CTOL Homepage Faculty Professional Development Assessment Accessibility
At SPSCC we have a number of tools available to help with your online instruction. Open the pages below to get information about how to use these tools.
Canvas Getting Started Guide for Faculty
Use the quick links below to prepare your course shells, access core teaching tools, and troubleshoot common questions before and during the term.
🚀 1. Essential Setup & Initial Preparation
Key steps to complete before publishing your course to students:
- Account & Notification Preferences
Set up your profile photo, contact details, and default notification preferences.
đź”— Canvas Guide: Set Notification Preferences - Course Content Import (Copying a Course)
Import materials from a sandbox, template, or prior term's course.
đź”— Canvas Guide: Copy Content from Another Course - Building Modules & Course Structure
Organize pages, assignments, files, and discussions logically by week or unit.
đź”— Canvas Guide: How to Use Modules - Setting the Course Home Page
Choose whether students see a Front Page, the Course Modules, or the Syllabus upon entry.
đź”— Canvas Guide: Change the Course Home Page
đź“– 2. Getting Started: Core Teaching Tools
Essential workflows for day-to-day instruction and student interaction:
- Assignments & Grading Schemes
Create submission portals, set due dates, attach rubrics, and organize assignment groups.
đź”— Canvas Guide: Create an Assignment - SpeedGrader & Gradebook
Evaluate student work, annotate submissions directly, leave feedback, and enter grades.
đź”— Canvas Guide: How to Use SpeedGrader - Communicating with Students
Post course-wide Announcements, send direct messages using the Conversations Inbox, or facilitate Discussions.
đź”— Canvas Guide: Use the Canvas Inbox - Publishing Your Course
Ensure both individual items and parent modules are published, then publish the entire course shell.
đź”— Canvas Guide: How to Publish a Course
🔧 3. Quick Links for Common Issues & Troubleshooting
Solutions for frequently encountered technical and navigation questions:
-
"My students can't see a module, page, or assignment."
Quick Fix: Check that both the item and the overarching Module display green published checkmarks. -
"How do I see what my course looks like to students?"
Quick Fix: Click Student View in the top-right of your course home page to test navigation and assignments. -
"How do I clean up or hide course menu options?"
Quick Fix: Go to Settings > Navigation to reorder or disable unused left-navigation menu links. -
"Canvas isn't loading properly or pages are blank."
Quick Fix: Try clearing your browser cache or switching to an updated browser like Chrome or Firefox.
đź“š 4. Master Hubs & Comprehensive Documentation
- Full Canvas Instructor Guide — Searchable repository for all Canvas tool documentation.
🔗 Community.canvaslms.com — Instructor Guide Hub - Canvas Video Guides — Concise 3–5 minute video overviews covering essential instructor tasks.
đź”— Canvas Video Guides for Instructors
Hypothesis is a social annotation tool that can be integrated into your Canvas course. Instructors select a text (a PDF or webpage) for students to read. Students are then able to read the text and annotate it as they read, adding highlights, text, or images in a class conversation.
If you are curious about adding Hypothesis content into your course, contact the Center for Teaching and Online Learning for support, or visit the Hypothesis help pages for many useful guides to get started.
For ongoing Hypothesis training, check the CTOL calendar or go to a Hypothesis workshop!
How to Use Hypothesis in Canvas
Follow the steps below (or read these instructions from Hypothesis) to set up a Hypothesis assignment. You don't need to install anything in Canvas.
- When you are ready to assign a reading in Hypothesis, first locate your file. We recommend using a PDF (always make sure that your PDF is accessible). Here is more information on scanning documents and running OCR on existing PDFs to make sure your documents are accessible.
- Upload your file to the Canvas course where you plan to use Hypothesis.
- Then create a new assignment.
- In submission type, choose External Tool, then choose Hypothesis and select your file.
If Your Hypothesis Assignment Isn't Working
Sometimes Hypothesis assignments don't work because the file is actually in another Canvas course. This usually happens with a copied Canvas course. If students report being unable to open the Hypothesis assignment, please re-upload your file to the current Canvas course or reach out to CTOL for support. We can quickly troubleshoot what is causing the issue.
Sometimes a Hypothesis assignment has an issue if you set it up using a URL instead of a Canvas file. This happens when a URL changes. Because of this, we recommend uploading your PDF files directly into Canvas instead.
Accessibility in Hypothesis
Hypothesis should be as accessible as the documents that have been loaded in it are. That means, you must be sure that your documents are actual text that can be read by a screen reader.
- Hypothesis and Screen Readers
- Creating annotations using only your keyboard
- Adobe: Scanning documents to PDF (see bottom of page for instructions on using OCR in Adobe)
Hypothesis Support
CTOL can provide support with Hypothesis, and in our experience, Hypothesis is also really responsive to support questions. You can search the Hypothesis help center or submit a help request here.
You are also able to submit a support ticket directly with Hypothesis, as well as schedule a 1:1 appointment to screenshare and get live support.
H5P is a plugin that allows instructors to create accessible interactive content for their courses. The H5P plugin is available to all instructors within Canvas. With H5P you can create new, interactive activities or modify current assignments to make them more accessible and engaging.
There are many types of H5P activities: H5P Content Types & Examples.
H5P Activities include
- Interactive Video
- Interactive Book
- Cornell Notes
- Quizzes
- Fill in the Blanks
- Structure Strip
- Course Presentation
- and more
Creating H5P Content in Canvas
To start making H5P content, simply go to a page or assignment in Canvas, or create H5P content on the SPSCC H5P page.
To add ungraded H5P, click the H5P button in the rich content editor. To add grade H5P activities to an assignment, go to the submission type menu and click external tool. Find and select Interactive Content – H5P.
To Add Ungraded H5P Content
Use the H5P icon in the rich content editor (the toolbar in a Canvas page or assignment).
To Add Graded H5P Content
Click Submission Type and select External Tool. Then find "Interactive Content - H5P" from the menu and click select.
As an institution that makes the Microsoft Office suite of tools readily available to our students, it is important to encourage them to make the most of these tools and all of the features they have. It is important to also remember that most of our students coming from high school are only or mostly familiar with the Google platform and may not even be aware that they have free access to Microsoft. Below are a few resources that can be useful for the instructional environment.
Microsoft Office Resources
Switch to Microsoft 365 from Google Workspace - Microsoft Support
Microsoft 365 Quick Starts - Microsoft Support
Outlook training - Microsoft Support
PowerPoint for Windows training - Microsoft Support
OneDrive video tutorials - Microsoft Support
Accessibility video training - Microsoft Support
Overview: Microsoft Education LTI in Canvas
Canvas has updated to the Microsoft Education LTI suite. This updated integration brings your Microsoft 365 apps—including OneDrive, Teams, and Office tools—directly into Canvas through a unified dashboard.
With this setup, you can embed live-updating documents, create interactive cloud template assignments, and automatically sync your course rosters with Microsoft Teams.
1. Initial Setup: The Microsoft Education Dashboard
Before using Microsoft tools in your Canvas course for the first time, you will need to complete a brief one-time setup to choose which apps are visible to your students.
First-Time Adoption Process
- In your Canvas course left navigation menu, click Microsoft Education.
- Click Continue setup to begin selecting the tools you want to enable for your class.
- Review the available Microsoft apps, enable the ones you wish to use, and save.
Once finished, clicking Microsoft Education in your menu will take you straight to your course Dashboard.
Editing App Settings Later
If you need to add or remove tools later in the term:
- Open Microsoft Education from your course menu.
- Click your profile image/account avatar in the top corner.
- Select Course Settings to toggle apps on or off.
đź”’ Important Note on Teams: Unlike other tools, Microsoft Teams cannot be disabled through Course Settings once enabled. Once your course Teams channel is active, it remains enabled for the duration of the term.
2. Embedding Live Office 365 Documents
Instead of re-uploading static files every time you make an update, you can embed a live document (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) from your OneDrive directly into any Canvas page, announcement, or discussion. Any changes you make to the file in OneDrive will automatically update inside Canvas.
How to Embed a Live Document
- Open the Canvas page or item you want to edit and locate the Rich Content Editor (RCE).
- Click the Plugins icon (the puzzle piece) in the toolbar and select Microsoft Education. (If prompted, log in with your institutional credentials/Clipper ID).
- Note: If you haven't completed the initial dashboard setup mentioned above, you will be prompted to select your active tools before picking a file.
- Select the file from your OneDrive and insert it.
3. Creating OneDrive Template Assignments
Using the External Tool integration, you can distribute template files (like worksheets or lab reports) to your students. Canvas generates an individual copy for each student to complete and submit directly within the assignment.
Assignment Setup Sequence
- Create a new Assignment in Canvas and scroll down to Submission Type.
- Select External Tool from the dropdown menu, then click Find.
- Scroll through the list, select Microsoft Education, and click Select.
- Choose the document template from your OneDrive that you want to distribute to students, then finish setting your assignment parameters and save.
⚠️ First-Time OneDrive Connection Fix: If you open the file picker and see a blank screen or a loading loop, open a new browser tab, go to onedrive.com, and sign into your institutional account. Once signed in, return to Canvas and re-open the picker.
4. Microsoft Teams Setup & Roster Sync
You can set up a Microsoft Team within your Canvas course to facilitate student conversation, group work, and real-time announcements.
🚨 Critical Student Email Requirement: Students will only sync into your Microsoft Team if their primary/default email address in ctcLink is set to their official institutional email address. If a student is missing from your roster, direct them to update their primary email in ctcLink.
How to Enable and Sync Teams in Canvas
-
Access Course Integrations
In your Canvas course left navigation menu, go to Settings, then click the blue Integrations tab in the top row.
-
Enable & Trigger Microsoft Sync
Click the slider button next to Microsoft Sync to enable the integration, click the arrow icon (>) next to Microsoft Sync to reveal details, and click the Sync Now button.
Note: Once enabled, enrollment updates automatically trigger a sync. Changes can take up to 10 minutes to reflect in Microsoft Teams.
-
Open Microsoft Teams Classes
Once synced, your course navigation menu item will update to Microsoft Teams classes. Click this link from your left course menu to view your auto-generated class tile.
-
Activate the Team for Students
Click the class tile to open the Teams app or web client. Set up your channels, upload files, or create a OneNote Class Notebook if desired, then click Activate at the top of the team banner to make it visible to students.
Panopto is the tool that SPSCC uses to host videos in Canvas. You can record, upload, and edit videos. Your Panopto login information is your Clipper ID and password.
For Panopto support, contact ctol@spscc.edu
Accessing Panopto in Canvas
You can access Panopto by clicking on the "Panopto Recordings" link in your Canvas Navigation menu. To create a video, click the + Create button.
From Canvas, you can also go into the full Panopto site to edit and organize videos. Click the Open in Panopto icon 
on the right of the screen to get into your Panopto account.
Embedding Panopto Videos
You can use the Panopto Recording button in the Canvas Rich Content Editor to embed videos in any editable Canvas item.
It's simple and quick, and transfers viewing permissions for the video embedded in the page to any viewer of the page, no matter the course location.
This means you can easily import embedded videos into a new course section, as you would other Canvas content. Embedded content remains viewable to the new section without any additional management on your part.
Installing the Panopto Application
On an SPSCC device: You will need support from the SPSCC Helpdesk (596-5544) to install Panopto on your college machine. Help technicians can remotely install your Panopto recorder while you're on the phone with them!
On your personal device: You will need to download and install the latest version of Panopto Recorder
Check your Panopto Application Version
In order for Panopto to function correctly, you will need to update or install the latest version (9.02 or higher) on your device. In the Panopto app, can check your version by clicking on Settings (the gear icon). The version number will display in the bottom right of the window.
Additional Panopto Resources
- Webinar Recording – a one hour recording of the Panopto Creator Training for SBCTC
- SBCTC Panopto FAQ – document contains answers to frequently asked questions during the webinar
- SBCTC Additional Questions – document contains answers to additional questions asked during the training webinar
Panopto Support
- Panopto Support Center – page contains links to Panopto support documentation, video tutorials, and forums
- Getting Started Guide – page contains a collection of resources for getting started with Panopto
- Forum Tips and Tricks – page contains questions and Answers from Panopto’s Tips & Tricks forum
- Video Tutorials – page contains links to a variety of “how-to” Panopto video tutorials
- Panopto Community – search the Panopto Community for answers to questions you may have
Pressbooks is simple book production and content management system software based on WordPress technology. You can find and publish OER (Open Educational Resources) textbooks, online media collections, scholarly articles, syllabi, fiction and non-fiction books, white papers, and more in multiple formats including:
- Thin Cartridge for Canvas
- MOBI (for Kindle ebooks)
- EPUB (for all other ebookstores)
- designed PDF (for print-on-demand and digital distribution)
- You can even deep link your Pressbooks into your Canvas modules, so students can access chapters easily within their courses: Use Deep Linking to Bring Pressbooks Content into a Course.
Books designed in Pressbooks also have integration with H5P activities, can be imported into Canvas, and can be customized to serve your own courses. As such, they can be a robust alternative to expensive textbooks.
For support finding OER for your courses, please contact SPSCC's OER librarian, Ryer Banta, or check out the library's Faculty and Staff Guide on Open Education.
In addition, SPSCC's Alaka Pradhan has created this online introduction to Pressbooks.
How to Access Pressbooks
To Sign in to Pressbooks for the first time, go to SPSCC's Pressbooks site and click on the Sign in link in the upper right-hand corner ( please do not use the sign up link, or your authentication will not work).
You will be redirected to the SPSCC Authentication page, where you will enter your college email and email password. When authentication is complete you will return to the SPSCC Pressbooks page.
Create a New Book
- To start a new book, click on Create a New Book in the top right corner.
- Then fill out the form to create the book's URL within SPSCC's Pressbooks library.
- When Pressbooks has finished processing your request, you will be redirected to the Dashboard of your new book.
Clone a Book
- Cloning a book means that you are copying an already existing book and adding it to your SPSCC account. You can then edit and adapt the book, or import it into your Canvas course.
- To clone a book, or create a new book click on the My Books item on the upper left of the red Pressbooks menu bar and select Clone a Book from the dropdown.
- Find the url of the book you wish to clone via the directory, and open it or right click the title to copy the url to your clipboard. In your dashboard, click on Clone a Book.
- In the form that follows, enter the URL you copied, the new url for your clone, and your desired title. Your clone process may take a few minutes, depending on the size and number of items in the original.
Pressbooks Support
If you'd like a hand getting started with Pressbooks creation, please contact Ryer Banta or visit the Pressbooks user guide.
Pressbooks allows each institution three "Network Managers" who may act as support contacts if you need help from Pressbooks technical support. If you need network-level support or need to get in touch with Pressbooks' own support team, contact Ryer Banta or ctol@spscc.edu.