Canvas Guides and Resources

The following resources are available on this page:

• Canvas Guides
• Training Services Portal
• Canvas Commons – Shared Template
• Live Sessions with Canvas Conferences

Canvas Guides:

• Instructor Guides
• Student Guides
• Video Guides
• Mobile Guides

Training Services Portal

The Canvas Training Services Portal, available via Canvas Help menu,  allows instructors to access self-paced training resources on a variety of topics. To access the training:

1. Login to Canvas at https://canvas.morainevalley.edu.
2. Click the Help icon on the Global Navigation menu.
3. Click the Training Services Portal link.

Note: If prompted to authorize access to your account, click the Authorize button. Additionally, a training portal tutorial may launch to acclimate you to the training site.

We strongly encourage first time users to self-enroll and review the resources available in the “Higher Education: First Day Ready” Learning Pathway, which can be accessed in the Learning Library.  This training is comprised of following four mini courses:

1. Opening Canvas
2. Creating a Canvas Course
   Note: “Official” Canvas course shells will be automatically generated for each course section a few weeks before the semester begins. As an instructor, Canvas will also allow you to create a new course by clicking the “Start a New Course” button, available on the Dashboard. You may want to create a course for practice and training purposes or to create a course “Master” course template. Content can be copied from these sites to your other course sites in Canvas.
3. Getting Started with Assignments and Assessments
4. Grading and Feedback

They also provide a learning pathway titled, “Canvas Teacher App Overview“, that may be helpful for faculty wanting to access Canvas from an Android or iOS device.

Canvas Commons – Shared Templates

For first-time Canvas users:

We encourage you to utilize our “MVCC Basic Course Template” that can be downloaded from Canvas Commons. This resource includes:

1. Course home page template.
2. Syllabus page template.
3. Sample module:
   • Lesson plan template
   • Sample assignment with student “how-to” instructions
   • Sample discussion with student “how-to” instructions
   • Sample quiz with student “how-to” instructions
4. Course links to Home, Syllabus, Modules, Grades, Announcements, Discussions, Conferences, and UDOIT.

To access Canvas Commons and import the “MVCC Basic Course Template”:

1. Login to Canvas at https://canvas.morainevalley.edu.
2. Click the Commons icon on the Global Navigation menu.
3. Search “MVCC Basic Course Template”.
4. Import the resource in your course.

For existing Canvas users:

We encourage you to utilize our “MVCC Sample Module” that can be downloaded from Canvas Commons. This resource includes:

1. Sample module with:
   • Lesson plan template.
   • Sample assignment with student “how-to” instructions.
   • Sample discussion with student “how-to” instructions.
   • Sample quiz with student “how-to” instructions.

To access Canvas Commons and import the “MVCC Sample Module”:

1. Login to Canvas at https://canvas.morainevalley.edu.
2. Click the Commons icon on the Global Navigation menu.
3. Search “MVCC Sample Module”.
4. Import the resource in your course.

Live Sessions with Canvas Conferences

The Canvas Conferences tool will allow instructors to hold live, synchronous sessions with a single student or the entire class. The following video provides an overview of the Conferences tool.

Please see Canvas Guides – Conferences for step-by-step instructions.

Please also view our Best Practices for Web Conferences post for additional strategies and suggestions to consider when hosting a live meeting.