Canvas Usage Guidelines 

Usage guidelines provide direction the use of Canvas at George Mason. Read the Guidelines 

Access - System 

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. See Guest Users 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. 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 users should request Affiliate accounts which will provide accounts in Canvas automatically.  

ITS plans to offer guest Canvas user accounts in the future. 

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 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.