Help! Initial access issues: Troubleshooting Canvas for teachers
These are some steps to take to diagnose and fix some of the access issues that people commonly experience when starting out with Canvas.
Check:
1. Has your course passed the QA process?
How do I check?
The course coordinator should have received communications from Project Rewire regarding the progress of your course. If you are not the nominated course coordinator or you have not received them, contact Project Rewire.
No – Your course will not have students enrolled until it has passed QA. Contact Project Rewire: projectrewire@rmit.edu.au
Yes – move to point 2
2. Does your course have students enrolled?
How do I check?
Go to People on the course menu and check that you have students enrolled. If you have a crosslisted course, check you have the Sections for all relevant cohorts by going to Settings > Sections.
No – If your course was passed through QA more than 48 hours ago, contact Project Rewire: projectrewire@rmit.edu.au
Yes, but not all Sections – Contact Project Rewire: projectrewire@rmit.edu.au
Yes, with all relevant sections – move to point 3.
3. Can you see the student who has complained in your list of students?
No – Contact school admin staff to confirm that the student’s enrolment into SAMS is correct. If it is correct, contact ITS. https://rmit.service-now.com/serviceandsupport/
Yes, but the student shows as inactive – Ask the student to check their enrolment.
Yes – move to point 4.
4. Is your course published?
How do I check?
In the top right hand corner of your home page there should be an unpublish/publish toggle switch. Make sure the publish switch is green, not grey.
No – Publish your course by clicking that link
Yes – Check student knows where to go to access Canvas https://rmit.instructure.com or the Canvas link from the RMIT student home page. Refer student to ITS.
Check:
1. Is the assignment published?
How do I check?
Find the relevant assignment in the Assignments section of your course. If the assignment is published the icon will be green and there will be a green tick in the box to right of the assignment title. If it’s unpublished the icon will be grey with a grey circle.
No – Publish your assignment by clicking the grey circle
Yes – Go to point 2.
2. Have you included the assignment in a Module?
How do I check?
Go to Assignments and find the relevant assignment. If it’s listed in a module you will see that noted under the assignment name.
No – Go to point 3
Yes – Is that module published?
How do I check? Go to question 3, point 2.
3. Have you assigned the assignment to the correct students?
How do I check?
Go to Assignments and click on the relevant assignment. Go into Edit Assignment Settings, scroll to the bottom and check the Assign To settings.
Ensure that the correct individual, group or section of students is selected. For more help, refer to the following Canvas guides.
How do I assign an assignment to everyone in a course?
How do I assign an assignment to an individual student?
How do I assign an assignment to a course section?
How do I assign an assignment to a course group?
4. Have you set Available From or Until dates on the assignment?
How do I check?
Go to Assignments and click on the relevant assignment. Go into Edit Assignment Settings, scroll down to the Due date section. If you have set an available from date, students cannot access the details of the assignment until after that date. If you have set an Until date students cannot access the details of the assignment INCLUDING the feedback after that date.
No – Ask Canvas support by going to Help in the global navigation menu, and selecting one of the support channels.
Yes – Unless there is a very good reason to set those dates you can leave them both blank. To clear them just select the text in the field and delete.
5. If you have included assignment details as a link to a document in the Assignment description field, please refer to question 4.
Check:
1. Is the relevant page published?
How do I check?
Go to Modules, and find the page in the relevant module. If the page is published the icon will be green and there will be a green tick in the box to right of the page title. If it’s unpublished the icon will be grey with a grey circle.
No – publish your page by clicking the grey circle, then move to point 2
Yes – Go to point 2.
2. Is the module that the page belongs to published?
How do I check?
Go to Modules, find the page in question and look at the Module name. If the module is published the icon will be green and there will be a green tick in the box to right of the module title. If it’s unpublished the icon will be grey with a grey circle.
No – Publish the module by clicking the grey circle
Yes – Go to point 3.
3. Is the student is trying to follow a link to that page/module?
No – Ask Canvas support by going to Help in the global navigation menu, and selecting one of the support channels.
Yes – Go to question 4.
Check:
What is the error message students get?
Page not found error
The document does not exist in that location.
> If it’s a link to an external document you will need to search the internet to see if you can find it and relink it.
> If it’s to a Canvas document/page/module, look for the item in the file selector and relink it if you find it, re-upload it if you don’t find it.
Unauthorised error
> If linking to a Page/Module, it may not be published. Refer to Question 3.
> If the Page/Module is published, find the link that is not working for the students and hover the mouse over it. A URL will appear in the bottom left of screen:
If the number after the /courses/ (1.) is different the the number in the page URL /courses/ (2.), the document/page/module is sitting in a different course which the students can’t access.
> For Pages/Modules, edit the link and point it to the relevant Page or Module in the current course using the page selector.
> For documents, download the document and upload it to the current course.
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