What Is Canvas

Canvas, the university-supported Learning Management System (LMS), is used to post syllabi, course content, assignments, discussions, grades, and foster communication between students and faculty.

Access Canvas throughmyHilltopor directly atstedwards.instructure.com.

This article covers:

• Classes and Enrollments in Canvas
• Faculty Resources for Using Canvas
• Student Resources for Using Canvas
• Canvas Mobile App

Classes and Enrollments in Canvas

• Classes and faculty assignments auto-populate in Canvas about 1 month before student registration begins for the following semester (March 1st for Summer and Fall courses and October 1st for Spring courses).
• Studentsare enrolled in their Canvas courses three weeks before the Term start date (see the Academic Calendar for specifics). Their enrollment is synched automatically after that date. For 7-week courses, student enrollment for both first and second 7-week courses is processed three weeks before the beginning of the full term. Faculty can see course enrollment and access course rosters before that time by using the View Class List task on myHilltop.
• Canvas course start and end dates are determined by class dates in the official course schedule:Canvas coursesstart three weeks before the official course date and end 3 weeks after. Faculty cannot change these dates in Canvas to allow students earlier or later access to course materials. Faculty can control student access to a course by publishing their course only when it is ready for student access.
• Students can access the course's content only after it's been published and its start datehas passed.
• Canvas adds current term courses automatically to your Dashboard. To access missing classes,Favorite a coursefor easier access.

Resources for Using Canvas

Faculty

Getting Started

• Visit the Canvas Community Instructor Guide.
• ContactOIT supportto request an appointment with an Instructional Technology staff member.
• Canvas Start of Semester Checklistlistsbest practices for preparing your course for the start of the semester.
• Copying a Course in Canvas
• Adding a TA or Instructor
• Combining Course Sections in Canvas

Adding Content

• Uploading a Syllabus in Canvas
• Options for Organizing Your Course: Pages and Modules
• Sharing Content in Canvas: You can sharepages, assignments, announcements, quizzes and discussions with your classes orother faculty.
• Using the Canvas Editor
• Communicating with Students Through Canvas: Announcements, Messages and Notifications

Assignments, Quizzes and Grading

• Assignments Guide
• Best Practices for Setting up Quizzes
• Extending Time on Exams in Canvas for Students with Accommodations
• Using the Canvas Gradebook
• Using New Analytics

Tools Integrated with Canvas

• Qwickly Attendance:Take attendance via student self-check-in or manually
• Honorlock: Proctor online exams
• Hypothesis: Create social annotation assignments
• Turnitin: Check for plagiarism in student submissions
• Panopto: Record video lectures, insert quizzes or record student assignments
• Poll Everywhere: Create interactive polls and integrate them with Canvas for grading
• Publisher Tools: Many publishers, including McGraw-Hill, Macmillan, Cengage, and Wiley, have integrations set up with Canvas.
• Zoom: Schedule class meetings and publish Zoom recordings from within Canvas

Students

• Visit the Canvas Community Student Guide.
• Canvas Overview (video)
• Viewing Faculty Feedback in Canvas

Canvas Mobile App

Canvas offers a mobile app version for both iOS and Android devices. Not all functions of Canvas are available through the mobile app, but check the Canvas Mobile Guidesfor details on the Student andTeacher app.

For more information about Canvas, visit the OIT support site (search for "Canvas"), through the Canvas Community or by contacting Instructional Technology.