Canvas Instructor Guide

Set up your Canvas course

1. Log in to Canvas from canvas.ubc.ca using your UBC CWL. This action will open your Canvas Dashboard.
2. On your Dashboard, you will find all the courses you are teaching. Click any course to open it.
3. Once inside a course, you can start adding content, creating assignments and assessments, and setting up discussions and communications. Explore the overview of your options in Canvas below.
4. When you are ready, make the course available to students by clicking Publish, located on the course home page, in the right-hand sidebar under "Course Status".
5. If your course starts before the general term start date, publishing will not make the course visible to students. To give students early access, you will also need to follow these instructions:
   • Click Settings in the Course Navigation.
   • Scroll to the Participation section, click the drop-down menu, and select Course.
   • Enter the date/time that you wish to make your course available as the "Start" date.
   • Enter the date/time that is eight weeks after the last day of class as the "End" date, so it aligns with UBC copyright requirements.
   • Scroll down and click Update Course Details to save your changes.

Set your Canvas name and pronoun

To customize how your name or pronoun appears in Canvas, follow the steps below.

Understand your options for building courses in Canvas

Modules

Modules in Canvas allow you to organize course content and direct the flow of your course. Modules can be set up to require students to complete materials in a sequential fashion (e.g., Week 1, Week 2, Week 3), and each module can contain pages, files, assignments, and other learning materials.

In adding content to your modules, please avoid copying text directly from a Word document, because the headings are not pasted consistently with the right format in Canvas. Using the right headings in your course content is important for accessibility.

Pages

Pages in Canvas can display text and media, include file attachments, and link to other parts of the course. For example, a page can be used to provide a checklist of learning activities for the week, or display a video with reflection questions for students to complete.

Unlike files that you upload, pages are built in to Canvas. Therefore, pages display more smoothly and can load more quickly compared to files. This difference makes pages easier to access and read for students than files.

Announcements

Announcements in Canvas allow you to broadcast information like course activities and logistics to students. Students can receive these announcements by email, if they keep this default on in their Canvas notifications. You can include links, files, and images in announcements, as well as allow students to reply to them.

Use announcements to keep students on track, share news and resources, and celebrate student success.

Groups

Groups in Canvas come with private collaborative areas for each group to work in, which contain announcements, pages, discussions, and files that are shared only within the group. You can create groups for students automatically or manually as well as allow students to make their own groups.

You can also use groups to create group assignments for students to collaborate on and be graded on collectively.

Assignments

Assignments in Canvas refer to a wide range of learning activities, including traditional assignments that invite students to submit a completed work (text, multimedia, file, link) and assignments that are completed using the Canvas discussion board feature, the Canvas quiz feature, or a learning tool external to Canvas.

Assignments may be completed for grades or not and can be submitted by a group or an individual.

Discussions

Discussions in Canvas are discussion boards that invite interactions between two or more people. You can assign discussions to the entire class or to smaller groups of students and optionally add grades for students' participation.

You can use discussions to pose and answer questions for the class and facilitate class-wide conversations.

Quizzes

Quizzes in Canvas are used to create and administer online quizzes and exams that assess students' comprehension of course material and understanding of course concepts. Quizzes can be graded or ungraded and can be set up to work with tools for remote proctoring and restricted browser settings (LockDown Browser).

Settings

Settings in Canvas allow you to change or view details of your course, including the course status. You can also hide, show, or reorder your Course Navigation. Additionally, the right-hand side bar on the Settings page gives you options to import/export course content and view the course as a student.

Review other tools that work with Canvas

Other centrally-supported learning tools integrate with Canvas, meaning that they can work in or in coordination with your Canvas course. Using additional tools can give you more flexibility in the learning activities you provide your students.

Current status of integrations with Canvas

Add content to your Canvas course

Modules in Canvas are used to organize course content. Each module can contain pages, files, assignments, assessments, discussions, and other learning materials. The following steps will walk you through adding content to a module, using pages and files as an example.

1. Log in to your Canvas course, and click Modules in the Course Navigation.
2. Click the blue +Module button on the upper right side of the screen.
3. Add a title for the module. Consider a descriptive title such as "Lecture Slides" with an identifier like "Week 1". Click Add Module.
4. You will see the new module.
5. To add a page to the module:
   • Click the plus sign in the upper right corner of the module. In the pop-up window, select Page from the drop-down menu at the top.
   • Select an existing page, or click Create Page.
   • If you are making a new page, enter the page name.
   • Click Add Item.
   • You can learn more about building and editing your page or other content in Canvas in the "Understand your options for building courses in Canvas" section from our guide.
6. To add a file to the module:
   • Click the plus sign in the upper right corner of the module. In the pop-up window, select File from the drop-down menu at the top.
   • Select an existing file, or click Create File(s) then Choose File or Browse (depending on your browser).
   • Select the desired file from the computer and click Open.
   • Click Add Item.

Communicate with your Canvas course

One of the fastest ways to reach all students in a course is using announcements in Canvas. Alternatively, you can message students through the Canvas Inbox, which is like a personal email tool within Canvas.

Create an assignment in your Canvas course

Set up a discussion board in your Canvas course

In Canvas, "focused" discussions are best used for quick topics, as they only allow replies to the original post. For in-depth discussions, "threaded" discussions are best, as they allow for infinite levels of replying.

1. Log in to your Canvas course, and click Discussions in the Course Navigation.
2. Click the +Discussion blue button in the upper right side of the screen to add a discussion topic.
3. Create a title and description for your discussion. You can also add links, files, and images.
4. Set your discussion options:
   • By default, discussions are created as "focused" discussions. To create a threaded discussion that allows nested replies, click the checkbox for "Allow threaded replies".
   • To create a graded discussion, click the checkbox for "Graded". Once selected, additional options will be added to the page for assigning the discussion.
   • To make your discussion available only during a specific date, enter dates in the availability fields.
5. Once you are ready, click Save & Publish.

Create an assessment in your Canvas course

1. Log in to your Canvas course, and click Quizzes in the Course Navigation.
2. Click the +Quiz blue button in the upper right side of the screen.
3. To create a quiz, choose the Classic Quizzes option and click Submit.
4. In the Details tab, enter the name of your quiz. In the text editor, you can introduce your quiz.
5. Set the quiz options, which include the following:
   • Quiz Type - Graded or Practice (ungraded)
   • Assignment Group - The group of assignments this quiz should belong to for grading purposes (if applicable)
   • Shuffle Answers - Randomize answers
   • Time Limit - Time allowed to complete the quiz
   • Allow Multiple Attempts - Allow more than one attempt at answering
   • Let Students See Their Quiz Responses - Show students what they answered and any feedback from you, immediately or at a later date
6. You can add a due date for the quiz, which allows for late submissions. Alternatively, you can add availability dates, and students will only be able to submit during this time frame, with no late submissions allowed.
7. Click Save. You are now ready to add questions to your quiz.
8. Click Edit in the upper right, then click the Questions tab.
9. Click +New Question.
10. Select the question type from the drop-down menu.
11. To set a point value for the question, enter the points.
12. Enter the question text using the text editor.
13. If applicable, add the answers for each question and select the correct answer by clicking it.
14. Add any feedback to individual answers and/or the overall question.
15. Click Update Question to save.
16. Repeat the steps to add more questions. When you have finished, click Save & Publish at the bottom of the page.

Accommodate UBC exams in Canvas

If the UBC Vancouver Centre for Accessibility or the UBC Okanagan Disability Resource Centre has contacted you regarding a student who requires exam accommodations, you can add time extensions and allow multiple attempts on Canvas exams for that individual. Instructions are dependent on the type of Canvas quiz you set up: classic or new. (We recommend always using classic.)

Grade in your Canvas course

Choose from the available grading features

You have three main options for grading with Canvas: grade in a spreadsheet (Gradebook), grade while viewing student work (SpeedGrader), or grade offline (export to a spreadsheet).

• The Gradebook is a spreadsheet in Canvas that helps you input and distribute grades for students based on their work in the course. Each column represents a published assignment, graded discussion, or graded assessment. Grades can be calculated as points, percentages, complete or incomplete, pass or fail, GPA scale, and letter grades, with optional weighting applied to groups of learning activities. You can access the Gradebook by clicking Grades in the Course Navigation.
• The SpeedGrader enables looking sequentially at each student’s work and entering grades as you go. You can also provide comments directly on student PDFs, Word documents, and PowerPoints. You can access SpeedGrader from any assignment, quiz, or graded discussion, or directly from the Gradebook.
• To grade offline, you can export grades from the Gradebook in an editable spreadsheet. When grading is complete, you can upload the spreadsheet back to Canvas to post the grades for students. You can access the Gradebook for importing and exporting by clicking Grades in the Course Navigation.

Manually post grades in Canvas

By default, grades will be visible to students as soon as they complete an auto-graded assessment or you enter a grade for the item in the Gradebook. But you can change this default.

1. Log in to your Canvas course, and click Grades in the Course Navigation.
2. Click the settings gear icon on the right-hand side.
3. Click the Grade Posting Policy tab, and choose Manually Post Grades.
4. Click Update. The word “Manual” will appear next to all the column titles in your Gradebook.
5. Enter grades using any relevant approach above.
6. Once all the grades have been entered for a column, hover over the column heading, click the column option menu (the 3 vertical dots), and choose Post Grades.
7. Students will see their grades for this item.

Upload grades to the Faculty Service Centre

Instructors often use Canvas to gather student grades, but the final grades need to be uploaded to the Faculty Service Centre (FSC). You will need to download your grades from Canvas and reformat them before uploading them to the Faculty Service Centre.

1. Log in to your Canvas course and click Grades in the Course Navigation.
2. Click Actions at the top left, and select Export from the drop-down menu.
3. Once the export is complete, a file will be downloaded to your computer. Before you upload your grades to FSC, you will need to reformat the CSV file that you have downloaded from the Canvas Gradebook. Open this file in a spreadsheet software like Excel.
4. Reformat the file (i.e., add, remove, and rename columns) downloaded from Canvas so that the first row of the file has these exact column headers: “Session”, “Campus”, “Student Number,” “Subject”, “Course”, “Section”, “Percent Grade”, “Standing”, and “Standing Reason”. Note the following:
   • The columns can be arranged in any order, but each column heading is necessary, even if will not use the column. Use plain numbers or text only in the cells. Please do not include formulas or images.
   • If your “Session” starts with zero (e.g., “001”), Excel will remove the starting zero. In this case, change the column format from a number to a text column. To do this, right-click the “Session” column, and select Format Cells. Under “Category”, select Text, and press Ok. Now enter the correct section number with zeroes.
   • Enter student grade information into the “Percent Grade”, “Standing”, or “Standing Reason” columns, as appropriate. Leave cells blank if the value is not known.
   • Check the list to ensure it matches the student list in the FSC. Make sure that each student appears as a separate row in your file.
5. Save your file and make sure the file extension is one of the following formats: .xls (Excel with only one worksheet), .csv (Comma Delimited), or .txt (Tab Delimited).
6. Log in to the Faculty Service Centre.
7. From the top menu, click Upload Grades.
8. In the new window, click either Choose file or Browse (depending on your browser).
9. Find your file and click Open. Then select Upload File.
10. After you have read the messages, click Continue with upload.
11. Press Submit.