Critical Issues with Canvas Training Resources for New Faculty - Need Better Onboarding

[jelarv]

Hello Canvas Community,

As a new faculty member transitioning to Canvas from D2L, I'm experiencing significant frustration with the current training resources that are hindering my ability to effectively learn the platform. I hope the community and Instructure team can help address these issues.

Technical Barrier Watching Instructure's Own Tutorial Videos:
The official Canvas Video Guide page (https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Video-Guide/tkb-p/videos) displays "Please accept the cookie policy before viewing this external content" for all videos, but no cookie policy pop-up appears. This completely blocks access to the training videos, creating an immediate barrier for new users trying to learn the system.  In addition to this problem:

1. The overview videos discussed above are being deprecated on December 31, 2025, leaving new users with limited structured learning paths

2. Instructure's YouTube channel, while containing 717 videos, lacks logical organization for new faculty onboarding.  The only two relevant playlists are disorganized and not practical for training new users: 

   1. The "Canvas Basics" playlist begins with "Canvas for Math Instructors" and continues with deep dive videos on other detailed topics (rather than "getting started" topics)

   2. The "Higher Education" playlist jumps directly into advanced features without foundational knowledge

The Bigger Picture:
For an educational technology company whose mission centers on helping others teach, the current new user experience falls short. As someone who was a power user of D2L, I'm eager and capable of learning Canvas, but the disorganized and inaccessible training materials are creating unnecessary barriers.

What New Faculty Need:

• A clear, sequential learning path that starts with the absolute basics

• Accessible videos (without technical barriers)

• Logical progression from basic navigation and building to advanced features

• Role-specific onboarding that doesn't assume prior Canvas knowledge

Has anyone else encountered these issues? Are there alternative training resources you would recommend while these problems persist? I would also welcome any feedback from Instructure on plans to improve the onboarding experience for new faculty.

Thank you for your time and assistance.

[james_whalley]

Hello @jelarv,

Welcome to the Canvas Community! I'm sorry you are having difficulty with the training resources available. 

For the videos, have you tried accessing the videos from a different browser? It may be that your browser is blocking the cookie policy from appearing.

As for wanting a guided experience, do you know if the Canvas Training Portal is available through your institution's instance of Canvas? If it is, it is available through the Help menu. The portal includes a Canvas Basics course that "is designed to familiarize you with the essential features and tools of the Canvas platform." If you do not have access through your institution, you could try signing up for an account on the public instance of Canvas and then access through that instance.

Additionally, Canvas has a built-in tutorial experience available (unless your institution has disabled it). If you follow these instructions, you should be able to turn this experience on. If the feature option is unavailable, I would reach out to your institution to see if they could allow you to enable it.

I hope those options are of some help to you. To be honest though, for me personally, the best way to learn Canvas was just to get in and dig around. 

— James

[nathanatkinson]

Hi @jelarv I want to echo what James said, there are tons of great resources for learning Canvas, but sometimes they can be difficult to know where to find all of them. I do apologize that you haven't been able to easily find all of the amazing resources we provide for getting started with Canvas.

In addition to what James shared, I want to share a few spots here in the Community that will also be helpful.

While the videos you linked to are indeed being phased out, they're being replaced by shorter, more granular videos that are embedded directly in the how-to guides so you don't have to go to 2 places to find a short video and a detailed article.

I recommend starting in a few places on your Canvas journey. First, the Instructor Getting Started Resources. 

Then I would check out most of the articles and videos in the Canvas Basics Guide.

From there, you can dive into the Training portal that James mentioned, check out the rest of the Instructor Guides and Resources and, of course, ask here in the Community where thousands of knowledgeable Canvas users from around the world are willing to help answer any question you might have!

[DanielleLentz · Accepted solution]

Welcome to Canvas! I am so sorry to hear you are experiencing issues transitioning to Canvas. As other Community members have suggested, there are a lot of great resources available to you at no cost, but also to your institution, depending on the transition package they elected. Here are some areas I would bring up to your Canvas LMS admin to see what is available to you: 

1. Growing with Canvas course- this course is provided, for free, to all of our Canvas customers but it is up to your institution to enroll you as a learner. 
2. Training Services Portal- there are free courses available in your Help Menu and you have the opportunity to earn badges upon completion. 
3. Connect with your LMS Admin to see what other resources may be available to you and your institution. We have paid services such as trainings, consulting hours, and more that are designed to empower you as your navigate to Canvas. These offerings vary by institution, so check in with your LMS Admin for more details. 

[jelarv]

Thanks, Danielle!  My concern wasn't questioning the amount of Canvas training resources available, but rather the poor way in which they are organized.  If anything, there is too much information relative to the quality of navigation.  Creating a dictionary where the words are in random order would contain a lot of information, but it would also be a challenge to find what you're looking for.  As I referenced in my original post, Instructure should dedicate a team to organizing your YouTube channel (which is the #1 go-to site for many learners) and your website videos to make them easy to find and navigate for new users.  Thank you!