Welcome back! A new semester is just around the corner, and now is the perfect time to set up your Canvas course for success. Whether you’re teaching one section or several, these tips will help you start strong and keep everything organized.

These new semester tips are also available on the Prepare for a New Semester knowledge article!

Final exams can be a stressful time for both faculty and students. The right resources and strategies can make the process smoother, more effective, and less overwhelming. Honorlock is Georgia Tech’s licensed platform for automated digital proctoring services. Below is a list of resources from Honorlock to support you with preparing exams and reviewing results.

Pre-Exam Resources

Set your course up for success with these essential guides and strategies:

• 3 Ways to Honor Faculty Time: Discover practical tips to streamline your exam setup and maximize efficiency. Read more
• Proctoring Essay-Based Exams: Learn best practices for administering and proctoring essay exams online. Explore the guide
• Student Exam Anxiety? We’ve Got Help: Access resources to support students who may be feeling anxious about online exams. Find support and review FAQs for Students.
• How to Talk to Students About Cheating: Get guidance on having constructive conversations about academic integrity. Read the advice

Post-Exam Resources

After the exam, these resources will help you review, interpret, and act on results:

• Interactive Guide: Reviewing Proctored Exams: Step-by-step instructions for reviewing proctored exam sessions. Access the guide
• View Your Results: Learn how to access and interpret exam results efficiently. View results
• Best Practices for Reviewing: Tips for making the most of your exam review process. See best practices
• Interpret Proctoring Flags: Guidance on understanding and responding to proctoring alerts. Learn more

By leveraging these resources, faculty can approach final exams with greater confidence and clarity. For more support or questions about using Honorlock, reach out to the Digital Learning Team at canvas@gatech.edu.

Final Grades season is here, and with it comes a pivotal moment on the academic calendar: providing students with timely, accurate feedback on their progress. Georgia Tech has rolled out an improved GradePub Tool! This tool is a streamlined solution for publishing grades directly from Canvas to Banner.  

Why use the GradePub Tool?

Previously, submitting grades meant managing downloads, file conversions, and uploads; a process prone to errors and inefficiencies. The improved GradePub Tool eliminates these steps by securely connecting Canvas to Banner, keeping all sensitive data within Georgia Tech’s systems.

Key Benefits of the GradePub Tool

• Rapid Feedback: Grades appear in Banner instantly.
• Reduced Faculty Workload: Submit grades directly from Canvas with just a few clicks.
• Enhanced Security: No need to export grades; all data remains secure.

Faculty Tips for a Smooth Experience

• Start Early: Get started early and reach out to the Digital Learning Team at canvas@gatech.edu, if you run into any issues.
• Leverage Canvas: GradePub works seamlessly with Canvas features.
• Fallback Option: For complex grading scenarios, the GradePub Manual Export is still available.

For questions or support, contact the Digital Learning Team at canvas@gatech.edu.

To comply with USG records management policies and maintain system performance, older academic and non-academic (non-Banner) Canvas courses will be periodically removed as outlined below. Starting December 15, 2025, academic courses that are seven years or older will be deleted.

Key Points

• Academic Courses: Banner-provisioned courses become read-only two weeks after term end and are deleted 7 years later.
• No Recovery: Once deleted, courses and content cannot be restored. 

Why This Matters…

• Privacy & Security: Aligns with USG retention standards. 
• System Health: Prevents storage overload and performance issues. 

How to Save Your Content

• Instructors: Export course content (IMSCC zip), download files, export grades (CSV), and bulk download submissions. 
  • How to Export a Canvas Course 
  • How to Download a File or Folder 
  • Export Grades 
  • How to download student submissions for an assignment 

• Students: Save coursework locally or save to GT cloud storage after each semester. 
  • How to download assignments submissions from all courses 

Please review the Canvas Data Retention article for full details and support. 

Canvas Credentials is officially rebranding to Parchment Digital Badges on October 31, 2025!

This rebrand marks a significant step forward in Instructure’s mission to streamline digital credentialing and enhance the way learning achievements are recognized and celebrated. While the name and branding will change, rest assured—there will be no changes to functionality. Your experience issuing and managing badges will remain seamless and familiar. 

🔄 What’s Changing?

Canvas Credentials is being rebranded as Parchment Digital Badges, now part of the Parchment Award suite, one of the Instructure brands. This is a change in branding only — there are no changes to how the product functions or how it’s accessed. The only noticeable changes will be the new logo in the interface where “Canvas Credentials” previously appeared and the URL to our Canvas Credentials instance will invoke Parchment. 

Here’s an example of the new branding in the product interface:

💡 Why the Rebrand?

This rebrand aligns Canvas Credentials with Parchment, the world’s largest credential exchange network. Joining forces will create a more unified and powerful ecosystem for digital credentials that: 

• Connects learning career outcomes using real-time labor market data. 
• Supports stackable, skills-based badges that reflect real-world competencies. 
• Empowers learners to showcase their achievements across platforms like LinkedIn, resumes, and digital portfolios. 
• Simplifies credential management for institutions and organizations. 

🔗 Resources & Support

• To help you navigate this transition smoothly, please refer to the official FAQs for detailed answers to common questions.
• Product Blog: Parchment Award Digital Badges – A New Era in Credentialing
• If you have any questions, email the Digital Learning Team at canvas@gatech.edu.

On Friday, October 3, 2025 (note: originally September 22^nd), any existing or newly added YouTube videos embedded in Canvas may begin showing advertisements and video recommendations, potentially disrupting the learning experience. This change comes as part of YouTube’s updated integration policies, and it’s important for educators and instructional designers to prepare accordingly. Please note that these ads are controlled by YouTube and cannot be disabled within Canvas. 

If you have any questions, please contact the Digital Learning Team at canvas@gatech.edu.  

Please note that upgrading to macOS Tahoe currently causes all new Kaltura Capture recordings to produce corrupted video files. Playback freezes both in Kaltura MediaSpace and when viewed locally on the device. Upgrading to macOS Tahoe at this time will render Kaltura Capture unusable until a fix is released. We are actively monitoring the situation and will provide updates as soon as the vendor releases a resolution.

Please contact the Digital Learning Team at canvas@gatech.edu, if there are any further questions.

We are very excited to announce improvements to GT’s Padlet account access URL. It is moving from gatech.padlet.org to padlet.com/gatech on September 17, 2025.

Please note that once the migration to the “.com” domain happens, the old URL will be redirected to the new URL, and the integration with Canvas will not be impacted. 

🛠️ What’s changing 

• Users can sign up or log in with SAML by going to padlet.com/gatech. 
• Improved safety permissions to restrict access for students to only use and share Padlets within the Gatech account. Read more here. 

📝 What you need to do 

• Bookmark your new school URL: padlet.com/gatech. 
• Read the migration resources below. 

📚 Migration resources 

To help your team get up to speed, we’ve created three quick-start guides: 

1. From Backpack to Padlet for Schools: Explains the migration taking place. 
2. Teacher Quick Guide: Walks teachers through where to find their padlets, how to share them, and what’s new. 

❓Questions 

• We’re here to help. Send us an email at canvas@gatech.edu

Effective December 1, 2025, Qualtrics will officially deprecate Contact List Triggers. This means: Existing triggers will stop functioning. Contacts will no longer be added to lists via triggers. No new triggers can be created.

🔄 What’s Replacing Triggers?

Qualtrics is transitioning to a more robust and flexible system called Contact List Workflows, available in the Actions tab. These workflows offer:

• Enhanced automation capabilities
• Better integration with survey distributions
• Improved reliability and reporting features

✅ Required Action

To avoid disruption:

• Review your current surveys and workflows.
• Replace all Contact List Triggers with the new Workflow Tasks before December 1, 2025.

🛠 Resources & Support

• Step-by-step guides are available in the Qualtrics Experience Community
• For assistance, contact the Customer Success Hub Contact List Triggers.