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Canvas User Integration Settings

Updated

The Canvas Certified Integration logo.

The Course Evaluations & Surveys User integration with Instructure’s Canvas LMS has several features which allow you to customize the Course Evaluations & Surveys user experience within Canvas for students, teaching assistants, instructors and Administrators.

This article is for configuring the behavior and user experience of your Canvas User Integration. If you have not yet set up your Canvas User Integration then see the Canvas User Integration Setup article.

User Integration Setup

The below settings enable the Course Evaluations & Surveys LTI links in Canvas. The "Show <role> Link" and widget provide direct access to Course Evaluations & Surveys.  Display additional info in the Canvas widget to help drive adoption and urgency. Links for Instructors, Administrators, and Teaching Assistants will display at all times depending on course enrollment and course alignment to the CE&S hierarchy, but will only display for students who have active evaluations.

User Settings Navigation:

The User Integration Setup page showing the User Settings Navigation section with a checkbox for showing the user settings link and a text field labeled User Settings Link Text displaying 'Course Evaluations'.

Under User Settings Navigation, you can display a customized static LTI link on the user account Settings page within Canvas to all Canvas users, even if they are not enrolled in Course Evaluations & Surveys Projects. This link will take users directly to their Course Evaluations & Surveys Dashboard

NOTE: This static LTI link is not available under User Integration Setup when the Canvas Web Service Token is created at a Canvas sub-account level. This is by Canvas design.

Instructors LTI link and widget settings:

The User Integration Setup page showing the Instructors section with Course Navigation settings, a checkbox for showing the instructor link, a text field for Instructor Link Text, and a Widgets section with a checkbox for showing the instructor course homepage widget and display options for start date, end date, days left, and response rate.

Administrators LTI link and widget settings:

The Administrators section showing Course Navigation settings with a checkbox for showing the admin link and a text field for Admin Link Text. The Widgets section showing a checkbox for displaying the administrator course homepage widget with a header field and display options for start date, end date, days left, and response rate.

Teaching Assistant LTI link and widget settings:

The Teaching Assistant section showing Course Navigation settings with a checkbox for showing the TA link and a text field for TA Link Text. The Widgets section showing a checkbox for the TA course homepage widget with a header field and display options for start date, end date, and days left.

Student LTI link, Survey Notifications, widget, and additional settings:

The Students section showing Course Navigation settings with a checkbox for showing the student course link and a text field for Student Link Text. The Survey Notifications section showing three checkboxes for displaying survey notifications in Canvas courses and on the Canvas dashboard for course evaluation and general survey projects.

The section showing fields for header text and body text, a text field for the 'Go To Survey' button label, a checkbox for showing the 'Do It Later' button, and a checkbox with a dropdown for removing the 'Do It Later' option a set number of days before the survey end date.

The section showing fields for the 'Do It Later' button text, a checkbox for going directly to the survey, and a checkbox for hiding the survey notification on quiz or test pages. The Widgets section showing checkboxes for student or respondent widgets on the course homepage and dashboard with header fields and display options for start date, end date, days left, and response rate, followed by a Save button.

Course Navigation (Instructors, Teaching Assistants, Administrators, Students)

  1. Under Course Navigation for each role you can enable and customize the LTI links that display in the left-hand navigation in your Canvas courses.
  2. Choose the roles you wish to display links for by checking the Show... checkbox, and customize the link text. These links will take users directly into Course Evaluations & Surveys.
  3. Links for students will automatically display when surveys for a course begin, along with a pill indicating the number of active evaluations or surveys, and will disappear when the survey period ends (links will not display in courses without surveys).

The course home page in Canvas showing the Course Evaluations link in the left navigation highlighted with a notification badge. The main area showing recent activity and a Course Evaluations section on the right displaying an evaluation entry with response status and due date.

Course Widgets (Instructors, Administrators, Students)

Canvas Course Widgets can be used as an additional access point to Course Evaluations & Surveys, as well as display survey information.

The course home page showing the Course Evaluations section on the right highlighted with an evaluation entry displaying the course title, response percentage, number of responses, start date, due date, and days remaining.

  1. Under Widgets for each role, you can display a list of surveys on the right-hand side of Canvas, with a customized header.
  2. For all roles, choose to display the evaluation start date, due (end) date, days left, and current response rate for the course evaluation.
  3. For Instructors, Teaching Assistants, and Administrators, the Widget will display all the time on their Canvas Course Homepage once the project is deployed.
  4. For Students, the Widget will display on their Canvas Course Homepage and/or Dashboard, show a Completed timestamp after the survey has been submitted, and display for the duration of the survey (through your project or course-level dates).
  5. Clicking on the Widget will automatically take users directly into Course Evaluations & Surveys.

NOTE: If the same course code is used for a course in multiple projects, multiple instances of the course will display in the Canvas widget.  So you may see the widget info for the course from previous terms.  Once data starts being collected for the new course in the current term, the widget will begin displaying the new, current course at the top of the widget with older terms below.

Students - Survey Notifications (account-level)

This feature allows the CES Administrator to enable a Survey Notification that automatically displays in courses for only those students with an active survey to take, otherwise the Survey Notification is suppressed and does not display. You can customize your Survey Notification message and functionality. The Survey Notification automatically provides a single sign on button at the bottom of the notification to take the student directly to their survey in Course Evaluations & Surveys.

The course page showing a pop‑up message prompting completion of course evaluations with header text, explanation text, and two buttons labeled Go To Survey and Do It Later.

  1. Show Survey Notification on Canvas Course for Course Evaluation projects: If enabled, when a student accesses their Canvas course the system will check to see if the student has an active survey to take for that course, and if so, your customized survey notification will display along with a LTI link to take the user directly to the survey. If the student does not have a survey to take for the specified course the survey notification does not display.

  2. Show Survey Notification on Canvas Dashboard for Course Evaluation projects (Data Integration courses only: If enabled, when a student accesses their Canvas dashboard the system will check to see if the student has an active survey to take for any course they are enrolled in, and if so, your customized survey notification will display along with a LTI link to take the user directly to the survey. If the student does not have a course evaluation survey to take for any of their courses the survey notification does not display.

    NOTE: This option will not be available if the Canvas Web Service Token is generated at the sub-account level in Canvas.

  3. Show Survey Notification on Canvas Dashboard for Non-Public General Survey projects: If enabled, when a student accesses their Canvas dashboard the system will check to see if the student has an active general survey to take, and if so, your customized survey notification will display along with a LTI link to take the user directly to the survey. If the student does not have a general survey to take the survey notification does not display.

NOTE: The Show Survey Notification on Canvas Dashboard for Non-Public General Survey projects does not function if the Canvas Web Service Token is generated at the sub-account level in Canvas.

  1. Customize the Notification display size and header text.
  2. Customize the Notification body text, with plain text, or you can insert HTML.
  3. Customize the Go To Survey Button Text that displays at the bottom of the Notification and takes the student to the survey for the course.

  4. Do it Later Option

    1. Include a Do it later option. This will include a button at the bottom of the notification allowing the student to click Do it later, which will make the survey notification close and allow the student to interact within their Canvas course. The survey notification will display the next time the student logs into that course, as long as they still have an active survey to take for that course.
    2. Exclude the “Do it later” option will remove this option from the survey notification. This will force the student to go to their surveys before being able to interact within their course in Canvas. This option will lock the student out of the course until they have completed the survey for the course.
    3. Schedule the Do it later option to be removed automatically based on X number of days before your Survey End dates. With this option the system checks against your survey end dates setup in Course Evaluations & Surveys, and will remove this option accordingly, if you have enabled it. Again, once the “Do it later” option is removed, the student will not be able to interact with their Canvas course until they have viewed the survey for that course and taken further action.
    4. Hide Survey Notification on the course Quizzes page, when Do it later is enabled.
  5. Enable the Go Directly to Survey option to allow students to go directly to the survey for their Canvas course. If unchecked, the student will go to their Student Dashboard in Course Evaluations & Surveys.

NOTE: If you would like students in an unpublished course to access the evaluation from within Canvas, enable "Show Survey Notification on Canvas Dashboard for Course Evaluation projects (Data Integration courses only)". Because students cannot access an unpublished course in Canvas, consider enabling this option to allow the Survey Notification to fire on the Canvas Dashboard and provide access for these enrollments.

NOTE: The account-level Student Survey Notification can be overridden by the project-level Student Survey Notification Settings feature, which can be used to customize the notification for a specific project.

TIP: The Survey Notification can help set the expectation with the survey taking process, as well as enforce the evaluation culture at your institution. You can customize the Header and Body of the Survey Notification to help set the expectation up front, avoid confusion and frustration, and ultimately help achieve your response rate goals.

Testing the User Integration

  1. Now that you’ve set up the data and user integration, import your test course and test student into your Course Evaluations & Surveys project, and deploy the project. You can then log in as the test student in Canvas to verify the survey notification is received. Make changes in User Settings to walk through the student experience in real-time.

Add Calendar Items with Links Automatically via API

NOTE: If a course is copied, any existing Canvas Calendar event will also be copied. This could cause a duplicated calendar event that would need to be manually removed from the new course.

  1. You can also elect to automatically add a LTI link to access Course Evaluations & Surveys in student’s calendars in Canvas for all courses within a project. The calendar item and link will automatically display in the calendar on the survey start date scheduled (for either project-level or course-level dates, if added).

    The calendar view showing a pop‑up event titled Take Your Course Evaluation with course details, a description about completing evaluations, and a Go To Survey link.

  2. Within Course Evaluations & Surveys, navigate to Account > Integrations (section) > Canvas > User Settings tab and scroll down to the bottom of the page to the Canvas Calendar Setup section.

  3. To automatically add calendar items containing a LTI authenticated link in student’s calendars in Canvas for all courses within a project, Click on Enable Calendar items with link.

    1. The calendar item and link will automatically display in the calendar on the survey start date scheduled (for either project-level or course-level dates, if added).

      The Canvas Calendar Setup section showing a checkbox for enabling calendar items with a link, a text field for the calendar item title, and a text area for the calendar item description, followed by a Save button.

  4. If the CES Admin chooses to discontinue the use of this feature, a Clear Calendar Items button will appear.  This button will remove the calendar links that have been added by this feature during the same turn.  But as mentioned above, if users have copied their old Canvas course shell to make a new Canvas course shell for the next term, the calendar item will copy into the new shell.  In that case, this function will not remove the calendar item from the new shell.  Copied calendar event is now owned by Canvas and not CES.  Any copied calendar items would need to be removed manually.
    The Canvas Calendar Setup section showing a Save button and a highlighted Clear Calendar Items button displayed together below the calendar settings.
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