Canvas is UO's online Learning Management System. Originally launched by UO Libraries, Canvas is now supported through a partnership between Information Services and UO Online, the university's new online and distance education office.
This is the main interface between instructors and students for classes, assignments, and announcements. Canvas is not optional, it is UO's required communication tool between instructors and students for all courses.
How to Get Help
- Within Canvas:
- Click the "?" help icon in the left sidebar to locate support resources.
- UO Service Portal:
- Visit the new suite of Canvas Support Services pages in the UO Service Portal. Users should select the option that best describes their needs, then submit a help request.
- Users can also find the above suite of pages by navigating to Services > Teaching, Learning & Classrooms > Canvas Support Services.
- Phone:
- Call the Technology Service Desk at 541-346-4357 (541-346-HELP). Phone hours are currently Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm. On Oct. 14, those hours will expand to 20 hours per day (6am-2am), seven days a week.
- In person:
- Instructors: Visit the UO Online team in Knight Library 19. Hours are currently M-F 10am-4pm, expanding to 8am-5pm during academic terms.
- Students: Visit the Tech Desk in PLC 068, Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm.
Canvas Tips & Tricks
(Or how to avoid mistakes others have made using Canvas!)
Compiled by Tina Starr, Senior Instructor of Management. If you have additional questions, please email Tina at tstarr@uoregon.edu, she will be happy to help!
Publish/unpublish a course: It’s up to you when to ‘publish’ a course for students to see, usually a week or more before term starts is good so students can plan ahead, buy the book, see the syllabus, assignments, basically whatever you’re allowing them to see. Until you publish the course, students can’t see anything you’ve uploaded or access any content. You also need to ‘publish’ whatever documents you upload that you want students to have access or view through Canvas. You can send announcements to welcome them to your class or send them reminders about assignments and deadlines. They can send you emails through Canvas; you will be notified through your regular email of those messages.
Start: I suggest you start using Canvas by first clicking on ‘Settings’ from the Home menu, then looking at the ‘Course detail’ tab first. Everything here is optional to use, but I don’t get bogged down with dates and so forth, not necessary. I go to the bottom to ‘fewer options’, I uncheck all that are checked, then re-check ‘hide totals in student grade summary’ – I really don’t want students to see their grades before I have entered the entire class scores or want them to see grades before I’ve had a chance to discuss them in class with the class – a lesson learned. I organize my own student groups in class so make sure if you do that too to uncheck that box. After any changes on that page whatsoever, be sure to click on ‘update course details’ at the bottom or it won’t save your work. You ‘Publish’ a course through this page.
Then click on the ‘Navigation’ tab at the top of page (when you’re on Settings). Drag and drop from the top to the bottom any items you won’t need or be using for your course ( e.g. I tend to use Home, Announcements, Assignments, Grades, Modules, Library Help and People – I drag the rest to the bottom section and click on ‘save’ at the very bottom to save changes.
*Best to use someone else’s previous Canvas course and copy it/import to see how things are laid out, what they use and so forth, just ask me or a course coordinator, it does simplify all of this and helps to not have to reinvent the wheel for you first course!
All uploads must be done first through ‘Pages’, then you pull/load them to other Canvas areas eg Modules, assignments, etc….
‘Modules’ does not mean the module, it was a poor choice of name but it’s actually where you set up your course information, materials and documents for students, ie. Syllabus, lectures, assignments, etc…
‘Assignments’ – this is where you enter all assignments, points, how an assignment is to be completed e.g. on paper, through Canvas, etc… work your through each one carefully. Once you have the assignment and point value entered, it will then come up on ‘Grades’ tab, make sure all group projects are entered as group projects.
In the right hand corner of the assignment bar under Grades section, there’s a drop down menu, that’s where I mute each assignment. I do this because once I’m done grading the entire class and have entered their scores, I can then ‘unmute’ the grades so everyone sees them at the same time, it eliminates some students being able to see their grades sooner than others which have not been entered yet, it helps continuity and equity I think for the class.
Also in ‘Grades’, use the right hand arrow next to the name of the assignment to look at ‘assignment details, this shows the high, low and mean for the overall scores/results so you don’t have to figure it out yourself! (see Grade/assignment discussion with Students below)
Under ‘People’ tab, you will have the complete list of students in your class and their info. You will need to set up a ‘Group Project’ section also under the People tab. It will basically function as a ‘drag and drop’ from the student list once you create groups e.g. Group A, Group B, etc…you must do this so that Group assignments can/will be entered as group grades in the Grades section and also less time-consuming for you than manually entering every group’s member’s grade individually.