Canvas Tools

• Navigation and Basics

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  • Canvas Instructor Guide Table of Contents
  • Canvas Table of Contents for Video Guides
  • Canvas basics

  Enabling and Hiding Tools

  You can choose which tools are visible to students in the left navigation menu.

  1. Click Settings at the bottom of the menu.
  2. Click Navigation along the top. 
  3. Drag items between the upper and lower lists to hide (disable) or make them visible (enable) to students. 
  4. Important: Click Save. You may need to scroll down to see the Save button.

  Navigation links in blue text are displayed to students. Navigation links in gray text are hidden from students.

  You can also change a feature’s position within the menu: click an icon to the right of a feature and then use the “Move” up-down arrow. Then click Save.

  More about reordering and hiding tools

  Groups

  Groups are like a smaller version of a Canvas course site. They're used as a collaborative tool for students working together on group projects and assignments.

  Creating Student Groups and adding students

  • Manually
  • Automatically
  • Self-Sign Up 
  • Viewing Student Groups

  Publish each Module, Quiz, Assignment, Page, File, and Discussion, as well as your course site

  In Canvas, you will publish your course site to make it visible to students, and you must also publish any modules, quizzes, pages, assignments, files, and discussions in your course site. To publish these items, click the little gray circle icon to toggle it to green.

  

  Rich Content Editor

  The Rich Content Editor allows you to create new content (assignments, announcements, discussions, blogs, etc.) within Canvas. It supports embedding any video content, math formulas, and other rich media.

  • About the Rich Content Editor
  • Editing content in the HTML view in the Rich Content Editor
  • Embedding images from the web into the Rich Content Editor

  Student View

  The Student View allows instructors to see the course as a student views it.

  • Accessing Student View

• Canvas Course Organization

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  Files

  The Files feature is where you upload course files, syllabi, readings, or other documents. Instructors can lock folders so students cannot access the files.

  • About Files
  • Finding your course Files
  • Moving and organizing my Files

  Modules

  Modules allow you to organize your content to help control the flow of your course.

  • About Modules
  • Creating a new Module
  • Adding items to a Module

  Pages

  Pages are where you can put content and educational resources that are part of your course but don't necessarily belong in an assignment, or that you want to refer to in multiple assignments.

  • Creating a new Page
  • Editing Pages

  Syllabus

  The Syllabus has three parts: description, calendar and table.

  • Using the Syllabus

• Assessments and Grading

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  Assignments

  Assignment creation sequence: add an assignment group, create an assignment shell, edit the assignment details, and add content.

  • Creating an Assignment
  • Adding Assignment Groups
  • Adding content to an Assignment

  DocViewer

  Doc Viewer is a tool in the Speedgrader that allows the instructor and peer review annotations on online assignment submissions.

  • Using DocViewer
  • How do I view annotation feedback comments from my instructor

  Grades and the Gradebook

  The Gradebook stores all information about student progress in the course, measuring both letter grades and course outcomes.

  • All you need to know about the New Gradebook
  • Posting Grades for an Assignment

  Quizzes

  With Quizzes, you can create a graded or ungraded quiz, exam, homework assignment, or survey.

  • About the different types of Quizzes
  • Options that are available for Quizzes
  • Creating a new Quiz with individual Questions
  • Learn about Quiz settings to maximize security

  Rubrics

  Rubrics are a way to set up custom or outcome-based assessment criteria for scoring.

  • What is a Rubric
  • Creating a Rubric

  SpeedGrader

  SpeedGrader allows you to quickly access and efficiently grade student work. You can view, annotate, comment on, and grade submissions without downloading and re-uploading files, all from a laptop, tablet or smartphone. Anything graded in SpeedGrader is automatically recorded in the grade book.

  • Using SpeedGrader

• Canvas Communication

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  Announcements

  Announcements allow you to communicate with your students about course activities and post course-related topics.

  • About Announcements
  • Making an Announcement

  Calendar

  The Calendar automatically syncs with other features in Canvas, such as Assignments, Syllabus, and Grades.

  • About the Canvas Calendar
  • Accessing my course Calendar
  • Using the Canvas Calendar with your Google Calendar

  Chat

  The Chat tool allows students and teachers to interact in real time.

  • Joining the course Chat

  Conferences

  Conferences are used for virtual lectures, virtual office hours, and student groups.

  • About Conferences
  • Starting a Conference

  Discussions

  Canvas provides an integrated system for class discussions.

  • Starting a Discussion
  • Replying to a Discussion

 Tools that work inside Canvas

• Lecture Capture with Studio Expand dropdown
  • View the Panopto-Canvas Studio training session (one hour) 
  • What is Canvas Studio?
  • Read the Canvas Guides for Studio
  • Uploading Media in Studio
• Web Conferencing with Zoom Expand dropdown

  • Zoom is now available inside Canvas for use in all course sections.  If you are choosing between Adobe Connect and Zoom, we recommend you use Zoom.

  • How do I create a conference in a course?
  • Zoom Help Center

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