Troubleshooting student access to Canvas courses

Description

As a student, you are unable to locate or access one or more courses in Canvas.

Environment

Canvas in a web browser.

Solution 

There are a few reasons a course may not appear for you in Canvas:

• Has the course started yet?

  • Unless your instructor has given you explicit instructions to work in the Canvas course before the start of term, don't expect to be able to see a course until the first day of class.

• Is your instructor using Canvas for this course?

  • Canvas is an optional tool; if your instructor does not use Canvas, you will not see the course in the system.

• Has your instructor published the Canvas course?

  • If you have confirmed with your instructor that the class will be using Canvas, it is possible that they have not yet opened the course to students. 

• Have you recently added/dropped/withdrawn from the class?

  • Schedule changes are not immediately reflected in Canvas. It can take up to 8 hours before you will see course registration changes reflected in Canvas.

• Have you checked the All Courses page?

  • The Dashboard shows new courses by default, but once you have designated 'favorite' courses, those will be the only courses that appear in the Dashboard. Check the All Courses page to locate and 'favorite' new courses by selecting the Courses icon from the system navigation menu (green menu at left of Canvas). When the panel slides out from the right side of the menu, select the All Courses link at the top. See our Organizing your Canvas Dashboard article for more detailed instructions and tips for managing the Canvas Dashboard.

• Has the course ended?

  • After a term ends, student course enrollments for that term are concluded, which means you can still view the course, but can no longer participate in it (i.e. read-only access). To view courses in which your enrollment is concluded, access the All Courses page by selecting the Courses icon from the system navigation menu, then selecting the All Courses link at the top of the slide-out panel. The Past Enrollments list is at the bottom of the All Courses page; note that you may need to scroll down to find it.​ 

Outcome: You are able to locate the course in Canvas or you have a good idea why the course is not available to you in Canvas.

Get Help from Canvas

• Live chat with Canvas support (Students)
•  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 the OHIO IT Service Desk 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

• Use the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS) ticket form to submit a help ticket
• Enroll in the Passport to Canvas student training course

Additional Resources

• Canvas Basics Guide 
• Canvas Student Video Guide 
• Mobile Guides 
• Canvas LMS Implementation updates