Bishop State QUICK START Guide for Students

Frequently Encountered Problems

The information below is based on issues frequently encountered by students who have reached out to the Office of Distance Education for assistance. While we never mind providing assistance to anyone who asks, we want to provide this information in the event we are unable to address the issue in a timely manner (such as during the evening, on weekends, or on holidays). Please review the materials in each tab.

Accessing Canvas

Problem: Canvas is saying my username/password is incorrect

A number of issues could be occurring if you receive this error message. By default, your Canvas login credentials will be your A#@alabama.edu (e.g., A01234567@alabama.edu) for your username and your password will be the one you set up when you claimed your account. Please note that the password is case-sensitive. If you are still unable to log in, please try the following:

Please verify you are trying to log into the correct Canvas instance. To check, please navigate to alabama.instructure.com and follow the prompts.

Viewing Courses

Problem: I can't see my course(s).

Student access to courses in Canvas will start on the first day of class for the term of the course. Full term and first mini-term classes should be accessible first, followed by Late Start term and then Second mini-term courses. Please refer to the academic calendar for the exact term start and end dates.

If AFTER the first day of class, you are unable to see your courses, please do the following:

- Check to make sure you are registered in OneACCS.
- Check to make sure your account is paid in full. Students who have outstanding balances on their account and have not made prior payment arrangements are subject to having their schedules purged.
- Check the TERM dates on the courses (late start and second mini-term courses will not be available until their start dates).
- Contact the instructor of the course to see if he/she has published the course...use your CANVAS inbox to contact the instructor. If you see one course, but not another, this is most likely the case.

If you have done a drop/add in OneACCS and moved to a different class or section, please note that it may take up to 24 hours for this change to be reflected in Canvas.

Problem: My course(s) disappeared!

If a course or courses that were appearing on your dashboard have disappeared, the following may have occurred:

Your instructor has unpublished the course.
You dropped the class from OneACCS.
You were administratively dropped for non-payment or non-attendance.

The following may help resolve each of the above issues:

While this is rare, occasionally an instructor will "unpublish" a class to make changes at the beginning of the semester. To check if this is the case, click the Courses icon in the global navigation pane on the left side of the page. Click the All Courses button and under the Current Enrollment section, find the course in question, and look at the status in the far right column.
If you drop a class in OneACCS, within 24 hours the course should be removed from your Canvas account. If you did not make this change, please contact the Office of the Registrar immediately, as the registrar will have to put you back in the course.
It is possible that you were administratively dropped for either non-payment if your account has an outstanding balance or non-attendance. If you were dropped for non-payment, please contact the Business office and the Financial Aid office for assistance. If you were dropped for non-attendance, you should have received an email from the college stating which courses you were dropped from. Per College policy, attendance is defined as attending at least one class session (for Traditional and Hybrid classes) or submitting at least one assignment in Canvas (for online classes). If you feel you were dropped in error, please contact your instructor(s) to begin submitting a no-show appeal.

Problem: I am still seeing classes from previous semesters

If you are still seeing courses from a previous semester, please to the following:

If you are using the Canvas app, perform the following steps:
- Log out of the app completely
- Close out and restart the app
- Log back in

Occasionally, the Canvas app will not update correctly, so the above steps may resolve the issue.

If you are still seeing the class, a setting was likely changed by the instructor. The following steps will allow you to unpin the class from your dashboard:
- In the global navigation pane on the left side of the page, click the Courses icon.
- Click the All Courses link
- On the All Courses page, find the course and click the yellow star beside the course title. This should take the course off of your dashboard and courses navigation. You will still be able to access the course by repeating the steps above and clicking on the course title.

Navigating Your Course

Problem: I am trying to view my syllabus, but it is giving me an error message

There are two reasons students usually encounter this problem. Each is addressed below.

If the error message looks like this: The issue is simply that your instructor has not activated the syllabus for the semester. You will need to contact your instructor and ask the instructor to activate it for you.
If you are trying to view your syllabus through the Safari browser on an Apple device, you will need to log in through a different browser such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. Due to the proprietary nature of many Apple products and services, they are often not compatible with or work well with Canvas or the software integrated within it.

Problem: I am trying to move to the next module/assignment, but it is greyed out.

More than likely, your instructor has put a Prerequisite, a Requirement, or an availability/due date on the item you are trying to access

For the Prerequisites and Requirements, please review the information in the following link:

Viewing Modules as a Student

Due Dates and Availability Dates on Assignments/Quizzes

Other Software

There are several Canvas software integrations or less commonly used Canvas features that your instructors may use in Canvas courses. Review the guides for these items below.

Using MSOffice and Google Docs

Honorlock Proctoring

Microsoft Immersive Reader in Canvas

Ally Accessibility Software

Technology Accessibility and Privacy Statements

Textbook Resources