UC Davis Canvas

UC Davis Canvas provides you with the means to organize and share course materials, communicate, and assess students. Canvas Support is available 24/7 from the Help (?) icon in Canvas or at (844) 303-8285. You can also schedule a consultation with campus Academic Technology Services staff by emailing canvashelp@ucdavis.edu.

You can use Canvas to:

Communicate with students
- How do I add an announcement in a course?
- How do I leave comments for students in the Gradebook?
- How do I send a message to a user in a course in the Inbox as an instructor?
- See below for how to use BigBlueButton (formerly Conferences) to hold online office hours
Distribute materials to students
- Recommendations:
  - Rather than sending students directly to the Canvas “Files” section, we recommend embedding relevant documents or videos in a Page (or other Canvas element), describing the content and providing any instructions for your students related to the content.
  - Use the Modules view to organize Canvas Pages and other resources:
    - What are Modules?
    - How do I add a module?
- How do I create a folder in Files as an instructor?
- How do I upload a file to a course? (images, video, documents, audio)
- How do I create a new page in a course?
- How do I embed a video in a page in a course?
Keep student grades current in the Gradebook
- How do I use the Gradebook?
Make sure all students can access your Canvas materials

BigBlueButton (formerly Conferences)

Recommended only for small groups of students or office hours. For synchronous online interactions with individuals or small groups of your students, such as for online office hours, consider using BigBlueButton (formerly Conferences), a web-conferencing tool built into Canvas. Please also see our Web Conferencing (e.g., Zoom) page for other synchronous video options.