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Overview
Canvas is a learning management system (LMS) that a number of colleges and programs at WesternU utilize to deliver and manage curriculum. Click here for a listing of LMS usage on campus.
Curious about the process for implementing a new LMS? Please see this article to find out.
Below you will find policies related to the institutional support of Canvas for colleges and programs who are current users of the platform.
Policies
General
Canvas Administrators
- Online Education requires that all colleges or individual programs that utilize Canvas appoint a Lead Canvas Administrator (Admin) as well as an individual assigned as a backup. Though not required by Online Education, a college/program may require that other Canvas Administrators be identified who are also tasked with overarching curricular management duties within their college/program’s Canvas environment. The responsibilities required of the Lead Canvas Admin and Canvas Admin (if applicable) roles are listed below.
- Lead Canvas Admin
- Serve as the main curricular and Canvas technical point of contact between Online Education and their college/program. This includes broader and larger impact requests as well as issue escalations related to their Canvas environment (e.g., requested integrations, statements of work, etc.). If at any point this contact or backup contact changes, it is the college/program's responsibility to provide that update to Online Education so they may update their internal documentation and communication channels.
- Be knowledgeable on:
- The specific ways their college/program delivers curriculum in their Canvas environment
- The internal policies impacting the college/program's management of their Canvas environment
- The technical functions within the permission level set by their college/program administration
- Be responsible for the timely submission of curricular materials for their college/program. Online Education takes no ownership of overseeing the adherence of faculty, staff, administrators and students to college/program-specific curricular deadlines.
- Assist their college/program's faculty, staff, administrators and students with questions and issues related to curriculum (e.g., students inquiring about the unavailability of an assignment). This includes rerouting students to their course director for the answering of their question if applicable.
- If desired by college/program leadership, the Lead Canvas Admin and backup may be given the ability to grant elevated access to college-specific users and/or the ability to add/edit student course enrollments. However, this ability may only be granted to the Lead Canvas Admin and their backup.
- Note: In the absence of the Lead Canvas Admin, the Backup Lead Canvas Admin should be prepared to serve in all aforementioned responsibilities.
- Canvas Admin (if applicable)
- In the circumstance in which additional college/program-specific Canvas Administrators are required to maintain curricular delivery, college leadership may submit a ticket here to request access for needed individuals.
- Canvas Admin responsibilities may vary with college/program leadership needs, however, example duties are listed below:
- Assist their college/program's faculty, staff, administrators and students with questions related to Canvas curricular content
- Build and deploy quizzes within Canvas
- Load grades for assignments external to Canvas into the Canvas gradebook
Communication
- Requests, issues, and questions related to Canvas from all users must be submitted via the service/issue request intake form linked here. The purpose of this central intake area is to provide Canvas support personnel redundancy, increase communication efficiency, and to assist Online Education with managing work volume surges preceding and following new semester course launches.
- Once a ticket is submitted by a user, they will receive an automated message to their university email account via the university ticketing system, TeamDynamix (TDX). This email will include ticket portal links to access the details of the ticket (e.g., full communication thread, status updates, related documents) and the user may access these links at any time to view the most up-to-date information. The email will be sent from Online Education Support. Click on the screenshot below to view an example of the email which will be received.
- Providing an Update or Loading Documents
- There are two ways in which a user can provide an update/reply to the ticket or to load relevant documents for Online Education to reference.
- Email
- A user may reply directly via their university email to the automated TDX email received. The email reply will simultaneously post an update to the ticket feed and notify Online Education and additional contacts listed on the ticket regarding the update. Users may also include attachments and those files will automatically post to the ticket for reference as well.
- Ticket Portal
- When accessing the ticket portal links via the TDX email, users are routed directly to an area where updates can be posted, contacts can be notified, and files can be loaded for reference.
- Users will receive an acknowledgement of their ticket by Online Education and next steps by no later than the following business day.
- For emergencies (e.g., platform-wide outage, access to timely exams, etc.), the Online Education department will strive to reply back as soon as is possible.
- Users will be notified of updates to the ticket by automated email from Online Education Support.
- All communication must be via the ticketing system. Users will not get a reply to a message sent through Teams or to an email sent directly to the Canvas Admin.
Course Permissions
- Unless otherwise indicated by college/program leadership, only faculty, staff, and administrators who directly participate in delivery, building and maintenance of a course will have permission to edit and view a given course.
- Many permission and administrative functionality access rules are decided by college/program leadership, with the exception of policy set forth on the institutional level.
New Semester Workflow (New Courses)
The directive below relates to courses that are being taught for the first time in Canvas.
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To allot the appropriate lead time needed to launch a new course in Canvas, the Online Education department requires notification of your request here.
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Please contact if both of the following apply:
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It is requested that the notification of a new course is submitted as soon as possible after a college/program learns of needed new course deployment in Canvas.
New Semester Workflow (Pre-existing Courses)
The policies below relate to courses that have already been taught in Canvas in a previous semester and are being launched for a successive semester.
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Generally, the receipt of materials before and through the duration of course builds as soon as is possible is appreciated by the Online Education department. This includes the provision of syllabi, enrollment lists and other materials.
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Please review the document linked here as an overview of how pre-existing courses are prepped for a new semester, what the expected timelines are, and WesternU-specific Canvas definitions.
- Master Course Copy and Communication
- Beginning 60 business days before the course start date, the Online Education department will commence creating a "master course copy" from the previous semester as the basis for the new semester. Historical contacts will be assigned the same access and permissions unless otherwise directed by the program via the ticket. Those with permissions will receive notification of the creation of the master course copy via the ticket and an automated Instructure(Canvas) email in which individuals will be directed to accept the invitation to the course. Click below to see a sample of the Instructure (Canvas) email that will be received.
NOTE ON ALTERNATE DATE REQUESTS:
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In the circumstance in which the college/program would like Online Education to start creating the master course copies, live course copies, complete enrollments or provide student course access earlier than the dates aligned above, we require a 5 business day lead time before the new requested date to receive that request.
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Due to the volume of courses that need to be launched at any given time during the academic year, note that the earliest that Online Education is able to create a master course copy is after the first semester course start date of the semester before.
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Example- During the Fall semester of academic year (AY) 2025-2026, a faculty member requests a master course copy be created for a 2025-2026 AY Summer semester course. However, the earliest this copy can be created by the Online Education is following the first course start date for Spring 2025-2026 AY for their college.
Course Maintenance
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After the master course copy has been created, applicable faculty/staff has been given appropriate access, and student enrollments have been completed, continued course maintenance is the responsibility of college/program. This includes maintenance activities like updating course page content, creating assignments, setting availability dates for quizzes and similar activities in Canvas.
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