Preparing a Canvas course for a new semester involves reviewing copied content, updating dates, and checking student access. Engineering for Professionals instructors can use this timeline to organize course preparation before students begin.
6–8 Weeks Before the Semester
Course Copy
New Canvas courses for upcoming terms are available as follows:
- Spring: late October
- Summer: late February
- Fall: late March
Do not update a past Canvas course for an upcoming term. Past courses remain available to the students who originally took them. If you need to prepare content before the new course is available, request a sandbox course in which to copy and update your content.
When you are ready for the course copy, submit a course-copy request identifying the source and destination terms, such as summer 2026 to fall 2026. If you do not submit a request by the required date, the most recent version of your course will be copied.
Merged Sections
If you are teaching multiple sections of the same course and would like to manage them together in Canvas, please send a section-merge request. Include the course number and the sections you would like to combine. Please send your request before students are given access at the start of the term. Once students have received access and begun working with course content, the sections can no longer be merged.
eReserves
Review your eReserves and decide whether to reuse the previous semester’s materials or request changes. For additional guidance, review Using eReserves for Course Materials.
- To reuse the same materials, email reserves@jhu.edu. Include your name, course number, and a request to reuse the previous semester’s eReserves for the upcoming semester.
- To change the materials, email reserves@jhu.edu. Include your name, course number, a description of the changes, bibliographic information for new sources, and the module in which each source belongs.
- List every course section that needs eReserves, including sections merged in Canvas. eReserves are assigned separately to each section.
2–4 Weeks Before the Semester
Announcements
- Remove announcements copied from the previous semester that no longer apply to the upcoming course.
- Create a welcome announcement for the new semester.
Syllabus and Course Information Module
- In Course Navigation, select Course Syllabus to review and update your syllabus in HelioCampus.
- Review the Course Overview in the Course Information module and update information that has changed.
- Update the Course Outline with the new semester’s dates.
- Review the Instructor Biography and update it as needed.
- Add a student generative AI (GenAI) use statement to your syllabus. Review the faculty guidance on student GenAI use for required designations, sample syllabus language, and implementation details.
Course Modules
Review each module and its content:
- Modules:
- Publish the modules and content students need. Review module lock dates to confirm that content becomes available when intended.
- Review module prerequisites and completion requirements. These control progression through content; they are separate from release dates.
- Review the scheduled publication date for each page and update it for the upcoming semester as needed. Do not assume that a course copy has updated every date.
- Lectures and videos:
- Confirm that all lectures and videos are present and their links work.
- Use Panopto to add course videos rather than uploading them directly to Canvas Files.
- Confirm that PDF slides are attached and their links work.
- Assignments:
- Confirm that required documents are attached and their links work.
- Review points possible and update due dates and availability dates for the upcoming semester.
- Quizzes and tests:
- Confirm that links to all quizzes and tests work.
- Review points possible, due dates, and availability dates.
- Other content and tools, such as VoiceThread, zyBooks, and Gradescope:
- Update each tool as needed and confirm that it works in the new course.
- Review related documents and links.
- Review due dates and points possible, if applicable.
- Update any file availability restrictions for the upcoming term.
Periodically use TidyUp to review course content and identify files or pages that may no longer be needed. Review items before removing them to avoid deleting content still used in the course.
Discussions
- Review discussion forums and group discussions in the upcoming course. Remove student posts retained from the previous semester, if applicable.
- Update discussion due dates and availability dates.
- If you use Microsoft Teams for discussions, review Setting up Microsoft Teams.
Calendar
- After you have updated the due dates for all of your quizzes, assignments, and discussions in each module, take a moment to review the Canvas Calendar and confirm that they appear correctly. Setting due dates on these items automatically adds them to the calendar, so you do not need to edit the dates directly in the calendar.
Office Hours
- Hold at least one hour of office hours per section per week. If you teach multiple sections, schedule a separate weekly office hour for each section. Review Office Hours Options and Expectations.
- Use Zoom in Canvas to schedule recurring office hours, or schedule them through the WSE Zoom portal. If you schedule outside Canvas, provide the meeting link on a page in the Course Information module.
Gradebook
- Confirm that the Gradebook contains a column for every graded assignment.
- If your course uses weighted grading, review the assignment group weights and confirm that they match the syllabus. Canvas weights assignment groups rather than a separate weighted Gradebook column.
Student View (Recommended)
Once you have finished reviewing your course, take a few minutes to look at it from a student’s perspective. Student View helps you check that students will see the course the way you intend and spot any last items that need to be edited or updated.
- Open your Canvas course and select View as Student to enter Student View.
- Review course navigation, content, and published items from the Test Student’s perspective. Correct any issues you find.
- Select Leave Student View to return to the instructor view.
Some third-party tools, including the Course Syllabus (HelioCampus), Microsoft Teams Classes, and publisher tools that require a purchase, do not work through Canvas Student View. If a tool offers its own student preview, use that option to check the experience instead. Preview New Quizzes within New Quizzes rather than taking them as the Test Student. The Canvas Student View guide explains additional limitations to keep in mind.
1 Week Before the Semester
Set Up Groups
It is best to wait until the week before classes begin to set up groups, since student enrollments may still be changing. If groups are not needed right away, you can wait until after the course has started. Before students begin a group activity, make sure the groups are ready and any assignments or discussions that require group work are set up for group submission.
If you copied group assignments or discussions from a previous course, review the settings before students begin working. Even when group sets copy over, you will still need to check that each activity uses the intended group set and that students are in the appropriate groups. The Canvas guidance on copying group assignments explains how copied group sets are handled.
- Review or create the group sets and groups needed for the upcoming course.
- Confirm that each group assignment or discussion is linked to the intended group set.
- Assign students to the appropriate groups and check membership again after enrollment changes.
Email Students
Send a welcome email through the Student Information System (SIS). Do not rely only on Canvas Inbox notifications to reach students by email; their notification settings may prevent those messages from reaching their email inboxes.
Publish Your Course
SIS sets the term and start dates for your Canvas course, and these dates should not be changed in the course settings. In most cases, the start date is several weeks before classes begin on the Engineering for Professionals academic calendar. Because students may be able to access the course before classes begin, wait to publish until you are ready for them to see it. You will need to publish the course manually when you want it to become available.
Before publishing: Make sure the course is ready for student access. Canvas prevents unpublishing a course once a student has made a submission.
- Review the start date in the Participation area of the Course Details tab. Do not change the SIS-provided date.
- When you are ready to make the course available, open the Course Home Page and use Course Status to select Publish.
- Confirm that Canvas displays the publication confirmation and that the course is published.
If you would like to give students early access, the course can become available no earlier than the start date listed in the Participation area of the Course Details tab. Do not change this SIS-provided date. We do not recommend publishing much earlier than the term start date in the academic calendar unless students need early access to course content.
Please note: All online courses will be published to students by the first day of the semester if you have not already made your course available. Canvas prevents unpublishing a course once a student has made a submission.