSU students, for common or borrowed content.  Turnitin generates a report that highlights any potentially unoriginal text in your paper. Papers that you submit through Turnitin for this class or any class will be added to the OSU Turnitin database and may be checked against other OSU paper submissions.  You will retain all rights to your written work."

Do I need to inform students that Turnitin is being used in my class
Can I view grade information and Last Date of Activity (LDA) for students who have withdrawn from my course?

Yes, students who have withdrawn from your course will appear as 'inactive' students in your Canvas course. Faculty can toggle the view of grades for inactive or concluded students in Canvas Grades.

Can I view grade information and Last Date of Activity (LDA) for students who have withdrawn from my course?
Who can use Canvas?

OSU students are automatically enrolled in Canvas sites when they register for their classes (note that some instructors choose not to activate their Canvas course sites).

Groups and departments who want to use Canvas for training and collaboration may request a Canvas Studio site and enroll anyone with an ONID account.

Read the article Request a Canvas studio site on oregonstate.teamdynamix.com

Who can use Canvas?
Top Hat: How do instructors see their course from the students' view?

Instructors can see how changes you make to your course affect the student view by creating a Test Student account.  Read instructions in this article on the Top Hat website for creating a Test Student account or watch this recorded webinar to walk through the steps

Note: you can avoid the student paywall--just send an email to support@tophat.com from your ONID email address and request an 'access key' to use for setting up a Test Student account.

Top Hat: How do instructors see their course from the students' view?
How can I change which email I receive my Canvas notifications?

Each Canvas user at Oregon State has their ONID email address set as their default Canvas email address. Your ONID email address is created from your ONID username, i.e. ONIDusername@oregonstate.edu. The ONID email address cannot be removed from Canvas, however it is possible to add other email addresses to Canvas and turn off or adjust settings to prevent or minimize Canvas notifications to your ONID email address. If you are a faculty or staff employee at Oregon State, we highly recommend that you add your employee email address (e.g. firstname.lastname@oregonstate.edu) to Canvas.

Adding Alternative Email Addresses to Canvas

  1. Click the Account button in the top left corner of the main Canvas menu
  2. Click Settings from the fly-out menu that appears
  3. Click + Email Address in the menu on the right side of the account settings page
  4. Enter your alternative email address into the Email Address field
  5. Click Register Email. A pop-out notification should appear directing you to check your alternative email inbox.
  6. Open your alternative email inbox and locate the confirmation email from notifications@instructure.com
  7. Open the email and click the link within the email with the text "Click here to confirm this registration"
  8. Return to your Canvas account settings page and verify that your email address text color has changed from orange to black - this indicates your email address has been confirmed

Adjusting Which Email Receives Canvas Notifications

  1. Click the Account button in the top left corner of the main Canvas menu
  2. Click Notifications from the fly-out menu that appears
  3. Adjust the frequency of notifications being sent to each confirmed email address in your Canvas account
    • Turn notifications off for any email address that you do not want to receive notifications.
    • Review additional information on Canvas notifications
How can I change which email I receive my Canvas notifications?
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?
Top Hat: Can I sync Top Hat grades to Canvas?

Before you can sync grades from Top Hat to Canvas, you must first pair your Top Hat course with your Canvas course.

Pair Top Hat Course with Canvas Course

If you are using a combined, crosslisted, or merged Canvas course, please connect with our Classroom Response team before pairing Top Hat with Canvas.

  1. In Top Hat, open the course you want to pair with Canvas
  2. Click on your name in the upper right corner of the screen
  3. Select Course Settings from the menu that appears
  4. Click the LMS Setup & Sync tab
  5. Click the blue Enable LMS Sync button
  6. Click the Authorize Top Hat with your LMS button
    • You may be prompted to log in to Canvas. Use your ONID credentials to login.
  7. Select the appropriate Canvas course from the list of courses
  8. Click Next
  9. You will be prompted to select the appropriate Canvas course section(s) to pair with the Top Hat course.
    • At this time, we generally recommend that only one Canvas section be paired with a Top Hat course. Please connect with our Classroom Response team to talk about the impacts of selecting one vs. more sections in a combined, crosslisted, or merged Canvas course. We can help you determine the best approach for your specific course(s).
  10. Click Connect. You should see a LMS Sync Configured success screen once the courses are paired.

Review the full pairing instructions with images in Top Hat's support documentation.

Sync Top Hat Grades to Canvas

  1. In Top Hat, open the course in which you want to sync grades
  2. Click on your name in the upper right corner of the screen
  3. Select Course Settings from the menu that appears
  4. Click the LMS Setup & Sync tab
  5. Select whether you want a General Sync or a Roster Sync
    • A general sync allows you to sync folders, i.e. folder grade totals, and the roster
  6. Review sync options by clicking Edit to the right of the various options listed in the bottom box.
    • Grade Export Options:
      • Course: Export an aggregated Top Hat 'course' grade - will create one Canvas assignment
      • All top-level folders: Export top-level folder subtotals - will create a Canvas assignment for each top-level folder
      • Specified (top-level) folders only: Export selected (top-level) folder subtotals - will create a Canvas assignment for each selected folder
    • Attendance Options: Select whether to include or exclude Attendance in the sync
    • Points or Percentage Options: Select whether to send scores to Canvas as points or percentages
    • Roster Options: Select whether to keep or remove students who are no longer enrolled in the Canvas course
    • Grade Availability Options: Select whether Canvas assignments should be muted (grades unavailable to students) or unmuted (grades available) upon sync
  7. Click Run LMS sync
    • If "Course" or "All top-level folders" was selected for Grade Export Options, the sync will begin immediately
    • If "Specified folders only" was selected for Grade Export Options, you will be prompted to select the folder(s) to sync prior to the sync beginning.
Top Hat: Can I sync Top Hat grades to Canvas?
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?
What is Gradescope?

Gradescope is a suite of tools designed to make grading more consistent, fair, and efficient. Teams can grade scanned exams asynchronously, with or without rubrics; an instructor can grade the same question in all exams (and modify grades for multiple exams simultaneously); a faculty member may review all grading by a single TA and quickly make adjustments; graders can re-use comments/feedback in multiple exams (or modify for individual students). Gradescope also allows instructors to incorporate auto-graded bubble-sheet questions in their exams and assignments; the analytics provide both summary statistics and detailed item analysis.

Read the article Use Gradescope in a Canvas course on oregonstate.teamdynamix.com

What is Gradescope?
Can I create a column in the Canvas gradebook for an in-class assignment?

Columns in the Canvas gradebook are directly linked to graded activities in the course. Creation of a graded assignment, graded discussion, graded quiz or a graded survey will result in the creation of an associated gradebook column in the course.

Read more about creating an assignment column for an in-class assignment.

Can I create a column in the Canvas gradebook for an in-class 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 is Turnitin and how does it work?

Turnitin is a Web-based service that identifies passages in submitted papers that match passages in other sources, such as websites, articles in scholarly journals, and other student papers. TurnItIn then generates an Originality Report, which highlights passages of matching text. See more information on Turnitin here. Turnitin does not state outright whether or not plagiarism has occurred. Plagiarism is a large category that includes many different behaviors, ranging from poorly paraphrasing a cited source to purchasing a paper and submitting it as one’s own work. While no software can make a blanket statement about whether a paper contains plagiarism, Turnitin does provide originality reports that show which passages from submitted papers match other sources. To make a determination about whether a paper contains plagiarized material, analysis is required. Originality reports make analysis easier and more convenient.

What is Turnitin and how does it work?

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