Hi,
I am somewhat new to Canvas and while trying to set up the menu items for a class using the navigation section under settings, I found myself puzzled about 2 things.
- What are some of the menu items for? I love the wide variety of menu items, but I have no idea what many of them do (such as "outcomes" or "my media"). I could not easily find a list describing what each does. Does anyone know of a resource where I can learn more about which each item in the list under the navigation tab does?
- Many of the items in the navigation section are not in my menu list and conversely. So for example "EvaluationKIT Dashboard" is in my list in the navigation section but not in my menu list. Why is this?
Thanks,
Matt
Hey there, Matthew Brenneman...
You can find Guides many of the Canvas buttons in your course by checking out this link: Canvas Instructor Guide - Table of Contents. (Or, if you like to click through this website, go to Answers >> Guides: Canvas >> Instructor). You'll find "Outcomes" there (with associated Guides), but you won't find "My Media" because that is not a button that is provided by Canvas "out of the box". That particular button sounds like maybe a third-party app was added in to your course. See next question.
Sometimes schools will add in extra tools (buttons) at the account level so that they are available for all courses in a school's Canvas instance. These tools are called LTIs (Learning Tools Interoperability), and they are third-party vendors that have some kind of integration with Canvas. Each LTI is different and brings different content into a Canvas course. Some LTIs are free while others have a fee associated with them. EvaluationKIT is one of those LTIs that Canvas admins at your school may have added for every course in your Canvas instance.
There are two ways to learn about all the LTIs that are available for use in Canvas. First, you can go directly to the EduAppCenter website: https://www.eduappcenter.com/ and then click on any of the items listed to learn more about it. Again, some are free...some are not...though they might not directly say that on the info page. You'd have to contact the publisher/creator of the app to determine this. (Example: Here's the EvaluationKIT one you mentioned: Edu App Center: EvaluationKIT.)
The second way to see a similar listing of LTIs is within your Canvas course. In your course, go to Settings >> Apps tab. Here, you technically could add in one of the LTIs to your course. This would be considered adding the LTI at the "course" level rather than the "account" level. The LTI would only be available to you and no other course that you were teaching or that other instructors at your school were teaching. If you add a LTI app on your own at the course level, the majority of them require a couple things: Consumer Key and Shared Secret. (Think of these as a Username and Password.) Normally, you obtain these from the maker of the LTI. They may also send you setup instructions on how to get things set up in Canvas.
Finally, I'll just mention that if you are considering adding a LTI to your course, you might want to reach out to your local Canvas admin first to see if they have already added it to your school. They may have some policies or guidelines in place for adding new integrations to Canvas courses.
I know this was probably a bit more than you were asking about, but hopefully it gives you a bit of an idea of what LTIs are and why they may appear on your course navigation. Again, each LTI integration is different ... some place a button on the navigation...and some don't. It just depends. I hope this information was helpful to you.