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CU Canvas FAQ (canvas.cornell.edu)

Jason Carroll Updated by Jason Carroll

Overview

Before you dive into the FAQs,it's important to understand that managing and preparing a course can vary significantly between eCornell Canvas LMS and Cornell Canvas. This article serves as your go-to reference for tackling a range of issues, from deciding where to initially develop your for-credit course and integrating faculty content, to troubleshooting tech issues. Keep this guide close whenever you're navigating either the eCornell or Cornell University Canvas LMS platforms.

FAQ

Should I develop my for-credit course initially on lms.ecornell.com or canvas.cornell.edu?

Generally speaking, if a course is planned to be deployed/delivered on canvas.cornell.edu then there is no reason not to develop it there. The main benefit of developing the course on the same LMS instance that it will be deployed on is that the import process into the final section is simpler, especially if you end up needing to import parts of the course at a time.

To have the DEV section created on canvas.cornell.edu, there is a templated task for this in the for-credit related blueprints in Wrike - this task can be assigned to Pete Garcia to complete for you. If you are not using a Wrike blueprint that has this task for your project, you can simply email Pete Garcia at pgarcia@cornell.edu requesting for a DEV course to be created for your project.

“Faculty wants to use eCornell content in their on-campus class, who should I contact about that?”

If you are working on a project where it was part of the original scope/plan with the faculty partner to use the materials in their on-campus project, then you can contact Casey Shew (casey.shew@cornell.edu) and Jason Carroll (jasoncarroll@cornell.edu) via email indicating which course and content from that course should be imported into which for credit course (include specific links where possible).

If this is a new request from faculty regarding a previous project of theirs and/or not part of the previously agreed upon scope of a currently active project, then you can contact Caitlin Wilson (cw71@cornell.edu) and Sally Berkowitz (sally.berkowitz@cornell.edu) via email indicating the request from the faculty partner with as many pertinent details as possible. They will then coordinate the rest from there.

“Faculty partner reached out to me, videos don't work, what do i do?” 

This is most likely due to the subaccount association not being set correctly on the course. If this is currently a student facing issue and urgent, send a Slack message to Casey Shew, Ted Blanchard, and Jason Carroll (all three in case any are currently away) with a link to the course where the videos aren’t working. In most cases (but not all) one of them will escalate the issue to CTI.

“How do I get access to courses in Cornell LMS?” 

Start by slacking/emailing Pete Garcia (pgarcia@cornell.edu) and he may be able to have you added to the course as needed. If possible, provide a direct link to the course you need access to in your email. If you don’t have that, a course code with an indication of which term the course is part of is the next best thing to provide.

“How is the Cornell LMS different from eCornell LMS?” 

The primary difference relates to the student population accessing the courses on the two different LMS instances. Lms.ecornell.com (eCornell Canvas) is accessed by non-matriculated students that (generally) do not have Cornell NetIDs. The main use case for lms.ecornell.com is non-credit courses that are often part of a certificate program. Canvas.cornell.edu (Cornell Canvas) is accessed by matriculated students that must have a Cornell NetID in order to log into it. The main use case for canvas.cornell.edu is for-credit courses for residential Cornell students.

Another key difference is how official course sections are created and students are enrolled in them. On lms.ecornell.com official sections are created by Course Operations through the use of the student information system called Destiny. Students are enrolled into these sections via Destiny as well, and Destiny is integrated with Canvas through some custom middleware that was written by eCornell.On canvas.cornell.edu, official sections are created by the relevant registrar through the use of the student information system called Peoplesoft. Students are enrolled into these sections via Peoplesoft as well. No employees at eCornell currently have access to Peoplesoft or are able to create or enroll people into official sections. DEV sections can be maintained independently by eCornell, however; just not the official sections that students get enrolled into.

Finally, one other key difference between the two instances is the User Interface in Canvas that is presented to students. On lms.ecornell.com, we use a customized version of the UI that is referred to as the “Compact UI” for shorthand. This customized version of the Canvas UI was designed and developed in-house and moves the Canvas native navigation items (Dashboard, Inbox, etc…) on the top of the UI and adds a collapsible menu on the left of the UI that includes the course modules map and shortcuts.

On canvas.cornell.edu, the out-of-the-box native Canvas UI is presented to students, even though we customize elements on the individual pages themselves (Page type icons, homepage layouts, etc…)

Important Reminder: Please keep in mind that unlike our own LMS (lms.ecornell.com), Cornell University's canvas.cornell.edu operates as an independent external platform. As we navigate through canvas.cornell.edu, it's essential to remember that we adhere to their guidelines and system functionalities.

“What is the relationship between Kaltura and the LMS (eCornell vs. Cornell)?”

Kaltura is used in 2 ways on canvas.cornell: 1) eCornell Kaltura course videos are used and 2) Cornell’s Kaltura, VOD, is used for Zoom recordings being shared (synchronous session recordings, orientation recordings)

“How do I move entire courses from eC to Cornell University LMS?”

To smoothly transfer courses from eC to Cornell University LMS without issues, please contact Pete Garcia (pgarcia@cornell.edu) from the Program Operations team. He will assist you with the process. For support, email Pete or create a Wrike task.

“H5P is not loading for me in Cornell Canvas. What should I do?”

This is most likely due to the subaccount association not being set correctly on the course. If this is currently a student-facing issue and urgent, send a Slack message to Casey Shew, Ted Blanchard, and Jason Carroll (all three in case any are currently away) with a link to the course where the videos aren’t working. In most cases (but not all) one of them will escalate the issue to CTI.

“How do I view info like class start date, professor's name, cross-reference class codes, etc?” 

For Master's program details, please refer to the relevant tracker document. If you need access to the tracker document, please contact your IDD.

If the course is not part of a Master's program, then another way to access this information is by searching the Cornell Class Roster site, which can be accessed here: https://classes.cornell.edu/browse

Make sure you select the appropriate term in the upper right of the UI first, and then you can search for your course to find the relevant information. If you are not finding the information you need there and need an answer urgently, you can email canvas@cornell.edu for support, but you should only do so if you urgently need the info and cannot find it on the roster site. If a class is very far in the future, it may not be on the roster site yet.

“How do I set the grading scheme? What is the grading scheme for my school?”

Don’t make any changes to the grading schema. Contact Pete Garcia with questions.

“I’m developing a course for Cornell Canvas, where do I develop it?”

Develop on Cornell Canvas in the Dev shell 

“When should content go into the final shell? (Dev shell vs final shell)?”

Minimum 3 weeks before student access date

How did we do?

Contact