It’s that time of the year again where we welcome our learners for another academic year! Below is a quick checklist to help you get your fall courses ready for the first week of classes.
Get Canvas Support
First, be sure to know where to go if you need help with Canvas:
- Help menu within Canvas: Click Help when you’re logged into Canvas to access 24/7/365 chat and phone support!
- Canvas Instructor Guides: View help documentation and overview videos to learn about the different Canvas tools.
- Meet with a Panda Pro: Book a 45-minute session with a pro from Instructure. They are offering sessions between July 31st and September 30th from 11:00 AM until 8:00 PM EST.
- Moving from Sakai to Canvas: View recorded trainings by our ITS-EdTech team to help you move from Sakai to Canvas. You will also find crosswalks between the two systems and resources to help you get started in Canvas.
- Check out our Events page: Register for our upcoming trainings with in-person and virtual options.
- Summer Blog Series: Check out our 4-part blog series to learn more about how to migrate content from Sakai to Canvas
- Help.unc.edu: For UNC-specific questions only including cross-listing courses, renaming sites, 3rd party tools, etc. All other questions about how to use Canvas or issues should go through Canvas Support (see Help menu within Canvas).
Course Checklist 
Follow this checklist to get your Canvas course ready for the first week of classes!
Confirm Rosters and TAs
All section rosters, student enrollments, and TA assignments should be handled through the University Registrar in ConnectCarolina. Note that you are no longer required to create course sites as your course sites are automatically available in Canvas and easily accessed via the Courses tab.
If you do not see your course listed via Courses > All Courses or your sections are not automatically cross-listed in your course site, please contact your departmental course scheduler. TAs should also be added to the official course roster in ConnectCarolina. One great thing about Canvas is that enrollment updates typically happen every few minutes, though sometimes it can take about an hour.
If needed, you can make manual adjustments in your Canvas course. Note that if you manually add a TA to your Canvas course (select “Login ID” and add with Onyen), they are automatically given access to student submissions and grades, and all TAs and instructors should complete the University Registrar’s FERPA training. If you have rosters that are not cross-listed but you’d like to manage them in one Canvas course, you can cross-list your sections.
Enable Grading Scheme
In your course Settings, enable your course grading scheme and edit it if needed. This grading scheme will then be used in the rest of your course.
Add Syllabus and Course Documents
In the Syllabus tool, click the Edit button to upload your course syllabus. You can upload the rest of your course documents into Files by simply dragging and dropping them all in at once!
Give Students Access
Be sure to publish your course when you’re ready! In Canvas, student access is also determined by Term dates, which coincide with the University Registrar’s first day of classes. For the Fall 2023 semester, this is August 21st. If you need to give your students access prior to this date, update your course start date in the Settings by switching the Participation from Term to Course and enter the date/time to grant students access. Note the same applies to the Term end date. Students will lose access after this date but you can update their access prior to this date.
Basically, your students will get access once 1) the course is published and 2) the Term/Course date opens.
Welcome Students
Your students may be completely new to the University or they could have used the Sakai learning management system their entire college career. Many of them may have never heard of Canvas, so it’s a good idea to send an announcement or a Canvas Inbox message letting them know to access the online course materials through canvas.unc.edu. You might also consider updating your “Class Features” in ConnectCarolina to make students aware you will be teaching your course in Canvas.
Sakai Users
For those of you still using Sakai, keep in mind that this is the last academic year that this LMS option is available to you. Sakai will be set to read-only status at the conclusion of the 2023-2024 academic year on May 15, 2024. Your Sakai content from all 2022 terms as well as Spring 2023 is already available for you in Canvas as unpublished archive sites.
One of the first things students will look for is the class syllabus, which you can share through your course site in Sakai. You’ll first need to create your Sakai site and then publish the site to give students access. Don’t forget to make sure your TAs have appropriate access!
You can upload your syllabus in a number of places — add your tools to Sakai through Site Info > Manage Tools:
- Syllabus tool
- Resources with all other class files
- Lessons where you can add and organize all course content into one place — Recommended! See more on Lessons.
Important Notes
- To create your Sakai course site, your departmental course scheduler must list you for each of your rosters in ConnectCarolina as Primary Instructor, Secondary Instructor, or Proxy.
- Teaching a cross-listed course? All cross-listed rosters will appear in one course site in Sakai, with the site taking the name of the sponsoring department.
Good Luck!
We wish you all the best with the start of the fall semester. If you need help getting content from Sakai to Canvas, be sure to read through our summer blog series. Remember to click the Help tool within Canvas to access 24/7 chat and phone support. Check back in as our next installation of the Fall series will be released next week!