Reporting Problems with Canvas
If you have any technical problems with Canvas please refer to the Help menu at the bottom of the global navigation menu (visually there is a circle with a question mark in it at the lower right of the Canvas screen).
What do I need to know about using Canvas?
Detailed information on what is important to know about using Canvas is broken down into two main areas, info for students, and info for faculty. You can view that information by clicking the links below:
What is the Canvas Course Life Cycle?
(i.e., how long will courses remain on the server?)
For new classes, instructors gain access to course shells 90 days before the start of a semester. (So a Spring course should show up new the previous October.) Students will see a listing of the course shell within a few hours of officially enrolling in the class using eServices. (Not instantaneous, as there is a time delay of typically less than three hours; worst case is an update goes into effect in the middle of the night.) Students may only access a course shell after the instructor has manually Published the course, but prior to publishing the course will still display on the Canvas list of All Courses.
After the class has ended, student access to the course shell may vary depending on how the instructor configures their course settings. Courses will continue to be listed in the list of All Courses, and in some cases students will be able to continue viewing the course contents indefinitely. Faculty access to the course shell should continue in perpetuity, for as long as the course remains on the Canvas system.
At this time there are no size constraints imposed on Palomar, so the plan is to retain course shells in Canvas always, starting with the Fall 2016 semester when Palomar first started using Canvas widespread. Until and unless such constraints are applied, no old courses should be deleted from Canvas.
What is this Canvas thing all about?
The short version is that Canvas is a system made by the Instructure company, used to manage student access to instructor materials.
The boilerplate provided by Instructure on what Canvas is follows:
“Through open, usable, cloud-based technologies, Canvas enables easy integration of the content, tools, and services that teachers need and students want. Not surprisingly, listening to users about their needs and wants—then rolling out the most usable, customizable, adaptable, and reliable learning platform (think 99.9% uptime)—makes all the difference when it comes to campus-wide LMS adoption. That’s why Canvas is adopted faster and deeper (or, is used in more ways by more users) than any other LMS. So, in the end, investing in 21st century technology for higher ed actually makes teaching and learning easier (like it’s supposed to).
Canvas is the educational revolution by Instructure, the technology company that makes smart software that makes people smarter. In addition to the Canvas LMS, Instructure offers Canvas Commons, the learning object repository that actually gets used; Canvas Catalog, the customizable, all-in-one course catalog, registration system, and payment gateway; and Canvas Network, an index of open, online courses taught by educators everywhere. Learn more about the expanding Canvas edu-ecosystem at www.CanvasLMS.com.”
