This article outlines a few things you can do to make sure you’re ready for the new term.

Reflect on Past Terms

Before opening your course to students, take a moment to reflect on the last time you taught. How might you enhance your course for the upcoming term? Are there new teaching strategies you might like to explore? Here are a few articles about ways to level up your teaching.

Pre-Term Canvas Checklist

You may want to choose which courses to display on your Canvas dashboard. Each term’s new courses are displayed there automatically, but you can customize the display each time you log in.

You may need to copy course content and settings from a previous term into a new term to update the course for the new term without affecting the prior term’s course settings.

Along with updating due dates, you might make small or significant updates to content, discussions, quizzes, assignments, or even grades.

It’s also a great idea to review the academic calendar for the upcoming term. Take note of university closures and/or religious holidays that might impact your course plan.

Don’t forget to publish your course at the start of the term. Students can’t get into your Canvas course site if you haven’t published it!

This course design checklist outlines all of these and other important tasks to make sure your Canvas course is ready for students.

Prep Your Zoom Tech

Zoom, like most applications, runs best when you’re using the most up-to-date version.

If you use the Chrome or Firefox browser plugin to schedule Zoom meetings through Google Calendar, make sure the plugin is up to date.

If you’ve never used your Media Space account, be sure to log in at least once. This allows automatic copies of your Zoom meetings to be stored there.

If you’re holding scheduled Zoom meetings with your class, you may want to schedule your meetings from within Canvas. This will create Zoom meeting links for your course that students can access directly in Canvas.