Category: Setting Tips

These Quick and Easy Canvas Settings Will Save Your A**… and Your Grade!

When it comes to Canvas, the Learning Management System (LMS) that many colleges and universities employ, many students have a hard time navigating the app’s features. Whether it be the app’s design or overall functionality, many students feel as if the app falls short of what they would expect from something that is supposed to keep them on track with school. In the more extreme cases, some students who use Canvas feel that the app is more annoying or confusing than it is helpful. Such concerns with the app are not entirely baseless, however some of them can be easily resolved right from your smartphone or tablet!

Many students have expressed concern over the app’s notifications, stating that they seem to either get so many that they get overwhelmed or not get any at all. This can be particularly concerning when it comes to assignments, because nobody wants to miss out on an assignment simply because they missed a Canvas notification. For this reason, it’s important that you customize your Canvas notifications to your liking, and that you take advantage of the in-app calendar feature to stay atop your assignments. Here’s how you can do that from your smartphone or tablet.

Step 1: Use Canvas’ Calendar to Keep Track of Deadlines

If you’re just interested in seeing a calendar spread of your assignments, you can open up your Canvas app and click on the “Calendar” option at the bottom of the screen. This will bring up the app’s calendar feature, which will organize all of your assignments by due date. In this feature, wherever there is a small blue dot there is a deadline and where there isn’t, well, there isn’t. This is a neat feature if you just want quick access to all your due dates, however it doesn’t allow for much customization as far as which classes to include.

 

Step 2: Find Your App Settings

With the Canvas app open, go onto your dashboard (which should be your “home” page) and click on the three lines at the top left corner of the screen so that the menu will appear. From the menu, click on the small settings icon on the top right and then click on “Notification Preferences”. Lastly, click on the “For All Devices” option. This will bring up your notification settings for all of your devices at once (smartphone, tablet).

 

Step 3: Optimize Your Notification Settings

Once in the notification settings, you will be able to turn all sorts of notifications on and off to your liking. However, if you wish to make the Canvas app more useful to you as far as assignment deadlines go, I recommend you only turn on “Due Date” notifications. This will ensure that you receive all assignment deadline notifications, and will keep less important notifications from clogging your notification panel.

These quick, easy steps have helped improve my experience with Canvas, and have certainly saved me from missing assignments a handful of times. If you have a minute, I definitely recommend you go through your notification settings!

  Notification Annoyances  

Ecampus is a great way for those who work full time, parents wanting to further their education, and those who have a harder time learning in a class room environment. Our phones are part of most daily tasks, the luxury of having your education at your fingertips is a great convenience, yet can be overwhelming with all the notifications and alerts.

The Canvas mobile app is a great tool to be able to not only access your classes but to connect with your professor and communicate with your classmates. It can be very useful to check in on due dates, quizzes, and stay up to date on reading. Although there can be some issues with always being connected. Depending on the way professors have the classes set up you can get notifications for many different things.

                    

(Main page on Canvas)               (Specific Class Layout)

 

Discussion Boards

           Are a platform where the professor can state a topic they would like you to discuss, then students have the ability to post and communicate in that designated area.

Discussion boards can be very useful to communicate, the problem is the minute you post in one you are automatically registered to receive notifications. If you un-register for the notifications, the minute you comment it re-registers you. This can be very annoying, you shouldn’t have to continue to update your notifications.

Announcements

            The announcement page is where the professor can update you on things that arise during the term.

I think it is important to be able to get notification for the announcements, but if you don’t have the notification on then you will not get those. I think it would be helpful if that notification was either automatically on or you can’t turn it off. The announcements are important for schedule changes, helpful tips from professors, or possibly just informing you of something important.

Grades

            The grades tab is a where you can find your individual grades for each assignment, quiz or your total grade for the class.

The grades notification is the one I personally really like. Students can turn that notification on, it will alert when something  has been graded. Although some students don’t like it because when they receive the notification, they may get upset by the grade itself or may affect the way your day is going.

 

Helpful Hints

• In the settings on the app you can edit some of the notifications. Most are not controllable by the student and are for the educator but the ones you can adjust are helpful.
• Editing the app in your phone settings can also be helpful and give you more control over what you are receiving.
• Making sure if you respond to discussion boards you unsubscribe right after so you don’t get overwhelmed with notification.
• Change the settings on canvas so you only receive emails about notifications instead of receiving them on your phone.