About TidyUp for Canvas

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Overview

If you teach the same course semester after semester, you may have a build-up of old files, folders, and content items (such as pages, assignments, quizzes, and discussions topics) that are no longer used. TidyUp, an external app from Cidi Labs, provides an easy and efficient interface for identifying and deleting unused course materials, making your course easier to manage and more usable for your students.

Note:
To learn more about TidyUp, read Overview of Features or watch the IT Training video, Getting Started with TidyUp.

When to use TidyUP

The best times to use TidyUP:

  • At the beginning of the semester: Scanning your course with TidyUP at the beginning of the semester can help you find and delete unneeded files and content. This is especially important if you imported a course from a prior term.
  • Before reviewing the Ally Course Accessibility Report: The Ally Course Accessibility Report gives accessibility scores and remediation guidance for select content in your course. (For a full list of content types checked by Ally, see Ally instructor guide.) If you use TidyUp to remove unused items before reviewing the Ally report, the report itself will be shorter, your overall accessibility score won’t be impacted by issues with unused content, and you won’t waste time fixing content that your students will never see.
    Note:
    Since it takes time for the changes made in TidyUp to be reflected in the Ally Course Accessibility Report, wait at least an hour after cleaning up your course before reviewing the report.
  • At the end of the semester: Use TidyUP at the end of the semester to clean up extra files or duplicated content added during the term, especially if you plan on copying or importing the course in the future.

Get started

Important:
  • Due to limitations with the Canvas API, TidyUP does not recognize the following items as in use:
    • The course home page (if the Pages "front page" is used): Always examine unused Canvas pages with content before deleting them, especially pages with Home or Welcome in the title.
    • Files and images embedded in questions created in New Quizzes, as well as those in question banks for Classic Quizzes or Item Banks for New Quizzes: Consider placing all files used in quizzes in a common folder (or set of folders) and do not delete them, despite their unused status in TidyUp.
  • Always download files before deleting them with TidyUP. This ensures that if a file is accidentally deleted, it can be retrieved and added back to the course.

To launch TidyUp, open the Canvas Files tool and select TidyUp. You can also add TidyUp to your course navigation menu if you prefer. Students cannot see the tool in either location. You will be prompted to authorize TidyUp the first time you launch the tool as well as after vendor updates.

For guidance on using TidyUp, consult the following resources:

Note:
  • For best results, first review and delete unused items in the Canvas Content tab, and then run the scan again before you review the Files tab. This will ensure that files associated with deleted content items are marked as unused, so you can delete them.
  • Because the process of deleting unused files may leave one or more folders empty, after you review and delete unused files, run the scan one more time before you review the Folders tab.

Get help

For help with Cidi Labs DesignPLUS and TidyUP, contact your campus teaching and learning center or campus Support Center.

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Last modified on 2024-04-16 11:35:40.