7 Tips for Using Canvas

A LIM student shares 7 tips for having a better experience with Canvas.

Canvas Logo

1. Download the app

I love using the app to check when assignments are due and working on things on the go. It is easier to view all your grades at once instead of clicking-through one by one. You can view your calendar, to-do list, notifications, and messages on the app. You can also edit which apps are on your screen by hitting the little pencil in the right-hand corner. 

2. Personalize Your Notifications

Personalize Notifications

When you click your profile or top icon you can select notifications. You can also set if and how often you get notifications. The options for emails are to be notified right away, send a daily summary, or send a weekly summary. You can set if you get notifications on your phone. I find this most useful for discussion boards and reminders about assignments. I also like seeing my grade on an assignment as soon as it is available. 

3. Card View Vs List View

Card View vs List View

There are two views for the home screen or dashboard of the canvas. The default is card view and you can change it by clicking the three dots at the top. Card view only shows you what classes you have but list view shows you when assignments are due by date. There also is a button on the list view that gives you a list of all your grades which is not on card view. I would suggest trying both views and seeing which is your preference. 

4. Utilize the Calendar

Calendar

The calendar is super useful to see a summary of what you have due but I would say to look at the modules. The calendar often does not include the initial post due date for discussion boards. It often just has when the responses are due. I like looking at the calendar to see how heavy of a workload I have that week.

5. Use the What If Grade feature

The what-if grading feature allows you to input grades and sees what the outcome of them would be. This is a good feature if you have a target grade you want. It also makes it easy because it does all the weighting for you. 

6. Submission Tips 

Screenshot of a empty blog post composing window

You can submit a file, URL, type in the textbox, and submit zip files to create the submission. Also, instead of copying and pasting you can embed images instead. You can do this by pressing this button. Before you submit an assignment, you should put the final product in word or a grammar checker. This ensures that your post will not have grammar or spelling issues. Grammarly will help you also improve the readability and quality of the text.

7. Best Browser to Use

The best browsers to use with Canvas in order from best to worst are Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer, then Edge.