The Dashboard is the first thing you will see when you log into Canvas and it also helps you see what is happening in all your current courses.
300 - Canvas Overview from Instructure Canvas Community
The Dashboard is truly the place where you can start off your day in Canvas! You can return to your User Dashboard at any time by clicking the Dashboard link in the Global Navigation Menu on the far left side of the screen. Things you'll see on your Dashboard include:
- Course Cards: All current courses are represented by tiles
- Global Announcements: Can be used for institution-wide communication
- To-Do List: Students see a list of up to 25 items they need to do in their courses. Each is a link into the course. Teachers' To Dos are items they need to grade. The number next to each is how many need to be graded. Teachers' To Dos are live links directly to the SpeedGrader
- Coming Up: Look ahead into your Canvas Calendar, showing events and assessments due today and going forward 7 days
Some ideas about how you can extend your use of the Dashboard are to Give Course Nicknames, Change the colour of your Course card, Apply an image to your Course card or Remove the Colour Overlay
Profile and User Settings let you control your personal information in Canvas.
101 - User Settings & Profile PictureLinks to an external site. from Instructure Canvas Community
Some other items you can customize are listed below:
- User Profile Pictures: When you interact with other users (in Conversations, Discussions, and when you give Feedback) your picture will appear
- Ways to Contact: Fully customizable, additional email addresses and/or your mobile phone to enable text notifications can be added
- Web Services: Skype, LinkedIn and Twitter can be enabled here as additional ways to receive notifications
Here are some additional user profile settings you can check out:
- High Contrast UI can be enabled as an Accessibility feature for colour contrast enhancement
- Underline Links can be enabled as an Accessibility feature and will underline all hyperlinks throughout Canvas
Notifications are the way for you to get alerted when a variety of actions occur in Canvas.
102 - Notification Settings Links to an external site.from Instructure Canvas Community
Important things to know about Notifications are:
- User determines the frequency:Notifications are received: right away, daily summary, weekly summary, or not at all
- User determines where the Notification is received: Email address, SMS message, and/or Push notifications
Here are some additional things to consider about Notifications:
- Can be customized at any time. User is in control of his/her own Notification experience
- Instructors can reinforce student useof Notifications by strongly suggesting critical Notifications for the course being delivered
- Default Settings for Notifications Links to an external site.are listed in this document
The Canvas Inbox displays all Canvas Conversations - the internal messaging system in Canvas.
104 - Inbox Overview from Instructure Canvas Community
Benefits of using the Canvas Inbox are below!
- Clean: Not a new email address
- Easy to use: Connected to your main email address; can receive copies of your Canvas Conversations at the email or any Notification pathway and answer right from there. Will appear to students that the communication was all contained in Canvas
- Purposeful: The only people who can contact you through a Canvas Conversation are those who are connected to you through a Course or a Group
- Contacts loaded:Users attached to your Course are pre-populated in your address book
Here are some additional ideas about why and how using Conversations can make your life easier:
- Conversations has a simple interface for composing and includes the ability to easily create an audio or video message
- Archive instead of delete to always retain copies of Conversations with students
ks to an external site.)
The Canvas Calendar has layers for each course associated with the user.
314 - Calendar Overview from Instructure Canvas Community
The Calendar has so many benefits and uses. Check them out below!
Choose what you see:Courses can be enabled/disabled in the Calendar view
- Different views:User can choose month, week, or agenda view
- Calendar, Assign Dates in course, and Syllabus work in conjunction: Change date in one place and it updates all the others!
- Icons are clear:Assessments, when assigned, will appear on calendar with an icon representing which assessment type it is (Assignment, Discussion or Quiz)
- Upon student submission: Items will cross off on the student calendar
- Items cross off on the instructor's calendar: When the due date has passed and all items have been graded
- Events can also be added: They appear with the calendar icon
Here are some additional ways users can make the Calendar work for them:
- The Schedulertool is a way to allow students to sign up for appointment slots
- Calendar can be synchedto another calendaring software using the iCal calendar feed link
- Assignment shells can be built directly from the Calendar