This set of recommendations provides tips and guidance for instructors in the event they need to move their classes online due to unforeseen circumstances.

Communicate Through Announcements

Post Announcements with written or recorded messages for your students. This is the fastest way to communicate with your entire class from within Canvas. Suggest to students that they check their notifications settings (Links to an external site.) to allow for copies of Announcements to be forwarded to their email address.

Host Class Virtually through Conferences (BigBlueButton)

In the event students or instructors are unable to attend a class, schedule a virtual meeting through BigBlueButton available through the Conferences tab. Conferences is available in every Canvas course.

Set up a virtual meeting in your course using Conferences.
Post an Announcement in your course notifying students of the date and time of the meeting. Let them know they can access the meeting through the Conferences tab in your Canvas course.
Create a Calendar Event in your course notifying students of the date and time of the meeting. Let them know they can access the meeting through the Conferences tab in your Canvas course.
Record the meeting for students who are not able to attend. Recording options are available both when scheduling the meeting in Canvas and during the session. (Recordings in Conferences are deleted automatically after 14 days).

Using Conferences / BigBlueButton in Canvas Instructure

Share Lecture Video and Audio

To record or share large or long lecture videos or screen share presentations, you have two options:

Schedule, host, and record a Conferences session with or without your students. You can then share the video in your course. Conferences provides whiteboards for annotation, slides, screen share, and video and audio capture. Learn more about Conferences.
Panopto is available for more complex lecture and screen capture, and offers robust editing features and view analytics. Learn more about Panopto.
For short, simple videos, you can use the video recorder available in the rich content editor (Links to an external site.) to record a video or audio message for your students. The tool is available in several areas in Canvas and can be used when posting an Announcement.

Set up a Class Discussion

Setting up a Canvas discussion (Links to an external site.) is an easy way to allow instructors to discuss course content or assignments with students, or for students to share work or ask questions.

Create a discussion board (Links to an external site.).
Learn more about discussions and get recommendations.
For large classes with TAs, see Creating Group Assignments and Discussions. Group Discussions make discussions in large classes more manageable.

More information from Canvas

Using Canvas During A School Closure in Higher Ed.pdf