IMPORTANT NOTE: This page does not contain comprehensive instructions on how to use Canvas. We've discovered that the number of educational institutions using Canvas is so vast that searching the internet for "Canvas (your topic)" or "How to (your topic) in Canvas" yields lots of helpful material, both written and in video!

Where is Canvas at Whitman?

Whitman’s Canvas is https://canvas.whitman.edu, with shortcuts from myWhitman, https://whitman.edu/canvas, and from its formal address https://whitman.instructure.com .

* Note that it’s actually hosted by Instructure (the makers of Canvas), not Whitman, but if you have trouble accessing it, please let us know.

How do I set up my courses?

Go to myWhitman / Faculty Tools, and click “Canvas Site Creation":

How do I get a non-course Canvas site, or a test Canvas site (a.k.a. "Sandbox")

To request a non-course Canvas site (e.g., for departmental faculty, majors, or grant-supported projects) or a "sandbox" site (a site to test and experiment with Canvas), please email canvas_help@whitman.edu.

How do I get Canvas help? What about course design consultation, or my "what if?" questions?

canvas_help@whitman. edu is the best place to get support, ask questions, inquire about training, and more. Officially, we pledge to respond to messages within one business day. Unofficially our response time is usually far faster than that-- within a couple hours or less!

Another great help resource is built right into Canvas! See the "Help" link at the bottom of the left hand blue bar.

Use Universal Design guidelines

Please strongly consider Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as you work on your course design. UDL is a helpful guide to making your courses more useful and accessible to all students. Want to learn more about UDL and apply it to your Canvas courses?

Check out About Universal Design for Learning by CAST
Check out Applying DUL to Your Canvas Course by Emerson College

Blackboard Ally in Canvas

Also note that Whitman employs the Blackboard Ally plug-in, which helps you identify which parts of your courses can be improved to make them more accessible. Just look for and click on the Speedometer icons that appear in your course...

... and click on the icon for more information and actions you can take. When you make your course materials as fully accessible as possible, your students will get options like these:

... which is immensely helpful to them for a wide variety of reasons.

Learn more about Ally (from Stockton University).

Tips about Key Canvas Tools

Assignments

Using Canvas Assignments, you can build and view all of your course assignments. As an instructor, you can create assignment groups, create a variety of assignment types, modify assignment settings, and so much more!

Want to learn more about Assignments? Check out this overview
Do you have more questions about Assignments? Check out these frequently asked questions

You might also find Transparency in Teaching and Learning useful when building assignments. Check out the Transparent Assignment Template by Mary-Ann Winkelmes.

Files

→ The “Files” tool consists of a hierarchical file location to store all manner of computer files that you would want access to in Canvas. A folder structure like that of both Mac/Windows/Google Drive can be built here, and populated with files and folders that you upload.

→ The Files tool can be used directly by displaying the folder for students, or it can be more of a staging area for items that you’ll use elsewhere in Canvas. For example, you could have a folder full of PDF’s that are linked from either Modules, or Pages, but not visible to students in the Files tool.

Note that each file/folder on the right side of the screen has three key options to the right of the “size” column.

Accessibility - Blackboard Ally (see above) at work on many files-- a “speedometer” icon will appear, indicating the accessibility “rating” of the file. Clicking on it will give you more information and options.
Publishing status - - where you set how and when a student sees the file
Vertical ellipses - (only visible when you mouse over the file) where you can affect file location and more.

Modules

Modules let you group together items of various types: Assignments, Quizzes, Files, links to external resources, etc., for easy access by students. Most instructors group them week-by-week, or topic by topic.

Items that appear in the Modules view are also reachable via their respective “index pages” (Assignments, Quizzes, etc.) in the Navigation menu, if those are enabled. In other words, Modules is just a different route to the course materials, not a pile of duplicated items.
Many instructors choose to make Modules the home page of their course, so students have each week’s materials ready to hand.

Please see the official documentation for answers to common questions.

Notifications

Please see our Recommended Settings Guide.

Pages

How to see Pages, and who sees them when

Click on Courses, and select the course where you want the pages option to show.
Click on ‘settings’ (all the way to the bottom and to the left of the blue vertical bar)
Click on the ‘Navigation’ tab at the top.
Note the topmost box, labeled: ‘Drag and drop items to reorder them in the course navigation’
Note the box below, labeled: ‘Drag items here to hide them from students.’ Alternatively, you can drag items OUT of this box and drop them into the box above, this will show the pages tool to the students.

Each page must be created, saved, and published to be seen *in* the pages tool.

Creating and saving a page

When logged into Canvas, as instructor you will always see the pages tool. Click on it.
Click the ‘View All Pages’ button, on the top left.
Click on the PAGES+ button to the right
Create the page using the WYSIWYG editor
Click on ‘Save’ at the bottom of the page, or ‘Save and Publish’ if you want the students to have immediate access.

Publishing and ‘Front Page’

When viewing ‘all pages’ you will see the vertical ellipse to the right of each page. You can copy, edit, delete the page as you choose.
Just to the left of this button, is another toggle button that will publish/unpublish each page individually.
In the vertical ellipse menu, you also have the option to ‘use asfront page’. To see this option, there must be more than one page created, and the page to make ‘front’ must be published. This will become the first page students will see when they come to this course**
**EXCEPTIONS: For the ‘pages’ ‘front page’ to be set as the ‘home page’ IE: The first thing students see, follow the following additional steps:
- Course Activity Stream
- Pages Front Page
- Course Modules
- Assignments List
- Syllabus

Click on ‘home’ at the top of the wite bar just to the left of the blue column.
On the right side of this page, click on ‘Choose Home Page’ (note, ‘front page’ only applies to ‘pages’ This selection is more broad. Here are the choices:
Choosing ‘Pages Front Page’ will make the ‘front page’ chosen earlier, the ‘Home Page’ for this course

Syllabus Tool: The Syllabus Tool is a special page that (as you see above) can be chosen to be the Home Page as well. The Syllabus page has the same page building tools that ‘pages’ has, with one addition: Any assignments built (using the assignments tool) will be shown on the bottom portion of the Syllabus page as a bulleted list. Building a Syllabus page does not automatically make it the Home Page, it must be selected from the ‘Choose Home Page’ menu.
Do note that if you add assignments using the Assignment tool over the course of the semester, they will be added to the Syllabus page at the same time.

Other questions? Please contact us at canvas_help@whitman.edu

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