{"id":7862,"date":"2020-12-17T07:42:58","date_gmt":"2020-12-17T07:42:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/digitaldevelopment\/?p=7862"},"modified":"2025-01-07T15:17:06","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T15:17:06","slug":"a-z-of-canvas-course-features","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/digitallearning\/blog\/a-z-of-canvas-course-features\/","title":{"rendered":"A-Z of Canvas Course Features"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Announcements<\/strong>\u00a0<\/a>\u2013 Course level Announcements allow instructors to communicate with students about course activities and post interesting course-related topics. They can be effectively used to communicate about the logistics of your course. As soon as you have created an Announcement, Canvas takes care of notifying students according to their preferred Notification Preferences.<\/p>\n

Assignments<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>include online submissions (i.e. files, images, text, URLs etc) quizzes and graded discussions. Assignments in Canvas can be used to challenge students\u2019 understanding and help assess competency by using a variety of media. The Assignments page shows students all of the Assignments that will be expected of them and how many points each is worth. Assignments can be assigned to everyone in the course or differentiated by user.<\/p>\n

Attendance<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 The Attendance (Roll Call) tool allows instructors to record their students\u2019 attendance and automatically adds a \u201cRoll Call Attendance\u201d column to the Gradebook.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Blackboard Ally\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 Blackboard Ally is an accessibility tool that integrates seamlessly with Canvas VLE, to identify and help resolve accessibility issues in your Canvas courses. Blackboard Ally; automatically checks course materials against WCAG 2.1 accessibility standards, gauges the accessibility of your course content and delivers guidance to improve the accessibility of your content and\u00a0has the ability to<\/span>\u00a0provide students with accessible alternative formats* of the original document provided by the instructor. (*This feature will be available in Canvas from June 2021.)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Blackboard Ally\u00a0Course Accessibility Report<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0provides an accessibility summary and overview for each Canvas course. Find your Ally Course Accessibility Report in the left-hand navigation menu in Canvas. (Ally \u2013 Course Report). The report identifies all content items that have\u00a0accessibility issues,\u00a0<\/strong>and it also provides access to\u00a0instructor feedback\u00a0to show you how to resolve the issue (which opens within the report in the Instructor Feedback Panel).\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Calendar\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>\u2013 The Calendar in Canvas is a global feature that allows all Canvas users to view assignments and events from all courses in one place. Calendar assignments and events can be filtered by course and synced with other web service calendars. Calendar feature in Canvas automatically syncs with other features in Canvas courses such as Assignments and Grades, so if an instructor changes a date for an assignment students will see the change in the tools mentioned above as well as the calendar, notifications, and the To Do list on the Dashboard.<\/p>\n

Chat\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>\u2013 The Chat tool in Canvas allows students and teachers to interact in real time. Notes: The Chat tool can be enabled\/ disabled on your Canvas course, as you wish.<\/p>\n

Collaborations<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 Canvas Collaborations allows students to work together on a single Office 365 (Word, Excel, or PowerPoint) that is easily accessed from within your course.<\/p>\n

Commons<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 is a learning object repository that enables educators to find, import, and share resources. A digital library full of educational content, Commons allows Canvas users to share learning resources with other users as well as import learning resources into a Canvas course. At present, QUB staff can choose to share their content with other staff within QUB via Commons. They can\u00a0view\u00a0<\/em>content from users outside of QUB but cannot\u00a0share\u00a0<\/em>outside QUB.<\/p>\n

Canvas Community<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 The global Canvas Community consists of over 707,804 Canvas users all sharing, collaborating and shaping Canvas together. Ask questions, find answers, suggest new ideas, read the latest release notes or join different community groups.<\/p>\n

Conferences<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 The Conferences feature in Canvas allows synchronous video conferencing for instructors and the students registered in their courses. Conferences allow instructors to broadcast real-time audio and video, hold virtual office hours, demo desktop applications, share presentation slides, or demo online resources.<\/p>\n

Course Import Tool<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 makes it easy to extract course content, assignments, and quizzes from previous terms and quickly import them into existing courses. Course content can be copied from term to term, including Announcements and Discussions. You can adjust the events and due dates to coordinate with your current term. You can also choose specific content or copy a whole course. You can select individual Assignments, Pages, Files, and anything else from previous courses you or your colleagues have taught.<\/p>\n

Course Navigation<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The Course Navigation Menu is a series of links on the left side of your course that help you and your students access different course areas. Depending on the structure of your course, you can choose to reorder and hide course navigation links.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Discussions<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 Canvas provides an integrated system for class discussions, allowing both instructors and students to start and contribute to as many discussion topics as desired. Discussions allows for interactive communication between two or more people; users can participate in a conversation with an entire class or group.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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ePortfolios<\/a>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0<\/strong>the Canvas ePortfolio feature allows students to share online materials inside and outside of courses. They are tied to your account, not to a specific course, which allows you to create multiple ePortfolios and to choose how you share them. ePortfolios can be set to allow private or public access.<\/p>\n

External Apps<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 can add functionality to a Canvas course. An example of a current LTI is Turnitin. The request process for external apps is currently under review during the rollout phases of Canvas at Queen\u2019s.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Files\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>\u2013 As an instructor, Files allows you to store files and assignments within Canvas. You can upload one or multiple files, view all details about your files, preview files, publish and unpublish files, \u2018schedule\u2019 the publishing of files, set usage rights, and restrict access to files. You have access to files (documents, images, media, etc.)<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Global Navigation Menu<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 is located on the left side of every page in Canvas. Global Navigation links provide quick access to frequently used Canvas features. These links provide access to all your courses collectively.<\/p>\n

Grades<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 the Grades function within Canvas allows you to maintain all of your grades online. It provides a robust tool for tasks typically done in a spreadsheet application, making it possible to keep all grading online. To enter your grade book, click on the Grades button on the left side.<\/p>\n

Groups<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>are a small version of a course and used as a collaborative tool where students can work together on group projects and assignments.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Inbox<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 the Inbox is a messaging tool used to communicate with a course, a group, an individual student, or a group of students. You can use the Inbox to communicate with other people in your course at any time.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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MasteryPaths<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 allows you to customise learning experiences for students based on performance. You can enable MasteryPaths to automatically assign coursework based on the score achieved for a previous assignment. This provides multiple opportunities to show and achieve mastery in a course. MasteryPaths is based on differentiated assignments, which allows targeted learning activities to be assigned to different users and sections. With MasteryPaths, assignments are differentiated to individual students automatically and no additional work is required aside from grading student assignments as usual. After the initial assignment has been graded (either manually or automatically), the student\u2019s score designates which conditional item(s) they are assigned as a learning path.<\/p>\n

Mobile\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>\u2013 On mobile devices, Canvas is designed to be used within Canvas mobile applications. Canvas pages within a mobile browser are only supported when an action in the app links directly to the browser, such as when a student takes certain types of quizzes. Support is not extended to pages that cannot currently be used in the app, such as Conferences or Collaborations. Instructure has native mobile applications for instructors free for download on both phones and tablets. With the growing use of mobile devices, you should build your courses with best practices for mobile in mind.<\/p>\n

Modules<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 Canvas uses the term \u2018Modules\u2019 as a way for Instructors to organise content and assignments within a Canvas Course. Instructors can customise the way content is arranged within the Canvas Modules. A \u2018Canvas Module\u2019 is equivalent to a Queen\u2019s unit of study e.g. by Week, Unit, Topic, Theme, etc. Canvas Modules are used to organize course content by weeks, units, or a different organizational structure. Modules essentially create a one-directional linear flow of what students should do in a course. Each module can contain files, discussions, assignments, quizzes, and other learning materials.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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New Analytics<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 is a learning analytics tool that allows you to filter and compare student cohorts and individuals to class averages, for all grade-based Canvas activities such as Assignments, Quizzes, and Discussions. It also contains information about missing and late assignments as well as the ability to email all students within specific defined parameters such as missing an assignment. Data is refreshed in every 24 hours and only active student enrolments are included in data for New Analytics.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Outcomes<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 enables the schools and instructors to track students\u2019 progress as measured by pedagogical goals or desired outcomes. Assessments created to test student knowledge or to require students to demonstrate a specific skill resulting from a learning activity can be aligned to learning outcomes using rubrics (which can be used for grading simultaneously). Grading student work automatically collects and compiles data on student progress for the Outcomes. The data is available for reporting to support teaching improvement, identify at-risk students, and support the accreditation process. This unified, streamlined approach dramatically reduces the amount of work required to implement Learning Outcomes through the intelligent reuse of assessment workflows in the grading process.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Pages<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 store content and educational resources that are part of a course or group but don\u2019t necessarily belong in an assignment. They can also be used as a collaboration tool for course or group wikis where only specific users can have access. Canvas keeps the entire history of the page to account for changes over time.<\/p>\n

People<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 shows all the users enrolled in your course, added via SIS import from Qsis each night. You can also view the number of current users in a course from the Course Settings page.<\/p>\n

Profile and User Settings<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 let you control your personal information in Canvas. You can use your profile and user settings to:<\/p>\n