Welcome to Canvas!Canvas is the new learning management system at UCD. It contains a number of cool features that will make courses more engaging and easier to keep up with. Below is a collection of important information and notable features of Canvas.

Log inYou can sign into Canvas at https://ucdenver.instructure.com using your UCD Access credentials. If you forget, you can reset those at http://myaccount.ucdenver.edu.

Find your coursesAcross the top header of Canvas you will find a dropdown that will list all the courses and groups you are enrolled in.

Just click on a particular course to enter it!

NotificationsCanvas can notify your email address, phone, or even your twitter or facebook account of happenings in your course! Customize the settings so that you know when a new discussion is posted, grades are available, or countless other course events occur.

Step 1: Add other methods of contact (optional)Click settings in the top right of the screen.In the right hand column of your settings you can optionally hook up other email addresses or social media accounts to Canvas.

Step 2: Set up your notificationsOn the left side of your settings page, click NotificationsFrom this page, you can enable notifications for all kinds of different course events.

Each column represents the email address, phone, or social media account that will receive the notification. Each row is a different kind of notification you can enable.

See the example on the next page.

Canvas Student Introduction

EXAMPLE: Enabling email notifications for Announcements

From your Notifications settings page, hover your mouse over the Announcements row under your email column. You will see 4 options appear: Right Away / Daily / Weekly / None.

Your choice decides the frequency of notifications for that particular course event (Announcements). Adjust it according to what will help you stay in touch with the course, but not drive you crazy with too many notifications!

Mobile AppsCanvas has created mobile apps for iOS and Android that allow you to access some basic things from your courses: Schedule, discussions, announcements and so forth.

AndroidSearch the Google Play store for “Instructure Canvas”

iPhone / iPod Touch / iPadSearch the App Store for “Canvas for iOS”

Canvas Student Introduction

Multimedia CommentsCanvas makes it possible to participate in discussions not only by typing text, but also by recording video or audio comments. If your computer has a webcam and microphone, it’s very simple to do this.

In a discussion, you can click on the media icon to launch the media recorder. Canvas will ask for permission to user your webcam/mic and then you can simply click to record, and then click to stop recording.

Once you are happy with your recording, you can submit your discussion post to include your media comment in the discussion.

Connect other web accountsFor easier collaboration, Canvas supports connecting many popular web services such as Skype or Google Docs/Drive to your Canvas account. You can add these additional services from your Settings link in the top right.

For example, with a Google account hooked up to Canvas, you can create collaborative, shared Google docs with the instructor or classmates to work on group projects.

Canvas Student Introduction

Screenshot: Adding additional web services in Settings

Browser compatibilityCanvas requires, at a minimum, one of the following web browsers:

• Chrome 21• Safari 5• Firefox 15• Internet Explorer 8• Flash 9 (if you want to use the audio/video recording

or viewing some uploaded files)• Java plug-in (required for screen sharing in

Conferences)

We highly recommend updating to the newest version of whatever browser you are using as well as the most up-to-date Flash plug-in.

It’s also worth noting that Canvas’ Collaborations uses Google Drive for collaborative docs. Your mileage may vary, but in our experience one of the more modern web browsers such as Google Chrome or Safari work best for Collaborations.

Canvas Student Introduction