Good morning,
I hope everyone was able to rest a little over break. We’re now entering the Spring 2024 semester! Here’s a tip that will be helpful to those of you who are copying over materials from previous courses.
Canvas is usually pretty good about ensuring that links match up with the new course versus the old course when do you a course import. That said, you can sometimes have broken external links or images, particularly if you’ve copied materials over from another faculty member.
Student View will show any broken images (and alt text). This most often occurs on custom home pages, especially if you’ve used the icon maker. Images won’t appear broken from your view since you have access to both courses, but since a fake student can only access the one, Student View better mimics what incoming students would see.
It can be tricky (and time-consuming) to find these broken links and images, but Canvas has a tool you can use called Link Validator that checks to make sure everything is accessible before you publish. To use the Link Validator, go to Settings from the course menu, then look to the right side for a button that reads “Validate Links in Content”:
Run the Link Validator by pressing “Start Link Validation,” and it will check all the media and URLs in your course:
If everything’s clear, you’ll see a surprise! Otherwise, Canvas will point out where things have broken down so you can either fix or replace the links.
Try using the Link Validator this semester and see if it helps to catch any missing links before they become an issue. It’s quick and easy—and who doesn’t want to start the semester with an easy win?
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