Take some time to explore your courses and become familiar with where everything is and how to find your way around Canvas. In this section we explore the Global navigation

The blue global navigation bar provides shortcuts to your Account settings, Dashboard, Courses, Calendar, and Help resources. No matter where you are in Canvas, these shortcuts will always be available on the left hand side of your screen.

Here’s a quick summary of what each of these links are for:

Account: Here, you can change your profile and avatar and update your notifications settings. Under settings, you can add your preferred email address and your mobile phone or Twitter for texts and tweets about events in your Canvas courses. It is important that you set your notifications to receive emails, texts or tweets.
Dashboard: The default view when you log in to Canvas is the dashboard view. Here, you’ll see tiles that correspond to courses or other Canvas sites you’re enrolled in. The icons at the bottom of the tile let you know about new announcements, grades, and discussion posts. You can change the colour of the tile if the course doesn't have an image in the square. You can also add course nicknames, visible only to you, to help you get organised. On the dashboard, you’ll also see any upcoming to-dos, highlights from your calendar, and any recent feedback. For more information on your Canvas Dashboard click here
Courses: You can also access a list of all of your courses in the courses menu item. Click on all courses to view the entire list and select which should appear in the drop-down. From here you can click the STAR next to the courses that you want to appear on the dashboard view, to tidy it up and keep only those courses you access often on view.
Calendar: Your calendar aggregates all of your assignments and other due dates across all of your courses, providing these have been added by your academic team in Canvas. Click on the calendar feed to add your Canvas calendar to a Google or Outlook calendar.
Inbox: The inbox is Canvas’s email service. You can message other people in your courses or groups. You’ll get notifications if anyone messages you.
Help: Student Canvas support services are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via online chat, email and telephone. Use this link to find out how to access the Canvas Support Team.

Click here to find out more about the Course Navigation bar.

Further information

Where to get help and advice

Click the Help icon on the blue global navigation bar for information on how to contact your Canvas Support Team via phone, email or online chat 24/7, 365-days-a-year.