Canvas is UChicago's cloud-based teaching and learning management tool that's accessible from any location via a web browser. Daily, Canvas is used by students and faculty to enhance the collaborative instructional and coursework environment.

For a complete list of frequently asked questions, learn more at the Canvas Resources website courses.uchicago.edu.

Technical Requirements

What are the technical requirements for Canvas?

Canvas is a web browser-based application that you can access from your Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android devices. Although it supports the current versions of most commonly used browsers, for best performance, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox are the recommended for use. These browsers are recommended because Canvas requires Flash and the Java plug-in, which are available in both browsers. However, these are the browsers that Canvas support and an information on basic computer requirements.

Getting Started

How do I log in to Canvas?

You can log in to Canvas using your CNetID and password by selecting the Login link at the top of UChicago Courses website.

How do I request a test course in Canvas?

You can email the UChicago Canvas Support team at canvas@uchicago.edu to request your test courses.

Calendar

How do I make sure assignments and quizzes appear in the students' Canvas Calendar?

When you assign a due date to an assignment or quiz, it automatically shows up in Calendar. You are given the option to assign a due date when you newly create or edit an existing assignment or quiz.

Does Canvas have an appointment scheduling tool?

As faculty or a teaching assistant (TA), you can use the Scheduler tool in Calendar to create appointment groups within a course or group. You can use the Scheduler to create office hours, schedule TA sessions, schedule review sessions, assign presentation times, etc.

For step-by-step instructions with screenshots, read What is the Canvas scheduler?

Chat

What is the box at the bottom right of the chat screen?

The Chat tool in Canvas allows course participants to chat with one another in real time.

For more information, see the Canvas Community article What is Chat?

Courses and Content Availability

Why can't my students see their courses in Canvas?

Courses and course content must be published in Canvas before your students are able to access them.

How do I make my course available to students?

1. Go to Home on your course site.
2. Under Course Status on the top right of your course home page, select Publish.
   
   

Note: Courses for which students have already submitted assignments or quizzes are already published and an option to unpublish does not currently exist.

How can I confirm what course materials are visible to my students?

1. Select Student View on the top right side of the screen.
   
   

Note: In the default Instructor View, the following principles apply:

• Light gray navigation tabs are not visible to students. Navigation tabs with a normal black font are visible to students.
• The Cloud icon indicates whether an item is published or not.
  
  • A green cloud indicates that the item is published.
  • A gray cloud indicates that the item is not published.
  • A red cloud indicates that the item is published, but access to it is restricted.

How can I unpublish my course?

Before students have submitted work to the course, you can unpublish your course by selecting the Unpublished button on Course Home.

How do I schedule the publication of course material for a certain date?

For files:

1. Select the Cloud icon.
2. Select Restricted Access > Schedule student availability.
   

For discussions, assignments, and quizzes:

Edit the item and choose the Available from and until dates.

For modules:

1. When adding or editing a Module, select Lock until.
2. Edit the item and choose the Unlock At date.
   

For pages:

There is no way to set a release date directly. However, locking a module until a certain day locks all of its contents, including pages. The contents of a locked module are unavailable, provided those contents do not appear in other published modules.

Audio and Video Course Content

How do I record an audio file in Canvas?

Instructors can create and add audio files to any page, assignment, discussion, announcement, quiz, or syllabus. When you edit the content of any of these items:

1. Select the Panopto icon in the main toolbar.
   
2. Select the Record tab to record a file directly to Canvas.
   
   
   
   
3. Select the Upload tab to upload a prerecorded file.
   

Detailed instructions are provided to you in the UChicago Knowledge article How do I enable Panopto in my Canvas course?

How do I create an assignment that includes a required audio or video submission from the students?

You can create media assignments on Canvas that require students to record and upload audio recordings. When creating or editing the assignment, select Submission Type > Online > Online Entry Options > Media Recordings. Canvas gives you the option to either record new media or upload an existing file.

Course Navigation and Settings

How do I edit the course navigation tabs, such as Home, Assignments, Syllabus, and Modules?

In Canvas, there is no way to create new course navigation tabs or edit the names of existing navigation tabs. However, you can disable or rearrange the display order of the course navigation tabs.

1. At the bottom of the course navigation tabs, select Settings > Navigation to see the Move and Disable options.
   
2. Disable all the tabs that are not useful for your course site. The fewer options you have available means less trial and error in site navigation.
   Note: Disabled tabs appear for you as light grey links but are not visible to students.
3. When you finish your changes, select Save at the bottom of the page.

Note: Language instructors can change the language of the navigation tabs by selecting Settings > Course Details > Language. For more information about using Canvas for language courses, see the article Canvas Language Learning Guide for Instructors.

How do I add Announcements to my home page in Canvas?

You can enable announcements from your Course Home Page. Instructions are below:

1. In the Course Navigation, select Settings.
   
2. Scroll to the bottom of Course Details and select more options.
   
3. Check the option to enable the Show recent announcements on Course home page and specify the number of announcements to display.
   
4. Select the maroon Update Course Details button to save your changes.

How do I access my Canvas courses?

By default, your dashboard automatically lists up to 20 courses in alphabetical order. You can customize the list by selecting a list of Favorite Courses. Once you have selected at least one course as a favorite, only your favorite courses will appear in the Courses list.

1. Log in to Canvas.
2. Select the Courses link in the gray Global Navigation Menu on the left.
3. Select the All Courses link.
   
4. Select your list of Favorite Courses by selecting the star next to a course name. Courses with filled stars mean you have marked them as a favorite. Unselect the star to remove the course from your Favorite list.

Email and Notification

How do I send emails to my students from Canvas?

You can find detailed instructions for using messages in this article, How do I send a message to a user in a course in Conversations as a student?

To send an email to your class:

1. Log in to Canvas.
2. Select Inbox.
   
3. Select Compose.
   
4. Select your Course.
5. Select address book to select the group of recipients.
   

How do I receive copies of the emails and announcements I sent?

1. You can see a copy of any emails you send to students in your Canvas inbox. Select Sent in the Inbox drop-down menu.
   
2. If you would like to receive a copy of the email and announcement in your UChicago email:
   
   1. On the gray Global Navigation Menu on the left, select Account > Notifications.
   2. Find Announcement Created by You and Conversations Created by Me and select the appropriate notification frequency.
      
      
   3. Include yourself as a recipient, either by adding your email address to the list of recipients, by sending the email to both Students and Teachers, or by sending the email to all course users.

Why do some of my students claim they do not receive messages I have sent from Canvas?

All messages sent from Canvas go directly to the recipient's CNetID@uchicago.edu email address by default. Confirm this is where your students are checking their email. Sometimes new students are not aware they should check their UChicago email regularly.

If they are forwarding their CNetID@uchicago.edu email to another email address, they should check their forwarding settings. See Forward Your UChicago Email for more information.

Enrollments and People

How do I manage the people enrolled on my Canvas website?

Download Manually Adding Students and Teachers in Canvas for more information on how to enroll participants.

Can I exclude an auditor from the Gradebook and Roll Call attendance tools

No. Auditors cannot be excluded from Gradebook or Roll Call because they have the same permissions and features as students.

However, you may add the individual as an observer rather than an auditor. With the exception of quizzes, observers can view all of the available content in a course. However, observers may not:

• Submit assignments
• Take quizzes
• Post to discussions
• Create student collaborations
• Participate in web conferences
• View a list of users
• Send messages to individual course members

How do I record and grade attendance?

You can either use Roll Call or enter the attendance grades manually. Information on how to use Roll Call is provided in these articles: Read the article What is the Roll Call Attendance Tool? and How do I take roll call using the Attendance tool?

To enable Attendance, select Settings > Navigation.

To enter attendance grades manually:

1. Create an Assignment and give it a name such as Attendance.
2. Find this assignment in Grades and enter the grades.

How do I track how frequently students access my course materials?

You can use course analytics to track and analyze what students are doing within the course. Analytics work in conjunction with course statistics. Individual student analytics will represent which students are active in your course and what areas they are spending time in. You will be able to see student page views, participators, assignments, and current scores for every student in the course.

Course Analytics for the entire class can be viewed on the Course Home Page by clicking the View Course Analytics. To view analytics for a specific student in your course, select People, select a student's name, then select Analytics.

Gradebook

How do I create a column in Gradebook for an assignment?

While you must make an Assignment to create a Column in the Gradebook, it is not necessary for students to actually submit the Assignment via Canvas in order for it to appear in the Gradebook. If you wish to add a column in the Gradebook for an assignment that is submitted manually (outside of Canvas), select No Submission under Submission Type when you create or edit the assignment. A column will appear in the Gradebook, and you can then enter the grades manually.

Watch the video Canvas Gradebook Overview to learn more.

You can also refer to these Canvas Community articles for more information:

• What are Grades and the Gradebook?
• How do I use the Gradebook?

How do I weigh the grades for assignments in Gradebook?

Grade weighting is automatically determined based on the number of points you give an assignment. You also have the option to weight assignment groups as a percentage of the final grade.

For more information about grade weighting and assignment groups, see How do I weight the final course grade based on assignment groups?

How do I enter grades into Gradebook?

Select the cell for the appropriate student and assignment and enter the grade.

You can also export grades from the Gradebook into Excel and make changes there, then re-import your grades.

Mobile

How can I access Canvas from my mobile device?

You can access Canvas from any mobile device using a current browser or by downloading the Canvas by Instructure app available for IOS or Android devices.

How do I set up the Canvas mobile app?

You can find instructions for downloading and configuring the Canvas mobile app at the UChicago Canvas Resources website.