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If you're looking to use your Canvas course as a file repository,
Canvas allows you to upload organize files and folders to make it very easy
for you and your students to access them.
First, navigate your course by hovering over the "courses" link.
If you don't see your course in the drop down menu,
click on "view all courses" to see a full list.
After you click on the course name,
the course will open and you'll see the course homepage. For this demonstration,
I'll be using a sandbox course. Remember live
courses will be titled with the semester name,
the course name, and the course reference number. The left navigation bar
is specific to the course you've opened. It's important to note that students will
have access to
only the icons that are black. The grey links
will not be available for students to access. To customize the navigation for
your courses,
especially to turn those course links ON or OFF,
click on the "Settings" icon located in the course navigation.
This page
displays your specific course settings. Click the "navigation" tab at the top.
Here, you're able to reorder
and hide the navigation links for the course. To turn the link off,
click and drag the link to the bottom list.
To reorder them, simply click and drag on the navigation link that you want
and reorder it in the top list. If you plan to use Canvas
only as a file repository, the only option you should have enabled
is the course "files" link. I'm going to drag all the other links to the bottom list,
so students won't have access to anything but the files
for this course.
After I have the navigation links set, I'm going to click on the blue
"Save" button at the bottom of the page. Once the page refreshes,
you can see the disabled links have turned gray.
You'll notice that even though we kept the "files" link
on the top list making available for students, it's still grey...
That's because we don't have anything uploaded to the course
files yet. Once we upload a file, the link will
automatically turn black. To begin uploading files,
click the "files" link. This will open up the file repository for the course.
You'll notice the top folder is named with the title of the course.
That's the main folder that all of your course files will be in.
It's important to organize your files into folders.
The more organized your files are, the easier it will be for you and your
students to access them
after you upload them. For example, I'm going to make two
folders. The first for PowerPoint slides, and the second for lecture notes.
Once I create those folders, I will upload my files
into them for students to download. As we go through the steps,
you will notice that the Files area is very similar
to how you would organize files and folders on your own computer.
The left column shows all the files that are in the course
and allows you to choose where you want add new items.
You can click the arrow next to a folder to expanded
and see the contents or subfolders. Currently
this main folder doesn't have anything in it. I'm going to add a new folder and
put it into the main
course folder. To do this, I'll select the main course folder
and then click "add folder".
You can see
a folder was created. I'm going to rename it by typing what I want the title to be.
In this case, I want the folder to be called "powerpoints".
Next, I'm simply going to press
"enter" on my keyboard to save the title. You can now see the folder has been
added,
and named "powerpoints". I'm going to do the same thing for the second folder.
I'll click on "add folder", and this time,
I'll name it "lecture notes". You can see I made a mistake naming this folder.
To correct the mistake, I can hover over the folder,
click the pencil icon, and rename it.
Now that I have my folders created, I want to start
uploading files to them. First I'll click on the powerpoints folder to open it.
Next,
I'll click on "add file".
This window allows you to locate and upload files from your computer
or USB Drive. I have a powerpoint on my desktop that I want to add to this
course.
I'll find it and selected it... note that you can choose one file at a time
or select multiple files by holding down the control key
on your keyboard. After selecting the files I want,
I clicked "open" and the files began to upload.
This may take a minute or two depending on how many files
I choose to upload. Once the files have finished uploading,
you'll see the files in the folder. Next, I'll do the same with the lecture notes
folder that I created.
I'll first open up the folder then click on "Add Files",
find the file I want to add,
and click on
"open".
Remember, if the "files" link in the course navigation
is enabled students will have access to anything you upload into the file
section.
Canvas also gives you the option to lock files and folders
by hovering over the item in clicking on the Gold
lock icon.