Canvas Administration
Canvas is the Learning Management System utilized at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. All faculty, staff, and students with UTK official NetID credentials have access to the Canvas system. All courses listed by the University Registrar’s office in a given semester/term at UTK have their responding course shells in Canvas. The following are general policies and procedures regarding the administration of Canvas.
Acceptable use of Online@UT (Canvas) is governed by the general policies for acceptable use of computing facilities and other university-wide policies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Acceptable Use of Information Technology Resources
Starting with the Winter-MiniTerm 2023 and Spring 2023 semesters, Canvas course site storage quotas will be downgraded to 1GB. The increase to 4GB at the start of the pandemic was to ensure the quick transition to remote teaching encountered no issues. However, it is important that we return to pre-pandemic levels. We recommend instructors utilize OIT’s recommended options to manage their Canvas course files to remain within the set storage quota.
As of November 2022, Canvas administrators will no longer be enrolling users in past course sites when requested. In continuing to protect the privacy of our students we are asking that your past course content be exported and shared. Canvas course content can be exported into a Common Cartridge (IMSCC ZIP) file which can then be downloaded and shared with another instructor. The export file can be imported into a blank Canvas course shell. All instructors are entitled to one blank Canvas course shell called a ‘sandbox’ site.
Sharing a course via a course export file can be accomplished with the following steps:
- Create a course export file from the Settings page of the Canvas course you wish to share. Full instructions for this step of the process are documented in this Canvas Instructor Guide page on creating course export files.
- Send the course export file to the desired recipient. This step is performed outside of Canvas via the UT Vault.
- The recipient downloads the course export file to their computer and then imports it into their Canvas course. Course export files can be imported as a whole or specific content can be selected for import. Full instructions for this step of the process are documented in this Canvas Instructor Guide page on importing course export files.
Canvas Global Announcements are posted by Canvas Administrators and are displayed on all student and/or faculty Canvas Dashboards for a set amount of time. Global Announcements are intended to provide students and faculty timely and brief information specifically related to academic matters at UT Knoxville.
Canvas Global Announcements are not the appropriate venue for public service announcements. If you wish to post a public service announcement, please contact the Office of Communications and Marketing to seek the appropriate venue.
Why No Student View in Proctorio?
Proctorio detects the user’s role (test taker or exam administrator) within a Canvas course site. This determines the user experience:
- Exam administrators (instructors, TAs, etc.) are given the ability to set up and review quizzes.
- Test takers (students, participants, etc.) are given the ability to take quizzes.
Because Proctorio detects the user’s role within a Canvas course site, the ability to use the Canvas Student View feature to take the Proctorio-enabled quizzes is not available to exam administrators. There are a few reasons for this:
- If an exam administrator begins a Proctorio-enabled quiz attempt in Student View, the quiz is marked on the Proctorio Gradebook as “Begun”. This forces Proctorio to lock the quiz settings, as no further settings changes can be made in Proctorio from the moment a student begins the quiz (including Test Student).
- The Proctorio Gradebook saves the Test Student’s attempt and data. This information is then processed into exam analytics and behavior analysis. Since the Test Student activity can be reset, exam analytics and behavior analysis data may be skewed due to numerous quiz attempts.
After creating a quiz and enabling Proctorio settings, exam administrators are able to view a Preview, which will show quiz questions only. Proctorio support strongly recommends that exam administrators use the built-in Preview function to review the Proctorio-enabled quiz.
All student audit requests must be officially arranged via the Office of the University Registrar. There is a formal process to Audit a course that would result in the student automatically getting enrolled into the respective Canvas course site.
All student incompletes must be officially arranged via the Office of the University Registrar. Any time an instructor requests Canvas access for a student to complete their course work, the OIT Teaching and Learning Technologies Support group contacts the University Registrar for confirmation. Without official confirmation, no course access will be provided.
Once the incomplete is confirmed, a new section, labeled Incompletes, is created within the student’s originally registered course site. The affected student and instructor are added to the Incompletes section, which is open for a set period of time. No other students see the Incomplete section; the course site remains closed from their point of view.
Please note that due to potential FERPA violations, students with an incomplete cannot be added to a course site in which they did not register.
When requesting Canvas access for an incomplete, please include:
1. The student’s name and NetID (not Student ID).
2. The course number and name in which the student was originally registered.
3. An End Date for course access (this can be weeks, months, or even a year from the original End Date of the course, based on arrangements with the University Registrar).
Incomplete sections cannot be created without a valid End Date, as this date concludes access to the course site and section after the incomplete is finished.