Learn@UW Madison Canvas Handling Information
Service Description
Canvas is the supported LMS (Learning Management System) at UW-Madison. Canvas LMS is a comprehensive, cloud-native software package that allows instructors to curate information for their classes using the platform's built-in features. Canvas is developed by Instructure, an education technology company based in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is hosted through AWS (Amazon Web services).
More information regarding using Canvas, as well as common troubleshooting steps, can be found via the Canvas LMS community.
Support Conditions
Service Users
- Current employees, including:
- UW Madison employees
- UW Hospital employees
- UW Medical Foundation employees
- UW System employees with a Dane County office address
- UW Madison students, including:
- Currently enrolled students
- Enrolled future students
- Former students enrolled in or after 2005
- Other designations, including:
- All HRS POI (emeritus, consultants, etc.)
- All UW Madison Spec Auth affiliates (designated by HR)
- Any UW Madison Spec Pop (i.e. Manifest-created) NetID where the Manifest group has been authorized for Canvas by the Learn@UW team
- Lifelong Learners (L3)
Availability
24x7
Server Information
Hosted by Instructure via Amazon Cloud Web Services
Unique Support Conditions
Learn@UW Support regularly handles Canvas cases for Staff and Faculty, but they generally do not handle Canvas cases for students.
Most student issues can be addressed at the General Help Desk level. If the student has an issue they only see in one course, ask the students to contact their instructor. The instructor will file a ticket with the Help Desk or Learn@UW-Madison.
Please escalate Canvas cases for students if one of these conditions are met:
- You have exhausted options in Learn@UW - General Troubleshooting for Learn@UW Tools [UW-Madison].
- An issue affects more than one Canvas course
- Canvas administrative support is needed
- There is a common issue reported by several students, but no outage.
Please consult the Learn@UW KnowledgeBase or Canvas Community site for more resources when assisting students.
For cases concerning web conferencing in Canvas, use Zoom (Canvas Integration) - Overview [UW-Madison] and UW-Madison Zoom Workplace Handling Information.
Creating WiscIT Incidents
Select an appropriate technical service, category, and subcategory from the options below.
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Canvas
- Learn@UW - Canvas Madison
- Accounts - For access-related issues (not to be confused with NetID issues)
- Analytics - For inquiries on course statistics and analytics
- Announcements - For issues regarding a course's announcements
- Assignments - Help with Assignments section of a course
- Chat - For help with the Chat tool in Canvas
- Collaborations - For questions regarding collaborative assignments.
- Communication/Email - For questions regarding messaging or emails via Canvas
- Consultation - For questions about or requests for in-person consultations (AT Consultations, Academic Technology Consultations, Learn@UW Consultations) or training
- Content - For questions related to the content of the course (Areas of the course like: announcements, assignments, modules, pages)
- Continuity of Instruction - For questions related to the COVID-19 work
- Course Request - User or Group is requesting course space
- Discussions - For problems with a course's discussion section
- Early Activation - Requests for a course to be activated early
- Enrollment - People tab in the course isn't correct or doesn't match what the Instructor thinks should be there
- Feature Request - Requests for a new Canvas feature. Customers should be directed to the Canvas Feature Request Form
- Files - Users having issues with files uploaded to or downloaded from Canvas
- Final Grading - For questions related to the "Faculty Center Grade Prep Tool"
- Gradebook - User needs help with adding grades or Gradebook
- Merge Request - Help combining a course or separating a course
- Migration - Questions related to transferring course content between semesters.
- Modules - For general questions about course modules
- Non-Timetable Support - For all requests related to non-timetable courses (such as a manually-created or training course such as Alcohol Edu)
- Pages - For inquiries regarding Canvas course pages
- Quizzing - Help with anything in the Quizzing tool or related issue
- Syllabus - For questions related to the Official Syllabus tool. See [Link for document 78761 is unavailable at this time.].
- NetID Change - Used by Learn@UW-Madison Team only. When users get their NetID changed in Middleware, Kaltura and AEFIS don't automatically update, so the admins have to go in and manually change/merge accounts.
- Other - Use only if the case can't be classified by categories noted above.
- Learn@UW - Canvas Madison
For ALL incidents, gather the following minimum required information:
Clear, detailed description of the problem
Complete customer contact information
Copy/paste the following additional required information into the WiscIT Description field:
Please fill out case specifics in WiscIT after classifying the case.HDQA Notes
- Canvas is monitored by SNCC. For all suspected outages follow standard procedures documented under 'Creating An Incident (Outage)'.
- Help Desk Level 2 Second Level Support: The Help Desk should attempt to resolve all documented issues. Canvas calls that can't be resolved at the Help Desk level should be forwarded to Help Desk Level 2 for additional support. Note that these callers should not be transferred to Help Desk Level 2; required handling information should be gathered and the WiscIT call should be forwarded to the Help Desk Level 2 group.
Creating an Incident (Outages)
For a visual depiction of this workflow, see the following image: Process Diagram
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The Help Desk receives one or more customer contacts for an issue that is identified as a potential outage.
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HDQA checks the outages page for any related open planned outages. HDQA then chats SNCC via Service Support Chat Room and confirms an outage should be declared.
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If an outage is identified, SNCC should immediately begin creating an Outage.
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HDQA receives the Incident from the agent(s) who handled the initial contact(s).
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HDQA creates a problem in Cherwell by selecting New > Problem. HDQA then fills out the fields in the Identify and Classify section of the Problem with the information they gathered from the Incident(s). For assistance with Problem creation, reference: Help Desk Training - Create a Problem in WiscIT without the Problem Manager or Help Desk Training - Create a Problem in WiscIT with the Problem Manager.
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When the Problem has been created and saved, HDQA clicks the team name in the Owned by pane and assigns the Problem to 'SNCC-Sysops' or 'SNCC-Network' as directed by the service handling doc or SNCC staff.
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SNCC receives the Problem and links the Problem to the Outage from the Problem screen.
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HDQA links the original Incident(s) and any additional relevant Incidents they have received to the Problem. For instructions on performing this step, see WiscIT - Linking an Incident to a Problem.
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As calls continue to come in, Help Desk agents should link the Incidents to the Problem themselves. Level 1 agents should simply save the Incident at this stage; do NOT resolve these Incidents or escalate them to HDQA.
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When the outage is resolved, SNCC will go into the open Problem and select the Resolve Attached Incidents link on left side of screen; this will email all customers that their Incidents should be resolved. The email will direct customers to contact the Help Desk if they believe the issue is still occurring.
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If the problem needs follow-up investigation, SNCC will assign the Problem to the appropriate team.
After Hours Handling
N/A