End of Semester Reminders – Fall 2024
Greetings VCU Faculty,
We hope everyone has had a successful Fall semester. Below you will find some items to consider while closing out your course as we head into the summer.
Spring 2025 Course Shells Available Now
Course shells for the Spring 2025 semester are now available to Canvas instructors. As a reminder, a course will not be visible to students until it has been published by the instructor.
Publishing a course means it is available to students and can now be accessed from their Canvas dashboard. Here, you can find more information on how to Publish and Unpublish a Canvas Course.
Just-In-Time Support
Are you in need of support to complete your end-of-semester checklist? We’re here to help.
For an overview of available support resources for Canvas and Kaltura, please see the “Help & Resources” tab on the Learning Systems website.
Final Grades
Final grades are due by noon on December 19, 2024, via Faculty eServices. For more information visit the Faculty Grade Entry page.
Carrying Over Incompletes to the Next Semester
The last day for grades of incomplete to be converted from the Fall 2024 semester is May 3, 2025. See the Academic Calendar for details.
If you have students who are finishing out the course with an ‘incomplete’, there are specific steps the instructor needs to take before the term concludes on January 15, 2025. After this point, you will only be able to access the course in Read-Only mode.
For step-by-step instructions, visit the Managing Students with an Incompletes Status page or contact [email protected].
Training Opportunities
Upcoming Opportunities – For upcoming training, you can register at www.training.vcu.edu (Keyword: Canvas, Kaltura, or Mobius)
Individual or Group Faculty Training – Faculty can request individual or group/departmental training by clicking on the “Request a Virtual Training Session” button from the Learning Systems website.
This training is intended for faculty who want to learn how to use the instructional tools supported by Learning Systems (i.e. Canvas and Kaltura).
For pedagogical guidance, instructors are encouraged to reach out to Academic Affairs.
Training Recordings – We hope that you were able to participate in the Fall semester training opportunities; but if you were not, you can catch up via the recorded training sessions largely led by Learning Systems’ Learning Support Specialist, Jon Reed, in partnership with the Academic Affairs instructional design team.
Visit the Learning Systems Academy for a library of short videos on topics ranging from beginner Canvas to using Kaltura.
Canvas 3rd Party Tools
Canvas 3rd Party Tool changes will soon take place during the upcoming change window. A timeline, deadlines, and a list of all in-progress requests can be found on the Request a Canvas 3rd Party Tool page, as well as, with what is needed from the requestor, the vendor, and more.
To learn more about these tools and get a list of those already available for use, visit Canvas 3rd Party Tools.
Note: The Canvas 3rd Party Tool Request Form, including both the requester and vendor sections, must be completed 6 weeks prior to the upcoming change window.
VCU IT Status
Stay up-to-date about IT systems and service outages by subscribing to the IT status page. To subscribe, please refer to these instructions: IT Alerts: How to Subscribe. If you have any questions or problems with subscribing, please email [email protected]. The IT Service Management Office will be able to provide any assistance and support needed.
Academic Technology Support
Academic Technologies frequently posts information about the support services we offer. Below are links to our blogs, and we encourage you to subscribe to all of them, or to the ones that apply to you. When you go to each blog, there is a “subscribe” section on the right side of the screen. Enter your email address and click the subscribe button.
- Adobe Blog – highlights and resources for Adobe Creative Cloud users
- Classroom Technology Blog – notices about classroom technology and support
- Learning Systems Blog – notices and resources for teaching and learning with technology
- Zoom Blog – announcements and tips for using Zoom
We Appreciate your Feedback
As usual, we welcome and appreciate your feedback; it is a valuable resource to our team’s continued success.
If you would just like to provide general feedback on any of the systems we support, the training we provide, suggestions, our website, etc. please email [email protected].
For any information regarding our team, what we do, what we support, and/or how to get support, visit the Learning Systems website or email [email protected].
For timely updates, be sure to subscribe to our blog in the top right-hand corner.
Enjoy your winter break!
Categories Canvas, End of Semester, Faculty, Online Teaching and Development, Teaching with Technology, Workshops and Training