Teaching During Disruptions

A Canvas course export bundles your pages, assignments, quizzes, and structure into a single file you can keep on your own device and re-import later if needed.

1. In your course, open Settings (bottom of the course navigation).
2. On the right sidebar, click Export Course Content.
3. Choose Course as the export type and click Create Export.
4. When it finishes, download the .imscc file and save it somewhere outside Canvas (see Box below).

Note: a course export does not include media stored in Kaltura or content from some third-party tools — see the Mediaspace card below for video.

Your gradebook is the record you can least afford to lose. Export it as a spreadsheet on a regular schedule so you always have a recent snapshot.

1. Open Grades in the course navigation.
2. Click Export, then Export Entire Gradebook.
3. Canvas provides you with a CSV file — save it with a dated filename (e.g., BIO1305-grades-2026-03-10.csv).

Online quizzes and exams are difficult to replicate on paper without preparation. Export or print your tests as PDFs so you always have a recent copy offline.

• Export Canvas Classic Quizzes as PDFs
  https://community.instructure.com/en/kb/articles/662692-printing-quizzes-from-canvas
   
• Export Canvas New Quizzes as PDFs
  https://community.instructure.com/en/kb/articles/661087-how-do-i-print-a-quiz-in-new-quizzes

For major assignments, keep a local copy of what students turned in.

1. Open the assignment, then choose Download Submissions.
2. Canvas packages them into a ZIP file; extract it and store the folder with your other course backups.

If Canvas is unavailable, you'll need another way to reach everyone. Keep a current roster — including student email addresses and your TAs — saved outside Canvas.

The authoritative Baylor roster source is ClassRoll.

Remember that TAs may not appear on an automatically generated student list — add them manually to any backup contact list.

Set up a Microsoft Teams team or channel for your class at the start of the term and let students know it's the official fallback if Canvas goes down. Because it lives in Baylor's Microsoft environment, it stays available independently of Canvas.

• Create a team for the course and post the join link or code in your syllabus and an early announcement.
• Use channels for announcements, Q&A, and (if needed) file sharing.
• Teams meetings can stand in for class sessions or office hours during an outage.
• Use Canvas to easily create a course-based Team from within Canvas.

Lecture videos and other recordings are hosted in Kaltura Mediaspace, which is separate from Canvas. That means your video library generally stays reachable even when Canvas isn't — as long as you know how to get to it and share it directly.

• Sign in to Mediaspace and confirm you can find your course videos under My Media.
• Practice generating a direct share link for a video now, so the steps are familiar later.

Treat Canvas as a delivery tool, not your only filing cabinet. Keep the master copies of your slides, readings, and study guides in Box. If Canvas is down, you can share the same files instantly with a link.

A simple habit: keep one Box or OneDrive folder per course that mirrors what you've posted in Canvas.

Your first move is a clear message about how the outage affects your class — any changes to due dates or exams, and where students should now look for updates.

Email from your saved roster. 

• Use Outlook to email the address list you saved earlier. Be sure to include your TAs.

Microsoft Teams

• Post the same announcement in your class Team so students have a single, reliable place to check.

Distribute course materials straight from Box:

1. Put the files in a course folder in Box if you don't already have them there.
2. Create a share link, setting access to people in your organization (Baylor) so all students with the link can open it.
3. Email or post that link in Teams.

Because Kaltura is independent of Canvas, you can send students to your videos directly through Mediaspace:

1. Sign in to Mediaspace and open My Media.
2. Generate a share link for the relevant video (or a channel/playlist for the whole course).
3. Distribute the link by email or in Teams.

The most dependable fallback is email or a shared folder. To keep submissions organized:

• Give students an exact subject line and file-naming convention, e.g., Lastname-Essay2-SP2026.
• Ask them to include their Baylor ID number in the file, which makes re-entering grades into Canvas easier later.
• For larger classes, a Teams assignment or a Box upload folder can be tidier than email.

If a quiz or exam was scheduled in Canvas, reasonable alternatives include:

• A paper-based or blue-book version administered in class.
• A prior version of the assessment distributed as a document and returned by email.
• Microsoft Forms for a quick online quiz, since it's part of Baylor's Microsoft environment.

Communicate any change in format, timing, or weighting as early as possible.

Submitting or calculating grades in Canvas will have to wait until access is restored. In the meantime, record scores in a spreadsheet (Excel in your Microsoft account works well) so nothing is lost and re-entry is straightforward later.

• Re-enter any grades you tracked offline.
• Adjust due dates for affected assignments — edit them individually, or use bulk date editing from the Assignments page.
• Re-confirm testing accommodations (extra time, etc.) for any quizzes that were rescheduled.
• Post a brief "we're back to normal" announcement so students know where to look again.