what course activities do students see in canvas

by Tad O'Hara Jr. 9 min read

Canvas is a popular learning management system (LMS) that schools use for online courses. Students log into Canvas to access their courses and find their syllabus, announcements, lectures, assignments, discussion boards, tests, and all other course-related materials.

The following activities will cause notifications to appear in the Course Activity Stream:
  • New Announcements.
  • Replies to Announcements.
  • New Discussions.
  • New Discussion Posts.
  • New Assignments.
  • Assignments, Quizzes, or Discussions Changed from Ungraded to Graded.
  • Due Date Changes to Assignments, Quizzes, and Discussions.

Full Answer

What is the course activity stream in canvas?

The Course Activity Stream shows you important recent activities from a single course including announcements, discussions, assignments, and conversations. This stream is similar to the Global Activity Streamin the Dashboard when you first log in to Canvas. The following activities will cause notifications to appear in the Course Activity Stream:

How do I use canvas as a student?

Luckily, it is actually easy to learn how to use Canvas as a student. Canvas is set up for students to easily navigate. From the sidebar on the left, students can click on “Account” to edit their notifications and personalize their profile, “Courses” to move between all their courses, “Groups,” and “Inbox.”

What is Canvas LMS used for?

Canvas is a popular learning management system (LMS) that schools use for online courses. Students log into Canvas to access their courses and find their syllabus, announcements, lectures, assignments, discussion boards, tests, and all other course-related materials.

How useful are the canvas guides on Google?

The Canvas guides can be helpful for specific questions but can be an overwhelming amount of information for when you are just starting (you will never use 90% of the info they cover). Additionally, I have found that most of the information on Google is how to use canvas for teachers, not students.

What does a student see in canvas?

In Student view, you can view the course, post and reply to discussions, submit assignments, view grades (as a student), view people, view pages, view the syllabus, view quizzes, view the calendar, and view the scheduler (if enabled). You will see only what you, as the instructor, allow your students to see.

What is the course activity stream in canvas?

The Course Activity Stream shows you important recent activities from a single course including announcements, discussions, assignments, and conversations. This stream is similar to the Global Activity Stream in the Dashboard when you first log in to Canvas.

What are canvas activities?

Canvas ActivitiesUse activities to introduce new concepts to students and allow them the opportunity to play around and familiarize themselves before they are evaluated with graded assignments.You may decided to use several different activities before evaluating a concept.More items...

How do I make my canvas course visible to students?

To test whether students can see content in a published course, switch to Student view, which is available across almost all areas of Canvas. Just look for the "Student View" button in the top right and give it a try!

What are the things I can see in the activity stream?

Both course views appear in the activity streamInstitution and course announcements.New courses or organizations available.Your instructors added content to your courses, such as assignments, tests, discussions, documents, SCORM packages, and links.Your instructor posted a grade for your work.More items...

What is a course stream?

A stream is a series of area-specific courses that you take as part of your degree. It allows you to specialize in a particular field of study.

What can Canvas see during a quiz?

Page view logs can be used to determine if a user accessed other Canvas content while taking a Canvas quiz. For instance, if a user opened a new browser tab or accessed Canvas via the Canvas mobile app while taking a quiz, views of Canvas content that may have occurred should be visible in the Canvas page view log.

Does Canvas tell when you cheat?

It can typically tell if a student minimizes it because it loses "focus" and will likely show up in the log that they "stopped viewing the quiz.....", but Canvas can't tell anything else about the computer itself or other programs running on it.

What is the difference between pages and assignments in Canvas?

While you can make a Canvas Page have a student to-do date, its primary function isn't a task (ie assignment). It is to share information. The primary function of an Assignment item is for the learner to do something and potentially turn it in for review/grade/feedback.

Why can't students see my Canvas course?

A course site isn't visible to students until the instructor manually publishes the Canvas site. If the semester/term has already started and you are definitely registered for the course, contact your instructor and ask them to publish the course. You may have previously set your Courses List to show other courses.

Can a Canvas course be public?

Canvas has the capability to create an “open” course. An “open” course is available for anyone online to view (just like a website).

What Should I Do if I Believe a Student Has Accessed My Course Site for Dishonest Purposes?

If you believe a student may have accessed your Canvas course site during an exam for the purposes of academic dishonesty, here is the procedure to be followed:

Further Information and Getting Help

For more information on the Access Report, see: How do I view the course access report for an individual user?

What is canvas in school?

What is Canvas? Canvas is a popular learning management system (LMS) that schools use for online learning. It is the site that you will log into to find all the information for your course (syllabus/announcements/lectures) and to complete your coursework (assignments/discussion boards/tests).

What do you see when you log into Canvas?

When you log into Canvas, you will see a Homepage. It may be different depending on the course, but you will have the sidebars that help you navigate the site.

How to edit notifications on canvas?

Canvas is set up for students to easily navigate. From the sidebar on the left, students can click on “Account” to edit their notifications and personalize their profile, “Courses” to move between all their courses, “Group s,” and “Inbox.” Inside each course, there is another sidebar to navigate to Announcements, Syllabus, Modules, and Grades.

What sidebar do you have when you go to a course?

When you go to your course, you will have your inner left-hand sidebar (which will vary from course to course).

Where are the lectures and week's instructions in a module?

The modules page is where you will go the most. All of the lectures and week’s instructions are under each module. There you will find the readings, assignments, discussion boards, and tests.

Is canvas hard to navigate?

The Canvas guides that I read when I first started using Canvas made it seem way more complicated than it is. I thought it was going to be super hard to navigate, but I was wrong.

Is Canvas easy to learn?

I felt lost when I first logged in to Canvas and was faced with learning a new system (I used Blackboard for most of my online courses). Luckily, it is actually easy to learn how to use Canvas as a student.

Step 1: Create a Manually Created Course Section

Use the steps in the help article " Creating Manually Created Course Sections " to create a separate "Section" within your course.

Step 2: Edit Your Activity "Assign To" Settings

Go to the activity that you want to test. Open the activity in " Edit " view so that you make the following modifications:

Step 3: Publish Your Activity

Publish your activity to make it available to students if it is not published already.

Step 4: Use Student View

Once you have completed Steps 1 - 3, you can now use the Student View feature to try out your activity.

How long do you have to post a discussion on Canvas?

Recent Activity items remain for four weeks. Note: To receive notifications for Discussions, you must actively post in the discussions at least once every two weeks. If you stop participating in a discussion after two weeks, Canvas will no longer display discussion notifications.

What happens if the course navigation link for the page is disabled and hidden from students?

Note: If the course navigation link for the page is disabled and hidden from students, the Student View button does not display.

What is course activity stream?

The Course Activity Stream contains recent notifications in the course, including announcements, discussions, assignments, and conversations. This activity stream helps you see all recent activity in your course and easily ask questions and post to discussion forums. Unlike course cards on the Dashboard, the activity stream does not mimic visibility of Course Navigation links.

When do quizzes appear in the course activity stream?

Edits to Quizzes and Assignments will only appear in the Course Activity Stream when the Notify users that this content has changed button has been selected.

How to manage recent activity in a course?

You can manage recent activity in a course the same way you can on the Dashboard. Activities are indicated by activity type and display an icon for the activity [1]. New activity in your account is indicated by a blue dot [2]. Discussions and Announcements indicate new activity items published in a course, and Conversations indicate a new message received from a user in a course. Recent Activity items remain for four weeks.

Can you know your students voice as a tutor?

But that’s not all. Even without all that sophistication, as a tutor, you get to know your students voice, that is, how you write things. Its as distinctive as the “fist” of a Morse code operator was forty years ago. If I’m reading your work, and it starts to not sound like you, then I will start digging.

Can instructors see what students are doing on canvas?

Yes…. Canvas has tools for instructors to see when students are on Canvas, what they do while they are on; how long they spend in various areas, and maintains all of this so the instructor can see all of that data historically as well. 2.2K views. ·. View upvotes.

Is Canvas and Blackboard the same?

That alone eliminates “issues”. I usually won’t activate it until there is a need. Yes, Canvas and Blackboard are very similar. I won’t give away the main secrets, but we can see patterns that are outside of the norm, know how long a student spends even on one test question.

Can professors see students on canvas?

Although professors can view some student activity on Canvas, their control is limited. Professors can view students’ general interactions with the site, specifically with discussion boards and files.

Is canvas a program?

From other questions I am led to believe that canvas is a program used for studies .If so then it depends on how you have your privacy setting it can be from everyone to completely private. If you are using this program to communicate information to a teacher then they have access if it is for your personal use then NO!

Organizing Course Content

When teaching online, an important consideration is how to arrange and present your content. For maximum clarity and visibility, we recommend organizing your content in modules on the home page.

Linking Related Materials

It may be tempting to link all your readings, resources or other materials for a unit in the modules on the home page, but the more content students see in the module, the more overwhelmed they will feel. Instead, it is a good idea to keep materials related to each project, assignment, or other activity in the activity description itself.

Consistency is Key

However you decide to organize your course, it’s important to keep things as consistent as possible from week to week or unit to unit. This includes:

Other Ideas

Have you found other creative and effective ways to organize your course content in Canvas? Let us know by dropping a comment below! Or perhaps there’s something you read about here that you’d like some help implementing in your own course—consider emailing us at catl@uwgb.edu or filling out our consultation request form to chat with a CATL member.

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