Canvas is Bowdoin's web-based course and organization management system. It provides many tools for faculty to manage a course or enhance learning activities with various features, including assignments, discussions, and a SpeedGrader that offers in-line grading and annotating.
Dashboard
The Dashboard is the first thing you will see when you log into Canvas. It displays the current courses that you are teaching and others that you are participating in, (i.e., faculty meetings, HR compliance training, etc.). There are two sections of courses: Published Courses and Unpublished Courses. Courses will be in the Unpublished Courses area until you publish them and make them available to your students.
Left-Hand Menu
The left-hand menu (also known as the global navigation menu) is visible throughout Canvas. It contains links to among other things the Dashboard, Courses, Calendar, Inbox, Help, and your Account.
The options for Account, Courses, Calendar, and Help are highlighted below.
Account
The account section includes several options to customize your profile, including the Notifications settings. You can modify the default settings for how often you receive notifications. The options are to receive notifications immediately, daily, or weekly. The settings only apply to you; your students will set their own preferences. Notifications from Canvas come from notifications@instructure.com.
Courses
The Courses area on the left-hand menu provides you access to courses that you taught in previous semesters as well as your current ones. At the end of a semester, your previous courses will be listed in the Courses area and not in the Dashboard.
The Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 courses are no longer visible in the Dashboard. To access them and previous courses, click Courses, scroll down to the bottom of the sidebar, and then click the All Courses link.
Calendar
The calendar displays due dates for upcoming assignments and color codes them by course. It also offers the option to create office hour sign-ups.
Help
You can access support at Bowdoin, create a ticket and report a problem directly to the Canvas staff, and access the Canvas Guides for how-to information.
Building Your Courses
Click on any of your courses in the Dashboard to access them.
Modules
Modules allow you to organize content and guide the flow of a course. “Next” and “Previous” buttons allow students to navigate your course in the order you intended. Set the modules up by week or topic to create a logical flow of the course content. Modules can contain files, pages, discussions, assignments, and/or quizzes. To create a module, click the + Module button and give it a name.
Pages
Pages contain static content, and you can add/embed content for students and add links to other content within Canvas and beyond. After you create a Module, click the + and choose Page from the drop-down menu. Choose Create Page, give it a name, and click Add Item. Then click on the newly created page from the module and click Edit to add your content. Click Save and Publish when the page is complete.
Assignments
To create an assignment, click the + in a module and choose Assignment from the drop-down menu. Choose Create Assignment, give it a name, and click Add Item. Then click on the newly created assignment from the module and click Edit to configure it. If you would like the assignment to appear on the Calendar, be sure to set a due date. Click Save and Publish when the assignment is complete.
Files
Upload your course files (syllabus, lecture notes, readings, etc.) and then link to them from Modules or Pages. The Files section on the left-hand menu is hidden from your students by default.
Make Course Content Visible to Students
As you create modules, pages, assignments, etc., make sure they are visible to your students. Click the circle with a slash to publish the content. You will know it’s available when the circle is green with a check-mark in it.
Course Settings
The settings in your course allow you to update the left-hand menu navigation of the course and update the course card that you and your students see in the Dashboard.
Navigation
To update the organization and visibility of the left-hand menu, click the Navigation tab that runs along the top of the settings page. You will see two lists of menu items. Items in the top list are enabled and visible to students; items in the bottom list are disabled and hidden from your students. If you want to reorder menu items within the lists, drag-and-drop items between the lists. Click Save after reordering the menu items.
Course card image
To customize the image that you and your students see when you access your course from the Dashboard, you can change the image that is on the course card. In settings, go to the Course Details tab to view the existing image. It is currently the blue ocean. Click on the three dots on the image and choose Change Image. You will be prompted to choose a new image from your computer.
Student View
Click on the Student View button in the upper right-hand corner of your course to see what your students see. A pink banner will appear at the bottom of your course indicating that “you are currently logged into Student View.” This is a beneficial way to make sure that the items on the left-hand menu are displayed as expected and that the course content is visible to your students. To exit the student view, click the Leave Student View button on the pink banner.
Publishing Your Courses in Canvas
Courses in Canvas are not available until you are ready to share the content with your students.
Click the Publish button in the upper right-hand corner of the Home Page. It will turn green and say “Published” confirming that the course is now available to your students.
Note: Students will not see the courses in the Dashboard until you click the Publish button.
Courses Will Become Unavailable at the End of the Semester
To comply with copyright standards, all Canvas courses will be unavailable to students enrolled in them at the end of each semester. The Fall 2023 courses in Canvas will remain open and available to students until February 2, 2024, when the system will make them unavailable.
BCQs: Accessing your BCQs in Canvas
In your courses in Canvas (Fall 2022 courses-present), you will see BCQs links in the left-hand menu.
• BCQs Reports
• BCQs Response Rates
• BCQs for Students
BCQs Reports: Click the BCQs Reports link to find all your BCQ reports (since the College started using the online course questionnaires). Note that you may need to use the search function or navigate to subsequent pages if you have accumulated more than one page worth of reports. Rest assured that this link is only available to faculty and lab instructors; students do not see this link in their Canvas view.
BCQs Response Rates: Click the BCQs Response Rates link during the student fill-out period to see the number of students who submitted a BCQ for each of your courses. This information can help you gauge whether to encourage/remind your students about submitting their BCQs by the deadline. If you click on this outside the fill-out period, you will see a message saying the end-of-semester questionnaires are not yet available. This link is only available to faculty and lab instructors (not students).
BCQs for Students: You can ignore the BCQs for Students link (we can’t make it disappear from your view, sorry!). This is the only BCQ link that students will see in their view of courses in Canvas. During the fill-out period students will use this link from within any course to access their available BCQs.
Note: Clicking on this link as yourself or the test student will result in an error.
Canvas Open Labs
Canvas Open Labs will be held most Mondays (10:00-11:00) and Fridays (10:30-11:30) during the semester. Registration and additional workshops and labs are available on our Workshops and Open Labs page in CampusGroups.
Additional Assistance
If you need assistance with your course in Canvas you can use our Canvas Request form to have someone contact you.