Get Started Teaching in Canvas

Overview of Using Canvas for College of Education Instructors

Fall 2025 Update: Canvas is the only LMS 

Canvas is now the only LMS option, Moodle and Blackboard have been turned off. 

If you are new to Canvas, the best place to start is the Canvas Support Options and Resources page from the IDEAS team in the provost office. 

Below, you will find a some key tips about using Canvas. If you have questions, or need assistance with Canvas, contact Fred Zinn in the College of Education, or the Instructional Media Lab on campus (413-545-2823, instruct [at] umass [dot] edu).

Learning about Canvas  

If you are new to Canvas, the best place to start is the Canvas at UMass Amherst page. 

  • If you'd like to explore on your own: Select “Log In to Canvas” and explore the self-paced training materials in the “Canvas Training and Resources” class, or try out the features of Canvas in your personal "Sandbox" class.
  • If you are looking for workshops and documentation: expand the Instructor Resources & Support section for links to support contacts, workshops, and useful documentation such as Building a New Course in Canvas.
  • If you want to work with a person: Instructor Resources & Support also includes contact information for on-campus Canvas support, such as IDEAS & IML (instruct [at] umass [dot] edu), and a 24/7 Canvas Support chat line. 

If you would like a one-on-one introduction through the College of Education, contact Fred Zinn.  

Requesting a Canvas course 

You can request a Canvas course site as soon as the course is listed in SPIRE for registration. 

Summary of the steps (for more details see: Request a Canvas Course Through SPIRE.) 

  1. Log in to SPIRE, and go to the Faculty Center.
  2. Select "Learning Management Systems" in the left column.
  3. Select "Canvas Course Requests".
  4. Choose the Term.
  5. On the "Canvas Course Request" page select the course that you want to create a Canvas site for. Only select more than one section if you want the students from multiple courses to be enrolled in the same Canvas site.
  6. Select "Request" to submit your Canvas request.  

You need to request a new Canvas course every semester. Even if oyu have taught this course in Canvas before, you will need to request a new Canvas site each semester you teach it. You will be able to import the content from the previous course into the new course (see below for instructions.)

If you want to begin working on a course for a future semester that is not yet available in SPIRE, use your sandbox course, or contact instruct [at] umass [dot] edu (instruct[at]umass[dot]edu) to request an empty development course. Courses developed this way can be copied into a SPIRE-requested course when it becomes available.  

Only Canvas courses requested through SPIRE can be auto-populated with students and can submit grades to SPIRE. 

Importing content into a new Canvas course 

New Canvas course sites are empty. If you have prepared a course using a sandbox, requested a converted course, or taught a course in a previous semester, you can copy that course (whole or in parts) into the new course. Note that students are only enrolled in Canvas courses that have been requested through SPIRE. 

This IDEAS video demonstrates the process: Import Migrated Content into Your SPIRE Course (3 min)

A summary of the steps:

  1. Open your SPIRE-requested course (the semester will appear on its card on the dashboard.)
  2. On the Home page, upper right, select "Import Existing Content" to go to the Import Content page.
  3. From "Content Type" drop down menu, select "Copy a Canvas Course".
  4. From "Search for a course" drop down menu, select the course you want to copy.
  5. To copy everything from one course to another, under "Content" select "All content". 
    (NOTE this will replace everything in the SPIRE course. If you want to copy parts of another course, select "Select Specific Content".)   
  6. If you know you want to convert quizzes or dates, select these options under "Options".
  7. Select "Import" -- the process may take a few minutes. 

Preparing a migrated course for teaching

If you have a migrated course from Moodle, Blackboard, or another institution, the process will still require some clean up before your converted course is ready for students. A few steps you should expect to take (See the Canvas Course Checklist for a detailed list):

  1. Customize the standard Home page (if using*) with contact and course information.
  2. Customize the standard Syllabus page (if using*) to add syllabus text and/or a link to the syllabus in PDF or other format.
  3. Review the Modules page (if using*) and reorder and re-label content as needed.
  4. If you had modules in Moodle that displayed instructions, content, and links in the same weekly block, they will have been split into separate items within each module in Canvas.  The best way to recreate these blocks in Canvas is to create Pages that collect all this content in one place, then add these pages to the appropriate Modules in Canvas.
  5. Review other tools, such as quizzes, to make sure they are set up the way you need them to be. The IDEAS group can help if you run into something you are not sure how to recreate.
  6. Copy the converted course content into a SPIRE-requested Canvas course. Note that the converted course is not where your students will be. Once you configure your converted course, access the SPIRE course you requested (the course with the semester listed on its card on the dashboard), select Import Existing Content, and select the converted course. 

For details and instructional videos about the above processes, visit After Migration: Working with Content Migrated from Moodle or Blackboard. 

(if using* - note that any page in Canvas can be used as a home page, and most pages can be hidden from students. Use this power responsibly.) 

Giving TAs access to Canvas 

TAs and other course assistants are given access to Canvas by being associated with the course in SPIRE. If a TA does not have Canvas access, contact your DA or other scheduling rep to check SPIRE and make sure they are listed with the correct role. There are two roles for TAs:

  • TA-Building - allows creation of content in Canvas, no interaction or grading of students.
  • TA-Grading and Building - allows interaction with students, grading, and building.

See the Registrar page Instructor Roles in CAPS for more details. 

Sharing a Canvas course with another instructor

When an instructor is giving permission for another instructor to reuse their course materials, the instructor of the original course fills out this form: Grant Permission to Another Instructor to Copy Your Canvas Course. 

The new instructor still needs to request their new course in SPIRE (see above). Then, when they get access to the shared course they can use the Import Existing Content option on the home page to import the whole course, or parts of the course.