Requesting Your Canvas Site

Instructors can request Canvas sites in the Course Request Form by following these instructions. If you are a TA or staff who must request a Canvas site on behalf of an instructor, please see these instructions.

On This Page

To start, go to the Course Request Form and log in with your PennKey and password.

Your homepage will display any sites you have requested as well as your existing course sites. The courses for which you can request Canvas sites will be listed in the Courses section of the homepage.  To request a Canvas site, click on a course’s section number under Courses.

If you don’t see a course you are teaching in Canvas when you log into the Course Request Form, please use the information below to request your site(s):

Quick Request

If you know that you would like to submit a request with only content copied over or no additional specifications, you can submit a Quick Request by clicking the Request Button and filling out the pop-up window as desired.

Screenshot of a search for courses in the Course Request Form. The status of courses in the form are listed as "Request" (Available) or "Requested" (Unavailable).

Additional Options

  • Specify the Canvas site you would like to copy content from using the Canvas Site dropdown menu.
  • Click Submit Request to submit the request.
  • If you decide that you would like to specify additional customizations, click Custom Request to be taken to the full form as defined above. 

Screenshot of the Quick Request pop-up menu in the Course Request From. Options include a dropdown menu for copying an existing site and excluding announcements.

Custom Request

Please click on the screenshot to enlarge.

Screenshot of a search for courses in the Course Request Form. Click on the course's section number to see more information.

On the next screen, you can specify whether you would like to access content from an old Canvas course site to your new Canvas site. You also can change the course title as it displays in Canvas, request to have sections broken out in the site (if any have been established for your course), request course reserves, add any additional users to your site, and provide additional information.

Please click on the screenshot to enlarge.

Screenshot highlighting additional options available in the Course Request Form. Available options include copy content from an old Canvas course, change the title, add course sections, request course reserves, add additional users, and provide additional instructions. See the written instructions for more information.

Directions (1) – Setting a Content Copy

To copy content from a previous Canvas site click Select Copy and filter by Course title in the pop-up window. Your most recent courses will appear at the top of the list. Once you have selected your desired Content Copy, click Add Source and check that the field populates with the Course ID and/or a 7 digit number (e.g., 1234567).

At this point, you can choose Submit Request if you would like to submit your Request to be processed. The Courseware Support Team monitors the CRF during normal business hours and usually processes a Request within a few hours.

Directions (2) – Selecting Additional Sections

If additional sections of the course are being offered you can include them in your request so that multiple sections will be grouped in a single Canvas site. To add a section to your request, toggle the desired sections available. Sections that are already included in a Canvas site will be greyed-out and cannot be added to any requests. For more information about using multi-section Canvas sites please refer to Using Sections in Canvas.

Screenshot of "Multi-Section Course Sites" section in the Course Request Form. Additional sections can be selected using radio buttons in the "Select" column.

Additional Options

  • Course Reserves: Course Reserve services from Penn Libraries are available to your course. Select Reserves to add the Course Materials @ Penn Libraries tab to your course. For more information about the Libraries’ Course Reserve service, please see Course Reserves at Penn Libraries.
  • Add Additional Users: You can add other users to a course in the Add Additional Users section of the Course Request Form. To add other users to a Canvas site, enter their PennKey and select a role from the dropdown menu. If you receive an error when trying to add an enrollment, try to proxy as the user in the box at the top of the page to ensure they are a user in the CRF.

Editing your Request

If you have accidentally submitted a request with incorrect information you can go back and edit the submitted request form. Click on Requests under Main in the Navigation and you will be directed to a table of all submitted requests where you can find your request. Alternatively, you can navigate to the home page and go to the Site Requests section.

Once on the request’s page, click Edit Request at the bottom, make your desired changes and then be sure to click Update Request to save your changes. If your request has already been processed and has the status of ‘COMPLETED’ please contact canvas@pobox.upenn.edu so we can help modify the Canvas site.

Missing Course

If you are new to Penn, or if you were assigned to teach a course near the start of the semester, you might not see your course(s) listed in the Course Request Form when you log in. When this happens, please email the following information to canvas@pobox.upenn.edu:

  • Your PennKey username (NOT their password), email address, and full name.
  • The full name and course ID for the site for each course that needs a Canvas site (e.g., Intro. to History, HIST 101-001 2015C).
  • Do you want content copied into the new Canvas site from another Canvas site? If so, please give the full name and course ID of the site from which you want content copied (e.g., Intro. to History, HIST 101-001 2014C). If you are requesting to have content copied from another instructor’s site, they will need to contact Courseware Support at canvas@pobox.upenn.edu to give their permission for this copy before we can proceed; if you have been granted this permission beforehand, then please let us know.
  • Do you want our Course Reserve department to have access to this site? For more information about the Libraries’ Course Reserve service, please see Course Reserves at Penn Libraries.
  • Do you want to have follow-up contact from a Library liaison?

Questions?

Please email Courseware Support at canvas@pobox.upenn.edu if you have any questions.

Last Updated: 7 Dec 2022