Canvas Policies

Every course section in a PeopleSoft term automatically receives a corresponding Canvas "course shell".  A course shell is a course website without any content, which is available for instructors to use. Login to Canvas and add content to the course shell.

Canvas relies entirely on data coming from PeopleSoft to assign permissions to Canvas relies entirely on data coming from PeopleSoft to assign permissions to course shells.  If available in PeopleSoft, instructor assignment information will be used to enroll instructors in their Canvas shell(s). If the courses are not accessible to you from Canvas and the instructor of record is not set, contact your department to update PeopleSoft. Updated PeopleSoft data is sent to Canvas every hour, 24/7/365.

If you are team-teaching a course, the first instructor listed in PeopleSoft will be assigned to the Canvas course and that person will need to add and change the role of the other co-instructor(s).

The content added into a Canvas shell by the instructor of record (and others the instructor has added with the same role) remains that instructor's intellectual property. If the instructor would like to provide access to their own intellectual property in Canvas, the instructor can enroll users into their course or email atsupport@csum.edu for help. Due to the nature of the course intellectual property, AT staff are unable to provide access to course content without the written permission of the owner (instructor of record).

Numerous technology tools can be integrated with Canvas to expand functionality, such as those offered by textbook publishers or exam monitoring.  Several tools with are already available for use in any class, such as TurnItIn, Zoom, Panopto, and apps for the major textbook publishers.

As a matter of protocol, instructors do not have the ability to add new 3rd party apps (e.g., via LTI) directly into a Canvas course. To discuss installation of a new app, contact atsupport@csum.edu

All enrolled students will automatically be added to the corresponding Canvas Course Shells. Once the instructor has made a course available (published) the student will have access to the course until the END date of the course (default set by term) and the access levels that have been set by the instructor.


Students will not see the course link in the Portal until instructors' make your course available. If you do not want your students to access the course after the quarter has been completed, then you must make the course unpublished or set to read-only.

Canvas courses can be backed up and saved. Canvas courses can also be placed in the Commons for personal or shared access. 

Canvas Commons
Export Canvas Course