Guides to functions in Canvas
Here you can find manuals and recommendations regarding how to use the different functions in the Canvas menu.
News in Canvas
Home
The course Home page is the first thing shown in a course, which makes it important for the student’s first impression. You as a teacher can also find a sidebar on the Home page with functions that are useful at the start of a course.
Modules
A course with structure and organisation is appreciated by both teachers and students. The function “Modules” in Canvas will help you, as a teacher, to create courses that are easy to navigate and with all your course materials in one place in the order you want. You can also set requirements and prerequisites on the modules in order to clarify and control the order of studying.
Pages
Canvas Pages are the internal web pages of a course. KTH recommends that course information is added to a Canvas page instead of being shared through a document. Pages can contain text, images, videos, links, lists, tables, mathematical notations and a lot more.
Syllabus
The course memo is important for students before and during the course, and sometimes even after the course. That is why we recommend making it is easily accessible for the students by linking to it from “Syllabus” in Canvas.
Assignments
Graded assignments are a must in all courses and can come in many forms, such as essays or web design. Assignments in Canvas can be adjusted to them. You can specify how grades are displayed, which submissions are allowed, due dates and much more.
Quizzes
To create a good quiz can be a difficult task. Here you can find information about how to choose good settings for your quiz in the two quiz functions in Canvas, New Quizzes and Classic Quizzes. You can also read about how to create good questions, manage question banks, moderate quizzes and vary assignments between students by randomizing questions.
Grades
“Grades” in Canvas is shorty presented in the Gradebook for teachers and students. A more detailed grading is made using SpeedGrader for both assignments and quizzes but in slightly different ways. It is also possible to automate the transfer grades from Canvas to Ladok.
Outcomes
With the function "Outcomes", you can track your students’ progress in the course and the students can see how they are progressing with regards to the intended learning outcomes of the course. You can enable a "Learning Mastery Gradebook" for teachers and a "Student Learning Mastery Gradebook" for students. The gradebooks gather the students’ achievements and results connected to the course outcomes or criteria.
The Outcomes function in Canvas
People
In the "People" function you can see and handle different users, see their role in their respective Canvas room and groups in Canvas. Normally a user is added to a Canvas room automatically through Ladok or Kopps. It is also possible to add users manually, even for those without a KTH account.
Add users manually to a Canvas room
Announcements
Publishing an announcement through the “Announcements” function in Canvas is an easy way to distribute important information to all students at once; either to the whole course or to specific sections.
Discussions
Two-way communication with and between students works well using the “Discussions” function in Canvas. Discussion forums can be used for several purposes, everything from grading to social uses.
Settings
Your account and your courses can be configured in Canvas to better suit your needs.