Best Practices: Set Notification Preferences for Important Canvas Activities

The Best Practices series focuses on what instructors and students can do to effectively use Canvas. You’re welcome to contact Courseware Support at canvas@pobox.upenn.edu if you have any questions about best practices.

Focusing Attention on Timely Matters

Canvas notification preferences are the best way to stay informed about what’s happening in your courses. When set up according to your needs, notification preferences help you strategically engage with Canvas when doing so matters the most, freeing you from haphazardly checking your courses to see what’s been going on while you weren’t in Canvas.

Notification-Preference Basics

Here’s what you need to know about notification preferences:

When your Canvas account is created, you are given default notification preferences. To see what these are, please consult:

• How do I set my Canvas notification preferences as an instructor?
• How do I set my Canvas notification preferences as a student?

Notifications are sent to your main Canvas email address (the one established when your account was created). You can add a new email address or your cellphone number to receive text-message updates by following these instructions:

• How do I add an additional email address as a contact method in Canvas as an instructor?
• How do I add an additional email address as a contact method in Canvas as a student?
• How do I add a text (SMS) contact method in Canvas as an instructor?
• How do I add a text (SMS) contact method in Canvas as a student?

You can control which notifications you receive and when they are sent. To learn more, please see Canvas Notifications.

Suggestion for Instructors

Tell your students to make sure they have enabled notification preferences for course activities (e.g., announcements) you use regularly. We recommend saying this in class and adding this message to your syllabus so students know what you expect of them.

Questions?

Email Courseware Support at canvas@pobox.upenn.edu if you have questions about notification preferences in Canvas.

Last Updated: 13 Apr 2015