As an online instructor, you are familiar with the basic functionalities of Canvas. Nevertheless, there are many additional features within the platform that can enhance both teaching and learning that are not as well known. Let’s look at five of these lesser-known Canvas features and how these can optimize your teaching efficiency, improve student interactions, and elevate your instructional methods.
Student View
This feature enables you to view the course from a student’s perspective. It helps you ensure that the content is accessible and experience the course navigation as your students do, allowing you to identify and address any potential issues they might face.
- Select “View as Student” from any page to view course pages as your students do.
- When ready to return to your instructor view, select “Leave Student View” at the bottom of any course page.
Forwarding Canvas Inbox Messages to Your Alliant email
By enabling this feature in your notifications, you will receive messages directly in your Alliant email, ensuring you never miss important student communications and can respond promptly.
- Select Account
- Select Notifications
- Scroll to “Conversations” and find “Conversation Messages”
- Choose how often you wish to receive your Canvas Inbox messages. We recommend you choose “Notify Immediately” and if so, a bell icon will be displayed.
Recording Audio or Video Comments in SpeedGrader
This feature lets you give feedback via audio or video comments, making the process more engaging and easier for students to understand. Personalized messages foster connection and empathy, showing that you care about your students’ progress. You may notice that students respond promptly and in greater detail to video messages, especially kind reminders regarding missing assignments or other concerns.
- Open SpeedGrader
- Scroll to the bottom of the Grade and Feedback panel
- Select the “Record videos and audio” icon
- Follow the prompts to record your feedback
- When finished, select “Save Media” to post
Student email Information in People
This feature allows access to students’ email information in the People section of Canvas. Emailing a student enables direct communication, helping address concerns and provide timely assistance.
Access to Student User Information
On the same People page, you can open a student’s context card by selecting their name, which will display a panel on the right side of the screen. This panel provides detailed information about the student, including their profile, grades, and course analytics such as participation levels and page views relative to the rest of the class. You can send messages to the student directly from this panel. This feature helps you monitor student progress and provide targeted assistance.
The People section simplifies finding a student’s email and other important details on their context card if a Midterm Statement of Concern needs to be completed.
- Select People from the Course Navigation Menu.
- Email information for all people enrolled in the course can be found in the “Login ID” column.
- To open the Context Card containing user information, click on a student’s name.
- Review provided details or choose an alternative option from this card.
Try these features and let us know how they work for you. Canvas has many capabilities; share with us anything you’d like to do more quickly or efficiently, and we’ll explore if Canvas can simplify it for you. If you have something that works really well for you that you would like to share, let us know. We would love to feature your idea in a future article. We look forward to hearing from you at OnlineLearningStaff@alliant.edu.