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When you are reporting a problem with a service, the more information you can provide, the better. Reporting a problem such that we can start working on it immediately will allow us to resolve issues more quickly.
Report a problem here
Short Description (formerly known as Title)
The title of a ticket should be a short phrase summarizing the issue and should have enough detail to be distinctive. Good titles begin with the item of interest and then also describe the key behavior.
Good: "Canvas Gradebook generating error after adding data"
Bad: "Canvas"
Bad: "Canvas Gradebook"
Bad: "Errors in Canvas Gradebook"
Bad: "Gradebook isn't working"
Description
The description of an issue should contain:
Steps to reproduce the problem e.g.
- Log into this course in Canvas
- Click the Grades link in the menu
- Under the Assignments menu, choose Midterm
Occasionally we get tickets along the lines of "User cannot log in" or "X isn't working". In practice this kind of report means very little because we do not know what the user is doing, nor what interface they are trying to use.
If there is a specific page generating an error, do not provide a link to that page. Instead, provide a link to the page before that page, along with steps on how to make the error happen.
What happens, e.g.
An error code is generated by the server and displayed in the browser - dcb1222a-f316-4769-b51f-e77251018416 - see screenshot attached
What should have happened, e.g.
The edit screen should have come up for this tool
If a problem is specific to a user or course or situation, we need to know as much as possible about that situation. This includes:
- When - date and time - this helps us look at our logs
- Who - their username and emplid - both are useful for looking at the logs and reproducing the problem
- What - what browser, operating system, and/or device they are using
- Where - where were they? On campus? At home? In a coffee shop?
What troubleshooting steps you have already taken, e.g.
We checked that the tool is available in the course and on our college node.
Obviously the more details the better. Tickets that we have to request clarification on are less specific.
- Bad:. "X is not working"
- Bad: "X is freezing"
- Bad: "X is broken"
Be specific. What does "not working" or "freezing" or "wrong" or "incorrect" actually mean in terms of behavior and what you see?
Attachments and Screenshots
Screenshots are often extremely useful. In general the more context for a screenshot, the better. Partial screenshots can leave out critical information such as the browser, add-ons, the time, the operating system, and (more often than you might imagine) where the problem actually is. In addition, screenshots of error codes, while potentially useful, should be accompanied by the actual text of the error code in the ticket. Otherwise we have to retype from the image!
When we are really scratching our heads, if you can record and link to a movie of the problem being reproduced that is extremely useful. Canvas Studio is one way to do this.