Canvas Faculty Guide: Canvas Engagement, Communication & More

• Add an announcement to a course to share important information with all users of a course
• View all course announcements in the Index Page (and create or modify announcement settings) 
• View and sort announcement replies (or disable announcement replies); you can allow students to "like" replies in an announcement even if students cannot reply 

306 - Announcements Overview from Instructure Canvas Community.

• Notifications are applied to all courses in Canvas; you cannot change notifications for individual courses 
• You can choose how and when you want to be notified about events (right away, daily summary, weekly summary, or never) 
• You can enable push notifications on the Canvas App

102 - Notification Preferences from Instructure Canvas Community on Vimeo.

• Canvas Collaborations allows users to work on documents at the same time, are saved in real time, and can be assigned to groups
• You can create collaborations through Google Docs or OneDrive (Office 365, which is supported by Western IT

318 - Collaborations Overview from Instructure Canvas Community on Vimeo.

Conferences

• The Canvas Conferences tool can be used for virtual lectures, office hours, adn student groups
• Conferences offers similar tools to Zoom (real-time audio and video, screen sharing, etc.)
• Cons: Conferences can be recorded, but are automatically deleted 14 days after the conference ends
• Pros: Unlike Zoom, Conferences cannot be accessed by external parties (no "Zoombombing") and Conferences allows students to remain in Canvas (no external links)
• Students can collaborate in conferences or practice presenting in student groups 
• Read: How do I create a conference in a course? 

Zoom

• Western has purchased a campus-wide Zoom license (sign in or download Western backgrounds here) 
• To review more detailed Zoom tips, including securing a room, recording sessions, and more, check out our library guide

Commons is a repository for instructors to share whole courses, modules, assignments, quizzes, and more. You can easily add modules you find in Commons to a course, or create and publish your own educational content to help other instructors. 

• You can limit your sharing to just yourself (create a private repository), the institution (only Western access), or all of Canvas Commons (anyone at any institution) 
• Read: What is Canvas Commons?
• Read: How do I use Commons? 
• Watch: Commons Overview

325 - Commons Overview from Instructure Canvas Community.

On this page you'll find:

• Announcements
• Notifications
• Collaborations
• Conferences and Zoom
• Course Importing
• Canvas Commons