Canvas is a modern and intuitive Virtual Learning Environment, provided by Instructure, an educational technology company founded in 2008. Canvas will be replacing Blackboard from August 1st 2020. 

Consultation with staff and students began in November 2017​ to identify what features and functionality were expected for any future VLE provision at Newcastle. 

All students have access to Canvas and you can log in at https://canvas.ncl.ac.uk 

Your login details will be the same as for other University systems and will use the Office365 login mechanism you use to access your emails.

A list of Canvas supported browsers and requirements can be found at https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-1284

You can access Canvas through the Canvas app on a number of mobile devices. Instructure offers a free mobile app for both iOS and Android. When opening the app for the first time you will be asked for school or institution.

Enter Newcastle and select Newcastle University

Learn more about connecting to various mobile devices here:

• Canvas by Instructure Android Guide
• Canvas by Instructure iOS Guide

Canvas became the University's centrally supported VLE from August 1st 2020. 

You can change how often you get notifications from Canvas:

• Select Account on the left navigation
• Select Notifications
  

IMPORTANT Note: We strongly recommend that you keep Announcement and Conversation Message notifications set to “notify me right away”. Many lecturers will use these for primary communications with the class.

• If your module leader has not published the course it will not appear on your dashboard.

• If you have a lot of courses on your dashboard, it may be hidden.

To view all courses:

• Click on Courses in the left navigation

• Click on All Courses to see all of the courses you are enrolled on.

All Blackboard content from the last three years was migrated into Canvas for reference and students were given access to this once the courses had been reviewed and published by module teams. If you can't see your 19/20 courses from the 24 July, then please get in touch with your lecturer.

It will not be possible to access your previous assignments in Canvas. If you wish to keep your assignments or any feedback, you should have downloaded them prior to Blackboard becoming unavailable (31st July 2020). 

From 5pm on July 31 2020, you will lose access to the Turnitin assignments that have been submitted through Blackboard.

ReCap is integrated with Canvas so current and future recordings will continue to be accessible to students.  

ReCap recordings from the 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 academic years will be available in Canvas.

The Canvas 24/7 help is available to all staff and students 365 days per year to answer any 'How do I ' questions you may have. You can use either live chat or phone support via the help menu in Canvas.

Canvas support will be able to help with Canvas queries but not with login issues, ReCap or Turnitin so in these cases you may be redirected to the University's IT Service Desk.

Yes, you will be asked once to give Canvas permission to link to your Office365 account.

Canvas is designed to be easy and intuitive to use and you won't need any formal training sessions but the Canvas Implementation Team have developed a 'Getting to Know Canvas' online course which you will see on your Canvas dashboard or in your Courses list. This takes you through the key areas of Canvas including platform navigation, setting your notification preferences, accessing content and submitting an assignment.

In addition to these FAQs you can also access Canvas student support guides which are all available on the Canvas community. Please be aware not everything will apply to how we are using Canvas at Newcastle.

You also have access to the Canvas 24/7 support via live chat, phone or email from the Help menu in Canvas.

You should speak to your tutor or course administrator. Please do not contact Canvas as they cannot help with course-related inquiries. 

For guidance on accessing and downloading assignment feedback in Canvas, please see the Student Guide to Accessing Assignment Feedback.

Go to your course content and click on the down arrow next to the title of the content and a menu will appear. Click on Alternative Formats and this will open up a modal window with the formats that are available. Choose the format you require and click Download. 

Watch this quick First Steps video which demonstrates the steps above.

If your instructor has created content using Pages in Canvas then you will be able to use the Microsoft Immersive Reader.

This is a really useful tool to enhance your reading experience:

• Click the Play button to hear content read out loud and see the text highlighted at the same time. The Voice Options allow you to change the voice and the speed of the narration.

• Use the Text Options to change the text size, font, spacing and the background colour of the content.

• Use the Line Focus option to narrow the focus of your reading to 1, 3 or 5 lines of text.