Canvas is UW-Madison’s centrally supported learning management system. It serves as a powerful and flexible tool for instructors and students in our digital educational space. Most other teaching and learning technologies integrate with Canvas making it the central technology in the digital teaching and learning ecosystem.

See Canvas - UW–⁠Madison Information Technology for more information.

Basic Functionality

Advanced Functionality

• Canvas is a powerful and flexible tool. You can use it to simply manage course activities, or for much more involved and complex course functions. Instructors can quickly learn how to use Canvas, but may take longer to learn more advanced functions.
• Use Canvas Modules to organize content in chronological or topical order
• Use Canvas to provide links or resources to supplement an in person course, such as embedding video content through Kaltura Mediaspace
• Use Canvas to organize content and meetings for remote synchronous learning.
• Using Canvas Discussions to supplement in-class conversations.(CTLM Link)
• Use Canvas quiz (survey) to gather mid-semester feedback (Anonymous Survey)
• Use Canvas quizzes for formative and summative learning assessments.

In addition to traditional credit-based courses, Canvas can be used to deliver noncredit courses. This includes the following:

• Continuing Studies/lifelong learning "L3" (enrichment or ongoing education) courses for external audiences
• Compliance or institutional training courses primarily for UW-Madison employees and/or students

Canvas course shells for these purposes – noncredit, compliance, LifeLong Learning, etc – can be requested by completing the online Non-Credit Canvas Course Request Form.

Five types of non-timetable courses are available:

• Sandbox: Course to experiment with Canvas and/or develop content outside an official course.
• Continuing Studies/Lifelong Learning (L3): Used for Continuing Studies or Lifelong Learning (L3) audiences.
• Compliance/Institutional Training: For courses used to deliver online training material; to UW-Madison faculty, Staff, and/or students.
• Supplemental: These courses run alongside a Course Guide (timetable) course or for-credit program, and house tangential course materials.
• Blueprint: Template for sharing course components across multiple courses.

To get started with Canvas, see Canvas - Getting Started [UW-Madison]

Training

Learn@UW-Madison offers a Canvas training course for students, and one for instructors & staff that covers all Learn@UW tools.

For more information on available Canvas training, please see Canvas - Training Resources (UW-Madison). For the latest updates about Canvas, please see the UW-Madison Canvas Information website.

Canvas Tech Modules

These modules, developed by DoIT Academic Technology's Learn@UW-Madison team, are designed to help instructors introduce centrally supported learning technologies to their students. For more information, see Canvas - Student Tech Modules in Canvas Commons

Documentation

The Learn@UW-Madison KnowledgeBase provides documentation from UW-Madison's Canvas administrative team. Select this link to list Canvas documents at the bottom of this page.

Canvas Community

Canvas Community is a forum hosted by Instructure (Canvas's parent company), for educators around the world. Here, you can find documents about questions other educators have asked, and ask questions for peers to answer.

Note: This forum is not monitored by Learn@UW Support. To contact Learn@UW Support, please see the Technical Support section above.

Continuing Studies/Lifelong Learning "L3"

For general questions about delivering a Continuing Studies/lifelong learning "L3" course for external audiences to Canvas, please contact:

Alan Ng (alan.ng@wisc.edu), Director of Outreach Technology, DCS

Compliance/Institutional Training

For questions about using Canvas to deliver employee/staff and training courses, large-scale training and compliance courses for employees, and compliance courses for students, please contact the DoIT Help Desk.

What resources are available for Canvas noncredit courses?

Canvas release schedule

Instructure releases updates to Canvas monthly. Please see "Canvas Release Notes" for information on new releases. New releases also generally contain a short video summarizing changes in a release. Check the release notes often to stay informed on bug fixes or new features coming to Canvas.

Canvas system requirements and supported browsers

Please see Instructure's guide: What are the basic computer specifications for Canvas?

Note: Based on feedback from UW-Madison users, Canvas functions best when used with Chrome or Firefox. Safari is not recommended.