CDLI offers Canvas Basics Workshops throughout the year, but below is a quick overview of the main features you will use on a weekly, if not daily, basis when you teach a course with Canvas.

We have divided the tour into four sections: Modules, which include all of the items modules can house such as pages, discussions, assignments, and quizzes, etc.; Navigation, which covers Canvas' built-in navigation as well as the navigation strategies you can build into your course; Communication, which covers announcements, Canvas email, and student group spaces; and finally, Grading, which covers the gradebook, Canvas Speedgrader, and managing your assignments list.

See the CDLI Calendar or contact CDLI if you are interested in attending a Canvas Basics Workshop.

Modules

laptop showing module list

Arguably the most powerful feature of Canvas is its module system. Modules allow you to organize your course quickly and easily. Once you have set up everything in modules, students can page through your course activities in a way that is guided and logical. When you are done, Modules become the table of contents for your course. By clicking in the Modules link in the left navigation, students can see where they are going and keep track of where they have been. Modules also make it easy on the course design side since you can quickly add, edit, and move items—pages, discussions, assignments, quizzes, and more—until you get the right flow.

Module Basics

►To add a module, simply click on the + Module button in the upper right corner of the modules list, give it a name and click Add Module:

add a module button

▶︎Once you have a module, you can add items to it by clicking on the Plus Sign:

add new item to module

▶︎This will open up a list of items (which are described in the following sections). Choose the Item you want, give it a name and then click Add Item and it will appear on your module list. Here is the guide for adding module items.

module item selection menu

▶︎As you work, you can move or reorder module items, duplicate module items, or remove them. You can also reorder the modules themselves, duplicate, or delete modules. You can even drag items from one module into another. Note: When you remove an item you have created from a module, you do not lose it. The item will remain in the course; it just won't appear in the module. Also, you cannot duplicate a module with a quiz; to duplicate a module with a quiz, temporarily remove the quiz and add it back later.

▼Below are the different kinds of items you can add to a Module.

◉ Pages

Pages are one if the most versatile items you can add to a module. They will contain most of the instructions and content for your course. Pages can house images, tables, videos and other media. They provide context for course materials such as readings, files, and external websites, which can all be linked from a page. You can provide links to other parts of your course from pages; you can link to assignments, discussions, quizzes, and even other pages. Pages provide the backbone of your communication to students as they navigate through your course material and activities.

Here's how to:

Also, see the Personalize Your Template section in this course for more instructions about working with pages. And, for inspiration, check out the Example Course Overview Pages from other faculty.

◉ Discussions

Discussions are central to providing the feeling of community that is vital to online courses. Traditionally, online discussions have allowed students to talk to each other via text responses, but you also have the option to ask them respond to each other via video, which is great way to enliven a course. In addition, discussions can provide a place for students to share media they find or create—for example, online student presentations. You can set up discussions for your entire class—or break them into small groups.

Here's how to:

Create a discussion by adding it to a module
Create a discussion from the discussions list
Edit a discussion
Duplicate a discussion
Delete a discussion
View and sort discussion replies
Create a group discussion

Also, see the Online Discussions Doctor in this course and the Example Icebreaker Discussions from other faculty.

◉ Assignments

We have found it helpful to think of assignments as assignment dropboxes. So, while you may "assign" a reading, you only need to reference a chapter in the text or link to an article in the library for your students to complete a reading. If, however, you want students to write an analysis of the reading (or record a song or create an interactive concept map in response to the reading) then you will need to set up an assignment where they can turn in their work. Assignments can be assigned to individuals or groups. They can have grading rubrics attached as well as be opened for peer review.

Here's how to:

Create an assignment by adding it to a module
Create an assignment from the assignments list
Add or edit details in an assignment
Add or edit points for an assignment
Duplicate an assignment
Delete an assignment

Also, see Example Assignments from other faculty.

◉ Quizzes

The Quiz tool allows you to create both graded and ungraded quizzes, which make it ideal for practice and self-check activities. The quiz tool can also be used for surveys. The types of questions you can use in a quiz are Multiple Choice, True/False, Fill in the Blank, Fill-in-Multiple-Blanks, Multiple Answers, Multiple Dropdown, Matching, Numerical, Formula, and Essay. There is also a Text Only option that allows you to put in a text explanation or a video—anything that the rich text editor can accommodate, which is quite a bit. This makes quizzes a useful tool for tutorials. Most question types can be set up to be auto-graded and to give students automatic feedback as well.

Here's how to:

◉ Files

Many different kinds of files can be uploaded into Canvas. You can add a file directly to a module, but for most situations, the experience isn't great for the student. We prefer to link a file from a page—or wherever the rich text editor appears—to give some context to the file. An exception to this might be a module that is for housing a set of resources so that students can easily locate them, for example all the data sets you will be using during the course.

Here's how to:

◉ External URLs

Like Files, above, it is preferable to use External URLs within a page and hyperlink to websites. However, in some cases you may want to create a module of external resources. Note that unlike other items, if you remove an External URL from a module, the link will not be retained.

Here's how to:

◉ Headers

Headers are a great way to organize your modules, especially if the module contains a lot of items. They are simply text headers that label information in the module list. Headers do not show up when students page through the material; they only show up on the module list. If you remove a header from a module, it will be gone. In addition to headers, you can organize the material by indenting the names of items on a module list.

Here's how to:

Add a header to a module
Indent items in a module: Click on the 3 dots on the right side of the module item to open the editing window and choose Increase indent.

how to indent a module item

Navigation

laptop showing course homepage

For getting around, Canvas has two built-in levels of navigation: Global Navigation, which gives you access to all of your courses and associated course features; and Course Navigation, which you and your students will use to access parts of your course.

In addition, there is the navigation that you will provide by creating a clear homepage and linking to different parts of your course as needed. Below are some navigation basics.

◉ Global Navigation

The Global Navigation Menu is located on the left side of every page in Canvas. It is the black vertical strip with the SU logo at the top. It provides quick access to your Account information, your Dashboard, (which houses thumbnails of your courses), Courses, (which is a list of your courses), Groups,( which shows all of the groups you are a part of), your Calendar, your Inbox, a link to Canvas Commons (which is a shared repository of work created in Canvas from around the world) your Studio Library (which houses all of the videos you create or upload to Studio) and, perhaps most importantly, the Help menu.

Here's how to:

Use the Global Navigation Menu

◉ Course Navigation

The Course Navigation menu is on the left, just to the right of the Global Navigation. It is a list of links to places within your course that allows your students to easily move around your course. You can organize the menu to make it more useful to students, putting what they use most frequently at the top of the list and hiding menu items that you don't plan to use. We typically keep these items in the menu: Home, Modules, Announcements, Zoom, Assignments, People, and Grades.

Here's how to:

Manage Course Navigation links

◉ Homepage

Your course homepage is one of the most important places for guiding your students to the right resources and activities at the right time. If you use one of CDLI's course templates, it will automatically come with a homepage. If you decide to build your course from scratch, you can either import a homepage or build your own. Either way, you will need to do two things to get Canvas to recognize your homepage. Detailed instructions are linked below but here are the basic steps: 1.) go to the Pages List and find your homepage. 2.) Click on the 3 edit dots to open up the editing menu. 3.) Choose Use as Front Page from the menu. 4.) Click on the Home link in the course navigation and then use the right hand menu to click on Choose Course Homepage 5.) Choose Pages as Front Page.

Here's how to:

▼See Linking below to find out how to makes links from your homepage to other sections of your course.

◉ Linking

Canvas allows you to link from one place to another in your course. You can link to other pages, assignments, discussions, quizzes, and files. You can also link to external websites, such as the university's library, which is useful when assigning readings.

There are a couple of important considerations about linking. You can link to a specific module but it isn't very useful since it will simply throw the student back onto the Modules List. We prefer to link to the first page in a module. This provides a better navigational experience. However, one risk is that for pages—and only pages—if you change the page's title you will break the link. It's not the end of the world because you can easily re-link but it helpful to know ahead of time.

Here's how to:

Create Links

Communication

Young woman on laptop reading an announcement

Clear and regular communication is key for any successful online course. Canvas provides Announcements so that you can send out information to your entire class as needed. There is also Canvas Conversations, which functions as an internal email system. In addition, you can provide students with ways to communicate in smaller groups by giving them a Group Space to work in.

◉ Announcements

Announcements are a great way to reach out to your students and to create a sense of instructor presence, which is so important to the climate of an online course. You can use announcements to remind students about what is coming up next and/or as a wrap-up and summary of what happened during the previous week. You can send announcements as text only or record an informal video of yourself. The Announcements feature has the full text editor so you can attach files, and links—and even embed a YouTube video. One feature we find particularly useful is Delay Posting (see below). This allows you to work on your announcement without accidentally sending before your are ready.

Here's how to:

◉ Canvas Inbox

The Canvas Inbox, or "Conversations" as it is sometimes called, is the messaging tool used instead of email to communicate with a course, a group, an individual student, or a group of students. You can communicate with other people in your course at any time to:

Send a message to your entire class
Send a message to someone in your course
Send a message to members of a group
Reply to messages from others in your course
Filter conversations by course or type
View and reply to assignment submission comments

Here's how to:

Use the Canvas Inbox

◉ Groups

Canvas Groups allows you to give students their own space for group projects. When you use Groups, students in each group automatically get their own group homepage within Canvas where they can collaborate on projects like wiki pages and Google documents, share files, and discuss ideas with each other. You can also use groups for groups assignments and group discussions. Students in each group cannot see the work of other groups. Group work can be graded individually or as a group.

Here's how to:

Grading

Man with laptop on gradebook page

By clicking on the Grades link in the Course Navigation, students will be able to see the grades you give them along with any feedback and/or document annotations. The easiest way to grade is by using the Canvas Speedgrader. In addition, reviewing your Assignments List before you course goes live is a great way to keep track of everything since any published assignments, discussions, or quizzes with a grade attached will automatically create a column in the Gradebook.

◉ Gradebook

The Gradebook helps instructors easily view and enter grades for students. Grades for each assignment can be viewed as points, percentage, complete or incomplete, GPA scale, or letter grade. Students can only see their own grades. Every time you create an an assignment, discussion, or quiz that has points attached, Canvas will automatically insert a column in the course gradebook.

Here's how to:

◉ Speedgrader

The primary tool that instructors use for grading is called SpeedGrader, and it can be used to give students feedback (text as well as audio/video comments) on any assignment, online quiz, or graded discussion. Annotation tools are also available for file submission assignments.

Here's how to:

◉ Managing your Assignments List

The Assignments list is an incredibly useful tool because you can quickly scan all of your assignments, along with due dates and points values. The Assignments list shows all of your course’s graded assignment activities (including discussions and quizzes) that students must complete in your course. It also shows where assignments are located in modules.

To view the assignment list, click on Assignments on left menu of your course. It is useful to arrange assignments both by type and chronologically to make double-checking your assignments easier. To do this, create groups by clicking on the +Group button. Groups can be categories such as "weekly discussions," "reflection papers," and "weekly quizzes." Next, drag the activities into the appropriate groups and arrange them in order. Now you will be able to quickly see if there are missing or unpublished assignments, obsolete or duplicate assignments or assignments that you have forgotten to put in a module. Grouping also offers the advantage of being able to quickly weight your assignments by group if you so desire.

Here's how to: