Import from Canvas
Bring Canvas courses, assignments and syllabi into Semestra.
Course and syllabus imports open a review first and write nothing until you confirm. Assignment imports are saved right away when there is nothing for you to decide; an assessment of the same name already in the gradebook, or an assessment without a weight, opens the review. Assignments already in the gradebook start unticked there, marked as such, and are imported only if you tick them. If you close the review and import the course's assignments again, you return to that unfinished import, with any newly picked assignments added.
Courses
From the new-term wizard, or a term's Add course menu (also in the command palette on a term page), under Import courses from LMS. Pick Canvas courses (the current term by default, or all), review, and commit. Each course takes its title from the Canvas course name, its code from the Canvas course code (also kept as an alias) and its website from the Canvas link, and is linked to its Canvas course in the same step.
Assignments
Either from a course's Grades page (open Add and choose the Canvas assignments under From existing material), or from Assignments & grades in the Canvas tab: tick assignments and choose Import. Assignments worth points become gradebook assessments (with a to-do when they have a due date); assignments worth no points become to-dos. The Semestra column says where each assignment went (In gradebook or In to-dos, linking there) or Not added.
When you open a program whose current-term courses have new assignments on Canvas (not imported yet and not past due), a notification says "N new assignments on Canvas": Import brings them in at once, and Ignore stops reminding you of these until new ones appear.
An assignment that is only a to-do can be moved with Add to gradebook in its row menu: it becomes an assessment and keeps its to-do.
- As assessments, each Canvas assignment group becomes a grading category (with the group's weight when the course weights its groups), and the assignment's Canvas link is kept in its note.
- Weights come from Canvas assignment groups: an assessment's weight is its group's weight times its share of the group's points. When the course does not weight groups, the weight is left empty for you to fill in during the review.
- A grade you already have on Canvas comes along as the assessment's score (points earned of points possible).
- Each assignment is one thing in Semestra: an assessment (with its to-do) or a to-do.
- Importing only some of a group's assignments leaves the category's weight and its assessments' total apart; the rest can be imported later.
Changes after an import
Imports are one-time copies, not a mirror. Semestra compares what you imported with Canvas, and when a name or due date changes, the weight of a weighted assessment changes (including through its points), or an assessment is graded or regraded on Canvas, the Grades page and the Canvas tab show a "changed assignments" notice. Reviewing it opens another import review; your data changes only when you commit. With notifications on, new grades and changes are also sent as a notification.
Syllabus
In the Canvas tab's syllabus view, send the Canvas syllabus to AI extraction. Course details, grading scheme and deadlines are pulled out into a review, like an uploaded syllabus file. This needs an AI provider.
Files
Canvas files can be saved to the course's own files, where they are indexed for search and can be used for extraction.