Canvas uses two different left navigation menus to navigate through the system:
- Global Navigation Menu: Access, view and update information related to your Canvas account
- Course Navigation Menu: Access, view and update information related to a specific Canvas course
In addition to the navigation menus, course content can also be accessed from different locations.
The Global Navigation menu provide access to frequently used Canvas features across all of your courses.
The default links for instructors are: Account, Dashboard, Courses, Calendar, Inbox, History, Commons, and Help. Clicking on a link in the Global Navigation menu expands more information and options.
- Account: View and update your profile, notifications, and settings
- Dashboard: Shows an overview of your courses.
- Courses: Displays your published, unpublished, and favorite courses.
- Calendar: Shows upcoming assignments, events, or due dates related to your courses
- Inbox: Communicate with students through the Canvas messaging system
- History: Displays the past 3 weeks of page view history
- Commons: Search for shared resources across Canvas
- Help: Get help with Canvas through chat, voice, or email.
The Course Navigation menu is visible in each Canvas course and provide access to different course areas for a specific course.
The Course navigation menu is dependent on the structure of the course and can be reorganized/removed for each particular course (based on instructor preference and the tools in use). Links with a visibility icon to the right of it indicate that this area is hidden to students (either because the feature has no content or because the instructor has disabled the link). By default, new courses show links leading to the pages:
The Home page is the first page that students see when they first open a Canvas course. Instructors can customize the home page to display one of the following to students:
More information about the Home page can be found here: How do I use the Course Home Page as an instructor?
You might find this video helpful:
- Home
- Announcements
- Assignments
- Discussions
- Grades
- People
- Pages
- Files
- Syllabus
- Quizzes
- Modules
- Conferences
- Collaborations
- Settings
Instructors/TAs can remove links, add External Tool links, and rearrange the course navigation menu through these steps here: How do I manage Course Navigation links?
The Home page is the first page that students see when they first open a Canvas course. Instructors can customize the home page to display one of the following to students:
- Course Activity Stream: Shows the most recent activity and interactions for this course including announcements, messages, and assignment notifications.
- Pages Front Page: Instructors can design a custom course home page that includes videos, images, or rich media.
- Course Modules (default): Displays the list of modules including course materials.
- Assignments List: Shows the list of assignments for the course with upcoming/recent assignments at the top.
- Syllabus: Shows the Canvas' Syllabus page.
In Canvas, the same course content can be accessed from several different locations. The Course Navigation Menu is an easy way to locate particular activities and resources within a course site. Depending on how an instructor organizes their course, content can be found on different Pages and Modules. Course Links also provide a way to link to a particular Page, Module, Assignment, Discussion, Quiz, etc. from within a page. The section below goes over these options.
Access Content/Assignments from the Course Navigation Menu:
Content can be accessed by clicking on a link from the course navigation menu. For example, clicking on Assignments brings up a list of all course assessments (including assignments, quizzes, and discussions).
Content can be accessed by clicking on a link from the course navigation menu. For example, clicking on Assignments brings up a list of all course assessments (including assignments, quizzes, and discussions).
Access Content/Assignments from the Modules Link:
Content and Assignments can be added to Modules and will then be available through the Modules link from the course navigation menu. Instructors can add existing content/assignments or create new content/assignments by clicking on the "+" icon next to the module they wish to add it to.
More information about Modules can be found here: What are Modules?
Content and Assignments can be added to Modules and will then be available through the Modules link from the course navigation menu. Instructors can add existing content/assignments or create new content/assignments by clicking on the "+" icon next to the module they wish to add it to.
Access Content/Assignments from a Page Link:
Links to Content/Assignments can also be added to Canvas Pages as hyperlinks. This will direct students to the appropriate content/assignment when they click on the Page link. While editing a Page, click the "chain" icon the Rich Content Editor. Then, click Course links and choose the desired content/assignment to add the link.
More information about inserting links into Pages can be found here: How do I link to other Canvas pages in a course?
Links to Content/Assignments can also be added to Canvas Pages as hyperlinks. This will direct students to the appropriate content/assignment when they click on the Page link. While editing a Page, click the "chain" icon the Rich Content Editor. Then, click Course links and choose the desired content/assignment to add the link.