Canvas FAQ

A learning management system (LMS) provides one central location for students to easily access your course syllabus, assignments, announcements, grades and anything else pertinent to your course. Some of the benefits of using a learning management system include: 

• Students can access everything they need to succeed in your course in a single, secure, and easily searchable location. Both faculty and students benefit from using a familiar interface from one course to the next greatly reducing the time spent learning how to navigate a new interface for each course. 


• Modern learning management systems are built around Learning Tools allowing for the easy integration of additional tools such as Echo360, Proctorio, online publishing tools, plagiarism detection resources, and many others. By accessing these tools through the LMS, students do not have to remember and enter passwords for each of these applications individually. 


• LMS platforms are designed to work well on all devices including screen readers and mobile phones. Mobile apps created to integrate with the LMS can aggregate calendars and assignments allowing students to more efficiently use their time to focus on the content of your course. 

Course development time can be reduced by using our custom course templates, and content created for one course can be re-used and shared between courses.

Canvas has been identified as state-of-the-art in Learning Management Systems (LMS)  and following the unanimous recommendation from the University-wide LMS committee Canvas was selected as our new official LMS. This transition aligns with the Howard Forward Strategic Plan, Pillar 1, Enhance Academic Excellence; specifically supporting the initiatives, Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Student Success and Academic Innovation.

After the Attendance tool has been enabled for your course, you can configure the attendance tool to meet the needs of your students. Click the link for instructions.

Outcomes are used to track mastery in a course. You can create and manage outcomes from the Outcomes page, create and manage outcome groups, and import outcomes.

When you download all student submissions from the Gradebook, you can re-upload the assignment submissions as a bulk upload in your course.

You can create a quiz using New Quizzes from the Quizzes page. You can create various types of content in each quiz. Learn more about New Quizzes.

Once you have completed grading an assessment, you may need to push grades from ExamSoft to Canvas manually.