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 through myHilltop or directly at stedwards.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 approximately one month before student registration begins for the following semester (March 1 for Summer and Fall courses, and October 1 for Spring courses).
• Students are enrolled in their Canvas courses three weeks before the Term start date (see the Academic Calendar for specifics). Their enrollment is synced automatically after that date. For 7-week courses, student enrollment for both the first and second 7-week sessions is processed three weeks prior to the start 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 courses start 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. For students with incompletes who need access to Canvas, contact IET Support to request extended access.
• Students can access the course's content only after it's been published and its start date has passed.
• Canvas automatically adds current-term courses to your Dashboard. To access missing classes, Favorite a course for easier access.

Resources for Using Canvas

Faculty

Getting Started

• Visit the Canvas Community Instructor Guide.
• Contact IET support to request an appointment with an Instructional Technology staff member.
• Canvas Start of Semester Checklist lists best 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 share pages, assignments, announcements, quizzes and discussions with your classes or other 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
• Getting Started with New 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 into videos or setup assignments for students to record
• Poll Everywhere: Create interactive polls and integrate them with Canvas for grading
• Publisher Tools: Many publishers, including McGraw-Hill, Macmillan, Cengage, and Wiley, have established integrations with Canvas.
• Zoom: Schedule class meetings and publish Zoom recordings from within Canvas

Students

• Visit the Canvas Community Student Guide.
• 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 Guides for details on the Student and Teacher app.

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