Course Wrap-Up
Please review our tips for wrapping up your courses each term.
Finalize Grades
Tips if using the Canvas Gradebook
- Consider using Message students who… to reach out to students who may need extra end-of-semester support. (i.e. reminders about free tutoring, free health and wellness services, and other course-specific support, like your office hours.)
- Check your Canvas Gradebook for accuracy:
- Consider Creating Grading Policies to automatically enter grades for missing work or apply a late submission policy (if applicable). Otherwise, manually check your grades (below):
- Check for any grade entries that show up as “-” (when a student did not submit). If you leave these cells as “-”, the missing assignments won't count towards a student’s total grade. Enter a score (“0” or other value) or “ex” to excuse a student.
- Check no grade columns show as hidden (crossed out eye). This can happen if you muted an assignment while grading and forgot to post.
- If desired, learn how to give extra credit in the Canvas Gradebook.
- For more support, check out the Canvas Instructor Guide: Grades or drop by the Teaching and Learning Center for support.
Enter final grades on Class Web
- While Canvas provides a great way for you to provide students with ongoing feedback and grade updates, you must enter final grades in Class-Web/My Portal. View steps in the Faculty Attendance and Grade Reporting Manual.
Download Important Records
On Canvas
Please download copies of your Gradebooks and Canvas courses each term. We have had rare incidents where courses and class grades were lost, and back-ups were critical.
- Download an export of your gradebook in a secure place as it contains protected student records.
- Download a copy of your course content. (Note: you’ll get an error message if you try to open this file. But don’t worry! If/when you import this into Canvas (at LPC, another college, or in the free Canvas instance), Canvas will read the file type.
On Zoom
- According to the State Chancellor’s Office, we’re nearing Zoom storage capacity again;
beginning in October 2025, all Zoom recordings before July 1, 2024, will be automatically
deleted. Get a jump start by downloading a copy of Zoom cloud recordings you wish
to retain and deleting recordings you no longer need, like recordings you cannot reuse
because they include students. To access your recordings from Canvas:
- Open your Canvas shell.
- Click TechConnect Zoom in your course navigation menu.
- Click “All My Zoom Meetings/Recordings” from the top
- Click the “Cloud Recording” tab.
- Review your list of Zoom meetings and select which files to download or delete.
- For downloaded Zoom recordings you wish to continue to share with students, upload
to your OneDrive and click “Share” to get a new link to your recording. (Attend District-wide
OneDrive trainings for help or stop by the TLC for one-on-one support!)
- Note: OneDrive is preferred over adding recording files directly to Canvas and/or Studio, since these have more restrictive storage limits than OneDrive.
Understand Canvas Access at the End-of-Semester
Your course(s) remain on your Dashboards until the end of the grading period, at which point courses are archived in a read-only state. To view concluded courses and/or change student viewing permissions (if needed):
- Click “Courses” in the global navigation menu, then click “All Courses.” Here you will find all your past courses listed under “Past Enrollments.”
- If desired, click the star next to any course title here to add it back to your Dashboard for quick access (Star means on Dashboard/No star means in archived All Courses list).
- It is possible to tailor whether you want students to have participatory, read-only, or no access after the course ends. See the Canvas Guide: How do I change course start and end dates?
- If you are unsure, the DE Committee recommends faculty leave the default setting in place that allows read-only access once the semester ends.
- If you need help extending full access for a student with an Incomplete, please reach out to TLC staff, who will be happy to support you!
Check for Updates
As you are wrapping things up, it can be a good time to check for updates for your most used technologies:
- Check that you are running the latest version of Zoom.
- Consider updating Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or your other preferred browser.
- If you use the Canvas Teacher app, update to the latest version (Google Play or Apple App Store)
- If interested, check the Canvas Release Notes about upcoming new features. (We’ll offer workshops on big changes!)
Prepare for Next Term
We’ll send an email with guidance for preparing your new courses once next semester’s shells are ready; you can also view our Faculty Tips webpage for guidance.
You can submit your textbook info through Follett Discover using any Canvas shell. See the Guide to Follett Discover for Faculty for more.
Get Additional Support
If you need help, please don’t hesitate to reach out with questions:
- Wanda Butterly, Instructional Technology Specialist: wbutterly@laspositascollege.edu
- Kathleen King, Instructional Technology Coordinator: kmking@laspositascollege.edu
- Click the Help icon in the Canvas global navigation menu to access 24-7 Chat support and Canvas Guides
- Or drop by the Teaching and Learning Center (2410)