How to Teach Using Canvas
This guide is for instructors using Canvas for the first time. We’ll walk you through the Canvas interface, how to setup your courses, and how to manage your personal Canvas account.
Teaching in Canvas: The Basics
Before you begin using Canvas, we want to introduce you to the Canvas interface, settings, tools, and how instructors can design courses using Canvas. If you want to follow along, you can login to Canvas from our UW-Superior Canvas Login Page.
How to Navigate Canvas
First, watch this brief Canvas Overview so you know how to use the Canvas Dashboard, locate your courses, and locate important system-level tools.
How to Setup Your Canvas Course
Now that you’ve learned how to navigate Canvas, you should learn about Canvas courses, how to create course content, and how to share it with your students. Canvas courses are built around pages and activities, organized by module, and created using the Rich Content Editor.
Course Activities and Assigning Work
Now that you’ve learned how to create pages and organize them in course modules, you can start creating Canvas assignments, discussions, and quizzes:
When you create a Canvas quiz, you can choose between Classic Quizzes and New Quizzes. Select Classic Quizzes.
If you’d like to learn more about New Quizzes and why we recommend instructors utilize Classic Quizzes instead, please reach out to the UW-Superior Canvas team.
How to Manage Your Canvas Account and Settings
Once you’ve setup your course, you should fill out your Canvas profile, review your account settings, and setup your Canvas notification preferences. Watch this short video about Canvas User Settings:
You should also familiarize yourself with the My Media tool (supported by Kaltura). You can use My Media to store audio and video content and easily share it with students in your courses.
Canvas - How to Create and Manage Audio and Video Using Kaltura My Media
Additional Resources, How-to Guides, and Canvas Help
There are a number of help options available to UW-Superior instructors:
Also, the CLIC Canvas Team offers Zoom office hours on Wednesdays at 3:00pm and Thursdays at 9:00am for instructors and staff. Join us to ask questions about Canvas, get help designing your course, or explore new ways to assess your students’ learning.
We also recommend instructors review our Frequently Asked Questions guide for students, so you know how to answer some common questions students ask about Canvas. If students have questions about how to use Canvas, please direct them to Canvas Support in the Canvas Help menu.