Spanish Basic Language ProgramDepartment of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese

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Tech Support

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Tech Support

As a student in the Spanish Basic Language Program, you will be accessing and using Penn State’s online course management system known as Canvas as in integral part of your Spanish course. In Spanish 001, 002, and 003 you will be using Canvas to complete homework assignments online that will have to be submitted electronically each week throughout the semester.

Before getting started, you should begin by familiarizing yourself with Canvas, it’s features, and how you will access and use it. Open up a new window in a web browser such as Firefox and navigate to Canvas. Use your Penn State Access ID to login (ex. abc123). You will see a screen displaying a current or previous course you have been enrolled in on Canvas. To find your current courses, select the “Courses” link on the left-side menu of the page. Scrolled to the bottom of the menu that opens and select “All Courses”. You will see your section of Spanish listed. This is where your homework assignments will be located for the semester.

Here are a few things to consider when completing your homework assignments:

  1. The materials on Canvas are best viewed using the Google Chrome web browser. Although you will be able to access Canvas using other browsers (e.g., Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, etc.), formatting may be lost and/or some materials may not be able to be viewed.
  2. Be sure to do the following before submitting your answers:
    • Review all answers to make sure they contain no typographical errors, have all accent marks/tildes, etc.
    • Make sure answers are in lowercase (lowercase is used except when capital letters are needed, i.e., at the beginning of a sentence, names, etc.)
  3. Each homework assignment is only active (available) for a period of one week. After the due date for each assignment has passed, the assignment will automatically close on Canvas and you will no longer be able to complete assignments for that week. Therefore, make-ups or late submissions will not be accepted under any circumstances. If you want to study from your Canvas activities, you must print them while the quiz/folder is still open (active).
  4. For the listening and video activities, please make sure you have registered the Access Code that came with your new Spanish Mosaicos textbook. You must enter the access code into the registration form located at the top of the Lessons tab in your Spanish course on Canvas at the beginning of the semester. This code only needs to be entered once per user, per semester and cannot be re-used.
  5. For the pronunciation activities, you will need to have a free media player installed on your computer in order to listen to the audio files necessary to complete these activities.
  6. If you will be doing your assignments in one of Penn State’s ITS computer labs, you must take your own headphones along with you in order to complete the listening portions of the homework assignments. If you do not hear any sound, click on the volume icon (in the bottom right corner of the screen) to make sure the volume is turned up and not on “Mute.” For some files, it may be necessary to adjust the volume. Therefore, if you do not hear sound in a certain file, be sure to turn up the volume. In addition, rental headphones are available for student use on the 2nd Floor of West Pattee Library in the Music & Multimedia Center.
  7. If at any time a dialogue box that says “Do you want to display the nonsecure items?” appears while you are using Canvas, be sure to always click “Yes.” If you do not, you may not be able to see materials necessary for the completion of the exercise.
  8. Technical problems or questions about Canvas should be submitted to the Technology Coordinator via the Help Form. (Content questions should be directed to your instructor.)