Communicating with Students
If Canvas service is interrupted, faculty should communicate with students using the most reliable approved channel available, such as institutional email.
- Email rosters can be accessed through the Faculty Center in MyCSUDH.
- Alternatively, Zoom can be utilized as a meeting space to facilitate final exams, taking advantage of the share screen to display the exam or using the chat function to distribute and collect exams.
Assignment & Assessment Submission Process
If assignments cannot be submitted through Canvas, or assessments cannot be conducted, consider the following approved alternatives:
- Institutional email submission
- Distribute materials and create a Dropbox File request for exams, papers or large size files such as video, music or images.
- Create quizzes using Microsoft Forms
- Create exams using Qualtrics
- Use in-person paper submission
- How to download all student submissions for an assignment
Recommended submission protocol:
- Use a consistent file naming format, such as:
CourseNumber_Section_LastName_FirstName_Final - Require students to submit from their official university email account
- Instruct students to keep copies of sent emails and submitted files
- Suspend or modify late penalties if the outage affects submission ability
Grading Without Canvas
If the Canvas gradebook is unavailable, faculty should use only approved sources to reconstruct or access grades.
- Previously exported Canvas gradebooks, if available.
- How to export grades in the Gradebook.
Important Note: Do not store gradebooks on personal, unsecured devices or platforms.
Required practices:
- Use a secure, password-protected grade spreadsheet
- Record only necessary information
- Keep a change log for any reconstructed grades
- Note which grades were affected by the outage
- Do not email full grade rosters
- Delete duplicate files from temporary locations according to institutional records-retention and data-security rules
Recordkeeping and Documentation
Faculty should maintain records of:
- Student communications.
- Revised final exam or assignment instructions.
- Submitted student work.
- Grading rubrics or modified grading criteria.
- Grade calculations.
- Extension requests.
- Students unable to complete work because of the outage.
- Any deviations from the original syllabus or Canvas course design.
- In an emergency, here is how to export a Canvas course.
Submitting Grades
Final grades should be submitted through the standard process in myCSUDH:
- Log in to myCSUDH.
- Navigate to Faculty Center.
- Select the appropriate course.
- Open the Grade Roster for the class.
- Enter grades for each student using the roster grade drop-down menu.
- Save frequently while entering grades.
- Verify that each student has a grade entered.
- Change the roster approval status to Approved and save.
- If changes are needed after submission, change the approval status back to Not Reviewed, update the grade, save, and then reapprove the roster.
Once the system has successfully recorded approved grades, a confirmation email will be sent to the faculty email address.
If you need assistance, please contact Academic Technology at 310-243-3176.