Introduction

In order to minimize confusion for students, Canvas has preset navigation elements that can be used to build your course and direct students. This section will cover the course navigation in Canvas and how to use it appropriately for your course.

Course Menu Overview

The course navigation in Canvas is based around specific tools that are used to create content and course elements. Because the navigation elements link to specific tools within Canvas, they cannot be renamed or deleted. However, the navigation elements can be re-ordered and hidden from students as needed. In Canvas, tools are used both as creation tools for faculty and navigation items for students. The way the tools are arranged directly impact the students' ability to navigate and access various course content.

The course navigation menu has four categories of tools:

Main course tools
Content creation tools
Communication tools
Additional tools

On the right, you can see the preset course menu for a new course. The grey menu items signify that students cannot see that specific item because it either has no content or has been intentionally hidden from the students in the course settings. If an item has not been hidden from the student view it will turn black when content is added.

The next few pages will give an overview of the different tool categories and the corresponding menu items.