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Resources for Teaching During a Canvas Disruption

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05May’26

Resources

In the event of a significant Canvas disruption, instructors can leverage other Penn communication tools and technologies to meet your teaching needs until Canvas access is restored.  

This page provides solutions that enable you to continue:   

Communicating with Students

One of the most immediate steps to take during a Canvas disruption is to communicate with students about how this outage affects your class activities, including scheduled exams or due dates, and how students should communicate with you and your TAs. 

Class Email Listserv 

The best resource for communicating with your students is through your class email listserv (available in all schools other than PSOM and Dental). This provides you with a single email address you can use to email all students enrolled in that class. If you are using this service for the first time, choose "Activate a list" from the left side menu. SAS has helpful information about how to format your list correctly. Contact your course list administrator if you need support with your course list. 

Courses@Penn Class List 

Alternatively, you can download an Excel file of your class lists from Courses@Penn and send an email to students’ listed email addresses. Select the Class Lists option under Manage My Courses. Select Class List under the Query Options menu. Wharton faculty should use Instruction Center for their class lists. 

Remember to include your TAs in any communication you send. They will not be automatically included in the listserv. 

Collecting Student Work

If you need to collect student work outside Canvas or the classroom, the best option is to have students email you and your TAs their submissions.  

Provide students with a clear email subject line and file naming convention (e.g., Last-name-FINAL-SP2026) to help you sort and store submissions. It may also be helpful to ask students to add their Penn ID number to their papers to help with entering grades to Canvas later. 

Providing Alternative Assessment

If you were planning to conduct a final exam, quiz, or test via Canvas, a recommended alternative is to use a prior version of an assessment that can be completed outside Canvas or develop a paper-based or blue book version of the assessment. 

Managing Grades

Your ability to calculate or submit grades through Canvas will be delayed until Canvas access is restored. In the interim, keep records outside Canvas. 

If your Canvas access has been restored, it is recommended that you download a copy of your Canvas gradebook and back up that information to PennBox so it is available to enter final grades should there be additional disruptions. 

Sharing Course Materials

PennBox 

If you need to distribute readings, PowerPoint slides, study guides, or other course materials, you can use Penn’s cloud sharing tool PennBox. You can create a folder for your class, upload your materials to that folder, and share that folder by creating a shared link that you can email to your students. Make sure to select the appropriate share settings to either “People with the link” or “People in your company” (i.e., Penn) so that students will have access. 

Screenshot of a Penn Box dialog titled “Share ‘Test Folder.’” The dialog includes a field to invite people, options to set permissions, and a “Share Link” section with the link enabled and access options for who can view the folder.

Panopto

If Canvas is down, Course Recordings in Canvas may still be available through Panopto. You can help students find your course’s recording folders by directing them to visit Browse > My Folders in Panopto. 

Screenshot of the University of Pennsylvania Panopto interface showing the Browse page. The left navigation menu has Browse selected. In the main content area, the My Folders tab is selected, and a searchable list of folders is displayed.

You can also provide a share link directly to your course folder in Course Recordings/Panopto to help them find this material. 

Screenshot of the Panopto course page header showing the course title. A Share icon in the top navigation bar is highlighted, indicating where to select sharing options for the folder or content.

Accessing Teaching Technologies Outside Canvas

If you use other Penn teaching technologies, some of those may still be available even if Canvas is down. You can find direct access to those tools through the links below: 

Getting Help and Staying Informed

If you need help during a Canvas outage or if you have other Canvas-related questions, contact Penn’s Canvas Support, or reach out to your school-based technology support staff if you usually receive Canvas support from within your school. 

To stay informed with the latest information, you can check the Canvas system status page which also includes the status information for many of Penn’s teaching technologies. You can also get notifications about when Canvas access is down or restored by subscribing to Penn’s Info Canvas listserv. 

Resources

Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Innovation