Instructors: How do I adjust general course settings?

Canvas offers a great deal of options for customizing each of your course sites. Many of these different options can be found in the Course Settings area of your course site. This article will show you how to navigate the Course Details options located in the Course Settings area and make desired changes to your course sites.

Getting Started

You will need to access the desired course site in order to modify its settings.

1. Navigate to the course you would like to modify using either the Courses or Dashboard option on the garnet global navigation menu on the left-hand side of the screen.
2. Once in your course site, click Settings on the course navigation menu. This is usually (but not always) at the bottom of the menu.
   

 By default, clicking this menu item will take you to the Course Details page.

Course Details

The Course Details area serves as the first stop for making modifications to your course site as a whole. Let's move down the list to get a better idea of what each option does.

Please note: If you make any changes to your Course Details, be sure to save your changes before navigating to a different page as these changes will not be saved automatically.

Image

This setting allows you to add, change, and remove the course card image that appears for your course on the Dashboard. Clicking the garnet button with the three vertical white dots will allow you to change and delete the image used for the course.

Name

The default Course Name displayed here is pulled from the registrar's records. The Course Name functions as the primary course title on the course card on the Dashboard and Courses > All Courses pages.

Course Code

The "Course Code" functions as a course subtitle on the Dashboard course card. By default, the course code will be your course ID (e.g., ENC1101-0001.fa18). It is usually helpful to keep the default course code, particularly if you opt to change the Course Name. This text appears in the top left corner of each course page, so it gives you and your students context as to which course site you are currently in:

Time Zone

The "Time Zone" option sets what time zone the course is set in. For FSU, this is defaults to Eastern time.

SIS ID

The "SIS ID" is the unique identifier that each course carries. This contains the subject (LOL), the course number (2133), the section number (0001), and the semester (Fall 2018). This cannot be changed by instructors.

Subaccount

The "Subaccount" field indicated which sub-account of FSU's Canvas system the course belongs to. Different departments and colleges may desire different default settings for their courses, and having different sub-accounts allows us to facilitate this. This cannot be changed by instructors.

Term

The "Term" field indicates which academic term the course is in. The "Default Term" indicates that the course will follow the normal start and end dates for the semester it's being taught in. This cannot be changed by instructors.

Starts and Ends

The "Starts" and "Ends" fields allow you to choose a custom date range for your course outside of the default term dates. This will permit students to participate in the course prior to or beyond the end of the normal semester dates, depending on your preferences. Use the calendar icons on the right of the boxes to set a date and time for both entries, and then check the Users can only participate in the course between these dates box to enable your custom date range.

 Language

The "Language" setting allows you to render the course site in one of Canvas' default languages. Normally, users determine what language Canvas displays in for them (US English by default), but this setting will overwrite their preferences for this particular course site.

File Storage

The "File Storage" field indicates how much data you are able to store within the course site. By default, FSU course sites receive 1 GB (1000 megabytes) of storage space. To request a space increase, please send a support ticket to FSU's ODL Technical Support group.

Visibility

The "Visibility" setting determines who is able to access your course site. By default, only users associated with the course (as well as admins) can view content on the course site. This cannot be changed by instructors.

Format

The "Format" menu allows you to select between whether the course is On-Campus, Online, or Blended. The feature is used purely as a means of categorization and does not affect content on the course site itself.

Description

The "Description" box permits the inclusion of a short description of the course if a public course index is available. Like "Format", this feature is purely for categorization and does not make any changes to the course site itself.

 More Options

The More Options clickable text expands a list of further options. Here is a list of the additional options, with short descriptions.

1. Let students self-enroll by sharing with them a secret URL: This option will allow students to add themselves to the Canvas course by providing them with a secret web link. This is not used for FSU courses - our enrollment scripts enroll students into their courses. This is not typically used for organizations, but may be used for organization sites if desired.
    
2. Show recent announcements on Course home page: This option will show your students recently created announcements on your Canvas course's home page.
    
3. [Number box] Number of announcements shown on the homepage: This determines how many recent announcements will be displayed on the home page. You can choose to show up to 15 recent announcements.
    
4. Let students attach files to discussions: This will allow students to attach files to their Discussion posts.
    
5. Let students create discussion topics: This will allow students to create their own Discussion topics without instructor input. We do not recommend enabling this option.
    
6. Let students edit or delete their own discussion posts: This will let students edit and delete the posts they make within Discussion topics. We do not recommend enabling this option.
    
7. Let students organize their own groups: This will allow students to organize their own student groups within the People tab.
    
8. Hide totals in student grades summary: This will hide the category totals in your students' view of their grades.
    
9. Hide grade distribution graphs from students: This will hide graphs of the course grade distribution from students.
    
10. Disable comments on announcements: This will disable your students' ability to comment on course announcements that you post.
     
11. [Course role] can create, rename, and edit course pages by default: This will determine who (students, teachers, etc.) is able to edit course pages. We do not recommend allowing students to create, rename, and edit course pages by default. If you would like to allow students to edit course pages, we recommend turning on editing privileges for a specific content page instead.

Saving Changes

Once you have made the desired changes to your course details, make sure to click the Update Course Details button at the bottom of the page to save those changes.