Canvas: Getting Started with Canvas - First Things First

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Explaining Canvas course shells

If you are not already familiar with how Canvas course shells are managed on the UW-Madison campus, please, review Canvas: Explaining Canvas Course Shells.

Getting in and getting comfortable

When first learning Canvas, these items will be critical in helping you get, and get situated with the environment.

Logging into Canvas

To log into Canvas, open a browser, and go to https://canvas.wisc.edu/, and log in with your UW-Madison NetID credentials. Learn@UW-Madison strongly recommends using Chrome or Firefox.

The Canvas interface

Upon successful login, you will be greeted by the Canvas dashboard. Let's explore.

Canvas dashboard

- - The first screen you will see is your Canvas dashboard. (You are not yet in an actual Canvas course.)
  - While in Canvas, the red Canvas navigation bar will always be visible along the left-most edge of your screen.
  - The middle (largest) portion of your screen will display large colored tiles. Each, of which, are Canvas courses.
  - A To Do list, and an Upcoming Events list will appear along the right-most edge of your screen.

Canvas navigation bar (red bar)

- - Account Links to an external site.: set profile picture, manage forms of contact, manage Canvas notifications
  - Dashboard Links to an external site.: common starting point (see above)
  - Courses: indexed list of courses, "All courses" shows past and archived courses
  - Groups: used to separate students into subsets, for more social learning experience
  - Calendar Links to an external site.: composite calendar representation of all "events" in all Canvas courses
  - Inbox Links to an external site.: a Canvas-only communication environment
  - Commons Links to an external site.: a forum in which you can share content across courses, across instructors and (optional) across universities

Open a Canvas course

To actually enter a Canvas course, click on one of the colored tiles on your Canvas dashboard.

Course home page

How do I use the course home page? Links to an external site.
How do I change the Course Home Page? Links to an external site.

Upon entering a Canvas course, you will land on the course home page. The home page is highly customizable. Since the home page is visible to all students, throughout the semester. we encourage instructors to put intentional thought into what their home page will be.

Course navigation menu

How do I use the course navigation menu? Links to an external site.

Along the left-hand side of this course home page, you will see the course navigation bar. Typically, the top option in that tool bar is called Home. Initially, it will appear in black lettering, distinguishing it from the rest of the tools (blue lettering). This indicates the Home tool is currently active. That is to say, you are on the "Home" page.

How do I manage course navigation links? Links to an external site.

This navigation bar is editable. There are dozens of tools you may wish to use or suppress. The Learn@UW-Madison team strongly encourages you to "disable" any tool you are not using. A clean, minimalist toolbar will notably improve your student's experience with the course. To manage the appearance and arrangement of this toolbar, review

Course sidebar

Along the right-hand side of the course home page is the course sidebar. This area contains several powerful tools and features.

Additional Resources

Canvas: Advanced Topics - the successor to this training page
Canvas Guides Links to an external site. - the official online Canvas documentation
Canvas courses (recorded) - offered by the Learn@UW-Madison team
Canvas courses (live)- offered by the Learn@UW-Madison team
Active Teaching Labs - sponsored by the Faculty Engagement team
Blend@UW - sponsored by the Faculty Engagement team
TeachOnline@UW: - sponsored by Division of Continuing Studies

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Technical Support & Consultation Requests
DoIT Help Desk • helpdesk.wisc.edu • help@doit.wisc.edu • (608) 264-4357

Additional Resources Online
Learn@UW Website with Guides & More Information • at.doit.wisc.edu/learn-uw
Learn@UW KnowledgeBase • kb.wisc.edu/luwmad