Instructor’s Inquiry
Hello Online Learning Team,
I want to thank you for suggesting the Moderate Quiz feature in Canvas. It has been very helpful to see how long students take to complete a quiz. I noticed that some students need more time than the current settings allow, so I will be modifying the quiz settings accordingly. I didn’t know I could check that information so easily.
I wanted to ask you for some suggestions on how to organize the dashboard in Canvas. I have several courses, and I want to make it easier to find the current ones that I need. Do you have any best practices or tips on how to arrange my dashboard?
I appreciate your support and guidance. You are doing a great job in helping us use Canvas more effectively and efficiently.
Sincerely,
Professor Optimasage
Online Learning Team’s Reply
Thank you for your email and your kind words. We are glad to know that the Moderate Quiz feature in Canvas, highlighted in the October CTE Newsletter, has been useful for you. It is indeed a great tool to monitor students’ progress and adjust quiz settings as needed.
Regarding your question about how to organize the Canvas dashboard, we have some suggestions that may help you in customizing the dashboard according to your preferences and enhance course access.
Dashboard View
- Access the dashboard and click on the three-dot icon located at the top right corner to access the “Dashboard View.” Choose between “Card View” or “Recent Activity.” The Card View shows each course as a colored card, while Recent Activity shows messages from discussion, grading updates, private messages and more.
- Next, for effective course organization, drag-and-drop the course cards to reorder them on the dashboard.
Favorite Courses
- To designate specific courses as your favorites, click on “Courses” in the left sidebar and then select “All Courses.” You can mark courses as favorites by clicking on the star. Starred courses will be displayed on your dashboard. Any new courses added to your dashboard each term will automatically be starred until you remove the star. You may revisit this area to update your preferences at any time.
Course Card Customization
- Each course card offers customization options to help you quickly identify the course you are seeking. Click on the ellipses located in the upper right corner of a course card to access these options:
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- Course Nickname: You can edit the name of the course to make it more recognizable or memorable. For example, you can change “LIN1010 – Introduction to Linguistics” to “LIN Spring 2024”. The nickname will only affect your view of the courses and will not change the official name or appear on your students’ dashboards.
- Color: Assign different colors to each course to make them stand out. The colors will also apply to the calendar and other places where the courses are displayed. Consider using gray (Hex code #8587A7) for all completed courses while choosing more colorful options for courses you are currently teaching.
- Move: Change the position of course cards.
- Unfavorite: Adjust the status of courses that you have originally chosen as a Favorite.
Icons
- While exploring the course cards, it is also worth noting that you can navigate quickly to specific sections of a course by clicking on the icons located at the bottom of the course card. The first icon takes you to the course announcements, the next icon to the assignment section, and the third icon to the discussion section.
We hope these tips will help in organizing your dashboard in Canvas and make it easier to find the course that you want. If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to contact us anytime. We are always happy to help you use Canvas more effectively and efficiently. Keep those questions coming!