Created in partnership between the Center for Teaching & Learning and the Online Learning Initiative.
Getting Started with Canvas
Please click here for a recording of a Canvas Basics Workshop for an overview of features and settings.
To request a Canvas site for your course, please refer to this guide.
Logging On To Canvas
Canvas access for all schools (except Penn Law)
Publishing Your Canvas Site
Once you have added items to Canvas, students cannot see them if you do not publish them. This is a step that’s easy to forget, so it’s important to double check that you’ve published everything you expect students to access.
Publishing the Course
The publish button for the whole course is located on the right side of your screen
When the course is published it looks like this:
Publishing Modules and Items
The publish icon for modules and items is to the right side of each component. Items will be unpublished by default. Click or select the icon to publish items.
Making Your Canvas Site
1. Log into Canvas and click on the course title/button that corresponds to the site you want to work with.
2. To begin adding content, click on the blue button that says “+Module” or the icon that says “Create new module.” These modules will become your homepage: what students will see when they come to your course.
3. Give the module a name and click “Add Module” in the bottom right hand corner. You can start adding material to the module by clicking on the plus icon (+) to the right of the module.
4. Clicking on the plus icon (+) will open a drop-down menu:
5. If you click the drop-down menu, you can access the list of different items that you can add to a module.
6. Click the item that you want to add. The links that follow provide more detail for each type.
- If you want to have students submit documents or attachments (such as papers, homework, pictures of handwritten homework or problem sets, and any other types of attachment), use assignment.
- If you want to share material with students you can use file (for documents that you have loaded into the files section) or page (for material you want to generate or cut and paste into a page).
- If you want students to take a test or quiz, use quiz.
- If you want students to participate in an online discussion (asynchronously) use discussion.
- If you want to link out to Panopto recordings, recorded class meetings, or other web links, use external URL.
- If you have a number of different sorts of things that you want to organize for students, inserting the text header can help organize the module for them.
7. Remember to publish the module and make sure the course is published when you are ready for students to access the material. Otherwise your students will not see anything when they come to the site.
So here’s a sample of what you might create to start:
Making Your Canvas Site User Friendly
As you work on your site, you may want to think about ways to make it most useful to students.
- Explain somewhere to your students how you intend to organize the site and how you want them to use it.
- If you create pages, use headers to organize material into sections for students.
- Turn on captioning in Panopto
- Upload documents in Word if possible.
To learn more about how to design Canvas sites to meet students' needs, review What Students Want From Canvas Sites.
Getting Help
If you need further help beyond the resources here, contact the instructional technology support for your school.
Upcoming workshops on teaching.
Recordings and notes from prior Workshops on Teaching Remotely.
You can also contact the Center for Teaching & Learning for questions about how to meet your course goals using the available technologies.
Additional Resources
Online Exams and Assessments: Promoting Academic Integrity
Whiteboarding Tools for Online Courses
Resources for Students
Tips and Support for Online Learning from Weingarten
"Quick Tips for Online Learning" pdf
Students needing assisstance to acquire the IT equipment they need to take classes virtually may complete an Emergency and Opportunity Fund Application.