Canvas Catalog Administrator Guide

Canvas Catalog is a special installation of Canvas used for non-credit courses at UBC. In addition to delivering online course content in Canvas Catalog, you can also include your course in a searchable catalog. Learners (from UBC or external) can use the catalog to sign up for courses in continuing education or for non-degree-related purposes.

Access Immediate
Cost Yes Free.
Bandwidth Yes Low demand on internet connections.
Canvas Integration Not applicable N/A
Privacy Yes Verified by UBC’s Privacy Impact Assessment process.
Similar UBC-Supported Tools N Canvas Catalog is the only centrally-supported tool for running all aspects of your open and paid courses online.

What can I use it for?

You can use Canvas Catalog for a variety of non-credit course purposes:

  • Offering courses that are open to the public
  • Running paid courses that use an integrated payment gateway to collect fees
  • Creating custom course landing pages

This tool guide was last reviewed in December 2022.

What do I need to use Canvas Catalog?

A supported web browser

Canvas Catalog runs in your web browser and supports using Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Safari. For which versions work, check the Canvas supported browser page. Canvas Catalog will not work with Internet Explorer.


Administrative access to Canvas Catalog

Canvas Catalog administrators can create Canvas Catalog courses and create listings for these courses in the public catalog for learners to find. If you are not a Canvas Catalog administrator and your department does not have a designated Canvas Catalog administrator, please contact us at the LT Hub for help with initial setup.

Tips

  • There are two sides to Canvas Catalog that interact with each other to handle enrollments:
  • You can enroll in Canvas 101, a self-paced course with a basic overview of features and functionality, which will help you build your Canvas Catalog course with confidence.

How do I use Canvas Catalog?

You will first create and list your Canvas Catalog course. Then you can customize it by adding start/end dates, promotion codes, students, completion criteria, and proofs of completion.

Click any bar below for instructions and tips for using Canvas Catalog.

Expand All

Create a Canvas Catalog course

Only Canvas Catalog administrators can create Canvas Catalog courses. If you are a Canvas Catalog administrator, follow the steps below. If you are not a Canvas Catalog administrator and your department does not have a designated Canvas Catalog administrator, please contact us at the LT Hub for help with setup.

  1. Log in to the Canvas side of Canvas Catalog at ubccpe.instructure.com using your UBC CWL (Campus-Wide Login).
  2. Click Admin in the blue Global Navigation bar on the left-hand side to open your subaccounts. Choose the subaccount that you wish to create a course in.
  3. Click the Course button to enter information for a new course:
    • Course Name - The name of your course.
    • Reference Code - Another reference name for your course. Feel free to repeat the course name or use an internal naming system.
    • Subaccount - Your course’s desired subaccount.
    • Term - There is only one term you can use in Canvas Catalog: "Default Term". However, you can add custom course dates in the settings of your course, using the instructions in the section further below.
  4. Click Add Course to create your course.
  5. When you are ready to make the course available to learners, go to your course home page and click Publish in the right-hand sidebar under “Course Status”.

Tips

  • Set any completion criteria for your course before you publish it. Steps for setting completion criteria and enabling proofs of completion are further down in this guide.
  • You can find your newly created course by searching for the name or reference code in your department’s course search.

List a Canvas Catalog course

Once you create a Canvas Catalog course, you can list the course in the catalog. A course listing is the public-facing page learners can access to register for your course. This listing can be customized with a custom course image and description to make clear what it is for.

Only Canvas Catalog administrators can create Canvas Catalog listings. If you are a Canvas Catalog administrator, follow the steps below. If you are not a Canvas Catalog administrator and your department does not have a designated Canvas Catalog administrator, please contact us at the LT Hub for help with setup.

  1. Log in to the Catalog side of Canvas Catalog at courses.cpe.ubc.ca/dashboard using your UBC CWL.
  2. To enter the Admin dashboard of Catalog, click your name in the top-right corner, then click Admin.
  3. Click Listings in the top menu bar, then click Course to create a listing.
  4. Search for your Canvas course by either its course name or reference code. Once you have found your course, click the course name, then click Create Listing.
  5. The mandatory fields you will need to provide are as follows:
    • Listing Title - The name of your listing.
    • Teaser - A brief paragraph summarizing the course. This teaser displays along with the listing on the catalog page.
    • Full Description - This description is where you can put any information pertaining to the course. Learners will see this section when they go to register for the course.
  6. You may wish to customize these settings to control enrollment in your course:
    • Open for enrollment - Use this setting to either open or close enrollment manually.
    • Days to complete - If you would like learners to only have a limited number of days to complete the course, set a number in this field.
    • Visibility – You can control whether the listing should be visible to users through the catalog or through a link, or not be visible at all.
  7. Click Save once you are finished.
  8. When you are ready, you can open registration by clicking the Open For Enrollment in the Admin dashboard of Catalog.

Tips

  • You can have multiple courses included under one listing. To do so, you can create a program instead of a single course listing. More information is in the FAQ section of this guide.
  • The listing image can use a variety of formats including PNG, JPG, GIF, and SVG files. The files should ideally be 768 pixels high and 1050 pixels wide.
  • If you would like to list courses with a registration fee, contact us at the LT Hub. Your department will need to be set up to accept payments before you can list courses with a registration fee.
  • You can also make your catalog listings visible to the public and view them on your sub-catalog page. Examples include: Workplace Learning, Faculty of Education, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and UBCO's Canvas Catalog.
  • You can read a full explanation of Canvas Catalog listing options in the Canvas community guide.

Set custom dates for a Canvas Catalog course

By default, Canvas Catalog courses do not have set start and end dates. To set custom start and end dates, you will need to change this in your course settings.

  1. Log in to the Canvas side of Canvas Catalog at ubccpe.instructure.com, access your course, and click Settings in the Course Navigation.
  2. In the Participation section, click the drop-down menu and select Course.
  3. Enter the date/time that you wish to make your course available as the “Start” date.
  4. Enter the date/time that you wish to make your course unavailable as the “End” date.
  5. Scroll down and click Update Course Details to save your changes. Changes to your course start and end date will also be reflected on the catalog listing.

Tips

Add a promotion code for a Canvas Catalog course

If you would like to list courses with a registration fee, contact us at the LT Hub. Your department will need to be set up to accept payments before you can list courses with a registration fee.

Once you have listings with a registration fee, you can add a discount promotion code for learners to use.

  1. Log in to the Catalog side of Canvas Catalog at courses.cpe.ubc.ca/dashboard using your UBC CWL.
  2. To enter the Admin dashboard of Catalog, click your name in the top-right corner, then click Admin.
  3. Click Promotions in the top menu bar, then click Promotion to create a new promotion code.
  4. Fill in the necessary details for your promotion code. We recommend restricting your promotion code as much as possible to prevent unintended users from using it.
    • Catalog - Select a sub-catalog this promotion code can be used for.
    • Type of Promotion Code – Select to either allow the code to be used for any listing in the catalog or just one specific listing.
    • Name - What you would like to call the promotion code.
    • Type and Amount - The amount that should be discounted from the registration fee.
    • Start and End Date - Add dates, if you would like to restrict the code's usage to a specific timeframe.
    • Promotion Code - The code that is used by the learner to apply the promotion. You are welcome to use Generate Code to create a random code.
  5. Click Save Promotion to complete adding the promotion code. Changes will also be reflected on the catalog listing.

Manage teaching team enrollments in a Canvas Catalog course

These instructions can be followed to enroll Teacher, Teaching Assistant, Designer, and Observer roles in Canvas Catalog. Note that learners can enroll and unenroll themselves from any course in Canvas Catalog.

Add Users

  1. Log in to the Canvas side of Canvas Catalog at ubccpe.instructure.com, access your course, and click People in the Course Navigation.
  2. Click the People button in the top right of the page.
  3. Fill in the email address of the user you would like to add.
    • If the email address matches a user already on Canvas Catalog, that user will be added directly into your course.
    • if you see "We were unable to find matches below," this means the user does not have an account in Catalog and will need to log into ubccpe.instructure.com once using their CWL before they can be added.
  4. Under "Role", select the role you would like the user to have.
  5. Click Next to proceed.

Remove Users

  1. Log in to the Canvas side of Canvas Catalog at ubccpe.instructure.com, access your course, and click People in the Course Navigation.
  2. Find the user you would like to remove by finding them in the roster or by searching their name.
  3. Click the three dots next to their name, then click Remove from Course.
  4. You will receive a browser prompt “Are you sure you want to remove this user?”. Click OK to confirm.

Set completion requirements for a Canvas Catalog course

Modules in Canvas allow you to organize course content and direct the flow of your course. Module requirements are needed for a Canvas Catalog course to be marked as "complete" for learners. Once you have set up your modules and items in the course, you can set up the requirements for completion. These requirements should be set up before the course is published and learners are active in it.

  1. Log in to the Canvas side of Canvas Catalog at ubccpe.instructure.com, access your course, and click Modules in the Course Navigation.
  2. For any module you've added, determine what kind of participation is required (e.g., completing a quiz, submitting an assignment, viewing a page) to consider the module complete. Ensure that these activities are supported by how you've built the module.
  3. To set the module requirements, click the three dots on the right side of the module's gray bar and select Edit.
  4. Build your completion requirements using the provided form. When you're done, click Update Module.

Tips

  • You can learn more about Canvas module requirements from the Canvas community guides.
  • You can test the module requirements by using the Canvas student view.
  • If you add a prerequisite to a module, that prerequisite must also have completion requirements. Canvas may not progress the student to the subsequent module if the prerequisite has no requirements set.

Enable a proof of completion for a Canvas Catalog course

Once your course has been listed in the catalog, a proof of completion can be enabled. A learner will only receive a proof of completion once they have met all the completion requirements for the course (details for setting up completion requirements are in the section above).

  1. Log in to the Catalog side of Canvas Catalog at courses.cpe.ubc.ca/dashboard using your UBC CWL.
  2. To enter the Admin dashboard of Catalog, click your name in the top-right corner, then click Admin.
  3. Click Listings in the top menu bar, and search for the name of the listing. Click the listing name to open it.
  4. Click the Certificate tab. Click the toggle button for Include Certificate, and fill in the details for the proof of completion.
  5. Click Save.

Tips

  • Proofs of completion for Canvas Catalog courses are optional. However, if you are creating a bundle of courses in a program, we recommend using proofs of completion in either all or none of your courses for consistency.

Canvas Catalog FAQ

Find UBC-specific answers to frequently asked questions by clicking any bar below.

 Regular CanvasCanvas Catalog
Uses UBC's Campus-Wide Login
Uses Email Login
Offers Completion Certificates
Links to SIS Course Enrollments
Offers Payment Gateway

Learners can enroll in a Canvas Catalog course from the UBC Canvas Catalog listings. After clicking “Enroll in this course”, learners will be directed to either sign in with their CWL or create a Canvas Catalog account (if they do not have a CWL). If the listing has a registration fee, they will be prompted to provide payment information to complete their registration.

To ensure accurate completion statistics, both learners with and without CWLs should enroll through the UBC Canvas Catalog listings. If any learners would like to drop a course, they should also unenroll from the course through the UBC Canvas Catalog dashboard. Learners should enroll through the Catalog listing page to ensure accurate completion statistics and seat count.

Yes. You can export your Canvas course into a file, and then import the exported file into Canvas Catalog. If you would like to transfer a single quiz, you can alternatively export the Canvas quiz content, and then import the file into your Canvas Catalog course.

Other centrally-supported learning tools integrate with Canvas Catalog, meaning that they can work in or in coordination with your Canvas Catalog course. Using additional tools can give you more flexibility in the learning activities you provide your learners. Contact us in the LT Hub for more information on integrations with Canvas Catalog.

Current status of integrations with Canvas

Canvas Catalog IntegrationIntegration InvestigationResultsGrade SyncDetails
BadgrCompleted
Works in Canvas Catalog
N/AThis tool for recognizing and tracking course achievements has been integrated into Canvas Catalog.
H5PCompleted
Works in Canvas Catalog
No grade syncing available allows you to create interactive content for students to learn from. H5P is an abbreviation for HTML5 Package and there are 45 interactive content types available, including multiple choice questions, video with an interactive quiz, memory games, image hotspots, and more. H5P content can be embedded in a Canvas Catalog page.
KalturaCompleted
Works in Canvas Catalog
Automated grade syncing available for video quizzes This media platform, where you can create, store, and share multimedia content, has been integrated into Canvas Catalog. You can use Kaltura to record, upload, publish, search, and embed media directly in one or multiple Canvas Catalog courses. Kaltura also lets you edit media, create shorter clips from existing media, and add interactive quizzes to videos that can pass grades to Canvas Catalog.
Respondus Quiz
Active Investigation
We are working to determine if the UBC CWL integration in Canvas Catalog will work with Respondus Quiz to import Respondus Quiz assessments into a Canvas Catalog course as Canvas quizzes.
SCORM Completed
Works in coordination with Canvas Catalog
Automated grade syncing availableThis integration allows you to import SCORM-compatible content from other learning tools and platforms, and use them as assignments or content pages in Canvas Catalog. SCORM is a set of technical standards that guide how learning tools should communicate and share data with each other. These standards allow content from other compatible tools to be exported as SCORM packages and then imported, launched, and tracked correctly in Canvas Catalog. An example of SCORM would be a video or presentation that includes interactive quizzes.
Wiki EmbedCompleted
Not available in Canvas Catalog
There is no integration between UBC Wiki and Canvas Catalog. However, you can use HTML iframe code to display a Wiki page on a Canvas Catalog page.
ZoomCompleted
Works in Canvas Catalog
N/AThis video/audio web-conferencing and collaboration tool has been integrated with Canvas Catalog. You can schedule Zoom sessions and share session links and recordings in Canvas Catalog.

Yes, a series of courses can be grouped together into what is called a program. Instead of registering for each course individually, a learner can register for a program that includes access to all of the courses in that program. To create a program, create each of the individual courses first. Individual courses can then be added as requirements in a larger catalog program that learners can enroll in.

Please contact us at the LT Hub if you would like to list courses with a registration fee. Your department will need to be set up to accept payments before you can list courses with a fee.

Please contact us at the LT Hub if you would like to issue a refund. We will ask you for the following information:

If you have multiple Canvas Catalog accounts and would like to merge them together, please contact us at the LT Hub for assistance. If you have multiple CWL accounts and would like to merge them together, please contact the UBC IT Service Centre for help.

By default, the “Bulk Purchase and Enrollment” setting is turned on, allowing learners to claim or purchase multiple seats. But you can turn the setting on or off for individual courses and programs. When creating or editing a Canvas Catalog course/program, toggle the “Bulk Purchase and Enrollment” button to allow or disallow bulk purchase and enrollment.

Where can I get more support with Canvas Catalog?

Technical support

If you have trouble with Canvas Catalog:

If you have trouble with Canvas Catalog and Workday / Appointy:


Learner support

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