Global Navigation Menu ~Students
Tutorial Description: This tutorial will be focused on explaining the Canvas Global Navigation Menu for students and parents/guardians. The Global Navigation Menu is the gray vertical menu located on the left side of all canvas pages. This tutorial shows images from a computer, your experience on a mobile device may differ slightly.
Table of Contents
1. Dashboard
- Global Navigation Menu is the gray vertical menu bar located on the left side of every page in Canvas
- When you log into Canvas, you will land on your Dashboard. Depending on your role, this could be populated with the courses you are taking as well as conversations from all of your classes. The Dashboard can be toggled between a course view or recent activity view and shows notifications for all current Canvas courses.
- Click/tap Courses on the Global Canvas Navigation bar and you will see your course.
- To expand or collapse the Global Navigation menu, click the Arrow icon.
The Global Navigation Menu will be automatically collapsed for tablet screens.
2. Account
- To view your user information, click the Account link. A menu will expand and display links to access your user settings, notification settings, and personal files. You can also use the Account link to log out of Canvas.
- Notifications - Canvas includes a set of default notification settings you can receive for your courses. However, you can change the default settings by setting your own notification settings. These settings only apply to you; they are not used to control how course updates are sent to other users. To learn more about each notification, default settings, and notification triggers, view the Canvas Notifications PDF.
- Settings - make changes to your name, pronouns, default email, language, time zone, and password.
Notifications
Notifications are sent to Canvas contact methods (such as your email address) as specified in your account. You cannot receive notifications if your contact methods are unconfirmed. If you are not receiving Canvas notifications, please confirm your Canvas contact methods.
- Click Account
- Click Notifications
- Read and "x" out
- Choose Account or specific classes for the notifications. If you choose individual classes you need to set up notifications for all your classes.
- List of course activities to get notified on including Discussions, Conversations, Scheduling, Groups, Alerts, keep scrolling
- Types of notifications, email and Push Notifications for all Devices. Emails get sent to your email inbox, Push Notification will show as badges on the website/app
- Each notification has a default delivery frequency preference. To view the current notification delivery frequency for a notification type and contact method, hover over the notification icon, click the icon to change the frequency: Notify Immediately, Daily Summary, Weekly Summary, Notification Off.
Please do not click on the link from the Canvas notifications to get back into Canvas - both link options will loop you into separate places. When in doubt of where you are, click the Dashboard button on the left sidebar.
Settings
You can use your profile and user settings to:
- View and edit your user settings, such as display name, language preference, and time zone
- Change your default email address or add an additional email address for notifications
- View or add a profile picture
- Set Notifications for your favorite communication channels
- Upload personal Files
- Create and manage ePortfolios of your course work
- Manage new user features
- Download your assignment submissions from current and previous courses
- Click Account
- Click Settings
- Click Edit Settings
Editing Settings
Contact [email protected] to change the following:
- Full Name is used for the Gradebook and Grades pages, Chat, People, and SIS imports.
- Display Name is how other users will see your name in Announcements, Conferences, Conversations, and Discussions.
- Sortable Name defaults to your last name, first name and appears in sorted lists so admins can search for it.
The following can be changed by you:
- Pronouns display after your name in various areas throughout Canvas.
- Default Email can be set when you have multiple Notification email addresses associated with your account.
- Language can be set to your native language and is the language you want to use in Canvas (does not apply if an instructor sets a specific language for a course).
- Time Zone can be set to where you are located and displays assignments in your local time.
- Password click the check box to drop down password change. Need to know old password to reset to a new one.
- Click Update Settings to apply changes
Note: Some settings may not be available to you. If you are not able to edit your user settings, you will need to contact [email protected] to change this information.
3. Courses
- Click Courses to view all published and unpublished courses
- Published Courses are courses that you will have access to
- Unpublished Courses are courses that may still have information being added. You might have access to these courses.
4. Calendar
Calendar displays date and time information for each of your enrolled courses and/or groups.
- Click Calendar to view calendar.
- Choose view: Week, Month or Agenda. The plus button creates an event to add to your calendar.
- Default view: Month view
- The Sidebar on the right shows a small calendar view and a list of courses and groups for you to toggle visibility on the calendar.
- Clicking Calendar Feed exports the visible calendar into iCal, Google, Outlook and other calendar programs.
5. Inbox
- Click the Inbox link.
Conversations is the Canvas messaging system where you can communicate with other users in your courses. The number of new messages are shown as part of the Inbox icon.
6. History
- View a list of your recent Canvas course page views from the History link in Global Navigation. The Recent History list displays page view history within the most recent three weeks.
Page views are listed in chronological order with the most recent page view listed first. List items display the following information:
Activity Icon: the Canvas feature or course activity type
Course Link: the name of the course content area or content item name
Course Name: the name of the course in which you viewed the item; if set, the course nickname displays.
Viewed Date: the date and time when you viewed the page; if the page view occurred within the last 24 hours, a time stamp of [n] hours ago displays
7. Commons
As an instructor, you can access Commons with the Commons link. Commons is a community of both internal to Global X as well as the larger Canvas community world wide where content and course can be shared. Commons is a learning object repository that enables educators to find, import and share resources. A digital library full of educational content, Commons allows Canvas users to share learning resources with other users as well as import learning resources into a Canvas course.
8. Help
- You can get help with Canvas by using the Help menu. Depending on your user role, the Help menu generates a list of resources to help you with Canvas. Canvas displays links according to roles in all enrollments; for instance, if you are enrolled as a student, but have at least one course with an instructor-based role, the Help menu will show you links available to students and instructors.
Search the Canvas Guides: Search the Canvas Guides for information about features inside of Canvas
Chat with Canvas Support and/or Canvas Support Hotline: Limited to 18 years and older
Canvas Learning Resources: links to Instructure Community Hub for guides, videos and learning resources
Report a Problem: Submit problems with Canvas to our support team
Email Mid-Pacific for assistance: emails [email protected] email address
Show Welcome Tour: Learn more about Canvas by viewing the Welcome Tour
Need Help?
- [email protected]
- Fill out the Help Desk Request Form