This summer, IU moved to a new version of Top Hat, which offers new functionality such as automatic syncing and deep links.
One of the changes required by this new version, however, is how you add students. Where formerly you might have just provided students with a join code, this version requires students to log in to your Top Hat course for the first time through its Canvas integration. If students use a join code instead of logging in through Canvas, they risk being dropped from your Top Hat course when it auto syncs its roster.
If you would like to help students access Canvas for the first time this way, there is a Canvas Commons assignment that instructors can import into their courses and assign for your students which will guide them through accessing your Top Hat course for the first time. We have directions to guide you through adding this assignment to your Canvas course.
You can treat this assignment as you would any other assignment in Canvas (due dates, points, and publishing all work the same way as any other assignment in Canvas) and add to your Modules page wherever you like (ideally to an introductory Module or the first week you use Top Hat).
As always, consultants are available to meet with you virtually or in-person. Simply complete this contact form to explain your needs. Also, check out our Events page for upcoming workshops on Canvas, Top Hat, and using other instructional technologies in your courses.
This would have been helpful to hear the week before classes started, not well into week two of the semester! And it’s still unclear which students might be at risk of being booted out of top hat. Lastly, if one way of joining top hat won’t really work, but will briefly appear to work, that pseudo-functionality should for damn sure be disabled!
Thanks for the feedback, Aaron, and we understand your frustration. We were not aware of the updates in Top Hat or the problems they would cause…, until several problems came into our office. We agree that communication about these changes should have gone out sooner, and we will pass that along with the recommendation that information about future updates goes out to all TH users in advance. We will also pass along your concerns to our colleagues in UITS Learning Technologies.