Canvas Tips

Tool-by-tool in alphabetical order

New Analytics

  • New Analytics allows instructors to track average course grades for student submissions using an interactive chart graph or table. 
  • Data is refreshed for published courses in the New Analytics dashboard every 24 hours. Report data may be delayed by 24 hours; however, Course Activity Report data may be delayed by 40 hours.

Read more about New Analytics Links to an external site.

Watch a video about New Analytics Links to an external site.

Announcements

  • Students manage their own notification preferences, which can include auto-blocking messages sent from Canvas. If you are concerned that some may have opted out of receiving announcement notifications you want to send an email to students, you can use the Inbox feature in the left navigation to send an email to all students. In addition, the MCommunity Directory automatically creates a Google Email Group for your course. A nice side benefit is that this group can also be used to share Google docs with your entire course. Read more about Google email groups Links to an external site..
  • Create a delayed announcement Links to an external site.
  • You can get an immediate confirmation that you sent out an announcement or assignment.
    1. Click Account in the left-hand navigation menu.
    2. Click Notifications.
    3. Select a notification preference for Announcements Created by You and choose the checkmark.

Read more about notification preferences Links to an external site..

Read more about Announcements Links to an external site..

Announcements Redesign

  • As of May 6, 2024 Announcements Redesign is enabled in all U-M Canvas courses
  • Updated user interface for Announcements 
  • No existing functionality for Announcements has been lost with the redesign

Read more about Announcements Redesign Links to an external site..

Assignments

  • Students sometimes need to scroll down to view comments from the instructor. You may want to remind your students about this.
  • Students are able to resubmit assignments Links to an external site. until the Available Until date, even past the due date or after the instructor grades it.
  • There is no “draft mode”.
  • Resubmitted Assignments stack with previously submitted.
  • Students who do not submit an assignment by the "Accept Until" date can no longer see that assignment.
  • Students need to click "Submit Assignment" before they can enter their assignment content.
  • Instructors can hide assignments grades by default in the Gradebook Links to an external site. and in Speedgrader Links to an external site..  
  • Non-Canvas-administered Assignment data can be uploaded via csv directly to Assignments by first downloading a blank csv from Grades, then using Grades/Settings/Upload Grades csv.
  • Canvas has several different assignment submission types, including rich text, file upload, and media recording. While students can submit only one type of assignment at a time, they can submit an assignment more than once.
    • For example, if your assignment requires both an uploaded file and a media recording, your students can upload a file the first time they submit the assignment and then resubmit the assignment with a media recording. (You would enable both submission types when you create the assignment.)
    • Note that students can also use the comment feature to include additional information with assignment submissions.
  • You can get an immediate confirmation that you sent out an announcement or assignment.
    1. Click Account in the left-hand navigation menu.
    2. Click Notifications.
    3. Select a notification preference for Due Date if you want a confirmation that you sent an Assignment out.

Read more about notification preferences Links to an external site..

Read more about Assignments. Links to an external site.

Discussions

  • Interactive communication between two or more people; users can participate in a conversation with an entire class or group.
  • Discussions can also be created as an assignment for grading purposes (and seamlessly integrated with the Canvas Gradebook), or simply serve as a forum for topical and current events.
  • Discussions can also be created within student groups.
  • Discussion topics can be organized as focused or threaded discussions. Focused discussions only allow for two levels of nesting, the original post and subsequent replies. Threaded discussions allow for infinite levels of nesting. Focused discussions are relatively short-lived interactions, while threaded discussions allow replies within replies and may last for a longer period of time.

Read more about Discussions Links to an external site.

Discussions Redesign

  • As of May 6, 2024 Discussions Redesign is enabled in all U-M Canvas courses
  • Updated user interface for Discussions 
  • No existing functionality for Discussions has been lost with the redesign
  • New Discussions functionality, including
    • creating anonymous discussions,
    • mentioning other enrolled users in replies,
    • quoting replies, reporting problem replies,
    • and viewing reply edit histories.

Read more about Discussions Redesign Links to an external site.

DocViewer

  • Canvas DocViewer Links to an external site. is a tool that allows annotations on online assignment submissions in Canvas.
  • Students can use DocViewer to view annotated feedback Links to an external site. in the assignment details section of the sidebar from you or from other students in peer review assignments Links to an external site..
  • When you open a submission, DocViewer will automatically save any annotations made to the submission file for 10 hours. Canvas will display a session expiration warning at 9 hours 50 minutes, followed by a 5-minute and 1-minute warning until the 10 hour limit has been reached. You can restart a DocViewer session at any time by refreshing the submission page.
  • If your browser includes a built-in PDF viewer, select the option to view the PDF in the system viewer.

Files

Read more about Files Links to an external site..

Grades and Gradebook

Read more about Grades and the Gradebook Links to an external site..

Groups

  • Instructors who create groups should check for new students enrolling in the course until the drop/add period is over. Students added to the course during the drop/add period must be manually added to any previously created groups.

Read more about Groups Links to an external site..

Home Page

Modules

  • If a page is used in more than one module and one of the modules is not published, students will see the page title but they will not be able to open that page in a module that is published.
  • A file that is included in both a published Module and an unpublished Module will be invisible to students in both.
  • Canvas Modules that are migrated from Lesson Builder will automatically be published in Canvas.

Read more about Modules Links to an external site..

Notifications

  • Students manage their own notification preferences, which can include auto-blocking messages sent from Canvas. If you are concerned that some may have opted out of receiving announcement notifications you want to send an email to students, you can use the Inbox feature in the upper-right corner of the screen to send an email to all students. In addition, the MCommunity Directory automatically creates an MCommunity Google Email Group Links to an external site. for your course. A nice side benefit is that this group can also be used to share Google docs with your entire course. More on course groups Links to an external site..
  • You can get an immediate confirmation that you sent out an announcement or assignment.
    1. Click Account in the left-hand navigation menu.
    2. Click Notifications.
    3. Select a notification preference for Announcements Created by You.
    4. Select a notification preference for Due Date if you want a confirmation that you sent an Assignment out.

Read more about notification preferences Links to an external site..

Pages

  • Changing the name of a Page changes the URL for the page. However Canvas has implemented redirects so if you are linking to the old URL students will still land on the correct page.

Read more about Pages Links to an external site..

People

  • Students will not be able to see an unpublished site.
  • Academic course sections are synced twice a day with enrollment data changes from MPathway. 
  • Students can access the course once published, however students will not be able to participate (will have read-only access) in the course until the term start date.
  • After the term end date students will have read-only access to course content

Publishing

  • You must publish your Modules, Quizzes, Assignments, and Discussions, and the site itself, to make them visible to students.
  • Use Student View at any time to double check what they can see.
  • A file that is included in both a published Module and an unpublished Module will be invisible to students in both.

Quizzes

Classic Quizzes

  • You can shuffle answers at the quiz level, as opposed to question by question. More on quiz options Links to an external site..
  • Learn about quiz settings to maximize security Links to an external site..
  • Instructors can rename quiz questions. Click the word "Question" while in editing view to change the name. This is helpful for reordering. To students, they will still be named "Question."
  • If you use a multiple Fill In The Blank (FIB) question, students earn all or nothing. It's not possible to have each blank scored individually (e.g., 5 blanks = 5 points).
  • If you use a single FIB type question, the blank will always be at the end of the question text. If you want a blank in the middle of a sentence, you have to insert text along the lines of [ _________ ]. Instructors can also choose the Multiple Blanks option.
  • There is no option to include an “Explanation” text box for students to use with a multiple choice or any other kind of question.
  • Canvas saves any quiz answers every 60 seconds. Students can leave a quiz that they started and if they return before the time or date expires, they can "Resume Quiz."
  • Although it will not appear the same, you can print a quiz: click the Preview button to see a preview of the quiz and then use your browser's print function to print the preview.

Read more about Classic Links to an external site.Quizzes Links to an external site..

New Quizzes

Read more about New Quizzes Links to an external site..

SpeedGrader

  • As an instructor, SpeedGrader allows you to view and grade student assignment submissions in one place using a simple point scale or complex rubric. Canvas accepts a variety of document formats and even URLs as assignment submissions. Some document assignments can be marked up for feedback directly within the submission. You can also provide feedback to your students with text or media comments.
  • You can use SpeedGrader to:
    • Sort submissions by student and hide student names for anonymous grading
    • View submission details for each student, including resubmitted assignments
    • Use rubrics to assign grades  
    • Leave feedback for your students
    • Track your grading progress and hide assignments while grading
    • View submissions in moderated assignments

Read more about SpeedGrader. Links to an external site.

Syllabus

  • Syllabus makes it easy to communicate to your students exactly what will be required of them throughout the course in chronological order.
  • The Course Summary is automatically generated based on course assignments and course calendar events Links to an external site.. 

Read more about Syllabus Links to an external site..