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General Information

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Timeline for Course Availability

Official course shells are set up using information from the Registrar's Office; faculty, instructors, TAs, and students are automatically given access in Canvas, with dynamic updates.

  • Instructors gain access to their upcoming term course shells six to eight weeks in advance of the start of the term, provided the course has been established with the Registrar's Office.
  • TAs gain access to courses in which they are teaching as soon as their TA assignments are sent from the Options to the Registrar's Office. Contact your Option Administrator if a TA does not have access to a course in Canvas.
  • Student enrollments are synced and updated starting one week before the term begins.
  • Students seeking access to course material in Canvas should register for the course in REGIS.

Student and TA enrollments conclude after Add Day of the following term if all students in all sections of the course have been given a final grade in REGIS. No course content or student data is deleted, but enrollments, grades, and submissions are archived in non-active areas of Canvas sites (find access instructions here or in your Canvas Help menu).

Beginning Fall Term 2025-26, Teacher and Admin Assistant roles remain active in courses even after student enrollments are concluded. This change makes it easier to reference and share course materials after the term ends.

DATES FOR RECENT AND UPCOMING TERMS
Term Add day of following term
Spring/Summer 2025 October 17, 2025
Fall 2025 January 23, 2026
Winter 2026 April 17, 2026
Spring/Summer 2026 October 16, 2026
Fall 2026 January 22, 2027
Winter 2027 April 16, 2027
Spring/Summer 2027 October 15, 2027

Course Storage and Media Management

NOTE: Content copied from prior Canvas courses does not count against a new course's storage limits, unless imported from an .imscc Canvas course export package. Copying from course to course within Canvas, however, means the original course quota is inherited by the new course.

  • Courses are allotted 2 GB storage each. To monitor the percentage used, navigate to the Files link in a given course menu and check the status below the left-side folder structure.
  • Any file uploaded via the Rich Content Editor (RCE) to a module, syllabus, page, assignment, quiz, discussion, or announcement will automatically be added to course files and be counted against the course quota.
  • Consider compressing large documents, such as PowerPoint presentations, as ZIP files before uploading to a Canvas course.
  • Media files, such as video and audio recordings, can be stored in Studio within Canvas, or on one of Caltech's file hosting platforms such as Box or Google Workspace. Use Modules or the RCE to add links with the appropriate sharing permissions to your course.
  • Find more information on course, user, and group quotas here. Note that Caltech has increased Canvas default quotas, and provides 100 MB of storage per user and per group, as well as the aforementioned 2 GB per course.

Mobile Applications

Canvas has both Android and iOS apps to allow for (limited) course participation when away from a computer. Navigate to the Canvas Mobile hub and click Read the Guides to find documentation for each app.

  • The Teacher app provides access to course facilitation tools such as Announcements and Speedgrader, and allows instructors to update course content. Compare available features here.
  • The Student app helps to keep track of updates and course work. Compare available features here.

The Canvas Dashboard and Global Navigation

Courses that you are enrolled in will appear on your Dashboard when you log into Canvas at https://caltech.instructure.com/.

  • Find Dashboard customization options in the Canvas Guides: Instructors / Students
  • The Global Navigation Menu on the left side of your browser features selectable tiles to common areas (Account, Dashboard, Courses, Calendar, Inbox, Studio, Help). See the Canvas guides for a full overview: Instructors / Students
  • Instructors and TAs will also have a tile for Commons, Admins will have a tile for assigned sub-account(s), and Students will have a tile for Groups.
  • If courses are missing from the Dashboard and not listed in All Courses (click Courses -> All Courses in the global menu), please contact the Registrar's Office. Note that updated enrollments take a minimum of 2 hours to be synched to Canvas.
  • Don't forget to review Notification settings in the Account tile to avoid missing important updates! Instructors / Students

Canvas Studio

Canvas Studio is a media collection and collaboration tool that allows users to create and edit original recordings, upload media files, and save links from YouTube.

Canvas Roles at Caltech

Canvas provides two types of user roles:

  • Course-level roles reflect enrollment status in a given course, which means users can have different roles in different Canvas courses. To learn more about access permissions and how to be assigned, see Canvas Course Roles.
  • Account-level roles include the admins on the Canvas Support at Caltech team, as well as sub-account admins assigned as academic officers and option representatives for the divisions. Admins have access to statistics and analytics for their section(s), and are able to view any course in the sub-account(s) behind the Admin tile of the Global Navigation Menu. To learn more, email [email protected].

The Canvas Sandbox

Faculty and instructors each have a dedicated sandbox to build and test course elements, import materials for editing, and conduct any testing outside of official Caltech courses. Admin Assistants may also be provided with a sandbox upon request; email Canvas Support at Caltech to inquire.

Course Auditors

If auditors are taking your course, they will need to fill out a form to access your Canvas course. Read more about the process on the Registrar's website. Auditors will have different capabilities within Canvas than students registered in your course, as explained on this webpage.

Course Materials

Caltech Library manages both the online textbook store where students can purchase their course materials and the course reserves service where students may access electronic versions of their course materials (via Canvas) and check out physical textbooks. Please let the library know what course materials your students will need, and they will take care of the rest. Information about course reserves (e.g., how to submit textbooks for student purchase, book reserves, and audiovisual reserves) is available here. Please email [email protected] for assistance.

Please submit course material information as early as possible and no later than three weeks before the start of classes to ensure your requests are available before the start of the term and to allow students enough time to purchase required textbooks. Requests submitted after this date are welcomed, but the library can't guarantee the online textbook store will stock them.

FERPA, Security, and Permissions

Please review this page for important information about FERPA compliance, use of applications without a Caltech license, guidelines for class recordings and content (including recording releases for guest lecturers and reusing video from previous course offerings), and considerations related to copyright and intellectual property.

Reusing and Adapting Past Course Content

Online tools can facilitate reusing content, but care must be taken to protect student privacy. A comprehensive guide to reusing past course content is available via the Teaching Continuity at Caltech website.