How to Setup Your Canvas Course Navigation Menu
- What is the Canvas course Navigation Menu?
- What Navigation Links are Included by Default?
- How do I Change Which Items Are Shown to Students?
- Navigation Menu Restrictions and What Can't Be Changed
- How to Get Help
What is the Canvas course Navigation Menu?
The Course Navigation Menu is a series of links on the left side of your course that help you and your students access different parts of the course.
It also includes links to important UW-Superior services, like Explorance Blue (our course evaluations tool) and NetTutor. Integrated publisher tools will often appear as Navigation links in courses where they’re installed and will vary by course.
The Course Navigation Menu is visible by default, but you can temporarily hide/collapse it, and remove or reorder some links.
Not all Navigation links visible to instructors are visible to students; students can only access certain areas of a Canvas course and published content within those areas. Links marked with an eye icon are not visible to students.
What Navigation Links are Included by Default?
Newly created courses will include the following Navigation menu links, visible to both instructors and students:
- Discussions
- Grades
- Pages
- BibliU
- NetTutor
- My Materials
- Blue Course Evaluations
- Library Resources
- Search
- Student Information
A few additional links will be shown to instructors, but are not visible to students, even if they aren’t hidden:
- Files
- Course Analytics
- Course Accessibility Checker (UDOIT)
- Settings
This default list is intended keep the Navigation menu short and uncluttered for students. Instructors are always able to access the following standard Canvas navigation items, even if they’re hidden: Home, Announcements, Assignments, Discussions, Grades, People, Pages, Files, Syllabus, Outcomes, Quizzes, Modules, Collaborations, Office 365, and Settings.
Home is configured to display Modules in most courses, to make accessing course content as easy as possible for students. This option cannot be changed. Home is the only course navigation menu that cannot be hidden from students.
What happens when I import content into a blank course?
If you import all content from a previous course, this will typically import Course Settings, which includes which items are listed in that previous course’s Navigation menu and how they were ordered. In other words, when you import content from a previous course, it will override the defaults mentioned earlier in this guide.
When importing content from a previous course, please review your Navigation menu links to ensure items students don't need to use are hidden.
How do I Change Which Items Are Shown to Students?
Canvas has many Navigation items that can be enabled or disabled depending on the needs of your course. You can change your course Navigation menu links using the course Settings page:
- Click Settings in the course Navigation menu.
- Click the Navigation tab at the top of your Canvas screen.
- Drag and drop items between the top and bottom lists to control whether that item is enabled or not.You can also move items by clicking the three vertical dots next to that item and selecting either Enable or Disable.
- Click the yellow Save button.
Items that are hidden to students will have an eye icon to the right of item in the Navigation menu. Those items will also be disabled in the Student View.
Add Hidden Activities to Published Modules
Navigation Menu Restrictions
Our Canvas instance is part of the UW System Digital Learning Environment (DLE) and is configured to restrict some changes to the course Navigation:
Some options must be included in the Course Navigation Menu, some cannot be added, and some can be added or removed based on the needs for teaching and learning. Menu items that must be included are referred to as fixed, and those that can be added or removed are referred to as flexible. This fixed/flexible model [is intended]:
- to provide students with a consistent experience across courses.
- to speed up course creation by focusing on those menu items that are most useful for students and teachers.
- to ensure no user accidentally adds any tools that the University of Wisconsin does not support.
Order of Navigation Items
Navigation items will always reset to the default order listed in Canvas documentation. “This allows students to have a consistent user experience from course to course depending on what tools the teacher uses. This also helps with continuity when students take courses between multiple UW System institutions.”
Links not shown in the Canvas documentation can be rearranged as needed.
Disabled Navigation Items
Some items cannot be shown to students:
- Conferences cannot be enabled because the UW System has an alternative contract with Zoom.
- Files cannot be enabled due to security concerns. Keeping Files disabled also encourages students to access content consistently through the modules available on the Home page. Items stored in the Files area can be added to your course modules.
Which items should I hide? Which items should I show students?
If you organize your course Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes into weekly Modules, you should disable those items in your course Navigation menu.
Hiding unused Navigation items ensures students only access their work through your course modules. This setup makes your course simpler to navigate, reduces students’ confusion about what tasks they may need to complete for that week, and decreases the chances of missed deadlines.
Need Help?
Please email the UW-Superior Canvas team for more information about managing your Canvas Navigation menu.