[ARCHIVED] Nickname Course

[claibornc]

how do I nickname a course on dashboard?

[kblack · Accepted solution]

Hi  @claibornc  Welcome to the Canvas Community.  Check here, under the Create Nickname heading: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-10588-4212717404  I'm not sure if you're a student or an instructor, but it does not matter since the method is the same.  If you are an instructor, be aware that this does NOT affect the name of your course so far as what students are seeing, since they can set their own nicknames.

Hope this helps, Charles!

[AustinLevine]

Hi, in September 2021, it does not seem to work this way. Could you please help?

[Chris_Hofer]

Hello there, @AustinLevine ...

The Guide that @kblack provided above is still accurate.  I'm not sure if you are a student or an instructor, but either of these Guides should help you create a course nickname for one or more courses that you are enrolled in within Canvas.  (Look for the section on "Create Nickname".)

• How do I view my favorite courses in the Card View Dashboard as a student?
• How do I view my favorite courses in the Card View Dashboard as an instructor?

Also, if you are having troubles with the nickname feature in the current browser you are using, you might want to check to see if that browser is up-to-date with the latest version...or try a different browser completely.  An up-to-date version of Chrome or Firefox are usually your best choices here.  What are the browser and computer requirements for Canvas?

I hope this will be of some help to you.  Sing out if you have any other questions about this...thanks!

[AaravPant]

In 2023 we can't rename it (at least that is what I know) is there any way to still change it???

[Chris_Hofer]

@AaravPant ...

Can you please provide a screenshot or two showing where you are trying to create a nickname for your course(s)?  Or, can you describe the steps you are taking?  You should be able to create a nickname for your course(s), but it would help to get some additional information from you first.  Thanks!

[TechWithTheTech]

I am having the same issue where the nickname does not appear, screenshot attached.

[Chris_Hofer]

@TechWithTheTech ...

I checked with another Canvas Coach, and he and I are not aware of any setting within the normal Canvas UI (User Interface) that would allow or prevent people from utilizing the nickname field for course cards on the Dashboard.  We are wondering if your school implemented some sort of special CSS or JavaScript code in their environment that is preventing you from seeing that text box.  We wouldn't know that here, but you could certainly reach out to your school's Canvas administrator or someone from their Online Learning / eLearning / Distance Learning team to see if they can tell you more.  Hopefully you'll be able to find out this information by speaking with someone at your school soon.  Good luck!

[TechWithTheTech]

so the fun part, I am the canvas technical admin for our institution and our other admin doesn't know of anything either. I have a call with our CSM at the end of the month so I'll pose the question to them. I don't know of any custom CSS or JS in place but if something was put in years ago before either of us came into the roles then we don't know anything about it. Thanks for the ideas and if I find something I'll try to remember to post here in case anyone else is still having this issue.

[Chris_Hofer]

@TechWithTheTech ...

Interesting.  Maybe you've already tried this, but have you looked at your global CSS and JS files?

1. On the admin side of your Canvas environment, click on "Themes".
2. Click on your current theme to "Open in Theme Editor".
3. When the Theme Editor opens, click on the "Upload" tab in the far left-hand menu at the top of the screen.
4. You should see an area to upload a "CSS file" and "JavaScript file".  Above the "Select" buttons, you may see a "View" link to view the file if one has been uploaded.

If you are able to view either of these files, do you see anything in either of these files that might be hiding the Nickname field?

Not sure if this will be helpful or not...but just thought I'd suggest it as something else to try.  Good luck!

[TechWithTheTech]

I did not dig that deep, apparently I missed the spot to view current file and didn't see it. Looked and there is a basic css uploaded that had the nickname hidden. I played in test by blocking that line and it shows up in the test environment now. Thanks!

Whoever put the css file in also has the code in there to hide the to-do list... I have a lot of instructors complaining about students only using it and not going into their courses. Since this is an available option I'll start dialogue internally to see if that is a feature we want to change at some point.