Following a successful pilot during the 2020/21 academic year, Canvas has now replaced VITAL as the University’s virtual learning environment (VLE) for all taught undergraduate and postgraduate modules and KnowHow courses – plus this summer’s resits and resubmissions.
Canvas offers you lots of new and exciting functionality. You can find out more by heading to the ‘Canvas Help for Students’ course but in the meantime, here is a quick round up of some of our favourite features.
Help whenever you need it
Perhaps the most important feature of all is the expert support available to help you use Canvas. All students can contact the Canvas Support Team (sometimes known as Tier 1) 24/7, 365-days-a-year via live chat, email and phone.
This expert team can answer all of your ‘How do I do this in Canvas?’ type questions, anytime of the day or night. So if you’ve got a question, don’t hesitate to get in touch with Canvas Support.
Highly-rated free mobile app
Canvas works equally well on your phone and tablet as on your computer or laptop. To download your free Canvas Student App, search for the app in the Android Play Store or the Apple Appstore.
Canvas loves videos
You can record and edit video content within the VLE using Canvas Studio. The Canvas app also allows you to record on-the-go and create truly unique content.
Canvas allows you to automatically generate and then edit captions for your videos too. Plus, it’s really easy to share your videos.
Tailor your notifications
You can tailor the type of notifications you get in Canvas for each of your modules. We recommend you set this to ‘Notify me right away’ so you don’t miss any important announcements, conversations or updates.
Fantastic search functionality
We have enhanced the VLE’s search capability to make it as easy as possible for you to find the content you are looking for. Use key words and search terms to find content from pages, modules, discussion boards, quizzes, URLs and assignments.
Plus, you can choose between the following to further refine your search:
- Relevance
- Semester
- When content was added
Lots of additional apps
Canvas is integrated with lots of tools, such as the Library’s Online Reading Lists and Turnitin, as well as Zoom, Teams and Office 365. So from the minute you login to Canvas, you’ll be able to access everything you need within the VLE.
More accessible content
Canvas is integrated with Ally, which can generate a range of alternative accessible formats for you, such as Audio, mobile-friendly HTML, ePub (a responsive e-book format), electronic braille and translated versions.
Find out more about Canvas by heading to the Canvas student blog or logging on to the Canvas Help for Students course.