Canvas Security Steps
May 8, 2026
May 8, 2026
As we are nearing the end of the semester, the critical activities for the university are the final assessment days and the submission of grades. Below are some action steps that students and faculty may implement in order to continually conduct their work in the event that Canvas becomes inaccessible.
PROTECTING YOUR ACCOUNT WORK AND SECURITY
Step 1: Backup your Canvas Materials
For Faculty:
Click on Settings on the course side navigation bar.
Click on export course content.
Click on Create export (choose Course). An .imscc file will be exported.
For Students: Download all course materials and submissions that you need. (See also the section below on Viewing Course Offline)
Click on Modules on the course side navigation bar.
Click on “export course content”. It will create a zipped folder.
Unzip and open the folder.
Click on the file “index”. It should create an offline copy of the whole Canvas course.
Step 2: Change Your Ateneo Google Password and Setup Multi-factor Authentication
Click this link to learn how to do a security check security account check up and update your password.
CONTINUING CLASSWORK ONLINE
For submitted assignments and quizzes
Download the student submissions from the Gradebook.
Click on the three dots on the column header of the assignment and look for “Download submissions”.
This will create a zipped file of all submissions.
For more info on how to download assignments, click here.
Consider alternative avenues for assessment submission
Online Submissions
Through email. Send an email to your students instructing them to submit on the email thread. Keep it organized by class, section. Provide file naming conventions (eg Class_Last Name_Name of Assignment).
Through Google Form. Include instructions in the form description. For more info on how to set up a file upload on Google Form, click here.
Through Google Drive. Create a Google Drive folder with the Class code and instruct students to upload their submissions there.
Offline Submissions: Submit hard copy submissions of assignments.
Downloading the Gradebook
Download the Gradebook to keep track of the student submissions and class standing.
Click on Grades (on the course side navigation bar).
Click on Export button (upper right part of the screen).
Export Entire Gradebook.
Import and open the .csv file to Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, or any spreadsheet software.
To learn more about how to download the gradebook from Canvas, click here.
Providing Feedback
For submissions on Google Docs and other Google Workspace apps, provide feedback via the comment function.
To learn more about the comment fuction of Google Workspace, click here.
View Course Offline
Click on Modules on the course side navigation bar.
Click on “export course content”. It will create a zipped folder.
Unzip and open the folder.
Click on the file “index”. It should create an offline copy of the whole Canvas course.
Note: In the event that Canvas becomes inaccessible, students may need access to this offline copy of your Canvas Course. The same procedure works for a student account.
For more information on accessing a course offline, click here.
For all IT assistance, security concerns, or suspicious activity:
Portal: https://itsupport.ateneo.edu
Email: itsupport@ateneo.edu
Keep track of the status of Canvas activity: https://status.instructure.com/
Message from the Instructure team: https://www.instructure.com/incident_update