Canvas Guide for Students

Canvas at Boston College

Every instructor sets up Canvas differently, so there isn’t a clear list of features you will find in each site or expectations for how you will use them from course to course. For example, some course Homepages link to a syllabus in a document you can download, others show all Syllabus information right on the Homepage, and others hold all content in Modules. All of these approaches and individual features can be used in a variety of combinations. While that requires adjusting to each site as a unique environment, it allows instructors to customize Canvas to best serve their teaching and subject matter.

The FAQ below includes information students have said has been helpful to them in managing Canvas, followed by a table of contents with links to more details on each feature. Feel free to search for the information most relevant to your course sites, and reach out to your instructors if you have any questions. If you ever encounter technical difficulties using Canvas, you can reach out to BC LMS Support through chat, email or phone.

FAQs

You can use the favorite icon next to courses to control which courses appear on your dashboard.

You can select between different views of the Canvas Dashboard. The Card View is the default and allows you to see all of your favorited courses. The List View displays a chronological list of all course to-do items (e.g. assignments). The Card View method is best if you primarily use Canvas by entering individual courses to find course-specific information. The List View method is best if you submit most of your assignments via Canvas and want a to-do list to help you stay on track.

Learn how to change your display name, set your pronouns, and edit your photo in Canvas.

A Canvas Student app is available for iOS and Android users. See the resource on Canvas Student Mobile Features for more information about what is available in the app.

The Syllabus Search tool provides access to existing course syllabi, so long as faculty have provided the syllabus.

There is an Immersive Reader tool that is accessible in Canvas Pages (it cannot be accessed in Assignments, Discussions, Quizzes, or the Syllabus). More comprehensive text-to-speech tools, Read&Write and OrbitNote, are also available to all BC students.

You’ll find lists for each class in the Agora Portal under Academic and Courses > MyCourses > select the name of the course. Some Canvas sites also include class lists. If your instructor has made it available, it will appear under a link to People in the left navigation menu

To learn more about the features available in Canvas and how to use them, see the Canvas Student Guide.