Faculty

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You can now add your TAs, GAs, Supplemental Instructors, Librarians, and others to your WyoCourses courses through WyoRecords!


Finding the Right Help

  • Problems you confront in developing or delivering your course may be technical problems with the system, a management problem with course enrollment, or an instructional challenge with how to achieve an objective in your course. If something doesn't work as it should, that's a technical problem, and you should contact the IT Help Desk;  if the problem is with your course section(s) or its enrollment, the WyoCourses office can help; finally, if you need help to effectively use instructional features in your course, check out the 


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The WyoCourses staff manage course shells and enrollment into courses, along with other behind-the-scenes system administration. Take logistical problems with course shells and enrollment to the WyoCourses staff, through their online form, by email to wyocourses@uwyo.edu, or a call to the Help Desk.

Instructional Support

Instructional support professionals in the Ellbogen Center for Teaching and Learning, and the Outreach School want to make your use of WyoCourses successful and efficient. Review support documentation below, and your training opportunities on the or contact the instructional support team by email at wyocourses-inst@uwyo.edu.

Training & Development

Consult the for training schedules, resources, and people who can help.

Roles

Instructors can add individuals to their classes in several roles. The following descriptions are listed in order from most to least permissions. All permissions for each role are listed below:

Can add, edit, and delete events on the course calendar. Can create and edit assessing rubrics. Can create student collaborations and web conferences. Can edit grades. Can manage (add/edit/delete) assignments, quizzes, course files, and course groups, as well as manage all other course content, faculty journal entries, and the class wiki. Can moderate and post to discussions. Can see the list of users and message both individual students and the entire class. Can view all grades. Can view student submissions and comment on them. Can view analytics, question banks, discussions, student group pages, and course usage reports.

 

Can add, edit, and delete events on the course calendar. Can create and edit assessing rubrics. Can create student collaborations and web conferences. Can manage (add/edit/delete) assignments, quizzes, course files, and course groups, as well as manage all other course content, faculty journal entries, and the class wiki. Can moderate grades and discussions. Can post to discussions. Can see the list of users and message both individual students and the entire class. Can view student submissions and comment on them. Can view analytics, question banks, discussions, student group pages, and course usage reports.

 

Can add, edit, and delete events on the course calendar. Can create and edit assessing rubrics. Can create student collaborations. Can manage (add/edit/delete) assignments, quizzes, course files, and course groups, as well as manage all other course content, faculty journal entries, and the class wiki. Can moderate grades and discussions. Can post to discussions. Can see the list of users and message both individual students and the entire class. Can view student submissions and comment on them. Can view question banks, discussions, student group pages, and course usage reports.

 

Can create student collaborations and web conferences. Can manage (add/edit/delete) course files. Can manage the course wiki and moderate grades. Can post to discussions. Can see the list of users and message individual students as well as the entire class. Can view discussions.

 

Can create web conferences. Can manage all other course content. Can moderate discussions and post to discussions. Can send messages to the entire class. Can view discussions.

 

Can post to discussions and view discussions.

WyoCourses Faculty FAQ

Please click on a section below that is most applicable to your question and explore the FAQs to see if any apply to your current situation.

 

To add an instructor to a previous course you have instructed go to theabove and click on the "Concluded Course Access" section at the bottom of the page. follow the link that says "Request Concluded Course Access" and fill out the form to request an instructor have access to a previous course you have instructed.

Please note that the person you wish to add must have a FERPA form on file with the Registrar’s office. The form can be downloaded via this link.

Once the person has a FERPA form on file, you can add them with the following steps:

Go to http://wyoweb.uwyo.edu and click on Faculty & Staff under WyoRecords.

Next, click on Faculty and Advisors.

Click on the box labeled WyoCourses Supplemental Access, and you will be taken to a screen where you can select the term and then your course.

On the following page, you can add persons into your course in several roles, provided they are eligible to be added with these roles, which are listed on theabove.

Please note that you must select "Participation Allowed" in the WyoCourses Participation column.

There is a form for incomplete sections located under . Once there go open the “Incomplete Section” and click on the “Request an Incomplete Section” link to be taken to the form.

Once your request has been processed, you will be informed via email. You will need to let the student know they can now access the course again.

Note that if you want them to complete assignments that are already in the course, you will need to add a second due date using the differentiated assignments function within WyoCourses. A video on how to create differentiated assignments can be found under theon Online Resources tab in the Training tab above, and a document on how to create differentiated assignments can be found here.

 

When a student withdraws, they are automatically removed from the course in WyoCourses. If you require information about their activity and grades before withdrawal, please email wyocourses@uwyo.edu with the course name and term as well as the student name. We will then be able to pull the student’s class activity information for you.

 

Canvas has reported that Internet Explorer 11 and Edge may occasionally cause problems with users submitting assignments. Currently, these are the recommended workarounds:

  1. Use a supported browser other than IE 11 or Edge to submit assignments. A list of the other browsers we support is available to you here: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-1284. This is the surest, simplest solution for users who have access to a browser other than IE 11 or Edge.
  2. Add Canvas to the list of "trusted" websites in Internet Explorer. This has to be done in Internet Explorer, because Edge doesn't have this workflow in its UI yet. Adding a trusted site in IE carries over to Edge. This process is unintuitive to a point where we hesitate to suggest it to less-than-quite-savvy users.
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By default, courses open the day before the semester begins at 6pm. If you would like students to have access before this date, you will need to follow the steps explained in this tutorial to change the access date.

 

Attachments in discussion posts are a course-level setting you must change for each course. Unless you allow this setting, students will not be able to attach files to discussion posts.

To allow attachments on discussion posts, navigate to the “Discussions” tab in the course. On the right side of the Discussions window, you should see a small gear icon. Click this. Look under “Student Settings” for the “Attach Files to Discussions” option. Check this box then click “Save Settings” if you want students to be able to post attachments to discussions.

 

If you have an assignment marked as a file upload submission, you have the ability to specify what kinds of files are accepted. If a student reports issues with uploading a file, they may be attempting to upload a restricted file type.

Keep in mind that Canvas will only permit file types that exactly match what types you have specified. So if you restrict uploads to .docx, for example, .doc files will not be allowed.

 

When configuring an assignment, you have the option to set the assignment due date as well as the close date. Any submissions after the due date will be marked as late. The close date will “lock” the assignment and prevent any further submissions.

This happens when multiple grading periods are enabled but the option to display all grading periods is disabled. A step-by-step walkthrough on how to fix this can be downloaded here.

 

There are a couple different ways you can get videos to display in a Quiz within WyoCourses. You can either upload media directly to the Quiz or you can set up a preview link if the media is hosted elsewhere, like on YouTube. To upload media, click on the filmstrip icon in the text editor when creating a quiz. You can either record or upload media.

If you are going to use an external link, you will need to do the following:
- Insert Link
- Highlight Link
- Select the 'Link to URL' button above in the text editor on the question
- Select the option to 'Auto-open inline previews for the link'

This should make a preview box available as another option.

 

Per the Registrar's Office, grades and exams should be kept for one year.

 

The courses may not have been crosslisted as expected. This sometimes occurs as a result of your courses being crosslisted after the semester courses were finalized by the Registrar’s Office.

If you notice an error with enrollments, please contact wyocourses@uwyo.edu and provide the course titles for the courses in question.

There are two reasons you may only see one section of a course that has multiple sections. The first reason is that it may have come across as a crosslisted course. To check this, go into the section you can see and click on the “Settings” tab. On the “Course Details” tab that should pop up, look at the SIS ID. If it begins with “XXLS” then the course has already been crosslisted. Double-check that all sections are present under the “Sections” tab if the course has an XXLS ID.

If the course does not have an XXLS ID and you cannot see the other sections, then you have most likely not been added as the instructor of record for the other sections yet. Please speak with the person in your department responsible for loading instructors into Banner and have them make sure you are properly loaded into all the courses you are supposed to be teaching.

 

Crosslisting is handled by the WyoCourses team through a request form. The form is located on the Requests tab above, under the section “

Click on the “Request a Combined Course” link to be taken to the crosslist request form. Once you have submitted the form, you will receive an email letting you know when the request has been completed.

This happens because the dashboard displays courses that are currently “active” within WyoCourses. If you want to display specific courses, you can change this with the following steps:

Click the “Course & Groups” button. You should see “All Courses" in the menu that appears. Click this link.

Here you will see all your courses listed. You should see a grayed-out star to the left of the course name. If you click this, it will turn gold and “star” the course, meaning it will always display on your dashboard. Do this for all the courses you would like to display. Once you have done this you should be able to see the starred courses on the dashboard.

 

There are a few forms of formal training offered on WyoCourses. There are also several videos and written documents. Check theabove to see upcoming available training sessions, as well as training videos produced by UW.

The Canvas Community contains many guides for common questions instructors have while developing their course shells. This can be found at https://community.canvaslms.com/community/answers/guides/.

Finally, if you have specific questions about a feature that are not answered through the training page or the Canvas guides, you can always email wyocourses@uwyo.edu with your questions.

 

Please email wyocourses@uwyo.edu and let us know that you would like a test shell and do not have a proper UW account. We are happy to provide temporary accounts with their own test shells. All content you create in your temporary account can be very easily transferred over to your official course shells once your account is created and you are loaded in as an instructor.

 

All UW courses automatically receive a WyoCourses shell when the courses are finalized in Banner. You can experiment with an actual course shell or you can request a test shell be created for you by filling out the form here. This test shell is simply for testing and experimenting with the platform. No students will be enrolled in the test shell. However, you can export content you create in the test shell to an official course in WyoCourses at a later date. ​

 

If a course is not published, students will not receive notifications or messages sent through the course and will not be able to view any course content. Make sure you have published the course if students are reporting access issues or not responding to messages.

 

Many students have reported issues with Microsoft Silverlight videos. This method of embedding does not function properly on some versions of Chrome, and requires special permissions to function on other browsers. We strongly advise against using Silverlight if possible, as even if videos will display for students they sometimes will fail to load properly, and not all browsers are capable of loading Silverlight. If you include videos that have been uploaded through Silverlight, please inform the students that they will need to take the following steps:

  • In Firefox:

    Next to the address bar, users will see a padlock with a yellow caution triangle over it. Click this icon.

    A warning will pop up to say that the connection is not secure. Click the arrow on the right-hand side of this warning.

    Now, click on “Disable Protection.” The page will reload and display the Silverlight files.

  • In Internet Explorer:

    At the bottom of the page, a notice that says “Only secure content is displayed” will show on the bottom of the page. Click “Show all content” to enable Silverlight videos.

  • In Chrome:

    Please note that some versions of Chrome cannot load Silverlight videos.

    In the address bar, on the far-right side, there will be a small shield icon. Click this icon.

    In the box that displays, click “Load unsafe scripts” which should prompt the page to refresh.

    If, instead of a video, “Install Microsoft Silverlight” displays, the version of Chrome being used is incompatible with Silverlight.

  • In Safari:

    Please note that some versions of Safari cannot load Silverlight videos.

    Click on “Safari” on the Mac navigation bar at the top of the screen, then click “Preferences.”

    Click “Security” and then “Plug-in Settings…”

    Under “Silverlight” click “Allow” then reload the page.

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Many training sessions will be held, including live and video demonstrations, as well as hands-on training, to help you become familiar with the system. To view the training schedule, please visit theabove.

 

Faculty Request Forms

Click on the the sections below and fill out these forms if you need:

Request a Test Course Shell
Use this form to request a test course shell in WyoCourses. A test shell functions identically to a normal course in WyoCourses, but has no student enrollments and no start or end dates. You can use test shells to create courses in advance and export them later, test out different features, or even import current courses and make changes without editing your main course shell.
Blueprint Course
Use this form to request a Blueprint course in WyoCourses. More information about managing courses tied to blueprint shells can be found at https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-11662-4152759004
Delete Test/NAC course
Use this form to request that a TEST/NAC course that you taught in the past be deleted.
Request an Incomplete Section
Use this form to request a course be set up for a student who has taken an Incomplete and needs to finish the course. You and the student will be enrolled in a special section that will make the course behave as if it is active again. You will have access to all course materials, but you may have to reconfigure assignment due dates if you want the student to be able to submit assignments through WyoCourses.
Request Course Content be Reset/Cleared.
Use this form to request that the content or material in your course be reset/cleared. This means the content in your course will be deleted. This will make your course an empty WyoCourses shell.
Request Course Size Increase
Use this form to request additional storage space in a course shell. Note that this form is not for WyoGroups shells. There is a separate form located on wyogroups.uwyo.edu to request extra space in a WyoGroups shell.
Request a Combined Course
Use this form to request multiple course shells be combined in WyoCourses (frequently referred to as crosslisting). This will cause all combined shells to display the same course shell, and place all enrollments in the shell. Users will still be divided into sections based off of their original course, but will share a common shell.
Request Concluded Course Access
Use this form to provide another instructor with access to a course shell from a prior semester. This will allow them to view how your course was set up, including modules, assignments, and discussions. Please note this form is not intended for adding instructors to courses in the current semester. Those instructors should be added through the Supplemental Access page. Instructions on how to add users to the current semester are located in theabove.
Request a Previous Course be reopened
Use this form to request a course from the previous semester be reopened. For example, if the current semester is Summer 2018 then only Spring 2018 courses can be reopened.