Why am I not receiving notifications or Canvas conversations in my Widener e-mail?

  • If you are not receiving e-mails from Canvas to your Widener e-mail, you will need to review your user notification settings. Please review the “Ways to Contact” and look for communication warnings. Also, be sure to review your notification settings so that you ensure conversations are set to your preferred time frame. For issues with your email, contact the Helpdesk via x1047 or http://quickticket.widener.edu/
  • Visit https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-1286 for notification settings information.
  • If you wish to receive confirmation of the messages you send, navigate to Account → Notifications and ensure that “Announcement Created by You” and “Conversations Created by Me” are set with the checkmark to be notified right away.

Why are my students not receiving notifications or Canvas conversations in their Widener e-mail?

  • Is the course published? Conversations and announcements will only be sent to students after a course is published.
  • Now, even if you publish the course, your students will not be able to access the content if you designate a start date, however, they will receive email messages when you send a conversation or announcement based on the default notification settings in Canvas.
  • Students may have unintentionally filtered/deleted emails. Please contact the Helpdesk to resolve at x1047 or http://quickticket.widener.edu/

Why do some items appear in light gray on my course navigation menu?

Items that appear in light gray on your course navigation menu are still clickable by you as an instructor. If an item is light gray it indicates that it is not currently visible for students.

There are two reasons:

  • You have hidden the link in the navigation menu through the course settings.
  • There is no content in that particular tool. For example, announcements will remain gray until you create the first announcement for the class, at which point it will become visible for students.

How can I get rid of items that I’m not using in the course navigation menu?

To hide items in the Navigation menu that you are not using, first click on Settings, and then Navigation. You will see a list of the items in the Course Navigation menu. Click on the settings icon to the right of each item to choose to Move or Disable an item. You can also drag and drop menu items to reorder your course navigation menu. For more information on hiding navigation menu items, visit https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-2555.

Can I add items to my course navigation menu?

To add other items to your course navigation menu, you can use an app called Redirect Tool. To use this app,

  •  Click Settings in your course navigation menu
  • Click the Apps tab
  • Search for Redirect Tool, then select Add App
  • In the “Name” field, enter the name of the resource that you’d like to appear in your course navigation menu.
  • Enter the URL of the website or page in the “URL Redirect” field.
  • Check “Show in Course Navigation.”
  • Click submit.
  • Refresh your page. The new item should appear in your course menu.
  • A caveat: you should only use Redirect Tool to link to external web sources, not pages within your Canvas course. If there’s a resource that students need to access frequently, consider adding it to your course home page instead.