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I tried something similar and came to the same conclusion as you - it's tedious! One thing I've done recently, is to have the faculty go into student view, submit a dummy document to an assignment (they'd need to create one first), then exit student view and grade the assignment in SpeedGrader. This has the added benefits of getting them used to using student view and in creating assignments. The caveat is that the assignment needs to be published first and if the course is "live" that could confuse students if no other assignments are published yet. The workaround I use then is to give each faculty member a "sandbox" course site they can play around in. I then encourage them to use student view and that graded assignment submission in class to show their own students how to access the instructor's comments as we find many students don't seem to understand intuitively how to do that. I'm interested in what others have come up with! ... View more

Regarding my earlier comment about nothing happening when I clicked Create Photo Roster - I now believe that WAS due to no students having photos. I met with my class this afternoon and several have already followed directions to upload a photo to their Canvas profile. And now when I click Create Photo Roster, it works like a charm. Another home run from  @James ​! ... View more

Well I'd LIKE to have the photo roster (I am horrible at remembering names so I want to use it to study) but we haven't begun classes yet and my students are freshmen - I'm going to task them with adding their photos day one (Tuesday)! Right now though...nothing happens when I click Create Photo Roster....is that expected behavior if there are no photos? ... View more

Once again, you made me a happy camper! None of my students have photos yet, so I'm not sure about the functionality of that but I did install the photo roster script and the sorting feature as well as the download a pdf of the roster feature work great! THANK YOU!! ... View more

Oh being able to take a Rubric from Excel into Canvas would be AMAZING! So many of my faculty already have rubrics created that they've used for years - the copying and pasting is tedious. ... View more

OK that was EASY! And it works like a charm! You rock,  @James ​! You just made my life a lot easier in terms of rubrics! Now what ELSE can we make Greasemonkey do for us? 😉 ... View more

Ooh! Thank you for this! I used to use Greasemonkey years ago, but had forgotten about it! I'm off to give this a whirl! ... View more

Having a better way to do this with more options would be fantastic! The work-around I use now is to create the discussion as a graded discussion and require peer reviews. I then check the box to automatically assign peer reviews. BUT! Because no one has posted yet, they don't actually get assigned to review a particular peer - this allows them to reply to postings of their choice once they start posting. Doing this DOES allow me to set a due date for the initial post and a second due date for the replies (peer reviews). ... View more

My first thought was - "I wonder if you can restrict/allow something like open registration by sub-category?" I haven't researched this so I don't know. My second thought was - "Well, it would be an annoying amount of work but it should work." The it being: Create a .CSV file to create a boatload (or whatever quantity you need) of "dummy accounts" (e.g. HS1Student1, HS2Student2, etc...) Create a .CSV file to enroll said dummy accounts in the HS Testing Course Make the passwords all the same and hand them out to the students as they sign in using the dummy account names You'd need a way to record which actual student was given each dummy account name at the sites (high schools) My third thought was: "I hope other people have other/better ideas!" ... View more

I really like this version! My only comments are small suggestions: I'd bold the headers for each of the two categories of guides. "Suggest Feature Idea" should read "Suggest a Feature Idea" Because of the odd number of "Canvas Guides", it looks like one is missing (on the bottom right). Maybe center the Video Guides button? Not sure what that would look like. But I DO like having the Video Guides over there with the Canvas Guides! I (like others) think the ginormous Search the Guides box is just way too big. From others' comments it sounds like it looks even more disproportionate when viewing on mobile devices. Once again - thank you (and the team) for listening to feedback and for your incredibly fast responsiveness. Just one of the many reasons I love Canvas! ... View more

Amen! This was what I forgot to add to my original comment. Healthier snacks PLEASE! Candy is NOT a motivator and really not what I needed on an already queasy-from-the-altitude tummy. ... View more

I like Sample 2 the best of the three. I like that it identifies the groupings of guides (especially the mobile guides). A few things I'd change about Sample 2 include: Put Student Guide in the upper left corner of the block of four Guides by Role, intuitively, it makes sense to me to have that one "first" The word "other" in the Other Guides block of four seems like a lazy word choice but I'm not sure what I'd use instead. I think of the Video Guides more as "Guides by Type" but that doesn't fit the other three options there. The little "Welcome to the Guides" section on the right seems like an afterthought. I like that it has useful information, but it seems oddly placed and formatted. (Why is there a horizontal scroll bar under it?) All of this is nitpicking, however (though you did ask for feedback!). I am SO THANKFUL you listened to us and brought back the table of contents by type of guide. ANYTHING is an improvement on the initial roll out of the guides in the new community. It was taking me ages to find guides I KNEW existed before. Thank you, thank you, thank you! ... View more

Great idea! I find myself bookmarking things in the Community only to never remember how to actually SEE my bookmarks - I'm adding a browser bookmark that points to my Canvas Community bookmarks. (That sentence has entirely too many "bookmarks" in it - sorry!) ... View more

The custom search trick is awesome! Thank you! Works like a charm. ... View more

I really like your suggestions for Hack Night/Course Hack Night. I arrived late and had NO idea where to jump in to the conversations. I just wandered over to a table and made eye contact with someone who looked friendly and sat down. But based on later convos with folks (and what some have posted in the forums), I missed out on a lot of potentially productive/helpful conversations. Next year I will have a better plan of attack but your suggestions are spot-on and would make it a lot easier! ... View more

Agree 100% about using Sched.org or something similar. Between time zone issues and different devices and Wi-Fi issues, something simple and clear for keeping track of sessions was sorely needed. I really hope the UnConference grows as well - I wish I could have attended all of the sessions, but the energy and focus was just awesome. ... View more

This was my first InstructureCon, although not my first (by a long shot) Educational/EdTech conference. This one blew the others out of the water. I'd put it on par with the NSTA (National Science Teachers Association) conference but with a much better venue and a more fun/entertaining vibe. I really don't do altitude well at all. The anti-altitude-sickness medication I got from my doctor helped, but not 100%. But it's SO PRETTY up there! I really did love the location. I LOVED being able to ride the Orange Bubble Gondola on Tuesday - I only wish it was open later in the week as well - nothing beats an open-air view of that area! I also liked that the gondola rides were free and there was enough time here and there to ride them. I certainly had no time to explore anything else in the area (if I can swing it next year, I'll plan for an extra day or two to do just that). I was EXTREMELY happy to find the "Special Diets" food in the Farm. As a pescatarian, I appreciated not having to second-guess what was in the food, and the chef and his staff went above and beyond to give us creative, healthy, beautiful food. I kept hearing complaints about the "regular" food, but the Farm was just a gem. The sessions were short, which at first I thought would be a problem, but most tailored their presentations to fit the time slot and promised us we'd have access to slides and video later, so it felt OK. A few I wish had a longer time slot - maybe there could be a variety of session lengths with a few going 60-90 minutes each day? Just a thought. Nearly all of them were crowded, no matter how large the room. I quickly learned to hop on the nearest golf cart (THANK YOU for those!) and head to the front of the room to find a seat (there was almost always a front-row seat available even when the room looked packed to overflowing - only once did I have to sit on the floor). I spoke to someone driving a golf cart who said the conference had nearly doubled in size this year - wow! I think that showed in the crowded session rooms. I'm not sure what the best solution is - are there more rooms? Cap attendance (boo)? Maybe erect some smaller tents or use the bigger tents for some breakout sessions? Maximize the space you have! Despite being involved in the online Community Space and jumping on the Twitter bandwagon, I felt like I was missing some information all week. I discovered the Unconference VERY late in the game, but managed to get into the "course" on time and attend part of the it. I was already registered for some Pre-Conference sessions, so I couldn't attend all of it (which I suspect is why it was on the down-low - free vs paid sessions). I didn't understand what the General Sessions were about and almost skipped them in favor of a nap - until I asked a conference veteran who explained that's when we learn about new stuff in Canvas. In retrospect, I think all the information I needed was indeed, somewhere, but for some reason, I felt a bit scattered compared to other conferences I've attended. The hugely enthusiastic, energetic, and helpful Instructure staff more than made up for it though - They were easy to locate with their matching shirts, they were EVERYWHERE, and not one ever hesitated to help out and make everyone feel super-welcome. They really made the difference in this conference in my opinion. Kudos to Instructure for fostering such a great sense of community and welcome in your staff! The Wi-Fi issues were, in my opinion, inexcusable. During the Pre-conference, I was unable to participate at all in one session due to not being able to connect. I eventually got onto the hotel Wi-Fi, but their connection was so slow I was unable to keep up with the hands-on class. It felt like a huge waste of $100 for that session. 😞   I asked the IT guys I found in the hall during that session why my laptop couldn't find an IP address - I was told they were "working on it". But the connection issues continued all week - some times I was golden, others, I couldn't connect at all. Incredibly frustrating! Especially for a tech conference where folks were encouraged to bring multiple devices. Again, I suspect this was a function of growing pains, and I hope and trust that it will be much improved for InstCon2016. I liked the theme, but the color scheme left a lot to be desired. All the yellow was extremely hard to read - both on the website prior to the conference as well as in the PowerPoint templates presenters were given. There was almost too much to do - I wanted more time! More time to meet and chat with folks from around the world. More time to play games at game night, more time chat and learn at Hack Night. I may, possibly, have tried to do "everything", which may not have been the best plan. But I had a blast! The swag was generous, but perhaps include some more practical items like water bottles (I HATED to keep using plastic bottles and then searching for a recycling bin), a notebook (I found one on the last day - I could have used it earlier to take notes during the sessions), etc... A huge THANK YOU for the air-conditioned giant tent for the keynotes and general sessions. If those had been held outside in the blistering sun, I would have had to look for a live-feed or wait for the YouTube video. Overall, I had a ton of fun, learned enough to keep me busy for weeks if not months, met a whole new community of awesome people, and came home both energized and exhausted. Well played, Instructure. Rock on! ... View more