The following resources are designed to support MTSU鈥檚 transition from D2L to Canvas, ensuring faculty, staff, and students are prepared to succeed with Canvas. These resources include Canvas-provided tools, MTSU-specific support, and external options to facilitate learning and course management.
MTSU鈥檚 Center for Teaching and Mentoring, partnering with the Information Technology Division and MTSU Online, began offering live and virtual workshops in October 2025. These include workshops, drop-in clinics, and help sessions. Select the Access Canvas Training button for the current schedule and for previous workshop recordings.
This site will be regularly updated over the course of the Canvas transition project.
Select the Login to Canvas button to the right, or go to .
Log in with your MTSU credentials.
Campus Resources:
Self-enroll in the
View upcoming and previous training through the
To view recordings:
Select the monthly training calendar link on the page.
Look for the link to the recording in the Location column to the right of the training information.
When you enter Canvas, it will take you to your Dashboard area. This is unique to each person and shows the Global Navigation Menu (on the left), the courses you have access to, and a To Do list to the right of the page.
Select a course card to enter the course.
You can also select the Courses option on the global navigation menu to see your courses from anywhere in the system.
Need a sandbox or development shell? .
Canvas Community Resources:
: Includes Canvas and other Instructure tools
Additional Courses Available:
LinkedIn Learning: .
YouTube Playlist:
Canvas Essentials
The Canvas Dashboard is the main landing page in Canvas. It is similar to the My Home area in D2L.
Items you will see on the Dashboard
Global Navigation Menu – this menu is located on the left side of every page in Canvas.
Course Cards – each card represents a course you have access to. It also has icons that show when there are new course announcements, assignments, or discussions. These cards are divided into two categories: Published (live courses) and Unpublished.
To-Do List – shows upcoming assignments, discussions, and other activities that require your attention.
Coming Up – shows upcoming events and tasks in your courses.
View Grades – shows the list of courses you are teaching so you can go directly to the grades for that course.
Global announcements [not pictured] are important messages from the institution that may appear at the top of the dashboard page when posted.
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The Global Navigation Menu is a consistent menu that is accessible throughout the system. The options available are:
Global Navigation Menu Item
Icon
Description
Account
Update your profile image, add a bio, and add links. Select which notifications you would like to receive and how for your account and/or specific courses. Update your account Settings, which include language, time zone, and additional features available. The Canvas system defaults to Central Time, and all dates will be based on this time zone.
Learn more about: | |
Dashboard
Goes back to your main dashboard page.
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Courses
Shows a list of all courses you have access to.
Calendar
Shows all course dates and deadlines. The instructor can drag and drop dates from one place to another, and it will update in the assessment dates. A user can add items to the calendar. You can link the Canvas calendar to or This option is only one way, from Canvas to Outlook/Google, not from Outlook/Google to Canvas.
Inbox
This is the internal email to Canvas. The email will be sent in both Canvas and to your MTSU email.
History
Shows the history of where you have visited in the system.
Commons
Contains shared templates and courses.
Studio
An internal video creation and storage software that can be used to create videos by instructors and students. You can attach a quiz to a video for assessment.
This option is currently available until May 1, 2026.
Help
You have multiple ways to get help. All are accessible from within Canvas by selecting the Help icon in the global navigation menu.
Canvas Help – 24/7 (Both a Chat and Support hotline)
– Monday through Friday during business hours.
You have the ability to personalize your course cards for your own view. You can change the color of the course card and add a nickname for the course that appears to you in your Dashboard and when you look at the Courses menu.
Change the Color
The color chosen for a course is also used in the calendar and To Do list to visually show which course the item is associated with.
Select the three-dot menu in the upper-right of the course card.
Select a color from the list or enter a hex color code.
Click Apply
Add a Nickname
This option could be helpful if you have multiple sections of the same class and would like to rename them to the days they are offered. These nicknames are only visible to you. The official course name will still appear for students. They can also set a nickname in their course card. For example: Rename Research and Argumentative Writing – ENGL-1020-001 to MW ENGL 1020.
Select the three-dot menu in the upper-right of the course card.
Enter the nickname you would like to use in the Nickname field.
Click Apply.
Android
iOS
Moving Courses from D2L
During our current transition to Canvas, we are implementing a multi-pronged approach to the migration process. In the information below, we provide the instructions for how you can manually move your own course from D2L to Canvas.
Please visit the Canvas Project FAQs for more information about how courses are being migrated.
You can export your D2L course and import it into your Canvas courses to begin working on future courses or just to see how Canvas works. Follow the instructions linked below.
Moving your courses from D2L to Canvas is the process of exporting from D2L and importing them into Canvas. You will need to have a blank course shell in Canvas prior to going through this process.
Need a sandbox or development shell? . If you have courses listed from Fall 2025 and Spring 2026, you can also use these to develop your courses. These shells have been created and will not be live.
If you have older courses that you no longer teach, but would like to keep a backup copy, you can simply create the D2L backup and store it on your computer.
In this transition to Canvas, the only content that will be transferred from D2L will be course content and assessments. If you need to keep any student data, you can download and save the information using the linked instructions.
The following are basic tools you will use to create your course in Canvas.
D2L Brightspace and Canvas offer similar core features for creating courses, delivering content, assessing students, grading, and communicating, though with some different names and workflows. Knowing the direct equivalents makes transitioning from D2L to Canvas much easier. Here’s a concise tool comparison based on common mappings from university migration guides.
Not sure where to start? Would you like a template that can help you design your course?
The Canvas Commons is a repository of user-created templates where educators can find, share, and import course materials like assignments, home pages, modules, and entire courses.
The Canvas Training Team has uploaded some options for you to import to your course.
The course home page is the landing page for the course.
The default is the Course Modules option. This shows any recent activity in the course.
Other options available are:
Pages Front Page – allows you to create and select a page you created as the homepage. .
Course Modules – this option shows the recent announcements and course content modules.
Assignments List – this option shows the recent announcements and the list of Assignments, which includes all graded assessments.
Syllabus – this option shows you the recent course announcements and the Syllabus tool, which includes an area to enter or post a link to your syllabus and a course summary.
Want to make sure students don’t miss your course announcements? Make the course announcements appear at the top of your course home page, no matter what home page option you choose?
Go to the course
Select the Settings link in the course navigation menu.
Scroll down on the Course Details tab.
Select the Show recent announcements on Course home page checkbox.
Enter the Number of announcements shown on the homepage.
Course Settings is where you can easily update and view course details, sections, navigation link options, external app configurations, feature options, and integrations.
Announcements allow instructors to communicate with students about course activities and post interesting course-related topics. One difference between D2L and Canvas is that an announcement cannot be set as a Draft.
TIP: We recommend that you don’t show more than 3 items.
Modules are used to organize course content by weeks, units, or a different organizational structure. Modules essentially create a one-directional linear flow of what students should do in a course. They allow instructors to organize content to help control the flow of the course.
The Modules area contains the content and links for the course. Unlike D2L, it is not set up in modules and sub-modules. You will have a module with links to pages, files, external links, or assessments that guide the student through the course.
Creating Course Content
How do I require the student to progress through the content in a specific way?Similar to Release Conditions in D2L.
– if specified, it will lock the module until the student has completed any prerequisites.
– these are defined requirements within a module that a student must complete.
Pages and Files
Pages allow you to create and manage content pages (like web pages) that can have text, links, images, and third-party integrations (like Panopto, publisher content, etc).
You can create a page directly in the Pages area or by adding an item in Modules. If you create the page through Pages, make sure to go to Modules and choose to add a link there.
Link to a Page in Modules
Select the + for the module
Choose the Page option
If the page is already created, select it from the list and click Add Item.
If the page needs to be created, select Create Page, then enter a Page Name and click Add Item. Once the item is added, you can select it to edit.
Files is the space where your uploaded documents are stored in the course. This can include PDF, DOCX, PPT, etc. These files can be linked in the pages and in modules.
Link to a File in Modules
Select the + for the module
Choose the File option
If the file is already uploaded, select it from the list and click Add Item.
If the file needs to be uploaded, select Create File(s), then Browse to find the file, and you can choose a folder location to upload the file to, then click Add Item.
Using the Rich Content Editor (RCE)
The RCE is an online editing tool for creating content.
It is throughout the Canvas system in announcements, assignments, pages, discussions, quizzes, and syllabus. It is available for faculty and students.
Editing with the RCE
Helpful Information:
Assignments include Quizzes, graded Discussions, and online submissions (i.e. files, images, text, URLs, etc.).
While the Assignments tools in both D2L and Canvas are where the course assignments are found, the tool works differently in Canvas than in D2L.
In Canvas, it not only lists the assignments in the course, but you will also see graded discussions, quizzes, and attendance (using the Attendance tool). All graded assessments will be listed in the Assignment area.
The assignment tool in Canvas is also where you set up the assignment groups and their corresponding weight in the total grade. In D2L, this was done in the Grades area by choosing a Weighted grade system, creating Grade Categories, and setting the weights of the category.
Instructors can use New Quizzes to create quizzes using a variety of questions types. New Quizzes display as assignments in the Assignments page and can be duplicated. Students can take New Quizzes quizzes within their Canvas courses.
Quizzes in Canvas work a little differently from the Quizzes in D2L.
What is the same?
You will have similar settings and question types when creating your quiz.
You can store your questions in a central location to reuse and manage them. In D2L, it is the Question Library, and in Canvas, it is the Item Bank.
What is different?
Any updates made to a question in the Item Bank will push out the update to the question in the quizzes.
In Canvas, the creation process is not all on one screen. You will enter the basic information, including point values and dates, before building the quiz by adding questions and selecting the settings.
In Canvas, the Item Bank, which is equivalent to the Question Library, can be shared with other courses and people. It is a user-specific bank of questions as opposed to a course-specific bank of questions.
NOTE:When looking for additional support information from the Canvas Community, make sure to select the New Quizzes support documents.
Discussions allow for interactive communication between two or more people; users can participate in a conversation with an entire class or group.
Unlike D2L, in Canvas, you do not need to have a Forum to have a Topic. In Canvas, you will just create a discussion.
Make sure to select the Graded option to create a graded discussion. This will automatically add the grade column in the Grades area, and it will be in the Assignments list.
A Rubric is an assessment tool for communicating expectations of quality. Rubrics are typically comprised of rows and columns. Rows are used to define the various criteria being used to assess an assignment. Columns are used to define levels of performance for each criterion.
Rubrics can be set up as non-scoring rubrics, which allows for assessment-based and outcome-based grading without points.
Attaching rubrics to assessments
The Gradebook stores all information about student progress in the course, measuring both letter grades and course outcomes.
The Grades in Canvas function differently from D2L, but it has some really great features.
As an instructor, SpeedGrader allows you to view and grade student assignment submissions in one place using a simple point scale or complex rubric.
Accessing Speedgrader
Additional Tips for Speedgrader
The People area shows the list of students and people enrolled in your course. The students are added by our SIS system integration and cannot be added manually.
Group Sets
The groups for Canvas are created in the People tool. You can set up different types of groups for use in your course.
The Attendance (Roll Call) tool is an external app (LTI) used for taking attendance in Canvas courses. The Attendance tool can be used for online or face-to-face courses. Enabled at the account level, the Roll Call Attendance tool can be used by all courses in the Canvas account.
The Attendance tool always appears as a visible Course Navigation link, but it cannot be viewed by students, so hiding the link in Course Settings is not necessary.
Taking attendance.
In Canvas, you have the ability to easily copy any course that you have access to. The roles who can copy content are Teacher, Co-instructor, and Master Course Teacher (only for manually-created non-academic courses).
To copy a Canvas course, go to the course where you want to copy the content.
Select the Import Existing Content button in the upper right. You can also access the Import options in the Settings area.
Choose Copy a Canvas Course in the Select Content Type drop-down.
Begin typing the course title and search for the course you want to copy.
Select what Content you would like to copy:
Choose All content to copy all items from the course.
Choose Select specific content to select the items to copy.
Click the + Add to Import Queue button to start the import.
If you choose All content, the import will appear in the Content imports area on the page. It will show a progress bar as it imports.
If you choose Select specific content, a Select content button will appear in the Content imports area on the page. Click Select content and choose the items you would like to copy. Click Select Content.
When the copy is complete, it will have a Completed status in the Content import area.
NOTE: If something did not get copied, the status will either say Partially Completed with the number of issues and a View Issues button, or it will say Failed.
Accessibility Resources
Accessibility Resources
There are several tools available for faculty to ensure that course content is accessible.
– this tool is available throughout Canvas (used when creating pages, assessment instructions, etc) and detects common accessibility errors within the editor.
– you can use this tool to verify the links in the course content.
Captioning videos – Panopto and Studio both auto-caption videos that are created in their software by default. It will also add auto-captions to uploaded media.
Editing Captions in or .
Accessibility Training Workshop – we are offering a workshop on March 27, 10:30 am-11:30 am, through the Center for Teaching and Mentoring.
Course Accessibility Checker
This tool is now available (as of February 26, 2026).
What is it? The Course Accessibility Checker allows you to perform a scan of your course that provides a high-level report, as well as a detailed breakdown of accessibility issues for learning resources.
How do I access it? To access the Course Accessibility Checker, select the Accessibility link in the course navigation and select the Scan Course button. Once the report appears, you will see if there are issues, and you can select to fix the issues.
This tool does not check the accessibility of third-party applications that are integrated with our system. (For example: Publisher content (McGraw Hill, Pearson), H5P, LinkedIn Learning).
If you have received an accommodation request from a student to receive extended time on assignments or quizzes, the information below will provide instructions about how to do this in Canvas.
Add extended time on quizzes for a student
Select the three-dot menu to the right of the quiz and choose Build from the menu, or open the quiz and select the Build button at the bottom of the page.
Select the Moderate tab
Course Accommodation
This option allows you to set the assessment accommodations that will apply to all quizzes in the course.
When viewing the Moderate tab, select the student’s name in the left-hand column.
The Course Accommodation options box will appear.
Select the Time adjustments drop-down box and select one of the options:
Give additional time – allows you to enter additional time in Hours and Minutes.
Remove time limit (unlimited)
Time limit multiplier – allows you to enter a multiplier to be applied to all quizzes/exams.
Reduced answer choices toggle – if selected, will remove one incorrect answer from multiple choice questions that have 4 or more answer choices.
If you would like these settings to apply to quizzes already in progress, select the Apply these changes to the in-progress attempts as well option.
Quiz Accommodation
This option allows you to set the assessment accommodations on a particular quiz.
When viewing the Moderate tab, select the edit icon to the far right of the student’s name.
The Current Quiz Accommodation options will appear.
You can allow for the following options:
Additional attempts – enter the number of attempts allowed for the particular student.
Time adjustments
Give additional time – allows you to enter additional time in Hours and Minutes.
Remove time limit (unlimited)
Reduced answer choices toggle – if selected, will remove one incorrect answer from multiple choice questions that have 4 or more answer choices.
NOTE: These options will only be applied to the current quiz and in-progress attempts for the current quiz.
Due to accommodations or other reasons, you may want to provide an alternative due date for a student. The information below will provide instructions about how to do this in Canvas.
Provide alternative due dates on assessments
Select Assignments in the course navigation.
Select the three-dot menu to the right of the assessment (this includes assignments, discussions, and quizzes)
Choose Assign To… from the menu. The first Assign To area tends to be the access for Everyone in the course for that assessment.
Select the +Add button.
In the first box, begin typing in the student’s name and/or select from the list.
Enter a different Due Date that should be associated with the student.
Enter different Available and Until Dates, if needed.
Click Save
How do the different Assign To dates function?
Due Dates appear on the calendar. If there is no due date associated with an assessment, it will not be linked to the course calendar. If you set a late policy in the Grades area, it will begin counting submissions late after the due date has passed.
Available from dates designate when an item opens and is then available to the student(s).
Until dates are the date the item will no longer be accessible.
Canvas has several built-in accessibility tools that all users can enable in their own accounts.
– Some users using screenreaders or keyboard navigation will have an improved experience with these shortcuts turned off.
Video:
Canvas Studio (Media)
What is Canvas Studio?
Canvas Studio is a media creation and storage tool in Canvas that allows you to create and provide media for your courses. You can upload media, create videos, link to YouTube videos, and create video quizzes. Students can also use Studio to create videos to submit for assessments and discussions.
How to Access Canvas Studio
Select the Studio icon on the global navigation menu.
Select Studio on the course navigation menu. (This option is only available if you have made it visible in the Course Settings – Navigation area.)
When editing a page using the Rich Content Editor (RCE), select the Apps icon and choose Studio, then select the appropriate video to add to the page.
Accepted Media Types
You can upload media files you already created. Studio accepts the following file types of files and has a 10GB file size limit.
Video: MP4, MOV, WMV, AVI, FLV, etc. (common video formats)
Audio: MP3, WMA, WAV
Images: JPG, PNG, GIF, SVG, BMP, TIFF
Captions: SRT, VTT
Additional Resources:
View the full list of for Studio.
You can create, edit, and manage your own videos through Canvas Studio.
Depending on the browser you are using, the options will be slightly different. There are two types of videos you can create. Webcam only and screen capture. The Webcam option will only include your video image and voice (if selected). The Screen Capture option will allow you to record a selected window or screen on your computer, your video image, and your voice.
Creating Videos
Chrome or Edge
Firefox or Safari
Editing Videos
Managing Media
Students can also use Canvas Studio for projects and assessments.
You can upload different types of media to Canvas Studio. View the full list of .
This option removes the additional YouTube video recommendations when the student is viewing the video, and it also allows you to view stats for the video.
You can add media to your course in multiple ways. It is also available anywhere the Rich Content Editor (RCE) is available.
Video Quizzes
Creating a Video Quiz
Linking to a Video Quiz
(This option does not post to the gradebook.)
. (This option posts results to the gradebook.)
Reviewing Stats and Grading a Video Quiz
Creating a Media Assignment for Students
You can view the analytics for specific students and how they are interacting with the media in your class, or an overview of all interactions.
Software Integrations and Updates
Canvas has the ability to integrate with many different tools that are used on campus. These include publisher content, research resources, Microsoft or Google documents, Teams, Zoom, and more.
