OnTask Instructor Guide

Request an OnTask account

1. Access our LT Hub contact form.
2. Under "Support Requested", select OnTask.
3. Fill out the rest of the required fields, and click Submit.
4. Once your OnTask account is created, we will email you. Then you can begin setting up OnTask in your Canvas course.

Enable OnTask in Canvas

You will need to request an OnTask account from us first, by filling in the LT Hub request form.

1. Once we have set up your OnTask account, log in to your Canvas course and click Settings in the Course Navigation.
2. Click the Navigation tab.
3. Find the OnTask menu item, click the options menu (the three vertical dots), and choose Enable.
4. Save your setting changes.
5. The OnTask menu item will now be available in the Course Navigation for you. (Since the tool is for you, your students will not see this menu item.)

Transfer initial learning analytics data from Canvas to OnTask

To get started giving personalized feedback based on your Canvas course, you'll need to manually transfer learning analytics data from your Canvas Gradebook to what's called a workflow in OnTask.

Workflows contain the information and steps needed to send your messages, which is captured in a data table and a set of actions.

Export data from Canvas

1. Log in to your Canvas course, and click Grades in the Course Navigation.
2. Click Actions and select Export.
3. Once the export is complete, a file will be downloaded to your computer. To make sure it can be imported correctly into OnTask, open this file in a spreadsheet software like Excel, and do the following:
   • Check that the first row is a header by ensuring that the row contains titles for each column (e.g., Student, ID, Assignment 1, etc.). Add missing column names and rename any to what you would like them to be called in OnTask.
   • Shorten any column names to less than 64 characters; otherwise, there will be an error when importing it into OnTask.
   • Check that the first column contains student names. If it doesn't, copy and paste the column with student names to the first column.
   • Remove any rows that do not contain student names (e.g., in the example below, rows one and two).
4. Save the file as a "CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited)" type. In Excel, you can click File, select Save As, and choose CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited).

Initial data example	Data after cleanup

Import data into OnTask

1. Connect to to a UBC internet connection or network. If you are off-campus, connect to the UBC VPN.
2. Back in your Canvas course, click OnTask in the Course Navigation.
3. Click the + New workflow button.
4. Create a name (e.g., your course name) and description for your workflow, then click Create workflow.
5. Select the type of data to import by clicking the corresponding button under the "Operation" column (with the file you downloaded from Canvas, select CSV).
6. Click Choose File or Browse (depending on your browser), select the file to import, and click Next.
7. You can optionally rename or deselect columns at this stage. When you are done, click Finish.
8. The imported data will show in a new table. You can edit the data and add new columns or rows on this table, if you have additional information about your students to manually add.
9. Now that you've created your workflow, you can add more data to it or create messages to students following the steps in the sections below.

Add preferred student name data to OnTask

These optional steps will walk you through adding preferred student names by transferring data from the Faculty Services Centre (FSC) to OnTask. Making sure you use students' preferred names can help the messages they receive from OnTask feel more personal.

Export data from the FSC

1. Log in to the FSC using your UBC CWL.
2. Click your course section under "Assigned Sections" to find its classlist. Click Download/Print Classlist(s).
3. Under “Select the format…”, select Table, and click Download.
4. Once the classlist downloads, open this file in a spreadsheet software like Excel.
5. Save the file as a "CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited)" type. In Excel, you can click File, select Save As, and choose CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited).

Import data into OnTask

1. Connect to to a UBC internet connection or network. If you are off-campus, connect to the UBC VPN.
2. Log in to your Canvas course and click OnTask in the Course Navigation.
3. In OnTask, click the workflow you want to add this classlist to. If you don't have a workflow, follow the steps in the section above to create one.
4. Click the Table drop-down menu, and select Upload or merge data.
5. Select the type of data to import by clicking the corresponding button under the "Operation" column (with data from the FSC, select CSV).
6. Click Choose File or Browse (depending on your browser), select the file to import, and click Next.
7. You can optionally rename or deselect columns at this stage. When you are done, click Next.
8. Set Student Number as the key column for the existing table and new table. Key columns are important, because they identify what column to use for matching the two sets of data (i.e., your Canvas Gradebook and FSC classlist) together.
9. Select the merge method as "Only rows with keys present in both the existing and new table".
10. Click Next.
11. Review your changes and click Finish. You will see a message either confirming the merge or highlighting any issues.

Update learning analytics data in OnTask

Once you've set up a workflow by transferring initial learning analytics data from Canvas, you can add further data to it. For example, you can add outcomes after students have completed more assignments or assessments in Canvas or include a participation record from a lecture session.

1. Download or create a table with your additional data, and save it as a "CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited)" file. In Excel, you can click File, select Save As, and choose CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited).
   • To export data from the Canvas Gradebook, follow the "Export data from Canvas" steps in the transferring initial learning analytics data section above.
2. Connect to to a UBC internet connection or network. If you are off-campus, connect to the UBC VPN.
3. Log in to your Canvas course and click OnTask in the Course Navigation.
4. In OnTask, click the workflow you want to add this data to.
5. Click the Table drop-down menu, and select Upload or merge data.
6. Select the type of data to import by clicking the corresponding button under the "Operation" column (with data downloaded from the Canvas, select CSV).
7. Click Choose File or Browse (depending on your browser), select the file to import, and click Next.
8. You can optionally rename or deselect columns at this stage. When you are done, click Next.
9. Select the key column for the existing table and new table. Key columns are important, because they identify what column to use for matching the two sets of data together (with data downloaded from Canvas, select "Student Number").
10. Select the merge method. You can see a description of each merge option by selecting it, or view OnTask's merge method documentation.
11. Click Next.
12. Review your changes and click Finish. You will see a message either confirming the merge or highlighting any issues.

Create messages for students in OnTask

Once you have created a workflow, you are ready to draft messages for your students. Messages in OnTask are templates written with regular text and variables, with variables acting as general placeholders that are substituted with specific details for each student when the message is sent (e.g., to start a message with the student's name or to reference their test score in the body text).

You will start drafting by creating what OnTask calls an action.

Draft message

1. Connect to to a UBC internet connection or network. If you are off-campus, connect to the UBC VPN.
2. Log in to your Canvas course and click OnTask in the Course Navigation.
3. In OnTask, click the workflow you want to add messages to. If you don't have a workflow, follow the steps in the section above to create one.
4. Click the + Action button.
   • If you don't see this button, click the Actions menu item at the top.
5. Give the action a meaningful name and description, and select Personalized Canvas Email as the action type.
6. Click Create action.
7. In the Text tab that appears, draft your message.
8. To include a variable, click Insert Column Value and choose the variable (these will be the names of your table columns) from the drop-down menu. The variable will be included in double curly brackets in your message (e.g., {{ Name }}).
9. Click Preview to view the message as students will see it. You can move through specific students in your classlist to check your variables.
10. Once you are satisfied with the message, click Close, which will save your message and create a new action for it.

Add conditionally-displayed text

With OnTask, you can display blocks of content in a message using custom conditions. These conditions might be based on outcomes of learning activities like assessments. For example, you could send a message after a test with advanced tutorial links to high-scoring students, while low-scoring students receive a reminder of office hours or textbook references.

1. When you are creating or editing an action, click the Text Condition tab.
2. Click the + Condition button, and type the name and description of the condition you would like to set.
3. In the first drop-down menu, select the variable the condition will use—that is, what specific information about each student you want to check to decide if the text should be displayed.
4. In the second and third fields, set the parameters for displaying the text. For example, choosing students who scored more than 50% on a test.
5. You may add more conditions using the + Add rule button and the "Not" (to exclude a condition), "And" (to meet multiple conditions), and "Or" (to meet one of a set of conditions) options.
6. When you are done, click Create condition.
7. Click the Text tab, and insert your condition by clicking Insert condition in text, and choosing the condition.
8. Two pieces of bracketed code will appear in your text. Type the message you'd like conditionally displayed to students who meet the condition in between, e.g., {% if your condition name %} text you want shown here {% endif %}.
9. Click Preview to view the message as students will see it. You can move through specific students in your classlist to check your conditions.
10. Once you are satisfied with the message, click Close, which will also save your message.

Send messages to students with OnTask

1. Connect to to a UBC internet connection or network. If you are off-campus, connect to the UBC VPN.
2. Log in to your Canvas course and click OnTask in the Course Navigation.
3. In OnTask, click the workflow you want to add messages to.
4. To the left of the action containing the message you want to send, click the send icon. If you don't have any actions, follow the steps in the section above to create one.
5. Select ID as the "Column with the Canvas ID". Be sure to choose ID, since it is the only option that works for sending messages at UBC.
6. Type the email subject students will see, and click Next. You should see a confirmation page that says "Action scheduled for execution," which means your message has been sent.
7. All students should receive the message in their Canvas Inbox.