Calendars
Q. What are the benefits of using the Canvas calendar?
- Students are probably already accessing Canvas regularly for their course so they may expect to see the calendar within Canvas populated with their activities.
- Many students will use the Canvas app which will give them push notifications on their device when a calendar event occurs.
- The calendar can be quickly and easily edited by any user with editing permissions on the course.
- The Calendar Export tool allows users to quickly and easily export all or part of their calendar to PDF format or paste into a Word document for further editing.
- The Calendar Sync tool allows users to see their Canvas calendar in their preferred calendar tool such as Outlook, Apple Calendar or Google Calendar.
- University terms and dates can be easily added to the calendar by any user on Canvas – this is especially useful if the calendar has been populated with events, activities and deadlines for a student's course
- Calendar events can contain a description that contains formatting, links and images which can be useful for giving detailed about scheduled lectures, for example.
- The Calendar Import Tool allows you to easily create many calendar events at once by importing a specially formatted CSV file
Q. Can I synchronise Canvas with Outlook or other calendars?
A. Yes - see our full guidance on this in the student guide: Using calendar sync.
Q. Does the Canvas ‘smart calendar’ have the ‘shared calendar’ feature, such as in MS Outlook? In other words, can you view other people’s calendars to find a time when they might be available, and book them during that time slot?
A. No. Canvas calendars are intended for teachers and administrators to create events and important dates for students, e.g. assignment due dates. In other words, the Canvas calendar is not intended to function as a ‘booking system’… for people or venues.
Q. How do I add Oxford Term dates to the calendar?
A. Yes - How to add Oxford term names and dates to a Canvas course calendar
Q. I can duplicate a calendar event when I'm creating it, but how do I duplicate an existing event?
A. (Note: the 'duplicate' option used to be called 'recurring' or 'repeat'.) When you create a new event, click More options, and then there is the option to duplicate the event:
Unfortunately this 'duplicate' option is not available when you edit an existing event.
Q. Can I create a calendar event with different dates (and times) for different sections of students in my course?
A. Yes - teachers and course administrators can create an event and specify different dates (and times) for different sections of students within a course. When creating a new event in a course calendar, click the More options button.
Then select the box Use a different date for each section. If necessary, you can also tick the box to Duplicate the event and specify its frequency. Note: this will duplicate each section's event for the additional number of occurrences that you specify.
Note: you must first have created Sections within the course - see Understanding Sections for more information on sections and their purpose.