UTHealth E-Learning

"Faculty Observer" is a special role in Canvas granted to UTHealth faculty by their school's LMS Advisory Team (LMSAT) member. This role is managed in accordance with the Canvas Policy: Administration of Canvas This role gives users the ability to view content in all courses in the Canvas subaccount to which they are added. It does NOT give a user the ability to view grades or modify anything within the course. After the LMSAT member fulfills a faculty member's request for this role, the faculty member will see a new item on the left side of their Canvas screen, the Admin button: Clicking it will reveal a Courses option: This will provide a searchable list of all courses that the user has access to view. Please direct questions to your school's LMSAT member.

"Mobile First" is one of the newest terms in web-based application design. It indicates that a site or web application was written to display gracefully on both small-screened mobile devices and a large-screened desktop. Canvas and Cidi Design Tools are Mobile First. Students will see a pleasant, un-cluttered display no matter what device they use for Canvas. This page is meant to provide some examples to illustrate these applications' Mobile First design. Course home page (desktop browser): Course home page (mobile browser): Course home page (Canvas app): Syllabus page (desktop browser): Syllabus page (mobile browser): Syllabus page (mobile app)

At UTHealth we always recommend that you be careful when installing extensions and plugins for your web browser. We have received a warning from our friends at Canvas  to let us know about a new Chrome extension,  OneClass , that behaves suspiciously. Here’s what they had to say: The “OneClass” Chrome extension behaves like malware. It can affect users of several LMSs, including Canvas. OneClass is not affiliated with Instructure in any way. When a user installs the OneClass Chrome extension, it asks for permission to “read and change all your data on websites you visit.” If a user grants this permission, the plugin places a button in the user’s LMS (Canvas or other) labeled “Invite your classmates to OneClass.” If the user clicks this button, OneClass sends messages to all of the other users enrolled in the course via the LMS’s messaging system (for Canvas, that’s Conversations). DO NOT install or use the OneClass Chrome extension!  Remove it immediat...

If an instructor wants to prevent a single student from accessing course material of a PAST course, the instructor can deactivate the student enrollment. If the course is current, have the Registrar withdraw the student instead; do NOT follow these instructions. To prevent ALL students from viewing content, unpublish the content. Directions From the course, go to "People" and find the student in question. Then, from the gear box, click "Deactivate user": The user will be flagged as "inactive". To reactivate the user, follow the same process, but click "Re-activate user". While the enrollment is inactive, the course will disappear from this student's course list.

"Concluding" a course means the instructor is declaring the course officially over. Courses can also conclude automatically, if the course's semester (term) has ended. How does an instructor conclude a course? In your course, choose Settings, then Conclude this Course What effect does it have to conclude a course? After a course is concluded, a Teacher: Can view but Cannot add or publish Announcements Can view but Cannot create or modify Assignments Can view but Cannot modify student grades Can view but Cannot upload or delete files. Can view but Cannot create, publish, or delete pages. Can view but Cannot modify enrollments Can view but Cannot modify course settings After a course is concluded, a Student: Can view Announcements Can view but cannot upload Assignments Can view grades Can view but Cannot edit pages. How can I unconclude a course? A course instructor cannot unconclude a course. This can only be done by an administrator. I don...

The Background Sometimes websites will ask you to change your password. Maybe GMail, or UTHealth, or your bank, periodically changing your password is part of good account security. The Danger Malicious persons will sometimes try to trick you into revealing your password to a fake website, where they can read your password and break into your account. Not long ago, an important person in the United States government got an email telling him to change his GMail password. He followed the link, changed his password at the prompt--and a third party gained access to every email he ever sent or received at that email address. And of course, everything was published. It was a nightmare. How do you guarantee that a password-reset page is legitimate and safe? Any time a website asks for sensitive information--your password, social security number, or even your name or address, make sure that the web page: has a valid SSL Certificate, and actually belongs to the provider that you tru...