Start of the Semester Reminders - Faculty

Welcome to the Start of the Spring 2022 Semester!

SECTION MERGE DEADLINE If you need to combine multiple sections into one Canvas course, please do so via ORCA by January 11 at 11:59 PM. After that, requests may be made by submitting a ticket to aihelp@tamu.edu until January 14. After that date, we will not merge sections due to the potential loss of student data. Please note that once a course has been published in Canvas, course instructors no longer have the ability to merge sections. If you published your course and need to merge sections ahead of the section merge deadlines, please email aihelp@tamu.edu.   WATCH HERE   ASSIGNING COURSE ROLES IN CANVAS All individuals associated with a course in Canvas are required to have completed FERPA and Information Security Awareness training in TrainTraq. This includes those assigned to one of the Canvas course associate roles. To complete the required trainings, please access these in TrainTraq by using Single Sign-On.               WATCH HERE   COURSE AVAILABILITY If you choose to publish your course ahead of the first day of the term, the published content will be available to students who are enrolled in the course. However, the course will remain in a Read Only state until the first day of the term, at which time students are able to interact with course content.                 WATCH HERE

CUSTOMIZE YOUR CANVAS DASHBOARD Courses will stay available to interact with for both course instructors and students until January 21, 2022 for Fall semester courses. After this date, courses will transition to Read Only. All course roles may manage the Canvas dashboard by using the Star feature.       WATCH HERE   SET TAMU EMAIL AS DEFAULT IN CANVAS Set your official TAMU email as the default email in your account settings in Canvas. This will streamline access to all of the tools in the digital learning environment, which use the @tamu.edu email for authentication.         WATCH HERE   GRADEBOOK SET-UP As you move your content from one course shell to the next in Canvas, we recommend reviewing your gradebook setup and aligning it with your syllabus for the new semester. Gradebook setup is crucial for ensuring grades display accurately for students during the Final Grade submission window. Visit our Start-of-Semester Checklist for tutorials.   WATCH HERE

NEW DEDICATED ORCA PAGE We have created a new page dedicated to ORCA that includes a quick link to login as well as resources on how to use and navigate the platform.       WATCH HERE   OBSERVER ROLE UPDATE Later in January we will be communicating with faculty who have student athletes enrolled in their course sections on steps to take to opt in to the re-launched Observer Role program for Athletics. Visit the Canvas Roles page to learn more.   WATCH HERE   PUBLISH YOUR COURSE AND MODULES A reminder to publish your course and modules in Canvas when you are ready to do so. Among the top inquiries we receive at the beginning of the semester are from students who cannot see their course in Canvas.   WATCH HERE

TIPS FOR STUDENT SUCCESS We prepared a student-facing video that we encourage you to share with your students. This video includes tips to ensure student success in the digital learning environment, focusing on Canvas, Zoom, Google, and LinkedIn Learning, from Student Body President Natalie Parks.   WATCH HERE