You need to request a course site on Canvas

Canvas sites are not generated automatically for every course; they are created upon request by the instructor.

• Request a Canvas course site

All users — faculty, students and outside guests — need a PennKey username and password to log in.  Faculty who don't yet have a PennKey should visit the PennKey site or consult with the support staff in their department.  Library support staff can help create PennKeys for outside guests.

• Log in to Canvas at http://canvas.upenn.edu
• PennKey information
• Request a PennKey for a guest from outside of Penn

You need to "publish" your Canvas site & content items in order for students to have access

Course sites are created in an "unpublished" state.  As the instructor, you can access your unpublished site to post materials and get everything ready to go.

When you publish your site, all students who are registered for the course will gain access to the Canvas site.

You also need to publish individual content items within the site.

• How to publish your Canvas site 
• How to publish individual content items in a site
• How to see your student roster in Canvas
• If you need to add auditors or others who are not part of the official enrollment list (including TAs), send mail to canvas@pobox.upenn.edu
• To view your site as a student, Course navigation > Settings > (right sidebar) Student View.
• To manage your navigation menu, Course navigation > Settings > Navigation (tab).

Posting your course materials is easy

The most basic use of Canvas is to distribute your syllabus, Powerpoint slides, readings, or other materials to your students.  It's also easy to add links to other web sites.

The Library will scan reserve materials and make them available in the Files area of a Canvas course.

• Library e-Reserve Services
• To upload multiple files at once, drag your files from your desktop and drop them into Course navigation > Files. Then add a link to each file in Modules or Pages.
• Or you can add upload one file at a time into Modules or Pages.

Help is available.

There are lots of ways to get help with Canvas. The Penn Library has a very helpful Canvas starter page with links to tutorials and other resources.

Penn offers lots of workshops for beginners and advanced users.

• Questions or problems? Send mail to canvas@pobox.upenn.edu
• Canvas Workshops at Penn 
• The main Canvas support page for Penn faculty
• The complete Canvas Instructor Guide
  
• The front page (Dashboard) has recent activity and your “To Do” list.
• The global menu at the top gets you to your Courses and your Calendar.
• The help corner in the upper right has help and your inbox and personal settings.
• Within a course site:
  • The left sidebar has course navigation.
  • The right sidebar has tools for the page you’re on.

Communicate with your students through Canvas

You can communicate with your students — collectively or individually — through Canvas.  By default, the email address for all Canvas users is set to the address as listed in the Penn directory.

Because each students can disable email notifications from Canvas, we recommend that you use your class mailing list if you need to make sure that email will go to all members of your class.

• How to send a message to your class
• Using the Conversations feature in Canvas
• Using a mailing list to contact your students
• To control the flow of notifications, Help Corner > Settings > Notifications

Collect and grade assignments online.

When you use the Assignments tool in Canvas, your students can submit their papers or other work online; you can then easily review, comment on, and grade their work through the SpeedGrader.

• Introduction to Assignments and Grading
• About Assignments and Grading in Canvas
• Canvas Guide to Assignments

You can copy content from one Canvas site to another

Course navigation > Settings > (right sidebar) Import Content into this Course.