3.1 Introduction and Overview

This unit outlines the Canvas items that you as a teacher need to create or configure so that your students, and their parents, can monitor their  progress in Canvas. The units that follow will build on this one by covering other features that may enhance your students Canvas experience.

Canvas is a very powerful and customizable Learning Management System (LMS) with many moving parts and pieces. As you start using Canvas, you might become overwhelmed with its complexity. This goals of this unit is to get you up and running with the bare minimum Canvas items to meet the AHS requirements of allowing students, and their parents, to monitor their progress in Canvas.

This unit begins with the assumption that:

• You are new to Canvas, but you can access it and sign into it using a web browser.
• You have paper assignments, quizzes, and tests whose grades need to be recorded in Canvas.

This unit gives you information and instructions on how you can:

• Customize the main menu to AHS standards.
• Add assignments, quizzes, and tests in Canvas so that:
  • You can record grades.
  • Canvas will compute an overall grade.
  • Students and parents can view their grade.
• Notice how these assignments populate other Canvas features such as the Syllabus, and the student's To Do list.

Here are the major steps to accomplish these goals.

1. Standardize the main menu.
2. Configure the Home page.
3. Add Assignment Groups.
4. Add Assignments.
5. Grade the Assignments.
6. Review the automatically generated Syllabus and student To Do List.