Basic Navigation

When you first log in to Canvas, you will see a Dashboard with a list of Current Courses or Recent Activity list. You can switch between these two views by clicking the switch on the top-right of the page:

The list of "Current Courses" only shows currently-active courses. To see past or future courses you can click on "Courses" to see a link to "All Courses"

After you click "All Courses" you will see a list of all current, past, and future courses. Click on the little star to the left of a course name to make that course appear on your "Dashboard" for quicker access on the Dashboard. (Note: You can only do this for current courses - for past courses, use the "All Courses" link.)

Pro Tip: You can bookmark individual courses and even individual pages within a course - the URL doesn't change.

Account Menu: Click "Account" to view options related to your Canvas account. This is also where you Logout of your account:

After you log in to Canvas and click on a class, the page will look something like this:

Click the blue bars near the top-left to hide or show the left course navigation menu.

The links along the left, in the dark gray area are "global" links that do not change when you go to different courses. The Course Navigation Menu along the left side let you access different parts of the course. The Breadcrumb Navigation along the top shows you where you are in relation to the rest of the course.

Students may not see all of the links in the Course Tools Navigation - instructors can hide parts of the course not in use. Instructors can click on the grayed-out links. Here's a quick overview:

• Home - what users see when first arriving at the course. Teachers can change by clicking the "Choose Home Page" button.
• Announcements - create new announcements with the button on that page
• Syllabus - An automatically-generated list of assignments. You can also customize a detailed description.
• Modules - A sequential list of links to course content - a place to organize the class (usually chronologically)
• Discussions - Discussion boards (asynchronous, written)
• Assignments - A list of assignments - both in-class assignments and online assignments
• Quizzes - Online tests & quizzes
• Collaborations - For groups work among students - uses Google Docs
• People - List of who has access to the course (the roster)
• Conferences - Video chat and live interaction
• Pages - A list of web pages in the course
• Files - A list of files (images, Word documents, PowerPoints, PDFs, etc) in the course
• Outcomes - For tracking outcomes with rubrics in the course
• Roll Call - For taking attendance. Puts a 100-point assignment in your Gradebook
• LockDown Browser - Lets you require students to take quizzes with a special browser
• Settings - Controlling the course. Within settings there are several areas:
  • Course Details - name, dates, privacy settings
  • Sections - Shows cross-listed sections
  • Navigation - Control the left Course Tools Navigation menu (re-order or hide from students)
  • Apps - Install non-Canvas apps using LTI Integration.
  • Feature Options - Turn on optional features for your class
  • Right Sidebar - several buttons for student view, importing, exporting, course stats, etc.
• UDOIT - Checks a course for accessibility issues
• Follett Discover - Connection to the bookstore list of textbooks