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Canvas - End-of-Semester Best Practices

Overview

As the end of a semester approaches, there are a number of best practices that Canvas educators are encouraged to follow to successfully wrap up the term. This page provides a curated list of end-of-term tips and information for Canvas and Canvas integrations.

Best Practices Menu

Release Final Grades to Students

In Canvas, final grades appear in the "Total grade" column in your Gradebook. You might have followed the instructions on the How do I hide totals in my students' grade summaries tutorial to hide them from students' grade summary page. The Unhide Final Grades tutorial describes how to unhide this information so students can see their final grades at the end of the semester.

Override Final Grades

To override grades directly in Canvas, enable the "Final Grade Override" feature option in course settings. Then, follow this guide: How do I override a student's final grade in the Gradebook?

Sync Grades to the Registrar's Web Grading System

Once web grading opens, educators can use the Web Grading Sync tool to sync students' final grades into the Office of the Registrar's web grading system. Our Web Grading Sync step-by-step tutorial and Web Grading Sync video walk you through the process. You can also override grades directly in Canvas prior to syncing them. Web grading deadlines for the current semester are available in the Office of the Registrar's grade processing calendar.

Before syncing your grades, it is important to know a few things:

  • Grade schemes: The Office of the Registrar requires grades to be in the Letter Grade format. To review the default Letter Grade Scheme or to learn how to create your own, refer to the Canvas Grade Schemes webpage.
  • Registrar help information: The Office of the Registrar provides a great deal of helpful documentation on their Faculty Grading page. Review this webpage before uploading your final grades.

Back Up Your Course

OIT strongly encourages you to make a backup copy of your course. Visit the How do I export a Canvas course tutorial for instructions. You may also want to download your Gradebook scores and student submissions. The tutorials listed below will help.

Remember: Course and Gradebook information are protected by the Family Educational Rights And Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974 and as such should be stored according to the CU Boulder confidential data security requirements. When downloading and backing up your Gradebook, OIT highly recommends that you encrypt the file. Visit Microsoft's Protect an Excel File tutorial to learn how to encrypt your Gradebook files.

Download Zoom Recordings

Cloud recordings remain online for one year (365 days) from the date of recording. Please remember to review your recordings and download any you wish to keep. Once content has been removed, it cannot be recovered.

Enable ePub Exporting to Allow Students to Back Up Course Materials

By default, students lose access to their Canvas courses three weeks after the end of the semester. If you would like students to be able to download course materials as an ePub file, please enable this feature in course settings: How do I manage new features for a course?

Extend Course Access

Your students may need extra time to download course materials or fulfill an incomplete. To extend access for all students, follow the instructions in the How do I change the start and end dates for a course tutorial to update the course end date. To extend access for specific students, email the IT Service Center and include the course name and term, student name(s), and new end date(s).

Prepare Next Semester's Canvas Courses

Most official Canvas courses are created automatically. Learn more about automatic course creation in Canvas.

Instructions / Tutorials