Getting Started

Canvas is the Learning Management System (LMS) of the University of Michigan. All courses have a course site automatically created, inside Canvas, each term, and student and teacher accounts are automatically added according to enrollment. All instructors are encouraged to use the Canvas site for, at minimum, posting your syllabus and making course announcements. Final grades are submitted via Wolverine Access, but Canvas can make assignment submission and grading, and gradebook calculations, far easier.

If you have not used Canvas as an instructor before, consider taking a look at the Canvas Overview video. That will help orient you in Canvas. The Canvas Instructor Guides are also an excellent resource that answer many how-to questions.

Learn About Canvas

Canvas has many tools to support more elaborate activities, as well, and third party tools provide still more scope. You can create collaborative annotation activities, group multimedia projects, peer review activities, and discussions that cross freely in and out of the classroom.

When you are ready, the Canvas Video Guides offer a more in-depth look at many of the things you can do with Canvas. The Instructor tutorials start after the Student tutorials. UofM ITS also offers workshops in Canvas.

You may want to also look into some of the integrated tools that are available at UofM, especially Kaltura (aka My Media or MiVideo) for video recording and streaming, Dropbox for large file sharing, and Zoom for videoconferencing.

The LSA Learning and Teaching Consultants can help you explore and use the third party tools available to LSA. You can get started with some of the options on our Instructional Tools page.

If you have questions about how to best use Canvas, or the integrated tools, in your course, you can always request a consultation with the LSA Learning and Teaching Consultants.

Build Your Canvas Course Site

If you are just starting, take a look at the LSA Canvas Guide: 20 Tips for a Successful Canvas Course Site, which walks you through basic set-up and content creation.

LTC has also created a variety of Canvas Templates that LSA instructors can copy and fill in or adapt. The template page also links to some sample modules, so you can see what they might look like with content.

If you are teaching a large course, consult Multi-Section Courses in Canvas to help you think through how to best arrange your sections. Remember, “crosslisting” (combining) your sections into a single site will only move enrollments, not course content; decide how you want to handle your sections before you build course content!

Getting Help

If you’d like assistance planning your course structure or activities, please feel free to request a consultation with the LSA Learning and Teaching Consultants.

If you or your students ever experience technical issues with Canvas, call UofM ITS at 734-764-HELP (764-4357) or email 4HELP@umich.edu.