The end of a semester can be a stressful time for you and your students. Looming deadlines and preparations for the coming semester can be challenging. This Canvas spotlight will cover some end-of-semester housekeeping functions in Canvas that you can use to bring your course to a successful conclusion. Making sure your course is finalized can help mitigate last-minute emails from students or issues in submitting final grades.

For more information on transitioning your course to the next semester, please see our Course Copy Guide and Post Copy Guide.

Best practices

  • Check that the End Date set in Canvas is correct and make adjustments if needed. Some courses may not follow the general academic calendar, and the end date originally set for the shell might not be correct.
  • Make sure that all graded assignments have due dates so that they are properly factored into the student’s final grade. If students don’t submit work to assignments, quizzes or discussions without due dates, they will receive no penalty for their total grade.
  • Display the letter grade a student will receive in Canvas with a course grading scheme. This lets students know what grade you will be reporting in Banner.
  • A farewell announcement can be used for last-minute instructions or reminders to students and is a great way to thank students and wish them well in their future courses.

Let’s walk through it together