Canvas Vocabulary

Welcome Tour

A series of tutorials displayed in the Canvas interface for new users and provide an overview of Canvas functionality for students, instructors, and administrators.

Posting Policies

A setting in the Gradebook that designates whether newly-entered grades are visible or hidden to students by default; can be set at the course or assignment level.

Course Code

A short name for a course that displays at the top of the Course Navigation Menu.

Notifications

Allows users to determine where and when they will be notified about activity in Canvas. Each Canvas user can adjust their settings in their Profile to contact them via email on a schedule that fits their individual needs.

Course Statistics

An instructor tool that summarizes overall student participation in the course.

Celebrations

Animations that display in the Canvas interface to congratulate a user for completing a task.

RSS Feed

A computer document format that allows electronic content distribution; can refer to podcasts

Dashboard

A content panel that acts as the Canvas default landing page and provides an overview of all a user's Canvas activity.

Blueprint Course

A course that serves as a template for other courses.

Sandbox

A course without student enrollments where instructors can create, modify, and preview course content and structure without student interference; may also refer to an institution's beta environment where admins and instructors can enable and use upcoming Canvas features.

Grades

A measure of student performance; students can calculate hypothetical grades on this page.

Course Navigation

A menu on the left side of a Canvas course consists of navigation links directed to all the features of a course.

Inbox

A messaging tool used in Canvas to communicate with a course, a group, an individual student, or a group of students; a link in Course Navigation.

Files

Can be public or private; also a link in Course Navigation.

Quizzes

Canvas currently offers two engines, Classic and New.

Role

Describes the permissions granted to a given user in a given context (course, account, and subaccount; includes both course-level and account-level roles.

Sections

Divisions of students within a course, but they all view the same course content.

Pages Front Page

In Pages, instructors can select a page to display as this Page. It is the first page that displays when users navigate to Pages in Course Navigation. Can also be used as the Course Home Page.

Account

Represents an administrative organization unit within Canvas.

Help

Part of Global Navigation and assists users in getting help in Canvas anytime.

Outcomes

Statements that describe skills, understandings, and attitudes that learners will develop during a course or program. Instructors can specify learning outcomes for their courses and track student progress based on measured standards rather than letter grades; also a link in Course Navigation.

Gradebook

Stores information about student progress in Canvas. There are two types: Standard and Learning Mastery.

New User Tutorial

Shows new instructors using Canvas for the first time how to become familiar with Canvas using sidebars built into each Canvas feature area.

Test

The environment used for testing real data in Canvas without affecting the production environment; overwritten with data from the production environment every three weeks.

Course Home Page

The first page students see in a course, and it can be customized to display content based on an instructor's preference.

Course Status

The state of a Canvas course; can be published or unpublished.

Courses

Units of instruction in one subject created by Canvas administrators or instructors that typically last one term.

Conferences

Allow instructors to create virtual classrooms and interact with their students in real-time using audio, video, desktop sharing, and presentation tools.

Settings

Allows admins and instructors to customize the Account or Course Navigation, add users, import content, and link to external tools; a link in Account and Course Navigation.

Moderated Grading

Allows multiple reviewers to grade student submissions and create drafts or provisional grades.

ePortfolios

Allows students to showcase their best work to colleagues and prospective employers.

Canvas Community

An external resource provided by Canvas for all Canvas customers (P.S. Your instructional designers use it all the time!)

CSV File

A file type designed for importing and exporting content from programs like Microsoft Excel or Google Docs.

Discussions

A forum designed to facilitate informal communication between students in a course; can also be created as assignments for grading purposes.

Rubrics

An assessment tool for communicating expectations of quality; typically comprised of rows and columns that define the various criteria used to assess an assignment, and columns define performance levels for each criterion.

People

Displays all users enrolled in a course. Instructors can click a student's name to view a summary of their activity in a course; a link in Course Navigation.

Equations

Mathematical functions that can be entered and viewed in various areas of the Canvas interface, even text fields, including assignment titles and calendar events.

Act as User

Refers to viewing Canvas as another user. Unless granted specific permission, only admins can act as other Canvas users.

Breadcrumbs

The trail at the top of a page window helps users see what page they are viewing in the course hierarchy.

Profile

A description that provides information about a person. Admins can choose to enable this feature, which allows users to create biographies and link to social networks as part of their user accounts.

Scheduler

A Calendar tool that creates appointment groups within a course or group.

Math Editor

A Latex-compatible toolbar in the Rich Content Editor that makes it easy for instructors to write math expressions and equations.

Web Services

A collection of third-party services that users can use for notifications; currently supports integrations with Google Drive, Skype, Twitter, Delicious, and Diigo.

Announcements

A communication tool that allows instructors to post them for all users in a course. Instructors can allow students to reply to them.

Calendar

A communication tool that shows users all events and assignments in their courses and groups.

DocViewer

A document preview tool that displays file previews for supported file types.

MasteryPaths

A feature enabled through Modules that supports learning mastery.

Direct Share

A feature that allows instructors to copy content, such as Assignments, Discussions, Modules,

Free for Teacher

A free Canvas account that provides the essential functionality of the learning management platform.

SpeedGrader

A grading tool that helps instructors evaluate student works; also available as a Canvas mobile app on iOS and Android devices.

Syllabus

A piece of content that outlines activities in a course; a link in Course Navigation.

Term

A time period assigned to academic instruction. In Canvas, course dates generally align with these, though course dates can extend beyond or be shorter than default dates.

Course Setup Checklist

A tool for instructors who are new to Canvas and would like help creating a Canvas course; located on the Course Home Page.

Analytics

A tool that can be used to evaluate a course's components and student performance.

Modules

A tool that can unify all course content into structural components and can be grouped by week, topic, or day.

Groups

A tool that helps instructors separate students into smaller course units; can be created for students or by students to enable efficient collaboration.

Student View

A tool used by instructors to see how their course appears to students; it generates a Test Student that appears in a canvas course and can be used to submit assignments, reply to discussions, and upload files as a test method in the course.

SIS ID

A unique identifier for an object in Canvas; can be assigned to accounts, courses, terms, sections, users, and groups for a student information system.

Rich Content Editor

A word processor that supports the creation and formatting of content in Announcements, Assignments, Discussions, Pages, Syllabus, Quizzes

Assignments

Any activity assessment created by the instructor can be submitted for a grade or without a grade. Also, a link in Course Navigation.

Pages

Comprises all pages created in a course and allows instructors to create content for a Canvas course.

Activity Stream

Displays all recent activity in Canvas. There are two types in Canvas.

Beta

Each Canvas account has one to use for exploring new features before they are released in the production environment.

Course Import Tool

Located in the Course Settings, it allows content to be imported from existing Canvas courses and content packages from other LMS and textbook publishers.

Learning Mastery

Maintains that students must achieve mastery (e.g. 90% on a knowledge test) in prerequisite knowledge before learning subsequent information; commonly measured through outcomes.

Pairing Codes

Six-digit alphanumeric codes used to link an observer to a student

Service Cloud

The Canvas Support system for admins to receive help or direction.

Production

The Canvas environment that contains all live data and where users interact with their Canvas courses. New and updated Canvas features are released into this environment every three weeks.

Global Navigation

The menu that appears on every Canvas page.

Chat

Tool provides synchronous video, audio, and text communication between students enrolled in a course.