Canvas FAQs for Staff
Announcements

Communication
No. It is not possible to ensure that all your students receive email notifications about Announcements in Canvas.
Notification Settings: Students are able to customise their Notification settings in the same way that staff members can and can choose to turn off the notifications for Announcements. However, even if they turn this notification off, they will still see the Announcement when they login to Canvas.
Advice: If you are planning to use Announcements to communicate information about your course, advise your students to keep this notification turned on.
Canvas Guide: How do I set my Canvas notification preferences as a student?
Course Management
QSIS: Enrolment and registration first takes place in Qsis and then this information flows through to Canvas.
Canvas: In Canvas you can check the student enrolment information by clicking on People in your course navigation menu. Clicking on the All roles dropdown will show you each Canvas role in your course, with the number of active users beside each role (See Fig. 1).
Contact your School Administrator and ask them to confirm with Qsis, the number of students in your course, or alternatively, contact the QSIS Support Team.
Canvas Guide: How do I use the People page in a course as an instructor?
No. It is not possible to ensure that all your students receive email notifications about Announcements in Canvas.
Notification Settings: Students are able to customise their Notification settings in the same way that staff members can and can choose to turn off the notifications for Announcements. However, even if they turn this notification off, they will still see the Announcement when they login to Canvas.
Advice: If you are planning to use Announcements to communicate information about your course, advise your students to keep this notification turned on.
Canvas Guide: How do I set my Canvas notification preferences as a student?
Yes.
Date and time release functions: These are available for ‘Canvas Modules’ (i.e. units of study, for example: weeks, topics, themes) and other features such as assignments, quizzes, discussions and announcements.
The guide below explains how to edit a module’s settings to lock all content and release it on a particular date/time.
Canvas Guide: How do I lock a module?
No, however students can access their course timetable or class schedule via Qsis and their exam timetable via Queen’s Online. Students can view instructions on how to access this information here under FAQ 6.
More information: Student FAQS
Yes. However it is important to note that some of the activity/resource types in Moodle do not exist in Canvas, and this will impact on how some of the Moodle course materials appear in Canvas.
The table below shows some of the activities/resources in Moodle which do not exist in Canvas and explains how they will be imported (based on Moodle version 3.0).
Advice: It is advised that you make an audit of your Moodle course before importing, and make a note of the features listed in the table below.
Moodle activities/resources not featured in Canvas |
What happens when imported to Canvas? |
Book | Will import as a series of Canvas Pages |
Database | Will not import |
Glossary | Will import as a Canvas Page, but the terms and definitions will not display. |
Label | Will import as a Canvas Page, but the layout and details of the text in the page may need to be reformatted or reorganised. |
Lesson | Will import as a series of Canvas Pages, but the connections between pages will be lost. |
Question banks | Canvas will not import Moodle question banks on their own, but question banks can be imported if you choose to also export the Moodle quiz they’re associated with. |
Quiz Question types: |
Most question types within Moodle will be imported into Canvas with no problems. However, those question types mentioned in the cell to the left will not import. |
Wiki | Will not import |
Back up your Moodle Course
The next step is to back up your Moodle course. To do this, go to your Moodle course, click the Turn Editing On button and click the Backup menu item within the Course Administration menu. (If you don’t see this, you will need to ask for help from the administrator of your Moodle site.)
Follow the instructions on how to create and save the back up (Note: Make sure you do not include the enrolled users in your back-up file).
Then you can log in to Canvas and import the contents of your Moodle course into your Canvas course.
Canvas Guide: How do I import content from Moodle into Canvas? (Canvas Community Guide)
Course Settings
Yes.
Date and time release functions: These are available for ‘Canvas Modules’ (i.e. units of study, for example: weeks, topics, themes) and other features such as assignments, quizzes, discussions and announcements.
The guide below explains how to edit a module’s settings to lock all content and release it on a particular date/time.
Canvas Guide: How do I lock a module?
Yes. However it is important to note that some of the activity/resource types in Moodle do not exist in Canvas, and this will impact on how some of the Moodle course materials appear in Canvas.
The table below shows some of the activities/resources in Moodle which do not exist in Canvas and explains how they will be imported (based on Moodle version 3.0).
Advice: It is advised that you make an audit of your Moodle course before importing, and make a note of the features listed in the table below.
Moodle activities/resources not featured in Canvas |
What happens when imported to Canvas? |
Book | Will import as a series of Canvas Pages |
Database | Will not import |
Glossary | Will import as a Canvas Page, but the terms and definitions will not display. |
Label | Will import as a Canvas Page, but the layout and details of the text in the page may need to be reformatted or reorganised. |
Lesson | Will import as a series of Canvas Pages, but the connections between pages will be lost. |
Question banks | Canvas will not import Moodle question banks on their own, but question banks can be imported if you choose to also export the Moodle quiz they’re associated with. |
Quiz Question types: |
Most question types within Moodle will be imported into Canvas with no problems. However, those question types mentioned in the cell to the left will not import. |
Wiki | Will not import |
Back up your Moodle Course
The next step is to back up your Moodle course. To do this, go to your Moodle course, click the Turn Editing On button and click the Backup menu item within the Course Administration menu. (If you don’t see this, you will need to ask for help from the administrator of your Moodle site.)
Follow the instructions on how to create and save the back up (Note: Make sure you do not include the enrolled users in your back-up file).
Then you can log in to Canvas and import the contents of your Moodle course into your Canvas course.
Canvas Guide: How do I import content from Moodle into Canvas? (Canvas Community Guide)
General
QSIS: Enrolment and registration first takes place in Qsis and then this information flows through to Canvas.
Canvas: In Canvas you can check the student enrolment information by clicking on People in your course navigation menu. Clicking on the All roles dropdown will show you each Canvas role in your course, with the number of active users beside each role (See Fig. 1).
Contact your School Administrator and ask them to confirm with Qsis, the number of students in your course, or alternatively, contact the QSIS Support Team.
Canvas Guide: How do I use the People page in a course as an instructor?
Modules
Yes.
Date and time release functions: These are available for ‘Canvas Modules’ (i.e. units of study, for example: weeks, topics, themes) and other features such as assignments, quizzes, discussions and announcements.
The guide below explains how to edit a module’s settings to lock all content and release it on a particular date/time.
Canvas Guide: How do I lock a module?