Frequently Asked Questions


Answers to some of the most common questions we receive from Canvas users can be found on this page. They are organized into three categories: General/All Users, Instructors/Designers, and Students. To view the answer to an FAQ, click on the plus ("+") button to the right of the question.

If you can't find your answer here, you can search the website or contact us at classes@emory.edu.

General Questions from All Users

Students: Please be sure you are enrolled in OPUS, and allow a business day for changes in OPUS to take effect in Canvas.

Check for courses that are not on your Canvas dashboard in Courses > All courses. The course may be unpublished or unfavorited. Students may ask their instructors when they plan to publish an unpublished course. Instructors must publish a course for students to see its contents (even if some of the course content state is unpublished). If any courses are starred, favoriting is activated; click the star next to the course(s) you want to appear on the dashboard.

You can set courses as favorites to limit your dashboard. Go to Courses > All courses. Click stars next to courses you want to set as favorites. The unstarred courses will be removed from your dashboard.

Drag & drop the course card, or select Move from triple-dot menu for the card. Unpublished courses are always separated from published courses on the dashboard.

Panopto and Echo 360 are supported by school IT teams.

Please make a ticket at help.emory.edu, email your school IT address, or call 7-7777.

Please contact us by email at classes@emory.edu

Instructors, Designers, and Teaching Assistants

Students cannot see the Studio link in the course navigation menu. Please embed Studio videos in a page, discussion, or assignment description (https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Studio/How-do-I-embed-Canvas-Studio-media-in-a-Canvas-course/ta-p/1699), or add to a module as an external tool link (https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Studio/How-do-I-add-a-Canvas-Studio-media-module-item-in-a-Canvas/ta-p/1674).

We do not advise storing videos in course files. Uploading videos to Canvas Studio works better. Course files have a 2GB total storage quota, and Studio has no total quota. Studio has several features (commenting, captioning, analytics, quizzing) that file attachment videos lack.

Using Canvas Studio Video Tutorial

Some schools at Emory offer lecture capture video tools (Panopto or Echo 360) that provide ample storage space and features.

Yes, we have integrated DesignPlus from CidiLabs in our Canvas instance. If you press Alt-Shift-D while editing a page, the tools should appear for you in Canvas.

Check out the vendor's guide https://cidilabs.instructure.com/courses/102. Templates are available in Canvas Commons, which is available in the global navigation menu in Canvas.

External accounts reqiure a sponsored account.Go to https://help.emory.edu/
  • If prompted, log in with your Emory NetID and password.
  • On the top of the page, click 'Request Catalog'.
Once you are on the "Service Catalog" page:
1. Click "Network Account", click 'Sponsored Account Request: Person or Department'.
2. Under "Please select the type of account required below", choose 'Sponsored Account for a Person'.
3. Complete the form by entering all the requested information about the user you are sponsoring. Items with a red asterisk are required.
  • To avoid creating duplicate accounts, please be sure that the user's name and date of birth are correct. Please be sure to provide the user’s middle name or initial to make the name more unique.
  • Only request an Office 365 email account if the user cannot use a non-Emory email address.
4. To complete the order without adding additional sponsor requests, click 'Submit'
5. To add additional sponsor requests to this order, click 'Add to Cart', and return to step 1.

You can post videos to your course through Studio in a module or anywhere you are editing a text body (discussions, announcements, assignment descriptions, pages, etc.).

To put videos in a module using Studio:

Click the "+" button for the module in which you will place the video.
Select "External Tool" from the dropdown menu that defaults to "Assignment."
Select Studio.
Click Add.
Browse your computer for the video file and confirm. Uploading may take a long time, and you cannot navigate away until the upload is complete.
The video you added appears in the list. Hold your cursor over it and click Select or the title of the video.
Decide whether to allow comments and direct downloads, the click Embed.
URL and Page name fields will be filled in. Change Page Name to something more descriptive than "Studio."
Click Add item, then publish it.
To embed a video in a discussion, page, announcement, or assignment description:
Click the Studio icon in the editor toolbar (it's between document and plug icons and looks like a screen with limbs).
Click Add.
Browse your computer for the video file and confirm. Uploading may take a long time, and you cannot navigate away until the upload is complete.
The video you added appears in the list. Hold your cursor over it and click Select or the title of the video.
Decide whether to allow comments and direct downloads, then click Embed. The video will be embedded into the text body.
Guides with more info about Studio are available here: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Studio/tkb-p/studio#CanvasandStudio.

Student Users

The main use of the Student role is to link Canvas users to courses where they may access course content in order to receive course credit. For example, Students in a Canvas course often take quizzes and tests and submit assignments for a course grade.Students can participate in any Canvas area their teacher has enabled for the course. Students can be linked to one or multiple courses and may submit work, see grades, assignments, and events, and interact with other course members.

Student Access in Canvas

Listed below are the default Canvas permissions for the Student role. However, institutions may modify Student role permissions as needed. To learn more about Student participation in Canvas, view the Canvas Student Guide.

Students can:
  • View course announcements
  • Submit assignments
  • View the course calendar
  • View and and post to open discussions
  • View and participate in Chat
  • Create conferences and student collaborations
  • Upload and manage files
  • Create ePortfolios
  • Create and manage group pages
  • View their course grades
  • View a list of users in a course
  • Send messages to other users in a course
Students cannot:
  • Add, edit, and delete items in a course calendar
  • Add or remove others in a course
  • Publish, conclude, and delete courses
  • View other course participants’ grades
  • Add and delete external applications (LTI) for a course
  • Add, edit, and delete course content, sections, or student groups
  • Create and edit rubrics
  • Add, edit, and delete learning outcomes associated with course content
  • Delete and lock discussions and edit others’ discussion posts
  • Read SIS data
  • View course analytics and usage reports for a course
  • View and link to question banks
  • View all student group pages for a course
  • View grade audit trail

Students: Please be sure you are enrolled in OPUS, and allow a business day for changes in OPUS to take effect in Canvas.

Check for courses that are not on your Canvas dashboard in Courses > All courses. The course may be unpublished or unfavorited. Students may ask their instructors when they plan to publish an unpublished course. Instructors must publish a course for students to see its contents (even if some content's state is published). If any courses are starred, favoriting is activated; click the star next to the course(s) you want to appear on the dashboard.

If you swapped sections in OPUS, please allow a business day for your Canvas enrollment to change. Crosslisted courses contain multiple sections and show main section's name and ID. Your row in the People tool indicates your section.