Canvas features for blended learning activities
These features support remote and blended learning activities.
Calendar event
A Canvas calendar event is a non-graded activity, and may include non-timetabled opportunities, such as a field trip or guest speaker. Events you create on the calendar will show up on the syllabus page and student calendars but will not appear on the assignments page or in the gradebook.
- The Canvas calendar events can be displayed by day, week, month or agenda list.
- Filter the calendar view by selecting or deselecting courses in the sidebar. The calendar is designed to display up to 10 calendars at any given time.
- Labelling a course as a favourite course will raise it to the top of the list in the calendar sidebar.
- Subscribing to a Calendar feed allows you to see course events across multiple external calendar platforms (iCal, Google, Outlook, etc.)
- Class meetings that are scheduled from your Canvas course through either the Zoom or BigBlueButton (Conferences) menus are added to Canvas calendar automatically.
Video: Canvas tutorial – Calendar overview
Lecture recordings
Panopto is the platform the university uses to create and share recorded lectures and presentation videos.
- All scheduled lectures delivered in recording-enabled rooms will be recorded automatically and released to students via the Panopto Video menu in your Canvas course. They are available to students 24 hours after being recorded.
- Capture your presentation in any platform (Zoom, Teams, camera), then upload the file to Panopto Video in your course menu to share your video with a Canvas course immediately.
- In Panopto, you can use the availability settings to choose the start and end dates your video will be available for students to watch.
Related guides:
Appointment scheduler
In the Calendar, you can also create Appointment groups, which allocate a block of available time, where students can make an appointment to meet with you. These appointments can be as individuals or in groups. Students can select from available timeslots using Canvas Calendar. Appointments display in your calendar after a student or group has reserved a time slot.
Related Canvas guides:
To-do list
In Canvas, all graded activities will automatically be added to the To Do List of both teachers and students. This helps students manage their time and workload effectively.
If you would like to add additional activity reminders, you can also use the options section on any Page or Discussion.
Related Canvas guides:
Availability settings
You can released content in your Canvas course on a given date and time. Some examples are:
- Modules can be locked until a given date. If published, students will be able to see the module titles and module item names, but they will not be able to access the module items until the release date.
- You can edit permissions for files and folders by changing the state of the file (published or unpublished), restricting file access to students who have the link, or scheduling availability dates for the files.
- Discussions, Assignments and Quizzes have availability settings.
- Availability dates can be set for Panopto videos.
Related Canvas guides:
Support
Support options are available through the Staff Service Centre or the 24-hour hotline. Please visit the learning technology support page for details.
Page updated: 27/03/2023