Using the Canvas Commons

Canvas Tutorials Using the Canvas Commons

Instructor Advanced Options Module

What is the Commons?

Canvas Commons is a Learning Object Repository (LOR) that makes it easy to share and find Open Educational Resources (OER). The Commons is available in the global menu on the Dashboard when you first login to Canvas. Below is brief overview of what you can do with Commons. 

Video Tutorial

Commons Overview Links to an external site. from Canvas LMS Links to an external site. on Vimeo Links to an external site..

Important Notes

In Canvas instructors can release the content under a Creative Commons license. The license model was developed and created by a group of educators and other professionals in 2001 as a way for people to share their work in a more flexible way. If you plan on sharing work publicly, you should choose one of the Creative Commons license so people know how they can use your work. To learn more about how the licenses work visit the Creative Commons website Links to an external site.. 

The Canvas Commons was updated in the following updates.

  • November 17, 2018 Links to an external site. - Content can be marked as a favorite resource. This feature replaces the 5-star rating system in Commons. Favorited content displays the favorite icon in the content card.
  • January 5, 2019 Links to an external site. - Commons has been updated to include a new Preview feature and to simplify the user interface when viewing the resource details page. Resource Previews is currently an opt-in feature in Commons and must be enabled by an administrator.
  • March 9, 2019 Links to an external site. - Resource cards display the number of times a resource has been downloaded or imported and the number of times a resource has been favorited. Users can also sort search results by Most Favorited and Most Downloaded.
  • March 30, 2019 - When instructors view the details for a resource, the Back button displays the location of the previous page in the text.
  • April 20, 2019 - The Filter window in the Commons Search page includes wider spacing between icons and for search filters.
  • June 22, 2019 - The empty page messages have been updated in Commons for consistency and clarity.
  • July 13, 2019 - Commons includes featured content at the top of the Search page that highlights or promotes specific resources and the Imported page includes a search field for users to search for, sort, and filter previously imported resources. 
  • February 15, 2020 Links to an external site.- Favorited Commons items can be imported from Quizzes, Pages, Discussion, Assignments, and Modules.

Canvas Guides

Note: These guides are maintained by the Canvas Documentation Team and are available on the Canvas Community site Links to an external site.. Some of the information in these guides may not apply to the Lake Land College instance of Canvas. If you have a question about a feature mentioned in these guides, please review Getting Help page for details on who to contact at Lake Land College.