Support from FASE's Education Technology Office

How to continue teaching during a Quercus outage

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If Quercus is unavailable, the tools below (all part of the U of T Academic Toolbox) can be used independently to continue your course activities.

Before you begin – Get your student email list

Many of the options below require you to contact students directly by email. If you do not have a student email list already downloaded, contact your departmental ROSI administrator. They can pull your course roster from ROSI and share it with you.

 To find your ROSI contact, refer to our guide: Who is my departmental ROSI contact?

Consider downloading a student email list from Quercus at the start of each term as a backup in the event of a future outage. For instructions, refer to our guide: How do I get student email addresses from Quercus?

In this guide

  1. Discussions and content sharing – Piazza Q&A
  2. Online assessments – Crowdmark, email, MS Forms, or Request Files (OneDrive/SharePoint)
  3. Content sharing – email or OneDrive/SharePoint
  4. Online class meetings – Zoom or Microsoft Teams
Expand or collapse content 1. Discussions and content sharing – Piazza Q&A

Piazza can be accessed directly without going through Quercus.

  1. Log in directly at piazza.com (or your course's direct Piazza URL) using your Piazza account credentials. If you do not remember your password, use the "Forgot password?" option on the login page to reset it.
  2. Share the URL with students by email if they normally access Piazza through Quercus.

For information on using Piazza in your course, refer to our guides:

Expand or collapse content 2. Online assessments – Crowdmark, email, MS Forms, or Request Files (OneDrive/SharePoint)

If Quercus is unavailable, consider the following options for collecting student work.

Option 1 – Crowdmark

Crowdmark can be accessed directly during a Quercus outage. The process will differ depending on whether you are trying to access an existing course or add a new course.

For existing Crowdmark courses

To access an existing course in Crowdmark:

  1. Navigate to app.crowdmark.com/sign-in/utoronto and select "Sign in with email".
  2. Use the email address associated with your Crowdmark account and your Crowdmark password. If you have not set a password, use "Forgot your password?" to create one.
  3. Select the desired course from your dashboard.

For instructions on signing in to your Crowdmark account via email, see: Log into Crowdmark with email and password.

Note that during a Quercus outage, syncing student rosters and exporting grades cannot be done through the automatic Quercus sync. These must be done manually using CSV files or emails until the outage is resolved.

For new courses

  1. Follow steps 1 and 2 above to log into Crowdmark via email, then create a new course using the No LMS option.

A course created this option can be connected to Quercus by Crowdmark Support after the outage, provided the emails used to enrol students and teaching team members match what is (or will be) enrolled in Quercus. Email mismatches can cause account and access issues for students, so take care when adding student emails.

When using the No LMS option, syncing student rosters and exporting grades must always be done manually using CSV files or emails, rather than through the automatic Quercus sync.

Option 2 – Collect submissions by email

Where possible, use your institutional email address (@utoronto.ca) to receive submissions and communicate with students.

  1. Share your email address with students via whatever channel is available (e.g., your course's Piazza board).
  2. Ask students to complete their work (for example, in a Word document) and email it directly to you.

Option 3 – MS Forms (file upload)

Microsoft Forms allows you to collect file submissions from students without requiring Quercus. This option keeps submissions organized in one place and lets you share them with your teaching team for grading.

Microsoft Forms File Upload requires respondents to be within the University of Toronto. It cannot be used if "Anyone can respond" is selected in the Form settings.

Set up the form

  1. Log in to Microsoft 365 apps using your UTORid.
  2. Open Microsoft Forms and select New Form.
  3. Add a question and choose File upload as the question type. Specify the number of files (up to 10) students can upload, file size limit (up to 1GB), and file types you will allow (Word, Excel, PPT, PDF, Image, Video, or Audio)
  4. Under Send and collect responses, select Specific people in my organization can respond and enter your students' email addresses. This ensures that only invited students (not just anyone with the link) can access and submit the form.
  5. Share the form link with students by email.

Find submitted files

Submitted files are automatically saved to your OneDrive, in a folder at the following path: My files > Apps > Microsoft Forms > [Form name]. To share submissions with your teaching team for grading:

  1. Locate the submissions folder in your OneDrive using the path above.
  2. Create a shared, editable folder and move or copy the submissions into it.

For instructions on creating a shared, editable folder in OneDrive, refer to our guide: How to create a shared, editable folder.

For more information about File upload questions in MS Forms, refer to the Microsoft guide: Add questions that allow for file uploads in Microsoft Forms.

Option 4 – Request files (OneDrive/SharePoint)

The Request files feature in OneDrive and SharePoint allows students to upload their work directly to a folder where they can only see their own uploads – they cannot view other students' submissions. This is the key advantage of this option over a shared editable folder.

Before you use this option, note two important limitations:

  1. A Request File link work for anyone who receives it – it cannot be restricted to specific people. For a submission method restricted to specific students only, use Option 3 (MS Forms – File upload) instead.
  2. Request Files links expire after 30 days by default. If your assignment window extends beyond that, you can extend the expiration date before the link expires by going to Manage Access > Links > Settings. Note that links can only be extended up to 30 days into the future at a time.
  1. In OneDrive or SharePoint, create a new folder for the assignment. Use a clear, specific name that includes the course code and assignment name (e.g., APS101-Assignment2-Submissions). This makes it easier to locate and share the folder with your teaching team later.
  2. Select the folder, then select Request files (you may need to select the three-dot More menu to find this option).
  3. Add a message describing what students should upload, then select Next.
  4. Copy the request link that is generated.
  1. Send the link directly to students by email rather than posting it publicly (e.g., on a course website or discussion board). Since anyone who receives the link can submit files, keeping distribution to your class list reduces the risk of unwanted submissions.

Note on Turnitin: Assignments received via Crowdmark, email, MS Forms or Request Files cannot be processed through Turnitin. Turnitin access outside of Quercus is not supported at U of T. Instructors must ensure that any alternative submission process during a Quercus outage still abides by the conditions of use for Turnitin at U of T.

Expand or collapse content 3. Content sharing – email or OneDrive/SharePoint

Option 1 – email

You can share course materials directly with students by email.

  1. Where possible, use your institutional email address (@utoronto.ca) to send course communications during an outage.

Option 2 – OneDrive / SharePoint

  1. Create a shared folder in OneDrive or SharePoint and share the link with students via email.

For instructions on creating a shared folder, refer to our guide: How to create a shared, editable folder.

When following the shared folder guide linked above, select "Can view" rather than "Can edit" when configuring share permissions, unless students need to contribute files.

Expand or collapse content 4. Online class meetings – Zoom or Microsoft Teams

Option 1 – Zoom

  1. Access Zoom via the desktop app or log in at utoronto.zoom.us using your UTORid.
  2. Schedule your meeting, then share the meeting link with students via email.

Option 2 – Microsoft Teams

  1. Schedule a Microsoft Teams meeting through Outlook on the Web.
  2. Share the meeting link with students via email.

For instructions on scheduling a Teams meeting, refer to the following guide from CTSI: Microsoft Teams Meetings

For questions or assistance with any of these options, please contact the FASE EdTech Office: [email protected].
Still have questions? Contact the FASE EdTech Office