Add My Media to Canvas Course
Add My Media to Canvas Course
This article was last reviewed .
If your course uses MediaSpace and Canvas, you can save time by adding your My Media page directly to your course in Canvas. This must be done individually for each course you would like to integrate with My Media. Continue reading to learn how to add a page for MediaSpace’s My Media in a Canvas course.
Note: You must be logged into your Canvas account before starting.
How do I add My Media to my Canvas course?
Open the course where you want to add the My Media page.
Open Settings (1) from the left course navigation sidebar, then select Navigation (2) from the top tabs.
Locate the My Media row in the lower column. Select the options icon (3) and Enable (4). This will move My Media to the top column.
Select the Save button under the lower column.
From the left course navigation sidebar, navigate to My Media (5) and select Authorize (6) to allow Canvas to access your MediaSpace account.
After completing these steps, you will have access to your My Media page from within your Canvas course.
More about My Media & Canvas
Students not finding the “reply” button in Discussions
Students not finding the “reply” button in Discussions
When students try to reply to an individual post in a discussion, they do not see the “reply” button.
To solve this issue, perform one of the options below:
- Select for all discussions to be unthreaded by clicking the button in the alert at the top of the main Discussions page.
- Navigate to the relevant Discussion’s Edit page. Then, uncheck “Disallow Threaded Discussions”.
Availability Dates won’t update on Graded Discussions
Availability Dates won’t update on Graded Discussions
This article was last reviewed .
Are you having difficulty getting Canvas to reflect your graded Discussion availability dates, even after updating the dates in the Discussion’s settings? If so, follow these steps to fix this issue:
- Open the Discussion’s Edit page: Navigate to the relevant Discussion’s Edit page.
- Refer to How do I edit or delete a discussion in a course? for guidance on locating this page.
- Note relevant information: Write down the graded discussion’s Point value and Availability and/or Due Dates set.
- Change the Discussion Graded option: Below the Options section, uncheck “Graded”.
- Remove Date Restrictions: Delete the Availability and/or Due Dates noted in Step 2.
- Save changes: Save the discussion by selecting the “Save” button at the bottom right of the page.
- Revert the Discussion Graded option: Edit the discussion again, and check “Graded” from Step 3.
- Re-Add Date Restrictions: Re-enter the Availability and/or Due Dates noted in Step 2.
- Finalize changes: Select the “Save” button at the bottom right of the page.
The dates should now display as expected.
Justice, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (JDEI) Teaching Toolkit
Justice, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (JDEI) Teaching Toolkit
Resource type: Self-paced Canvas course
Intended for: New faculty, emerging practitioners, seasoned educators
The Justice, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (JDEI) Teaching Toolkit is a flexible resource to enhance your teaching practices. The toolkit is designed to be navigated freely, allowing you to jump between modules and topics based on your current needs and interests. While this toolkit can be quickly scanned in approximately 30 minutes, as with racial justice work, it is ongoing and not time-bound. It invites lifelong learning. Some of these resources are not quick fixes but rather parts of a greater whole to pause, process, and reflect. It invites conversation within yourself and a trusted community.
What's in the JDEI Teaching Toolkit?
This module explores how culturally-responsive curriculum utilizes the heritages, experiences, and perspectives of ethnic and racial groups to more effectively reach/teach students who are members of those groups.
In this module, you will explore three sub-topics:
- Representation
- Caring and Loving Pedagogy
- Universal Design for Learning
This module explores how to build an equitized syllabus that considers how to reduce barriers to equity for minoritized and poverty-affected students.
In this module, you will explore three sub-topics:
- The Inclusive Syllabus
- The Invigorating Syllabus
- The Intuitive Syllabus
This module explores the active involvement of students in their learning process, faculty, the content, and each other.
In this module, you will explore two sub-topics:
- Proactive Communication
- Addressing Student Trauma
This module explores how effective assessment practices not only measure student progress but also inform instructional decisions, support student success, and contribute to the overall quality of the course.
In this module, you will explore three sub-topics:
- Equity-Centered Assessment Design
- Student-Centered Assessment Design
- Alternative Grading Practices
This module focuses on the input, perspectives, and opinions of students in the learning process, allowing them to express their thoughts, ideas, and concerns.
In this module, you will explore three sub-topics:
- Student Voice
- Student Experience
- Student Feedback
Tools You'll Use
The Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion (JDEI) Teaching Toolkit is built within PSU’s learning management system, Canvas by Instructure. You can learn more about how to use Canvas with our Canvas Tutorials.
About the Toolkit Creators
The JDEI Teaching Toolkit Project Team created this resource, guided by the OAI inclusion charter (part of the Office of Global Diversity & Inclusion’s Time to Act Plan), with significant input from both Portland State University faculty and students.
Cross-List in Canvas to Combine Multiple Sections into One Course Shell
What is cross-listing?
Cross-listing is where multiple CRN sections of the same course are combined into one course shell in Canvas. This process is not able to be completed by instructors. A majority of cross-list requests are completed before course shells are released to instructors by your department’s scheduler and added as a unified shell within Canvas. These combined courses may share the same scheduling, location, and/or instructor. However, there are certain situations where this prior cross-listing is not possible and a manual cross-list will need to be created on your behalf.
In Canvas, how can instructors see if their course has been cross-listed?
In Canvas, there are two main indicators that may show your course has been cross-listed.
- In most cases, cross-listed courses will have all Sections listed in the Course Code. The Course Code is displayed at the top of your Canvas course and listed on the Settings page within Course Details.
- In all cases, cross-listed courses will have each Section listed within the Sections tab. Instructions on how to access the Sections tab are listed below.
From the Course Navigation menu within your course, click the Settings link [1].
Click the Sections tab [2].
Under Course Sections, view your sections [3] and the number of users within each section.
When to request a manual cross-list
Instructors primarily request cross-listing in order to improve course management efficiency. Not all courses can be cross-listed, though. The requirements for cross-listing are that all course sections must have the same content and occur within the same term.
Common cross-list request situations:
- An instructor is teaching ABC-460 and DEF-460; these contain the same course content, but with different department codes.
- An instructor is teaching ABC-543-001 and ABC-543-002. This course is listed as two different sections due to class size, but the Canvas course content is identical.
- A special studies course, ABC-199, uses the same content as ABC-399.
- ABC-435, an undergraduate course, and ABC-535, a graduate course, share the same content, with only 1 or 2 distinctions between assignments.
In a cross-listed course, by default all students will receive the same content and assignments. For this reason, we recommend you consider using the Differentiated Assignments feature. By using Differentiated Assignments, you can set different due dates and availability dates for quizzes, discussions, and assignments. You can choose if the assignment will be limited to specified students, sections, groups, or assigned to everyone in the course. Reference How do I assign an assignment to a course section? for more information on setting up Differentiated Assignments.
How do I start?
To begin the cross-listing process, submit a cross-listing support request including all course names and their corresponding URLs, if possible. If the request can be completed, we will reply with a link to the cross-listed course. If you have already begun adding content to one or more of the courses, please let us know so we can ensure your content is preserved.
The Registrar’s Office requests that instructors with custom cross-listing in Canvas add this note to their syllabus or Canvas course:
“This Canvas course is shared by one or more course sections. This means that students enrolled in the other section(s) of this class will be able to see the Canvas course content, and may be able to view various activities such as discussion boards or any activities that are created by the instructor to be shared commonly among the different sections.”
Peer Review in Canvas
Contributors:Isabel Elizalde, Misty Hamideh, Lindsay Murphy
Enabling Peer Review on your Canvas assignment gives students a way to provide feedback on their classmates’ work. The peer review process exposes students to different perspectives and approaches to the same task, and can often deepen their understanding of the material.
Peer review can be used for various types of assignments, such as:
- Writing assignments (essays, reports, research papers)
- Multimedia projects (videos, presentations)
- Problem sets or coding exercises
- Artistic or creative works (drawings, designs, compositions)
Setting up effective peer-reviewed assignments can be tricky. Consider scheduling a consultation with OAI staff to get help through the process!
How do I set up Canvas Peer Review?
Canvas supports peer review through the Assignments tool. When creating a new activity, you can enable the “Peer Review” option and configure settings like:
- Anonymous or named reviews
- Number of peer reviews required per student
- Instructions and rubrics for reviewers
Here are some things to consider as you set up your peer review assignment:
Include the due dates for both the initial submission and peer review comments in your assignment description.
Because you cannot set separate due dates for the initial draft posting and peer review phases, communicating both due dates in the assignment description will make your expectations clear and help ensure that all students have a paper to review. Using Announcements to make sure students stay on track is also a great idea!
Be sure to highlight the importance of submitting initial drafts on time.
Students who don’t submit an assignment cannot be assigned another’s work to review. (Note: If you have chosen to “Automatically Assign Reviews”, students who did not submit the assignment by the due date will not be automatically assigned a classmate to review and thus will need to be added manually.)
Peer review may be new to some students.
Consider sharing a model and/or rubric that gives students a framework for providing feedback. (Note: If you attach a rubric to the assignment, peer reviewers are also able to access this rubric. Rubrics used by peer reviewers for feedback are not included in the final grade.)
Once the assignment is published, you can monitor the progress of submissions and peer reviews through the Assignments page. Canvas provides an overview of the peer review status, allowing you to see which students have completed their reviews and which ones are still pending. If needed, you can extend deadlines or reassign peer reviews to ensure each submission receives the required number of reviews. There’s also a Reminder tool you can use to send a notification to students who have not completed their assigned reviews!
What Should Students Expect?
Peer reviews are not assigned until:
- The student has submitted their own assignment, AND
- The date set by the instructor to assign the reviews has passed (if you choose to assign reviews automatically) or the instructor assigns the peer reviews manually.
Until both of these things have happened, the peer review assignment will not show up on the student’s To Do list or on the original assignment. As many students rely on the To Do list to keep track of their assignment due dates, be aware that this may cause some confusion.
Note: Peer review details do not show up in Student View.
It may be helpful to ask students to watch this overview video of the peer review process in Canvas:
As the instructor, you may want to provide feedback to the students on the peer reviews. Canvas allows you to view and comment on the peer reviews themselves, offering feedback on the quality and accuracy of the reviews. You can also use SpeedGrader to view each student’s work alongside the peer reviews they received, making it easier to assess their overall performance and provide your own feedback.
Canvas does not have a way to automatically assign a grade for completing a peer review. However, if you would like to assign points for peer reviews, you can create a No Submission assignment in the Gradebook and assign points manually. The Peer Review page for the assignment will show the names of students who have completed the peer review. (Note: You can find a link to the Peer Review page on the main Assignment page under Related Items.)
Group Peer Review Assignments
Peer review can also work with group assignments. By creating group set, you can assign students to specific groups and distribute peer review tasks accordingly.
Some important things to know about using peer review for group assignments:
Peer reviews are assigned to individuals, not groups.
Each group only needs to have one member submit the assignment, but this submission will show up for every student in the group. When the peer reviewer makes comments on their assigned classmate, these comments are compiled with other comments from reviewers who were assigned the same submission. In this way, each member of the group will see comments from all the peer reviewers in their feedback.
By default, automatically assigned peer reviews will not be assigned to members of the same group.
If you would like to allow group members to review their own group’s work, be sure to check the option to “Allow intra-group peer reviews”. This will randomize the peer review assignments, not paying attention to group membership. (Note: The only way to ensure that students are assigned only to members of their own group is to set peer reviewers manually.)
Instructional Continuity During Campus Closures
Contributors:Megan McFarland
Whether it’s due to severe weather-related closures or individual circumstances, missing one or more instructional days can feel stressful for faculty and students alike. Explore the following responsive and proactive strategies to learn how instructors can limit the impact of unexpected disruptions and keep their courses on track.
Human Needs Come First
Unexpected disruptions, cancellations, and closures often come as a result of significant emergency events. While instruction is important, the human needs of faculty and students come first. These kinds of events–such as severe weather, natural disasters, or illness–impact our functioning in a variety of ways. This means that our ability to think and behave might be different than we are used to.
Learn more about how to implement Trauma-Informed Teaching practices in our latest teaching guide:
Connect students and colleagues with resources to support basic needs, such as food, water, shelter, and healthcare:
Communicate as quickly and clearly as possible with students about class closures. Use email, Canvas Announcements, or even a separate module to share updates to due dates, assignments, and independent work expectations. Consider opening a separate Canvas Discussion to avoid answering the same question multiple times.
Reassess Your Course Plan
Check in with your college/department
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- Contact your department or school for any specific requirements and guidelines around instruction during a disruption.
Streamline course content
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- Identify the most crucial learning outcomes for your course as well as the assignments that assess them.
- Consider eliminating assignments and activities that don’t directly assess the most essential learning outcomes. Determine if there are any learning outcomes that are assessed by multiple assignments, and reduce duplications.
Example: Eliminating a weekly in-person reading quiz when students are already submitting a reading reflection to Canvas
- Collaborate with your department and colleagues for guidance on how to prioritize a course’s learning outcomes.
Adjust course content modality and pacing
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- When possible, offer asynchronous alternatives to missed course content. Consider recording lectures, offering supplemental readings, or even self-paced learning modules.
- Set aside office hour time to answer questions and review material.
Practices to avoid
Both faculty and students carefully plan their work, courses, and other responsibilities around listed class schedules. This means that it is often an undue burden to require participation outside of typical class meeting times.
Avoid these practices in order to best respect student and faculty time:
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- Holding an additional class session on a day and time the class does not typically meet.
- Extending class meeting time.
- Rescheduling finals or adding a class session during finals week.
- Asking students to do the same amount and kind of work the syllabus initially expected them to do while compressing the work into a shorter time period.
How to Teach in a Condensed or Accelerated Format
For more ideas on how to adjust your course format following a disruption, check out the following resources from our colleagues across the U.S.:
Plan for Instructional Continuity
When you have the option in the future, proactively planning ahead will help ease some of the stressors of having to quickly pivot during the term.
Create and share a communication plan
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- Include information in your syllabus and Canvas about what students can expect in case of an unexpected disruption or inclement weather event.
- Clearly articulate your communication plan in your syllabus and Canvas, as well as how often students are expected to check those communication channels.
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Design with flexibility in mind
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- Offer low- or no-internet alternatives for assignments and course materials at the beginning of the term.
- Offer asynchronous or make-up alternatives for in-person requirements, such as community partnerships.
- Examples: Establish a policy that allows students to make up participation points by demonstrating mastery of that week’s learning objectives via a written reflection, slide deck, or short video.
- Consider inserting a designated buffer week around Week 7 or another strategic point in the term. You can use this week as a catch-up period in case of unforeseen disruptions. If catch-up is not needed, you can use this week to present a special topic based on student interests! (Note: Be sure to communicate the purpose of the buffer week to students in advance.)
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More Ideas for Planning Ahead for Course Disruptions
Check out the following resources from our colleagues at the University of Washington:
By utilizing both proactive and responsive strategies, you can enhance your ability to navigate unexpected disruptions while maintaining a supportive and effective learning environment for your students. We recommend regularly revisiting and updating your strategies based on feedback from your teaching experiences and your students to help you arrive at the best balance for you and your classroom.
Learn More Elsewhere
Place-Based Engagement: Featuring KSMOCA
Contributors:Harold McNaron, Megan McFarland
Place-Based Engagement: Featuring KSMoCA
At PSU, we “let knowledge serve the city”, but how? To what end? Who benefits? What does it mean to center community interests at PSU? The place-based engagement strategies utilized as part of PSU College of the Arts’ (COTA) partnership with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary (Dr. MLK, Jr.) School provides a helpful example.
Who
PSU College of the Arts (COTA)
Where
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary (Dr. MLK, Jr.) School
According to the Place-Based Justice Network, place-based engagement is “a long-term university-wide commitment to partner with local residents, organizations, and other leaders to focus equally on on-campus and community impact within a clearly defined geographic area.” But how does that relate to pedagogical techniques and classroom activities? It starts with community.
Forming a Community Partnership
In 2014, administrators at Dr. MLK, Jr. School reached out to neighborhood residents and COTA faculty members Harrell Fletcher and Lisa Jarrett to explore a potential partnership. Specifically, the administrators and the PSU faculty members were mutually interested in increasing art access for the young students of Dr. MLK, Jr. School. Out of this collaboration, the King School Museum of Contemporary Art (KSMoCA) was born. Since its founding, KSMoCA has hosted collaboratively-designed gallery exhibits, artist talks, a student-produced podcast, publications, an artist-in-residence program, and more.
Through the KSMoCA partnership, Dr. MLK, Jr. School students gain access to local artists, PSU faculty members, and PSU students for shared learning experiences, art-making, mentorship, and generative exploration. In turn, participating PSU students benefit from off-campus, authentic art practice experiences in a public school setting. PSU students also enjoy connections to Dr. MLK, Jr. students, school administrators and professional artists—local, national and international.
What roles do PSU students play?
Currently several graduate students in the Art and Social Practice program serve in leadership roles for art projects within COTA’s interdisciplinary course “Museum in a Public School”, involving everything from a visiting artist to even student safety patrols. The undergraduates taking this course come from a variety of areas of study and, as part of their participation in the course, mentor Dr. MLK, Jr. students one-on-one and support them in creating their own art projects.
“This is a key element of impactful place-based community engagement: challenging traditional and current disparities of power and privilege via more equitable, mutual and generative strategies.”
Rather than centering the partnership on any one product or outcome, KSMoCA’s success is attributed, in large part, to the relationship between and mutual commitment of the Dr. MLK, Jr. School community and PSU. Professors Fletcher and Jarrett, along with KSMoCA’s Program Director and current MFA student, Laura Glazer, use an iterative process to frequently query and return back to the interests and needs of Dr. MLK, Jr. students, their teachers and their families in program-planning efforts. This is a key element of impactful place-based community engagement: challenging traditional and current disparities of power and privilege via more equitable, mutual and generative strategies. Based on community input, KSMoCA organizers develop themes, program ideas, and student engagement plans as mechanisms of progress towards shared interests and goals. While specific projects and funders may vary, it is this common bond–authentic relationships between neighbors–that sustains the community-engaged learning efforts at KSMoCA.
Activate Your Teaching
To engage with current community partners:
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- Start course-based, annual or other planning efforts by querying and centering the interests and energies of area residents, activists and partner organization staff
- Explore new ways of connecting PSU’s assets with community partner interests and vice versa (e.g. providing HRAC report data to support a grant they are writing or sharing a previous webinar recording aligned with community partner professional development interests)
- Consider if one or more of PSU’s current community partner organizations seems to align with your goals. Your course/initiative might be an opportunity to expand or deepen the PSU-community partnership (e.g. Latino Network’s partnerships with University Studies’ capstone program as well as GDI’s Latine Futures initiative)
To foster new community partner relationships:
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- Check in with with OAI staff Harold McNaron about potential or current partnerships that might be a good fit
- Review PSU’s current community partners via University Relations’ Community Impact Team
- View the Community Engagement Toolkit from PSU's Student Community Engagement Center about strategies for successful community engagement strategies.
- Explore off-campus groups and individuals using the on-campus resources above whose work aligns well with departmental and course-based learning outcomes and themes (e.g. governmental water safety teams or entrepreneur support networks)
- Take time to understand key elements of the community-engaged context of any potential partnership (e.g. history of their organization; current goals and areas of focus; current funders, collaborators) and to share key contextual elements with your new partner, especially if they are not accustomed to partnering with colleges or universities (e.g. academic calendars; PSU student demographics; potential for sustained partnership, funding)
- Reach out to OAI staff Harold McNaron to assist with designing meeting agendas, partner agreements and other resources to help your new partnership set a firm foundation
Teaching with Non-Supported Platforms
As stewards of PSU’s digital learning environment, the Office of Academic Innovation (OAI) is always exploring new teaching and learning platforms, applications, and resources. We take a risk-minimization approach to accessibility, with the goal of full inclusivity.
How does an application become adopted campus-wide?
Before any software is adopted campus-wide, it must be rigorously tested for both security and accessibility. If approved, it may be piloted among a small cohort of faculty, and the results of that user testing are reviewed. At that point, if budget approval is granted, OAI staff are trained to support faculty use, while the Office of Information Technology (OIT) staff are trained to support student use.
In some cases, a school or program at PSU may review and license an application for specific faculty. For example, interactive materials from McGraw-Hill Connect are often used by instructors in the School of Business. If you know the application you need is used by others in your program, begin by checking with your department administrator. Make sure to ask if there’s a dedicated staff member trained to support faculty use.
- To propose an application or LTI integration review, please use the Canvas Integration Request form.
Note: Please submit your request at least one term before you would like to use the software to allow enough time for the review process.
Independent application adoption
PSU maintains a suite of tools that are centrally supported and approved. You may choose to use any software that you feel would help your learning community, but if you choose to use an application that has not been adopted by PSU, here are some things to keep in mind:
Student Support
It will be up to you to test and support the tool for use in your course. OAI and OIT staff have not been trained in the use of these applications, nor do they have administrative access to these tools for troubleshooting. Take some time to explore the support materials available on the application website. Make sure to search for “support” or “help” and review those resources carefully. This material will be significantly different from the marketing content on a product’s website.
When possible, test the application by creating prototype student resources or activities. It’s important to keep in mind that you’ll also be responsible for helping your students use the application. Be sure to check for any student-facing support materials available from the vendor so you can provide them.
In keeping with the University’s mission to provide equitable learning opportunities to all students, you may also take into consideration whether the tool is accessible for all students and that it is being used in a FERPA-compliant way (see FERPA Student Records Privacy Tutorial).
Student Experience
Look for possible areas of student confusion. If you can’t access a student view of the application, contact the company’s support team for more information. Another important step is to explore any user forums available. See what kinds of problems users have, and whether they receive the help and information they need.
If the learning and support resources for either instructors or students seem inadequate, you should be cautious with adoption. It can be stressful to troubleshoot issues during the term, particularly if you’ll be using the application for graded activities.
If you feel confident about adopting the application, we suggest using it for low-stakes activities at first. Let your students know you’re doing a “trial run,” and be sure to share instructions and support resources with them. It’s particularly important to make sure they know not to request help on this application from the OIT support desk.
Upload to MediaSpace from a mobile device
You can share media recorded on your phone or tablet using Kaltura’s KMS GO application. The application is available for Android and iOS mobile devices. It allows you to upload audio, video, and images from your device to your PSU Kaltura MediaSpace account. Once uploaded and published as Unlisted, you can share that media in Canvas or via email.
Begin by going to the Apple Store or Google Play Store, and search for “Kaltura MediaSpace GO – Education” (do not select “KMS GO for regions“).
- Install the application and select Open.
- The app asks if you want to allow notifications. Select Don't Allow or Allow.
- You'll see a prompt to log in. Enter https://media.pdx.edu. This connects the application to the PSU Kaltura platform, but you're not yet logged into your own MediaSpace account.
- You may see a prompt asking if you want to allow KMS GO to "make and manage phone calls." We recommend you select Don't Allow.
- Your display will now show that you're connected to PSU MediaSpace. To log in, select the Profile icon. If you're uploading media you may select the Upload icon, which will also prompt you to log in.
- Sign into MediaSpace with your PSU Odin/password and authenticate with Duo. You'll now see Settings and Profile icons. Select Profile to see your current media list. You'll also see icons for:
- Home – returns you to the homepage.
- Upload - select to upload media.
- Inspire me - shows publicly available media.
- Explore - lets you search shared PSU videos on MediaSpace.
- Select the Upload icon and choose the type of media you want to upload: video, audio, or image.
- You'll be asked to allow KMS GO to access media on your device. Select Allow.
- From the options shown, select the area of your device where the media is stored.
- Enter a title for your media and select Upload.
- Agree to the copyright protection prompt.
- When the upload is complete, you'll be prompted to publish the media now or later. If you want the video to remain private, select Later. To share the video, select Yes.
- The media will display with these publishing options: Private (default), Unlisted, and Public. To share your media in a Canvas course or via email, select Unlisted. This makes the media viewable by those with the link or in your Canvas course.
- Select UPDATE.
- You'll be prompted to copy the media's URL to your device clipboard. To share, select Yes.
- Open your email or Canvas course account to share your URL. To paste the URL, press and hold within your email or Canvas text field. For more information on how and where you can share media links in Canvas, please see Add media files to Canvas.
This article was last updated on .