Canvas Training & Support

About Canvas

Canvas is SWC's learning management system. In fact, Canvas is the California Community Colleges' official learning management system. Whether you teach online, live-online, hybrid, or in-person classes at SWC, a Canvas shell will be automatically created for your course to support your instruction and your students' learning.

Canvas allows SWC instructors to:

• send messages to students in a secure, password-protected environment from Inbox, People, or Grades
• post Announcements that also automatically get forwarded to SWC student email accounts
• upload and share course content and files in a central location from Modules
• create online assessments, such as Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes
• provide feedback to students via SpeedGrader, including rubrics, document annotation, resource file attachment, and comments in text, audio or video

Canvas Training at SWC

SWC provides ongoing Canvas training, ranging from a first look for instructors new to Canvas to more advanced uses that can help streamline your course operation and student interaction.

If you are just getting started with Canvas, or if you are looking for a comprehensive overview of how to use it for instruction, we recommend joining SWC's self-paced Intro to Teaching with Canvas. 

If it's live training sessions you're looking for, check out the current Camp Canvas offerings:

Camp Canvas Training Schedule

Popular training topics include:

• Canvas Basics
• Course Communication
• Pages and Modules Setup
• Assignments, Discussions, & Quizzes
• Rubrics
• Grades and SpeedGrader

Canvas Resources

Resource Type	Content Focus
Canvas Instructor Guide	The how-to of Canvas, explaining Canvas tools and settings preferences that can assist faculty in creating course content and assessments, as well as interacting with students.
Canvas Student Guide	The flip side of the instructor guide: the student version is a valuable resource for faculty, who can see what students will experience in Canvas on their side of the course. Best practice: add links to relevant guides to your Canvas pages and activities for "how-to" help.
Canvas Video Tutorials	Get familiar with Canvas features as an instructor, while also providing a Canvas feature overview for students. Embed the Canvas video tutorials in your Canvas course to show students how to update their account settings, customize notifications, complete activities, check grades and feedback, and more!
Canvas Essentials (SWC)	This Canvas resource site houses SWC-specific Canvas info, including settings, start- and end-of-term checklists, accessibility pointers, video recording and embedding resources, and information on tools used in Canvas.
Canvas App	Did you know there's a free Canvas app for both students and teachers? As an instructor, it's helpful to download both versions of the app so you can view your course as a student but also have the editing and grading capabilities that the teacher app provides. Look for the Canvas app in both Android and iOS formats. Canvas Teacher App (video) Canvas Student App (video) Canvas Mobile Guides

Additional Canvas Training

@ONE, the Online Network of Educators, provides high-quality professional development for CCC faculty, staff, and administrators as part of the California Virtual Campus-Online Education Initiative (CVC-OEI). Low-cost courses are available as well as special events and the popular Byte-Sized Canvas video series providing targeted training on a wide variety of Canvas topics.