FAQs for Faculty and Staff
What is Canvas?
Canvas is a learning management system (LMS) by Instructure which features:
- A clean, user-friendly interface.
- A dashboard page that quickly summarizes assignments, announcements and other relevant information across course sites.
- Customizable notifications: students can get alerts via email, text message or social media at the frequency they desire.
- A working calendar that can be added to Google Calendar, iCal or other popular calendar tools.
- Support for embedded and recorded media content: images, audio, video.
- The power of the cloud.
Are Canvas sites private or visible to the public?
Evergreen's Canvas sites are private by default, and are NOT visible to the public.
- However, faculty can choose to make a site partially visible to the public, but it will not include any student data.
When is my course available? Can I create my course in Canvas in advance?
Canvas courses are not created automatically but can be self-selected by faculty through their Academic Resources page.
- A course may be requested by faculty once the offering has been made available in Banner.
- Your Canvas site should be available within 2 hours following your self-selection request.
I have requested a site, but I don't see my course in Canvas
In Canvas, please click on Help at bottom of the global navigation menu at far left and select Report a Problem to submit a help ticket.
What is the File Storage quota for my course?
- Each Canvas course site is allotted 500 MB for file storage and Canvas Groups have 50 MB of storage.
- In addition, each individual Canvas user is allotted 50 MB for personal file storage.
- Concerns or requests regarding file storage quota? Please contact Academic Technologies.
Student Enrollment in Canvas and Conclusion Schedule
Students registered for your course or students you've made a signature override for will be automatically enrolled in your offering.
- Students with signature override who have not officially registered will be concluded at the end of the first two weeks of class.
- Students who un-enroll from the class will have their enrollment in the Canvas course concluded within 24 weekday hours.
- If you want to add students to your class who are not yet registered, please submit an LMS Access Exception Request via help.evergreen.edu. Please Note: Students added via this method will not appear in the Canvas Gradebook and they will not be able to submit work to assignments.
Concluded Student Enrollment by Term
For multi-term offerings using a single Canvas site for all terms, conclusion of student enrollment per term section occurs by Monday morning Week 1 of the following term.
For example:
- Fall enrollment is concluded Monday, Week 1, of Winter quarter.
- Winter enrollment is concluded Monday, Week 1, of Spring quarter, and so on.
Conclusion of an enrollment section means students:
- have read-only access to site content and course materials associated with the previous term(s)
- will no longer receive Canvas notifications related to the offering’s site activity (unless they are enrolled in a subsequent term)
See also Instructure's illustrated guide:
Manage Student Enrollment Sections in Canvas
Sections are used to organize students for administrative and assessment purposes.
These are the default sections created for single and multi-term offerings:
- a section for each quarter for student enrollment (e.g. Students for Fall, Students for Winter, etc.)
- a section for faculty members associated with the offering
- a seminar section per faculty per quarter
Faculty can create additional Sections as needed.
To organize students into Seminar Sections:
- click on People in the Course Navigation Menu
- at the People index, click on the gear icon to far right of a student’s name
- from the drop-down menu that appears, click on Edit Sections
- in the Section Enrollments pop-up window, at the Enter a section name field, click on browse
- from the drop-down menu of available sections, click on the name of a Section to select it
- click the blue Update button to save
When you return to the People index, you should see the section listed under “Section” (membership) indicated for that student.
See also Instructure's illustrated guides:
Completed Offerings and Conclusion of Canvas Sites
Conclusion of Canvas sites occurs following an offering's last term by Monday morning, Week 9, of the subsequent term.
For example:
- A Fall-Winter-Spring offering is concluded Monday, Week 9, of Summer quarter.
- A Fall-only offering concludes Monday, Week 9, of Winter quarter.
When the offering’s Canvas concludes, the site will no longer appear on your my.evergreen page or Canvas Dashboard but is still accessible:
- From your my.evergreen page, click on Canvas Home
- At your Canvas Dashboard, click on Courses at left (just under the Dashboard icon) and then All Courses
- At the All Courses page, scroll down to view courses listed under Past Enrollments
Faculty retain access to their offering's Canvas site, although:
- The People index is depopulated of students, the Gradebook and assessment are kept intact.
- Viewing student submissions via SpeedGrader is no longer available, student submissions can be downloaded via the Gradebook and individual Assignment pages.
- Students have read-only access to concluded Canvas sites.
Use Content from a Previous Canvas
If you would like help with migrating content, please contact Academic Technologies for assistance.
