Clean Up Course with UDOIT and TidyUp

We now have a site-wide license to use two handy tools that can help you find unused files (TidyUp), and find accessibility issues (UDOIT – pronounced "you do it"). This page describes how to turn on and use both of these tools to clean up and better organize your Canvas course.

Step 1: Turn on TidyUp and UDOIT

These tools don't appear in the Course Navigation by default, so you'll need to turn them on to use them. Go to your course then click "Settings" then click the "Navigation" tab and move the boxes that say "TidyUp" and "UDIOT" from the bottom section to the top section, then click the red "Save" button at the bottom.

Note that for both of these tools, these navigation links in the left menu will only be visible to teachers and TA's. Students won't see them. So it doesn't really matter where you place them in the menu.

TidyUp – Find Unused Files

The purpose of the TidyUp tool is to find files in your Canvas site that aren't used anywhere and could be deleted. Unused files can build up in a course if you copy a course forward from a previous semester and change files / handouts / assignements over the years. Old versions of syllabi are another common type of extraneous files.

To get started, click the "TidyUp" link in the left menu. The very first time you click that, you'll need to give TidyUp permission to view your course. Click "Authorize" when you see this:

Next, you'll see the welcome screen:

You'll usually want to leave the default as "All" then click "Scan Course" and you'll see a report of all the files in your course, which will show you where each file is used in the "Used In" column or, if it's not used, a red Delete icon in the "Actions" column. Clicking the "Edit" icon in the Actions column will allow you to change the file name, publish it, or hide it.

It's mostly likely okay to delete all the unused files, since those files are probably archived in previous versions of the class from previous semesters and/or are on your computer if you were the one that put them on Canvas in the first place.

Note the warning at the top of the report, which says "Question banks cannot be scanned for file usage. Please verify files are not being used in a question bank before deleting them." This just means that the "Used In" column may be blank for files that don't appear in any active quizzes, but are referenced in a Question Bank. This is an uncommon situation, as most quiz questions don't have embedded files or images, and most classes aren't using Question Banks.

UDOIT – Check Accessibility

UDOIT by Cidi Labs is a sophisticated accessibility checker that works within Canvas to check for many different kinds of accessibility issues in files, images, and text content on pages. For full details, see their detailed UDOIT User Guide. The tool is fairly user friendly, so you will probably be able to figure out the basics without reading the instructions. Here's how to get started.

Start by clicking "UDOIT" in the left Navigation Menu. As with TidyUp, the first time you use this tool, you'll need to give it access to view your Canvas course. Click "Authorize" 

Next, you'll see a report if one has been automatically generated. Courses may be automatically scanned ahead of time near the beginning of the semester. If one hasn't been generated, or if you've made significant changes recently, click the blue "Scan Now" button and wait a few moments to get a new report.

The UDOIT Report will look something like this. You can open up the > symbols in the Scorecard to see more details, then click on specific Issues to see the problems and suggested fixes. The "UFIXIT" tab shows issues that may be able to be automatically fixed for you. The "Review Course Files" tab checks files for accessibility issues.

See the User Guide linked above for full details on how to use this tool.