Use Book Creator with Canvas

Steps for teachers to add Book Creator to a Canvas assignment and use SpeedGrader

Dan Amos avatar
Written by Dan Amos
Updated over a week ago

Book Creator can be integrated into Canvas allowing it to be easily launched from a Canvas Assignment by students. Students can launch Book Creator straight from Canvas without needing to create any accounts or join a Book Creator library. Students can also turn in their book making it available in SpeedGrader.

Pre-requisites

Your School or District has a subscription to Book Creator, and your Canvas administrator has added Book Creator as an app.

Setting up your Canvas Assignment

To add Book Creator into an assignment scroll down to Submission Type and choose External Tool. Then click Find, choose Book Creator, and click Select.

A Book Creator window will then launch and allow configuration of how your students will use Book Creator:

You can choose from the following options:

Create a new book - each student will create a new book in a library of your choosing.

Start with a copy of a book - if you have a template book you'd like your students to all start from. You will choose an existing book in a library and your students will all get their own editable copy to work with.

Collaborate on a book together - all the students will work in the same book together

Follow the wizard through to set up the activity and then close the wizard. Canvas may ask you to select Book Creator one more time at this point, which you should do.

Now finish setting up your assignment adding grading etc. Finally Save & Publish the assignment to Canvas.

A note on due dates

If an assignment has a due date this will prevent Book Creator being opened from the Canvas assignment after that date. However a student could still sign into Book Creator at https://app.bookcreator.com and continue to work on their book. If this is a concern for a particular assignment you may want to turn off editing in the relevant library's settings within Book Creator once the due date has passed.

The Student experience

When students open the assignment in Canvas they will see a button to 'Load Book Creator'. Clicking this will sign them straight into Book Creator. They will automatically join the relevant Book Creator library and the book they are assigned to work on will be open and ready for them. They can then add their content, and when they are ready click on the Turn in button to return the work to SpeedGrader.

Note - if the assignment is for multiple students to collaborate on a single book they will all be able to turn in the book. You will see a submission in SpeedGrader for each student and each submission will show the same identical book.

Using SpeedGrader

As students turn in their work the books are available in SpeedGrader and are fully interactive. You can turn the pages and interact with any audio or video they have added. You can also click on the Edit button to open Book Creator and add comments and feedback straight into the book.

Note - SpeedGrader is always showing a live display of the book as it currently looks in Book Creator. If a student makes multiple submissions they will all show the same current content for the book - you will not be able to see earlier versions of the book.

Using Apple's Safari Browser

We recommend using Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge with Canvas. If you are required to use Safari you may receive a message to Accept our cookie to continue.

This occurs because Safari is blocking our cookie which we need to identify you so that we can provide access to your libraries from within Canvas. To fix this follow the onscreen instructions and allow the bookcreator.com cookie when prompted.

Note: the above issue only affects teachers. It does not affect students using Safari to complete Book Creator assignments through Canvas.

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