FAQs
Questions about using Canvas:
Canvas provides 24/7 assistance via the Help Menu in your Canvas account. Login to Canvas using your access.caltech credential, open the "?" icon in the left-most navigation menu, and choose support via online chat, phone, or web form.
To contact all Caltech teams with questions about Canvas, email canvas@caltech.edu.
All other questions:
Academic Media Technologies (AMT), Center for Teaching, Learning, and Outreach (CTLO), Caltech Help Desk, Caltech Library, and the Registrar's Office are available M-F, 8 am – 5 pm PT.
Please email support requests to the following campus groups:
- amt@caltech.edu – how to use G Suite, Zoom, and lecture recording tools
- ctlo@caltech.edu – course design and teaching methods; teaching policies (e.g., FERPA , honor code); TA training; how to use Gradescope and Piazza with Canvas.
- help@caltech.edu – platform access to G Suite, Gradescope, Canvas, and Zoom, including Zoom Pro and Zoom Webinar licenses and system requirements
- library@caltech.edu – course materials, iPad and Apple Pencil student loaner program
- regis@caltech.edu – add/drop classes, add users in Canvas, course changes, enrollment/registration
Please find the latest FAQs about Fall 2021 instruction at https://together.caltech.edu/faq/instruction.
A dedicated student support website is available at learn.caltech.edu. Please refer students there for complete information.
These support services have been available remotely throughout the pandemic. For updates as campus operations resume, please visit each website listed below:
- The Hixon Writing Center has conducted one-to-one meetings with students online; you can find more information at http://writing.caltech.edu/.
- Deans tutors continue to be available to support Caltech undergraduates. Students are encouraged to utilize preferred methods to communicate most effectively with tutors, and tutors should continue tracking hours as usual. Information can be found at deans.caltech.edu
- Caltech Accessibility Services for Students continues to be available to support students with documented needs.
- Counseling support continues to be available to students via telephone and the after-hours service. Telephone crisis consultation is available after business hours on weekdays, weekends, and holidays by calling the Counseling Services main line at (626) 395-8331 and pressing "2" when prompted.
Students facing challenges with internet accessibility related to financial need are encouraged to be in contact with the Deans' Office (deansoffice@caltech.edu).
Zoom bombing is a phenomenon where uninvited people disrupt a zoom meeting. Keep Zoom invitations shared only with students (never publicly) and have screen sharing off for participants (now the default setting). More info here.
Both of these applications allow secure, FERPA-compliant exchange of assignments, feedback, and grades with students; they just have different features. Canvas allows streamlined hand-in, use of grading rubrics, feedback via typed or annotated comments, and voice/video feedback, and recording/return of scores. Gradescope has expanded functionality for problem sets and coding assignments, including batch grading of individual problems across an entire set of submissions and use of grading rubrics. We suggest exploring the documentation for Canvas Assignments, Canvas SpeedGrader, andGradescope a little to find out what might be best suited to your course. We also discuss different types of assignments here.
There are many platforms instructors can use to host video files during course instruction. The Video Storage Options page provides a comparison of the various types of recordings and the recommended workflows.
It is possible to use other applications; please exercise caution and consider carefully what kind of information is being shared via third-party applications. Find out more here.
We have set up a YouTube playlist with recordings from the Summer 2020 Caltech Adaptable Teaching Series, which include "How To" sessions on Canvas, Assignments/Exams, Discussion Forums, Digital Whiteboards, and discussions on a variety of remote teaching topics. In addition, this playlist of Caltech-made demonstrations and how-to's show technical demonstrations of various applications and technologies. The pages under Tech & Tools also contain links to support materials that also contain video tutorials.
Sure, we would recommend going through the pages in the Advice & Guidance section of the website, as these resources walk through key considerations and offer models for remote/online course components that have worked well at Caltech.
As Caltech instruction returns to largely in-person formats for the 2021-22 academic year, auditing policies are as usual. Please visit the Registrar's Office website for more information as it becomes available.
Instructure, the parent company of Canvas, has customized the Acceptable Use Policy for the Canvas Learning Management System for Caltech, in order to clarify the ownership of the content. When you login to Canvas, you will be asked to agree to the terms shown here.
Please find out more about these topics in the section of this web page on Copyright and Intellectual Property.
IMSS maintains a list of applications accessible from off campus, indicating which ones require use of a Virtual Private Network (VPN) and/or Remote Desktop.