Canvas

Canvas is being used by some of the world’s leading universities to deliver high quality and inclusive, digital teaching and learning experiences.

It is intuitive, easy to use, scalable and capable of growing with Oxford’s needs.

It also integrates with some of our most commonly used applications, including Turnitin, 
ORLO (Oxford Reading Lists Online), and Panopto (also known as Replay Lecture Capture).

Find out more about the vision for Canvas at Oxford.

Staff at Oxford can access Canvas by going to canvas.ox.ac.uk and logging in using their Single Sign-On (SSO) username and password.

If you do NOT have an SSO but require access to Canvas, please contact your course administrator so they can create your account. Alternatively, email canvas@it.ox.ac.uk with details of your requirements.

There are many sources of help with Canvas. See below for one that works best for you.

Canvas help 24/7/365

Access telephone support or the online chat function from Instructure (the Canvas suppliers) via the ‘Help’ button on the global navigation menu once you are logged into Canvas.

Canvas staff guidance

There is a guidance area on Canvas for Oxford staff called 'Guides to using Canvas at Oxford'.

Although this area is public, we suggest you log in for full functionality. Once logged in, you can self-enrol in the guide so that it will appear on your Canvas dashboard for ease of access.

Links to further information about Canvas functionality and support options are provided in the 'Help' section on the global navigation menu.

Local Canvas Coordinators

A network of Local Canvas Coordinators is available within departments and faculties.

They are your first point of contact if you need local Canvas support, since they should be aware of how Canvas is structured, managed and used in your unit.

They will also represent their department or faculty at User Group and similar meetings. 

Who is my Local Canvas Coordinator (LCC)? (SSO required).

Helpdesk service

The Centre for Teaching and Learning provides a dedicated service desk to support staff.

The helpdesk is available Monday to Friday from 8.30am to 5pm, and can be contacted by emailing the helpdesk service. 

The service provides help from experts in several areas, including digital education, educational development, and the Canvas VLE, all of whom are available to help departments, faculties and colleges with queries related to the delivery of in-person, online and hybrid teaching.

Digital Education Technologies User Group Team

A Digital Education Technologies User Group Team has been created in MS Teams.

It provides a collaborative online space for anyone interested in discussing how digital tools can support flexible and inclusive teaching and learning.

As a member of the Team, you can post questions and share hints and tips about all technologies used for teaching and learning, including Canvas, ORLO, Panopto (also known as Replay Lecture Capture), Microsoft Teams, H5P and Vevox.

Sign-up to the Team.

Regular Canvas Fundamentals training sessions are offered through the IT Learning Centre.

One-to-one training and consultation for academics and administrators can be arranged for those who might find it difficult to attend a training course. This also applies to training that is required before staff may take on the roles of Local Canvas Coordinator or Unit Administrator.

If you require training or consultation, please contact us.

Instructure also has guidance and video materials, but please note not all of these will be applicable to Oxford.

You can view answers here to common frequently asked questions about Canvas.

More detailed FAQs can be found in the Guide to Using Canvas at Oxford, which is publicly available and searchable by Google.

The Guide includes a glossary to help with understanding the terminology most commonly used in Canvas.

Canvas users can complete the respective form to request the elevated account roles of Local Canvas Coordinator (LCC), Unit Administrator (UA), or Assistant Unit Administrator within their department, faculty or college. 

Confirmation from the respective unit's manager will be required before the requestor can obtain the elevated account role. The person must also have attended the relevant LCC/UA training, which may be arranged on request. 

For more information on roles in Canvas visit the Roles and Permissions page in the Guides to Using Canvas at Oxford course.

Roles in Canvas have been carefully developed to match against the most common use cases in Oxford.

In some exceptional circumstances it may be that none of the roles match your requirements, and customising an existing or creating a new role may be an option. If this is the case please contact us to discuss options.

New Canvas courses will be created manually by the Digital Education Group, Centre for Teaching and Learning.

Canvas users can complete the respective form to request the creation of a brand-new Canvas course container. 

Consider which type of course you require, for example, programme of study, teaching (paper or module), subject or tutorial.

Please submit one request for each course you need to have created.  

Please do not complete this request if your need is to roll over an existing Canvas course to a new academic year. The tool for this purpose is called Manage Courses and is restricted to Canvas users with the Local Canvas Coordinator (LCC) or Unit Administrator roles. If this is what you need, please contact your LCC. 

If your team is planning to implement a new programme of study which requires a Canvas presence, please contact us. We can create the new Canvas courses your programme requires.

We also offer consultation on teaching, learning and assessment, including learning design and ensuring a consistent student experience.

All staff and students at Oxford with a Single Sign-On (SSO) account automatically have a Canvas account.

They can be enrolled on a Canvas course using either the Oxford Groups tool (systematic), or the People tool (manual).

It is possible to create Canvas accounts for external users who have a legitimate need to access the platform. Local Canvas Coordinators (LCC) in departments and colleges are able to create external user accounts. Please contact your LCC who may refer to the guidance on creating external user accounts.

If you have large or unusual requests regarding external users, please contact us.

Various external tools can be plugged into Canvas if they offer the LTI (learning tools interoperability) mechanism. Existing examples are ORLO, Panopto (also known as Replay Lecture Capture) and Vevox.

If you are considering the need for a new LTI plug-in tool, please contact us.

There are two primary layers of governance overseeing the Canvas service:

• Digital Education Technologies Steering Group (DETSG)
• Canvas Operations Group (COG) 

The DETSG is the senior governance layer. 

Its remit is to provide strategic oversight, coordination and escalation for decision making from the Canvas, ORLO and Panopto (also known as Replay Lecture Capture) operational groups. 

The COG is a led by the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL), and meets weekly to discuss:

• Configuration/change management 
• Communications and user engagement 
• End user support 
• Data and infrastructure 

Members of the COG include colleagues from the CTL, IT Services and Medical Sciences. 

They consider and review performance of the service, alongside trends and any issues that may arise. 

The key outputs of the group are operational decisions, including reviewing changes, and providing guidance for best practice in using Canvas. 

In addition, all enhancement requests and any user requests that require a decision are considered for progression by the COG. 

The COG produces reports for the DETSG. 

Please note that Canvas is only supported for use at Oxford as a teaching and learning platform. We encourage you to read the Terms of Use policy to understand what constitutes appropriate use, or to contact us if you have any questions.

The policy has been formally ratified by the University's Education Committee and the Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Education.

Why is a Terms of Use policy required? The policy ensures that Canvas is used for the purposes for which it was selected: teaching and learning. This helps deliver a consistent experience for students using Canvas across the collegiate University.

Oxford aims to ensure that Canvas resources are easily accessible for all staff and students.

Canvas is maintained by the Centre for Teaching and Learning, and is used for accessing course information, learning content and resources, submitting formative assignments, and working collaboratively with other students. It also provides access to embedded services, such as ORLO and Panopto (also known as Replay Lecture Capture).

Courses in Canvas contain various types of content and file types. For the vast majority of the content on Canvas (whether HTML pages or uploaded files), users should be able to:

• change contrast levels 

• zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen

• navigate most of the website using just a keyboard

• navigate most of the website using speech recognition software

• listen to most of the website using a screen reader

To find out more, view the Canvas accessibility statement.

The University of Oxford is committed to handling personal data in a fair and transparent way.

You can view information about how your personal data is processed in Canvas and the third party tools that are integrated with Canvas, such as ORLO and Panopto (also known as Replay Lecture Capture).