Transitioning to Canvas

Getting Started with Canvas

This workshop introduces faculty and staff to Canvas as UR transitions from Blackboard, with a focus on how Canvas organizes course content, communication, assignments, and grading. Participants learn the basic structure of Canvas courses and where to find additional support as they prepare for the fall semester.

Content Tools & the Rich Content Editor

Explore the three primary Canvas content tools—Pages, Announcements, and Syllabus—and learn how to use the Rich Content Editor effectively. The guide also highlights accessibility best practices, media integration, and strategies for creating clear, student-friendly course content.

Assignments

Learn how to organize assessment categories, weight assignment groups, and create assignments that integrate seamlessly with the Canvas gradebook. This guide also covers submission types, key settings, and student view tools to help you build assessments with confidence.

Discussions

Create engaging discussion spaces that support interaction, reflection, and assessment. This guide walks through discussion settings, graded versus ungraded options, checkpoints, peer review, and strategies for managing student participation.

Grading and Feedback

Modules

Modules are the core organization tool within Canvas. This tip sheet / workshop teaches how to build them (duplicate templates or start fresh), pull in content (files, assignments, etc) with the "tiny-but-mighty +" button, organize with text headers and indents, and advanced control access features like Lock Until, Requirements, and Prerequisites.

New Quizzes