Explore the Canvas Dashboard

 

Introduction

The user dashboard consists of four parts and is the first page you will see every time you log in to your Canvas account:

1. Help Corner: The Help Corner provides easy access to your personal user links and appears at the top of every page in Canvas. You can view your Conversations Inbox , view your user settings , log out of Canvas , and get help with Canvas.

2. Global Navigation: The Global Navigation menu provides you with quick access to all of your courses and groups, a summary page for all course grades, and the Canvas Calendar. Global Navigation also appears at the top of every page in Canvas. Learn more about Global Navigation.

3. Sidebar: The Sidebar helps you see what you need to do next across all your courses and can contain up to three helpful sections.

The To Do section shows assignments or events that require your attention. If you are enrolled in a course as a student, the list shows assignments you need to turn in. If you are enrolled in a course as an instructor, the list shows assignments you need to grade. Items remain in this section for two weeks. The Coming Up section shows assignments and events coming due in the next seven days. If you are enrolled in a course as a student, the Recent Feedback section shows assignments with feedback from your instructor.

Each section item displays an icon to differentiate between assignments and peer review assignments. Items with green icons indicate the item has been completed as indicated by your user role. If a section contains more items than are listed, click the more link.If there are more than 25 items in the To Do section, you must remove items before you can view any new items. To remove a To Do item, click the remove icon.

4. Activity Stream: Recent Activity contains a stream of recent notifications from all of your courses, including announcements, discussions, assignments, and conversations. This activity stream helps you see all recent activity in your courses and easily ask questions and post to discussion forums. Activities are indicated by activity type and display an icon for the activity. New or unread activities are shown by the blue indicator dot. Recent Activity items remain for four weeks.

TIP: Anytime you want to return to your dashboard, click the icon in the top left.
Your school district icon will vary depending on the Canvas "Instance" you are working in.

 

User Settings

 1. Click on the 'Settings' link at the top-right hand corner of any page to access your personal settings.

 

2. Hover over the image icon next to your name and click on the pencil to add or change your profile picture. 

3. On the right hand side, you can add more ways to receive notifications including text messages.

4. Select the 'Edit Settings' button to access more ways to personalize your settings like time zone and language. Some settings may be locked by your administrator and not changeable by you. If you need to change your name, for instance, contact your site administrator.

For more information, please visit https://guides.instructure.com/m/4212/l/41957-how-do-i-change-my-user-settings

 

 

Notifications

1. In order to change your notification settings, click on your personal 'Settings' link in the top right and then click on 'Notifications' on the menu to the far left.

 

2.  Here, you will be able to adjust your notification preferences. These settings apply to ALL your courses. You cannot individualize settings for each course.

3. Notifications can be sent to you depending on how you designate them. The check mark icon means to be notified immediately. The clock means to be notified daily. The calendar means to be notified weekly and the X means you do not want to be notified. 

For more information, please visit https://guides.instructure.com/m/4152/l/40323-how-do-notification-preferences-work

 

Calendar

1. Helpful tips about the calendar:

• The Calendar is used for reminding students of graded Assignments with specific due dates. To provide students with detailed descriptions of how synchronous class time will be used, consider using Pages or customizing the Course Home Page.
• The Calendar automatically syncs with other features in Canvas, such as Assignments, Syllabus, and Grades, so if you create, change, or delete the due date of an Assignment on the Calendar, it will show up in all the others and vice versa. You can change dates easily by dragging and dropping assignments from one date to another.
• The Calendar in Canvas is a global feature, meaning you can see all of your assignments from all of your courses in one place. If your Calendar becomes too crowded, you can filter the number of events listed on your Calendar by selecting or deselecting courses in the Sidebar.
• The Calendar is designed to display up to 10 calendars at any given time. To help manage user calendars, courses customized in the courses drop-down menu as a favorite course will always be listed at the top of the user’s calendar list in the calendar sidebar.

Note: iOS users can sync the Canvas calendar with the calendars on their mobile devices

 

2. Events vs. Assignment Shells

• Events you create on the Calendar will not appear on the Assignments page or in the Gradebook. But they will show up on the Syllabus page and student calendars. You can create events with due date times as well as all-day events.
• Assignment shells are placeholders for the Assignment until you fill in the Assignment details. You can create varied due date Assignment shells via the Calendar too.