Global and Course Navigation
In Canvas there are two navigations panes to the left of the screen. The Global Navigation is the dark blue bar to the very left of the Canvas window. The Course Navigation is the menu with a white background. Below you will find more information about each of these menus.
Global Navigation
The Global Navigation menu is located on the left of every page in Canvas. These buttons link to commonly used Canvas features, like the Dashboard, Courses, Calendar, and Inbox. You will notice that your user account is at the top of the Global Navigation. At the bottom is a Help link.
Account
The Account link will take you to your notification settings, your files, your Canvas settings, and other items related to your account. In the Account link, you can logout of Canvas. This is especially important to consider if you use a shared computer, such as a family computer or a computer lab computer.
If you have additional questions about the Account link in Canvas, see the Profile and User Settings Links to an external site. Student Guides from Canvas.
Dashboard
The Dashboard is the landing page after you login to Canvas. The Dashboard contains:
- Your active courses
- Your To Do list
- Any announcements from Snow College that are not course specific. You can view these announcements later through your Account.
Your active courses are default to appear as a set of cards. The Dashboard can hold up to 20 cards. The cards are ordered alphabetically by course name. You can find the course name, code, and semester below the picture. You can create a nickname for different courses and reorganize the cards by clicking on the three dots in the right corner of the course. Below each of the courses is listed some of the common student interactions found in courses: Announcements, Assignments, Discussions, and Files. If there is a number on the Announcements or Discussions show how many unread announcements or discussion posts are in your course.
If you have additional questions about the Dashboard in Canvas, see the Dashboard Student Guide Links to an external site. from Canvas.
Calendar
The Calendar contains information of what you need to do for all of your courses in one place. You can view the events on the Calendar as daily, weekly, or monthly, allowing you to organize what is due and when. You have ability to also add events that are not tied to a course due date.
When you open the Calendar, you will see the month view the activities for all of your active courses. You can change this by clicking on the navigation bar at the top right of the calendar. You can push the "+" button at the right of the navigation bar to insert events into your personal calendar. To the right of the calendar you will notice a sidebar that include a quick overview calendar (where boxes around the dates suggest activity on that date) and the list of your courses and groups.
The right sidebar contains all personal, course, and group events. Each is designated by its own color on the calendar. If you want to hide a calendar, click on the box next to the name of the calendar. Hidden calendars are shown in a faded color. Canvas arbitrarily chooses the colors for the calendar. You can modify these colors to meet your own needs.
The icons shown next to activities correspond to the activities in Canvas: Discussion boards (), Quizzes (), Assignments (), and Events (). You can see the details of an event by hovering your mouse over the entry in the calendar. Assignments that are submitted in Canvas are crossed off; assignments that have a grade but not Canvas submission are not crossed off.
If you have additional questions about the Calendar in Canvas, see the Calendar Student Guides Links to an external site. from Canvas.
Inbox
The Inbox is Canvas's internal messaging system. You can use the Inbox to email instructors and other course members. More information can be found on the Communicating with Others page of this training.
Course Navigation
The menu to the right of the Global Navigation menu is the Course Navigation Menu. You will use this menu to navigate around course-specific material instead of material that applies to Canvas in general.
Here are some common items that will be available in this menu:
- Home Links to an external site. - Takes to the launching page for the course. Some instructors choose to use a separate homepage while others use the module menu.
- Announcements Links to an external site. - You can view announcements from your instructor. These are organized from newest to oldest.
- Assignments Links to an external site. - This takes you to all of the assignments in the course.
- People Links to an external site. - This is a list of all instructors, TAs, and students in your course.
- Grades Links to an external site. - Here you can view your scores in the grade book. You can also view feedback from your instructor.
- Syllabus Links to an external site. - The syllabus tool contains the syllabus for your course and possibly a schedule of all assignments for the course.
- Quizzes Links to an external site. - This will take you to a list of all quizzes in the course.
- Modules Links to an external site. - Modules are a way to progressively organize a course. Modules can contain learning materials, assignments, quizzes, discussion boards, and learning goals. You might see modules organized by weeks of the semester or by topics.
- Conferences Links to an external site. - Conferences is a tool where your instructor could host live class meetings or office hours. You will notice a link to "Join" the meeting when it is available. If the meetings is recorded, you can view the recording by clicking on the name of the concluded conference and viewing the video.
- Cisco WebEx - WebEx is also a tool where your instructor could host live class meetings or office hours. When you click on Cisco WebEx, you will notice tabs that show upcoming meetings, past meetings, and recordings of the meetings.
Individual instructors might include more or less than what is listed above.