In the left navigation column, Inbox opens the Canvas message center, Help opens the Support Center, and Account opens personal settings – contact info, notification preferences, past course evaluations, and a shortcut to all the files you’ve loaded in Canvas.

To see all courses you’ve ever participated in, click Courses on left, then All Courses at bottom.

Unstarred courses will still be available when you click All Courses, but they won’t clutter up your Dashboard.

The course navigation on the left always includes the same items in the same order. Within each course you can limit student access to certain items. Dark grey items are visible to students, light grey items are just for you.

When you first open a new course, there is a link on the right to Choose Home Page – the first page students see. For a very simple course site, most users select either the default Front Page or the Syllabus.

To choose a pre-made home page template, go to your Home Page and click Edit on the top right. Then hover the cursor over the very small rocket icon in the top right corner, revealing the Launch Design Tools button. Click that, and go to the next step.

On the panel, hover over the different options to preview and choose a banner image and layout for your Home Page. These tools are also available on other pages, so you can use a consistent design theme throughout your course site.

In the example image on the right, you can see how the list of Navigation Blocks on the right appear on the actual Home Page on the left.

Like the Home page, the Syllabus page has predesigned templates you can fill in and customize. Go to your Syllabus, click Edit, then hover the cursor over the rocket icon in the top right corner, revealing the Launch Design Tools button. Click that, then go to Create/Edit Syllabus Content.

Choose an FSU campus syllabus template, then edit the content blocks. This template will automatically fill in the required FSU statements, and update them whenever you edit the syllabus.

The best way to remove unwanted content blocks from this syllabus template is by using the Add/Rearrange Syllabus Blocks menu under Design Tools. Just click the X to eliminate a block.

To convert your completed Syllabus page to a PDF file, just right-click anywhere on the Syllabus page, select Print.., and choose Save as PDF.

Click Modules in the left navigation column to get started. As you create new modules, you can set  requirements and/or schedules for access and completion.

Then go to a page where you want to link a file, or a section in your Syllabus. Highlight the text where you want to create the link, then click the Files tab on the right. Find the file you want the text to link to, and click it. The area around the text will glow yellow for a second, and the text becomes an active link.

Be sure to Save the page whenever you make changes.

Then click the Files tab on the right, and at the bottom of the column click Upload a New File. On the next window, click Choose File, select the folder to store it in, and click Upload.  As above, the area around the text will glow yellow for a second, and the text becomes an active link, which should automatically open in a new tab when clicked.

To edit a link, click anywhere on the text (no need to completely highlight it) and use the shortcut Command-k to open the URL editing window.

On the next window, click Login ID and enter the person’s FSUID (the first part of their email address).

Assign the Role for the person you are adding, then click Next on the bottom right. (Designer: access to edit the course site; TA: access to edit and also to the gradebook; Teacher: all access plus the ability to add other users and manage course settings.)

To change the role of a student already enrolled in your Canvas site, you will also need to email ODL.

NOTE: The Observer role is not for observing the course, but for individuals who observe and work with specific students, such as tutors or assistants for students with special needs.

Click Assignments in the left column, then +Assignment on the right, and fill in the information for the item. The Submission option refers to materials that will be entered/graded online, so in most cases you can choose No Submission.

Entering a Due dates at the bottom of the Assignment window ensures that the item will be listed under the Course Summary (automatically generated on the bottom of the Syllabus page) and reminders will appear on your students’ Dashboards and messages.

Once you have a course built in a dev site, you can copy the entire content over to a new course site whenever it appears, using the Copy Content info above, or the Export info below.

This will bring up a list of pages, files, assignments etc. you have deleted, and you can Restore any of them.

It is also possible to review previously posted grades, even for assignments you have deleted (accidentally or not). In the Gradebook, click on the drop-down Gradebook menu on the top left, and select View Grading History .

It’s still a good idea to limit space consumption and speed up download times. When possible, instead of uploading big resources to a course, just link to them. Videos, slideshows, and other large files that are stored online and linked on your Canvas page won’t take up any space. Even embedded resources like Kaltura videos are not stored within Canvas so they don’t take up course space.