Canvas Usage Guidelines
Usage guidelines provide direction the use of Canvas at George Mason. Read the Guidelines
Accounts
Accounts for all current George Mason faculty, staff, students are automatically created in Canvas. Faculty automatically receive a sandbox/practice course and are enrolled in training courses. Under Account settings, users can update their profile image. Users cannot change name or email address directly in Canvas. First name can be changed via Patriot Web Chosen Name field; updates made here will sync to Canvas within a few minutes. Email address must remain your gmu email address. See Guest Accounts below.
Account Admin Requests
Users who need elevated admin access to courses (often a course coordinator, chair, instructional technologist) can request Admin access via the LMS Request form. Access can be provided at a course, department/subject, or school/college level. Access must be renewed once a year.
Content Limits & Storage Increase Requests
Courses are limited to 5GB. Instructors can request additional storage if needed. Larger files can also be linked to from other systems. Video should be uploaded to Kaltura instead of directly into Canvas. Instructor uploaded video must be moved to Kaltura before additional space can be requested. Student uploaded content does not count towards the course storage limit.
Course Access
An instructor may need access to another instructor’s course, for example if they are new to teaching that course. As course content is generally owned by the instructor of record (University Policy 4002), the original instructor should be consulted, who can provide access to the course. The other instructor should generally be provided access in the Designer role since they do not need access to student grades. Canvas also provides additional share options instead of access to the course.
Course Availability for Students
Instructors choose when to make the course available to students (i.e. publishing the course). Students can see a course listed in Canvas once they register, but cannot access it until it is made available. The Dashboard only shows available courses for students and non-concluded courses for instructors. All courses can be viewed on the Courses > All Courses page in Canvas and the Canvas App.
Read information about course participation dates and how they affect student communication options.
Course Creation Dates
Term Courses are created in Canvas the day student registration for that semester begins (see academic calendar). For example, fall courses are created in mid-April.
Course Naming Conventions
By default, the following are Canvas Course Names. Instructors can change the course name on the course's Settings page.
Course Name format: Term Name + Course Name + (Subject + Course Number + Section)
Course Code (individual sections) format: Subject + Course Number + Section
Course Code (Automated Cross-listed sections) format: Cross-list Code + Term Code
*Manually cross-listed courses will retain the same name as the main section. We suggest the instructor changes the name of the course.
Course Retention Policy
View the LMS retention guidelines
Course Roles
Read about Course roles and adding users
Course Types
In addition to semester courses, several other course types are available. Instructors and staff can request as many sites as reasonably needed. Read more.
Cross-Listings / Combining Sections
Sections cross-listed in CourseLeaf/Banner will be automatically combined into one, new Canvas course. Students maintain their section identity inside the course so that instructors can communicate with one section, separate assignments, due dates, and discussions, etc. The gradebook is visible to everyone in a Teacher/Teaching Assistant/Grade role, although it can be filtered by section.
Instructors can choose to manually cross-list (combine) additional course sections into another Canvas course provided they follow FEPRA guidelines. Read more.
Developer Key/ API Token request
Users can create a token which provides API access to the data they have access to in Canvas. Any further needs should be directed to the ITS Support Center.
External Tools (LTI)
A list of external, third party, tools integrated into Canvas is available. If you need a new tool added to Canvas (like a publisher integration), please complete a request for review. The request should be submitted several months before the tool is needed.
Please note that Apps tab in the course’s Settings page is not used except for the Redirect tool.
Grading Scheme
The default Canvas grading scheme is not compatible with grade modes at George Mason. Instructors can choose from common undergraduate/graduate grading modes on their courses settings page or create their own.
Guest Users
Departments needing to add non-Mason contractors or related temporary staff, should request Affiliate accounts which will provide accounts in Canvas automatically.
Users may also generate guest accounts. FERPA guidelines must be considered.
- Guest should follow the new account process
- Guest should provide Mason employee with email addresses used for account
- Mason employee can add that email address to the course on People page
- Guests can login via "Guest Login" link on Canvas homepage
If an office/department needs to provide a Canvas course site intended for Non-Mason/Guests to participate in, you must use Canvas Open Catalog.
Media Policies (Kaltura)
We encourage video and audio files of all sizes and time lengths to be made available in Canvas courses using Kaltura.
Media uploaded directly into Canvas as a file upload is limited to 500 MB file size. Media uploaded through Kaltura in Canvas does not have a specific file size limit and playback is improved for students.
Quiz Engine
All tests should use New Quizzes unless important functionality is not available. Since New Quizzes does not have surveys, all surveys migrated from Blackboard default to Classic Quizzes.
Self-Enrollment
By request, non-semester courses (Community Courses) can allow for self-enrollment. Complete the LMS Request form.
System Announcements
System announcements can be created by ITS Canvas Admins. Announcements must be academically related and universally relevant. Announcements can be posted for up to 3 days and can potentially renew if other announcements are not scheduled. The final decision to post is made by ITS Admins.
System Maintenance and Updates
System status is available. Maintenance is performed on the first and third Thursdays of each month. No downtime is expected unless otherwise notified.