Using the Microsoft Education Integration in Canvas

Description 

Integrations are a way to utilize the tools and functionality provided by other vendors within your Canvas courses. The Microsoft Education integration is a replacement for Microsoft Teams classes and Microsoft Teams meetings integrations, which OIT will retire on August 22nd, 2025. Microsoft announced it will retire these older integrations on September 15, 2025, so we are removing them prior to the start of the fall semester to avoid confusion for instructors and students. 

Microsoft Education offers different integrations within Canvas in a single dashboard: Class Notebook, Teams Meetings, Teams, Reflect, and Assignments. This article will provide an overview and instructions for each.   

Environment 

Canvas in your web browser 

Solution 

Enable Microsoft Sync 

Note: If you intend to cross-list or merge multiple courses in Canvas, you should do so before you enable Microsoft Sync, which will automatically create your Teams Class based on Canvas course enrollment.   

  1. Navigate to your Canvas course. 
  2. Select Settings from the course navigation menu. 
  3. On the Settings page, select Integrations. 
  4. Ensure the Microsoft Sync is set to on (the toggle switch should be pushed to the right). 
  5. Select Sync Now.

Set up Microsoft Education 

Once you have completed other course set up activities, you are ready to launch Microsoft Education for your course. 

  1. Log in to your Canvas course  
  2. Select Microsoft Education from the Course Navigation menu  
  3. Select Continue Setup 
  4. Optional: If you would like to opt out of receiving email notifications about new features and service changes to the Microsoft 365 LTI app, select Notifications, and toggle off Email Notifications 
  5. Select General 
  6. Select the features that you would like to use.  
  7. Choices include;  Class Notebook, Teams Meetings, Teams, Reflect, and Assignments. The OneDrive Integration has not been enabled within Microsoft Education yet in an effort to preserve previously embedded OneDrive content in Canvas. OneDrive will still be available using the standalone OneDrive integration.  
  8. If your wish you change your selections later, identify and select your user icon (upper right course), and select Course Settings.   
  9. Select Done 
  10. Wait for your class to be set up – this may take a few minutes. You will see a dashboard showing tiles for the items you enabled (with the exception of Assignments) once your class has been set up. You may return to this dashboard at anytime by selecting Microsoft Education in your Course Navigation menu.  

Class Notebook 

If you enabled Class Notebook during Microsoft Education setup, you can create and manage a OneNote Class Notebook. This notebook can be used to distribute content, provide individual workspaces for students, and collaborate in real time. 

To access your Class Notebook, select Microsoft Education from the Course Navigation menu, and then select Class Notebook. From there you will see be able to set up a OneNote Class Notebook. You can create custom sections or choose pre-made sections.  

Section types include:  

  • Collaboration space: teacher and student can edit 
  • Content library: teacher can edit and student can view 
  • Teacher-only section: private space for teachers 
  • Student-only section: private space for students 

View the OneNote website to learn more.  

Teams Meetings  

If you enabled Teams Meetings during Microsoft Education setup you can schedule Teams meetings with all or select students from within the course. The meeting invitation will show up in the instructor’s and recipient’s Outlook calendar, as with any normal Teams meeting invitation. 
  
It is important to note that the meetings do not appear in the Canvas course calendar. If you would like them to appear in the Canvas course calendar, you would need to manually add the calendar entry.   

Add a Teams Meeting to your Canvas Course Calendar  

  1. Create the Teams meeting and make a note of the date, time, and meeting link.  
  2. In your Canvas course, go to Settings and select Course Calendar from the right menu.  
  3. If you are teaching more than one course, ensure that the proper course is selected within the calendar.  
  4. Select the + and then select Event to create a new event.  
    1. Give it the title, date, time, and link from your Teams Meeting.  
    2. Select Submit.  

Teams Classes  

Your Team will automatically be created based on your Canvas course enrollment when you enable Microsoft Sync. The Teams Class will have the same name as your Canvas course. The membership of the Teams Class will be automatically populated by the enrollments (students) in your Canvas course. Student add/drops from the Canvas course will automatically update in the Teams Class.  

To access your Team, select Microsoft Education from the Course Navigation menu, and then select Teams from the dashboard. From there you will see your team and be able to open it in a new window.  

When you have your Teams Class configured to your specifications, don’t forget to Activate the Team to allow students to access it. You can activate your Team by selecting the Activate button on your Team icon from the dashboard. Students will be able to access the Teams Class from the link within your Canvas course, or any way that they would normally access Teams (browser, app, etc.).  

Reflect 

If you enabled Reflect during Microsoft Education setup you can use Reflect create check-ins and gain wellbeing insights. To access Reflect, select Microsoft Education from the Course Navigation menu, and then select Reflect. 

Visit the Reflect App website to learn more and explore related resources. 

Teams Assignments  

The Teams Assignment integration allows instructors to create assignments in Teams Classes, link to those assignments within their Canvas courses, and push the grades from the Teams Class Assignments to the Canvas course gradebook.   

Teams assignments include the ability to use:  

  • Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files  
  • Class Notebook pages  
  • Stream video recordings  
  • Microsoft Whiteboard  
  • Forms, quizzes, and polls  

When creating those Teams Assignments, instructors can leverage Microsoft’s generative AI tools, allowing instructors to save time creating their assignments.  

These AI-powered assignment creation features include:  

  • Assignment instructions  
  • Rubrics  
  • Classwork modules  
  • Reading passage creation  
  • Comprehension questions  

This video from Microsoft provides an overview of these AI functions.  

Adding a Teams Assignment to your Canvas Course  

In your Canvas course, select  Assignments  in the course navigation menu.  

Using the three dots menu, select Teams Assignments.  

  1. Select Create.  
    1. You can also navigate to Drafts or select an existing assignment that hasn’t been linked to the Canvas course yet.  
  2. This will open your Teams course in a new tab. Complete the steps to set up your assignment.  
    1. Give it a name.  
  3. Select Assign.   
  4. Go back to the Canvas and select Refresh.  
  5. Select the assignment you have just created.  
  6. Select Link.  

View this Microsoft Support page for Assignment Basics, Details, and Features. 

Get Help from Microsoft 

Get Help from Canvas

  • Live chat with Canvas support (Faculty) 
  • Get 24-hours/7-days a week Canvas support  
    • Dial the Canvas Support Hotline number located under "Get Help" in the Canvas Global Navigation Menu 
    • Contact OIT at 740-593-1222 for questions related to logging in, test courses/manually created courses, or third-party tools (Panopto, VoiceThread, Inclusive Access, etc.) 

Get Help from OIT

Additional Resources 

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