We are excited for you to use Canvas in the upcoming January and/or Spring 2026 term! Please note the following:
Course of Record Shells Now Available
Course of record shells for both J-Term and Spring courses have been created, and are now available on your Canvas Dashboard, under “Unpublished Courses.”
If you don’t see the shells on your Canvas Dashboard, check Blackboard. Your course may not have been migrated to Canvas yet. During this period of migration, you may be teaching in both platforms. If your shell is not in Canvas or Blackboard, contact your chair to ensure you are listed as the instructor in Colleague. QILT cannot enroll you as an instructor in a course of record.
Your course of record shells contain student enrollments but no course content. You can either:
- Copy a Canvas course or sandbox into your shell by following the steps here.
- Import a course template into your shell by following the steps here.
- Build your course without copied content or a template in the shell.
If you would like to move content from Blackboard, we highly recommend meeting with a learning designer, who can guide you through the considerations and process.
If you have any questions, please reach out to your learning designer. If you haven’t yet worked with a learning designer, you can schedule time with one here.
Getting Ready for the First Day of Class
- Before publishing your course (opening it for students), verify that content you do not want students to see yet is
unpublished, and content that you do want student to see is 
published. See: Publishing your Canvas Module (Make Visible to Students). - When you’re ready to open the course for students, publish the course. See: How do I publish a course?
- Once the course has been published, send an announcement or use the Canvas Inbox to message your students that the course is open.
- Before midnight on the first day of preview week (the Monday before the first day of the term): use the Canvas Inbox, not an announcement. Your course must be published to use the Canvas Inbox.
- Students will not receive e-mails for announcements posted before the first day of preview week.
- Students will receive e-mails for Canvas Inbox messages sent through published courses at any time.
- After midnight on the first day of preview week (the Monday before the first day of the term): you can send an announcement or use the Canvas Inbox. Your course must be published to use the Canvas Inbox or announcements feature.
- Students will receive an e-mail copy of your announcement or Canvas Inbox message.
- Students will receive e-mail notifications for announcements and Canvas Inbox messages you send, by default.
- Instructors will not receive e-mail notifications for announcements they post in their own Canvas courses.
- More information on customizing notification preferences can be found here.
If you are participating in preview week, make sure any welcome/getting started information is published.
Important timing information:
Note, during the course:
Help and Support
If you need help with Canvas, remember there are 24/7/365 phone, chat, and e-mail support options in the Canvas Help menu. This page outlines all help and training resources available to you.
Your question may also be answered in our Canvas knowledge base, which we continue to update as we migrate to Canvas. The knowledge base contains how-to articles, short videos, and answers to frequently asked questions.
If your students need help with Canvas, resources for them (including 24/7/365 support) are available here. You may also share the link to this video with your students to help them get acclimated to navigating Canvas.
Please use our Calendly to submit any Canvas-related questions, comments, or requests to our team, or e-mail your learning designer directly.