Canvas support

The C&IT Help Desk prioritizes faculty support for academic applications including Canvas, Echo360, and more. Any requests that cannot be resolved on first-contact are escalated as appropriate.

Conducting classes outside of Canvas

In the event that Canvas is unavailable, the following resources can be used for instruction.

Communicating with students

To maintain student confidentiality, only WSU systems should be utilized for course-related communication. Course lists are available through Academica. Instructors are encouraged to update their students on course changes during an outage.

Hosting class

Virtual classes may be hosted in either Teams or Zoom outside of Canvas integration. Faculty are encouraged to use waiting room features in both tools to maintain call security.

Assignments and student work

If you need to collect student work outside Canvas or the classroom, the best option is to have students email you and your TAs their submissions. Provide students with a clear email subject line and file naming convention to help you sort and store submissions. It may also be helpful to ask students to add their AccessID number to their papers to help with entering grades to Canvas later.

Assignments can also be collected via OneDrive.

During an outage, consider alternative assignment types.

Once Canvas access is restored, instructors can upload the submissions on behalf of the students.

Managing grades and sharing course materials

Download a copy of your Canvas gradebook and back up that information to your Wayne State OneDrive so it is available to enter final grades should there be additional disruptions.

Spring/summer course materials can also be exported from Canvas and shared with students via OneDrive. Lecture recordings can be shared directly from Echo360 or Zoom.

Getting help and staying informed

System updates are shared on the C&IT system status page.