Canvas Tips & Tricks to Enhance Your Experience

Think you know Canvas? There may be a few features you haven’t discovered yet! 

This week’s Tech Tuesday highlights 8 Canvas tips and tricks that can help faculty and students save time, stay organized, and get more from the teaching and learning experience. 

8 Canvas Tips You May Not Know
1. Customize Your Canvas Dashboard 
You don’t have to see every course on your Dashboard. Select your favorite courses and customize your course cards to make current and frequently used courses easier to find. 

2. Use the Calendar to See Everything in One Place 
The Canvas Calendar brings assignments, quizzes, discussions, and other course deadlines together across your courses. Use it to better plan your week. 

3. Take Control of Your Notifications 
Getting too many or too few Canvas alerts? Customize your notification preferences for announcements, grading, conversations, course updates, and other activity, so you receive the information that matters most. 

4. Take Canvas with You 
The Canvas mobile apps allow students and instructors to access important course information from a phone or tablet. Check announcements, review coursework, communicate, and stay connected while away from your computer. 

5. Faculty: Use Student View Before You Publish 
The instructor’s perspective may look very different to students. Student View lets faculty experience the course as a student and check navigation, instructions, assignments, and access. 

6. Faculty: Check for Broken Links Before Students Find Them 
Links to readings, websites, videos, and other resources can change over time. Use Canvas’s course link validation capabilities to identify potentially broken or inaccessible links before they disrupt learning. 

7. Look Beyond the Grade for Feedback 
Students: Your instructor may have provided more than a score. Check assignment details for written comments, rubric results, and annotations on your submitted work. That feedback can provide valuable guidance for your next assignment. 

8. Make Accessibility Part of Your Canvas Routine 
Faculty can improve the learning experience by using descriptive link text, headings, alternative text for meaningful images, captions for videos, and accessible document formats. Students can also take advantage of available accessibility features and supported assistive technologies. 

This Week's Tech Tuesday Challenge 
Choose one Canvas feature you’ve never used before and try it this week. 

Whether customizing notifications, using Student View, checking assignment feedback, or organizing your dashboard, one small change could make your Canvas experience easier and more efficient. Work smarter. Stay connected. Get more from Canvas. 

If you have additional questions, open a ticket on the Enterprise Service Center or contact the Service Desk at huhelpdesk@howard.edu