This information is for students who are not used to studying at KTH and perhaps not used to digital learning platforms such as Canvas. The purpose of this page is to introduce students to Canvas and basic navigation in Canvas.

What is Canvas?

Canvas is a big part of KTH's virtual campus. If you are new to Canvas, you might need some practice to learn how to navigate. On this page, you will get basic knowledge on how to navigate along with links to additional resources that might be helpful.

Navigating Canvas

The "global navigation menu" follows you wherever you are in Canvas. It is usually found on the far left side of the screen and contains links to your courses, your account, and a few other helpful links. The three most important ones are:

Account
Dashboard
Courses

Account

You will find all the options for your personal Canvas experience under "Account". Feel free to explore, but we will only go through the basics here.

Edit your profile

If your account has a picture of you, it will show next to your name in all communication. To add a photo, go to "Profile". You can add a picture by selecting the picture symbol and choosing a file to upload to represent you in Canvas, preferably a picture of yourself.

While in your profile, you can also add a description of yourself by clicking the button with three dots and choosing "Edit profile".

Language settings

You can set the language for the menus and buttons in Canvas on a personal level, but if your teacher has set a different language for the course, that language will be shown for the course regardless of your personal setting.

To set the language on a personal level: Go to "Settings" in your account. From the sidebar, select the button "Edit settings". You can now change the language settings as you prefer.

Dashboard

The dashboard is the first thing you see when you log in to Canvas. It gives you an overview of your favourite courses as cards and a sidebar with shortcuts, like your To Do-list. If you do not have any favourites set, the dashboard will show some of your courses chosen by Canvas. You select your favourite courses under "Courses".

You can move the course cards around by simply clicking and dragging them. You can also change the colour of the cards and give the course a nickname through the three dots.

Courses

Selecting "Courses" opens a menu with the courses you see in your dashboard in a list. If you follow the link "All courses", you will find the table of all your enrolments.

Additional useful links

You will also find direct links to your Inbox and Calendar in the global menu. These work as a regular mail-inbox and calendar but are connected with all of the courses you are studying at the moment.

The course menu

To the right of the global menu, you will find the course menu. The biggest difference between the global navigation menu and the course menu is that the global menu always stays the same independent of which course you are studying. The course menu's content might vary depending on how your teacher decides to conduct the course. Also, by using the global navigation menu you will leave the course pages. We will now explain the most common links in the course menu and where they will lead you.

Showing the global navigation menu to the left and the course menu to the right.

Home - Takes you to the start of the course. This can be the front page or the course modules.
Syllabus - A page that summarises the course plan, intended learning outcomes, and goals for the course.
Modules - A structured collection of the course content, where content is organized to make it easier to use. Modules are not always used.
Announcements - A digital bulletin board where teachers can make announcements to all students. Announcements may also be found on the Home page at the top of the window.
People - Here you can find other course participants and groups if that is something used in this course.
Assignments - Here you will find course content that should get submitted during the course. Some of it might be assessed and graded.
Grades - Here you will find assessments and grades on submissions.

More about your studies in Canvas

If you are new to Canvas, these links might be helpful:

You can also search for information at Canvas's own online community, Instructure Community: Canvas student guides (Instructure Community)