Canvas Student Guide

Access your Canvas courses

After logging in at canvas.ubc.ca, you will see your Canvas Dashboard. From the Dashboard, the Global Navigation (the menu in navy blue) is on the left.

Below the Dashboard announcements, you’ll see a course card for each course that you are enrolled in.

1. Access a course from the Canvas Dashboard by clicking its card.
2. Once you enter the course, you will see the Course Navigation on the left (to the right of the Global Navigation), with a list of links specific to that course. Click any link to visit that section.

Set your Canvas name and pronoun

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

View Canvas course announcements

Your instructor may use announcements in your course to communicate changes, upcoming events, and other important information intended for everyone in the course.

1. Click Announcements in the Course Navigation.
2. On the Announcements page, announcements are listed in reverse chronological order, with the newest appearing first and the oldest at the bottom.

Communicate with Canvas Inbox

You can communicate with your instructor, teaching assistants, and other students in your class using the Canvas Inbox. The Inbox is like a personal email tool within Canvas.

1. Click Inbox in the left-most Global Navigation (the menu in navy blue).
2. Click the compose (pencil) icon. A Compose Message window will pop up.
3. In the drop-down menu, select the course where you want to send your message.
4. To add individual recipients from the course to the message:
   • Search for a person by typing the name in the “To” field.
   • Or use the course roster with the Address Book icon next to the “To” field.

Submit your Canvas assignments

As you complete your course, you may be asked to submit assignments directly in Canvas.

1. Click Assignments in the Course Navigation.
2. Click the title of an assignment from the list to open it.
3. Click Start Assignment to access the submission page.
4. Instructions will vary on how to submit your work from here, depending on the type of assignment. Instructors may set restrictions on the types of files you can upload. Make sure to check these in advance of your due date.
5. Click Submit Assignment on this page to submit your assignment.

Participate in Canvas discussion boards

You may be asked to participate in a class discussion, either by responding to your instructor’s discussion question or responding to another student’s comment or thread.

1. Click Discussions in the Course Navigation.
2. On the Discussions page, discussions are organized with the newest discussion on top. Click the name of the discussion you want to participate in.
3. Click Reply and type or paste your response in the textbox.
   • Depending on how the instructor has set up the discussion, you can also click Reply to respond to an individual student’s comment.
4. Click Post Reply.

Use Canvas course groups

Access instructor-created groups

You may be asked to work with other students in a group in your Canvas course. Each group will have its own private group area to work in, which contains announcements, pages, discussions, and files that are shared only within the group.

1. Click People in the Course Navigation.
2. Select the Groups tab.
3. Click Visit next to the title of your assigned group to access your private group area.

Set up your own groups

If you want to create a study group or discuss an assignment with others in your course, you may be able to set up your own student group. Like course groups, student groups have their own private area to work in, which contains announcements, pages, discussions, and files shared only within the group.

1. Click People in the Course Navigation.
2. Select the Groups tab.
3. Click +Group blue button in the upper right side
   of the screen.
4. Name your group.
5. To allow anyone in the course to join, select Course Members are Free to Join from the "Joining" drop-down menu.
6. To invite only certain people, select Membership by Invitation Only from the "Joining" drop-down menu, and invite members to the group by searching their names under “Invite Students”.
7. Click Submit.

Complete Canvas assessments

There are two main types of quizzes in Canvas: Classic Quizzes and New Quizzes. The steps are a little different for each, but both follow the same general workflow.

1. Find your quiz under Quizzes or Modules in the Course Navigation.
2. If you see “Requires Respondus LockDown browser” next to the quiz name, you will need to install LockDown Browser first. This browser restricts printing, copying, and accessing other websites or applications during the quiz.
   • For help installing and using the browser, see UBC's LockDown Browser student guide.
3. Click the title of the quiz you want to take.
4. Type in an assessment code, if prompted. Your instructor will give this code to you ahead of time, if needed.
5. Click Take the Quiz or Begin (whichever you see) to start your assessment.
6. Complete the assessment.
7. Click Submit Quiz or Submit (whichever you see) when you reach the end.

View your Canvas grades

Depending on how your instructor has set up grading, you will either see grades immediately (e.g., after you take a quiz) or when the instructor manually releases the grades.

To see the grades currently available to you, follow these steps:

1. Click Grades in the Course Navigation.
2. You can use the "Arrange by" drop-down menu to sort grades in a different way, such as by due date or title.
3. To view specific details of an assignment, click the assignment title.

Manage Canvas notifications

You can change the default notification settings in Canvas by selecting your preferences.

1. Click Account in the left-most Global Navigation (the menu in navy blue), and select Notifications.
2. Under the “Settings for” filter, select whether you want to change notifications for your whole Canvas account or for a specific course. Keep in mind that course notification settings will override your account notification settings.
3. Once you set the filter, you will see a table of all the emails associated with your Canvas account and all types of notifications that you can receive. Select the notifications you want by clicking the icon under each email address.