Make a Plan

After you’ve determined your course priorities, plan how best to adapt course material and activities. First, communicate with your students. Then consider your options for synchronous (real-time) and asynchronous (time-shifted) instruction and interaction.

Communicate with Your Students

The fastest way to communicate with your entire class from within Canvas is to post an Announcement. There will then be a record on the Announcements page of your message. Suggest to students that they check their notifications settings to allow for copies of Announcements to be forwarded to their email address. (Students receive email Announcement notifications by default; this suggestion would alert students, who may have opted out, to opt back into this notification.)

The most important thing to communicate to your students is how you intend to interact with them through the semester. You might also want to think about how you will deal with connectivity challenges.

Consider a statement like, “I will primarily be communicating broad messages, assignments, and information using Canvas Announcements. In the event of internet connectivity issues, I may use email to message you about upcoming work or changes to the plan.”

Synchronous Tools in Canvas

Zoom with Your Class

Though not formally integrated with Canvas, it's easy to include Zoom sessions in your Canvas course. Zoom links can be added to any Canvas page with the Rich Content Editor or creating an External Link in Canvas Modules.

When participating in a web conference headsets/headphones are recommended.  Headsets will reduce feedback and improve audio quality.

Real-time Chat

For a simple, text-based chat with students, consider taking advantage of Canvas’s Chat feature. With Chat, you can answer student questions in real-time and facilitate a discussion. Canvas also keeps a record of chat history so that you can refer to it later.

Asynchronous Tools in Canvas

From posting readings to submitting homework, the bulk of Canvas features support asynchronous course activity. Here are some to consider using if you can't meet with your class face-to-face:

Creating Discussion boards, assignments, and quizzes may also help make up for any lost class time.

Consider using Canvas Studio to quickly create and share videos with your class or create video assignments for your students.