Creating icons and Buttons in the Rich Content Editor

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You can use the Canvas Icon Maker to create icons and buttons in Canvas that link to other content, such as a Module or Page. These icons are more accessible than any images of text you may have used in the past, because they are in SVG format. SVG files do not get blurry when we zoom in or use Canvas on a phone.

  1. Start by opening the Rich Content Editor (RCE) and then select the Icon Maker 
  2. Enter a name for your icon and provide alt text: the alt text should be the same as the text you’re planning to use in your icon
  3. Start to edit the shape, size, and colour of your icon: until you give your icon a colour, you won’t see the icon in the preview. Use the Adobe Color Contrast Analyzer (Links to an external site.) to select an accessible colour pallette
  4. Add your text and edit the colour and position. 
  5. If you like, select an image: the single colour images may work better than the multi colour images
  6. Select Apply
  7. Optional: to link your icon to a module or page, select the icon and then select Insert>Link>External/Course Link

To see these instructions in more detail, take a look at How do I create an icon using the Rich Content Editor Icon Maker? 

Creating Icons and Buttons in the Rich Content Editor Tech Tip

If you’d prefer to watch a video tutorial, take a look at the video below:

How to see what’s coming up in Canvas

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You can use the ‘List view’ on your Canvas Dashboard to see a list of all of your events, assignments and tasks in a linear, itinerary format. You can also add to-do items to your list and even find Zoom links very easily.

Changing to List View

To change your Dashboard view on Canvas to the List view:

  • Select the three dots next to the Search bar
  • Select List view

Take a look at the video below to find out more:

Adding an Avatar to your Canvas Account

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Adding an avatar to your Canvas account is a great way to personalise any communications you send out. It’s really helpful for students too, because it helps students to recognise your messages.

It takes a couple of minutes to add a picture to your Canvas account, and you don’t need to add a picture of yourself – it can be an avatar, drawings or artwork if you prefer.

Follow the steps below to add a picture to your Canvas account.

Editing Captions / Subtitles within Planet eStream

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In this tech tip for staff, I’ll show you how to edit subtitles directly within Planet eStream. This is useful to make quick edits and changes to existing captions.

Watch the video above or follow the intructions below.

  1. Navigate to your video on Planet eStream

  2. Click ‘Manage Subtitles’

    manage subtitles

  3. Click the ‘Go to Subtitle Editor’ button to open the editor

    open editor

  4. You won’t see any text to start off with. As you first need to select the subtitle track. Click select track in the top left of the editor. The track is usually labelled ‘EN’ short for English.

    select track

  5. You will now see the subtitles with each caption displayed as a time-based card. These cards have a start and end time. By default, the editor only shows cards in 30 second segments. To see cards for the whole video simply change the segment duration to entire duration. You can navigate the cards by scrolling and searching for specific content using search function.

    the subtitle editor

  6. Click to edit the text and make any changes required.
  7. Once you’re finished editing, remember to click Save.
  8. You can now use the back button in your browser to return to the main video page. You may need to refresh your browser page in order to view the changes.

    For further help with subtitling, please contact us at LThelp@gsa.ac.uk

Using sections on your Canvas course

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In our previous tech tip, What’s the difference between Sections and Groups on Canvas?, we outlined the differences between sections and groups in Canvas, and the powerful ways you can use these tools on your course.

We’ve prepared two videos for you to start setting up sections on your course and using them to create announcements, assignments and events for specific sections on your course.

Creating Sections in Canvas

Using Sections for Announcements, Assignments and Events

If you’d like further help, please contact us at LTHelp@gsa.ac.uk

What’s the difference between Sections and Groups on Canvas?

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There is a text alternative to the information presented in the video below.

Groups

Groups are like a smaller version of your course and are used as a collaborative tool where students can work together on group projects and assignments.

As an instructor, use groups to:

  • Set up student group configurations at the course level for assignments and in-class work, both graded and ungraded.
  • Facilitate semester-long projects so that students can communicate and iterate on documents together.
  • Facilitate faculty professional development and institutional committees or activities.
  • Facilitate student-run study groups within courses or at the account level.

For more information about Groups, visit the Canvas Guides group section (Links to an external site.).

Sections

Sections in Canvas are used to segment the class list for administrative purposes, typically based on teaching fellow assignment or meeting time.

Once you create sections, you can: 

  • have varied due dates for assignments by section
  • filter the Gradebook by section
  • filter the SpeedGrader™ by section when grading student work
  • view section assignments for students on the People page
  • post announcements to individual sections
  • create calendar events unique to each group

The Canvas Guides (Links to an external site.) have answers to frequently asked questions about sections.

Canvas Syllabus and ‘To Do’ list: how to add items for students

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Using the Canvas Calendar, Syllabus and To Do list is an easy way to keep students engaged with your course.

The Syllabus and student ‘To Do’ list show a summary of any course items that have a date or time assigned to them. For example an assignment will have a due date, so this will automatically appear in a student’s Syllabus and ‘To Do’ list. Items which can be given dates include assignments, pages, calendar events and quizzes.

The student 'To Do' list highlighted on a homepage
The student ‘To Do’ list

Syllabus and Course Summary

The Canvas syllabus page includes the Course Summary which shows all content with dates across your course. This is a great way for students to gain an overview of the course and what is required of them. It can be accessed from the course navigation menu or the syllabus (course dates) button if you have one on the course home page.

‘To Do’ lists are unique to the user

As a staff member your ‘To Do’ list will be different from the student’s. For example your list may show that you need to Grade an assignment, where the student’s list will show that they need to submit. If groups or individuals have different due dates these will display accordingly to the user. Staff can check the student ‘To Do’ list of a test student simply by entering student view when on the course homepage.

How to populate the ‘To Do’ list

Population of the ‘to do’ list happens automatically when you add content with dates into your course. To assign a date and time to any page in your course, when editing the page, simply tick the ‘add to student To Do’ checkbox and add a date and time before saving the page.

screen shot of the 'To Do' check box

Dates are added to other items during the setup process, for example when creating an assignment. Follow the guides below to setup these items which will then appear in the Syllabus Course Summary and ‘To Do’ lists.

For help using any of the Canvas features above, please contact us at LTHelp@gsa.ac.uk