This video describes what Canvas is, and introduces some of the basic structure of classes, content, and rosters.
Watch the video here: (length = 4:09)
Hello. This video describes the basics of the Canvas Learning Management system. It's basically aimed for teachers who will be teaching a class with Canvas. Now, Canvas is a Learning Management System that you can use to provide an online space for class activities such as exchanging documents, online discussions, and managing course grades.
So to start at the very beginning, Canvas is a web-based application which means you typically use a browser to log in to a web site. And all the information is kept online, or in the cloud, kind of like with Gmail or Facebook - your emails on Gmail and pictures on Facebook. They're not programs you install on your computer, but they're web sites that you use. Now there are also mobile apps for Canvas, but typically you'll be using a browser on a computer when you're setting up a course, not these mobile apps.
To get started, log in at the school's Canvas login page. For Biola, it's canvas.biola.edu. Now there's also a server anyone can use at canvas.instructure.com if your school doesn't have Canvas. If you use this free server, you'll have to create and maintain the roster of students yourself. For classes at Biola, or typically this works for other schools too, the classes and rosters are automatically created by the Registrar's Office when students register for a class.
Once you log in, you'll see your Dashboard. You can switch views to see a list of due dates, a list of recent activity, or a list of classes. This is what I usually use, right here.
Canvas is designed to work best for classes that take place in a term that have specifically enrolled students. If you find yourself needing a place to put permanent information or for long-term information posted online somehow - in those cases it might be better to use Google Drive or Google Sites.
Courses form the basic structure, or the basic organization of Canvas. A course is in a term, which governs when it's available. A course has one or more sections. A section is basically a roster of people: students, teachers, and TAs connected to the course somehow.
Typically, each class has one section, but it's possible to have more than one section of classes cross-listed or if you're teaching multiple sections of the same class. A course also has content such as files and pages and discussions and assignments. These are connected to the course, not to the section or to the roster. Finally, if there are assignments and students, then there are grades in the Gradebook. And we'll go over each of these sections later.
First I want to explain a basic philosophy of Canvas, which is that it separates the storage of information from the presentation of information. This is different than how files and folders work on a computer. On a computer, files are stored in folders. You open files and folders where they are stored. So they are stored in the same place that you see them.
In contrast, on Canvas the content is typically stored in one place, and then presented to (or viewed by) the user in a different place. For example, the Files section and the Pages section have lists of all the files and pages in the class. However, it's just an alphabetical list and we recommend hiding these sections from the students.
To present this information, in other words to show it to the students, you can create an organized list of links to that content in the Modules section, and also create pages that link to the content you want to show the students.
This lets you organize the content however you like - typically chronologically. As an example, if you want to provide a PDF document for your students to read, first upload it to the Files section, and then link to it in the Modules section. Or better yet, create a page, and link to the document in the page. This allows you to put the document in context in the class and add a description.
The Modules section is basically just a sequential list of links to content. It has one level of hierarchy. You can create modules, then links within those modules. You can organize these links in order, and use indentation to make things clearer.
An alternate way of presenting content to students would be to make a series of content pages that all link to each other. However, using Modules simplifies this process, so we recommend using Modules.
So that's the basic structure of how things work on Canvas. In the next video, I want to show you a sample class and how we do things specifically here at Biola for our typical online class.