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Import Resources from Canvas Commons

Canvas Commons provides instructors at Indiana University access to many different valuable resources that can be imported directly into a Canvas course to supplement existing course content. The process for importing resources from Canvas Commons is straightforward, but knowing where to start is tricky.

Importing a resource from Canvas Commons

The following steps will walk you through the process of importing a resource from Canvas Commons into your Canvas course. For this example, we'll walk through the process of importing the module Creating Research Posters into a Canvas course.

In Canvas, navigate to the course you wish to import the resource into.
From the Home page of the course, click on the Import from Commons button on the top right side of the screen.

The Canvas Commons page will load, and now we can search for content to add. We'll be looking for the module Creating Research Posters.
In the search bar underneath the Canvas Commons navigation, type "creating research posters". The site will bring up content that matches your search term as soon as you finish typing.
Click on the title of resource you wish to import - this will bring you to the resource details page.
To start the process of importing the resource into your course, on the right side of the page, click . The Import/Download panel will appear on the right side of the page.
To select the course you want to import the resource into, in the Import/Download panel, use the Search for a course field at the top of the panel to search for a specific course, then when the course appears in the courses list, click the checkbox to the left of the course's name to select it.
To finish importing the resource into your course, underneath the list of courses in the Import/Download panel, click the blue Import into Course button.
A confirmation message will appear at the top of the resource details window, and the resource will be imported into your Canvas course – this process may take several minutes. Once the resource finishes importing, it will be visible in your Canvas course.

Once the content is in your course, you can adjust where it appears in your course content and customize the contents of pages in the module to meet your course's needs.

Changing Module Requirements

IT Training's course modules don't have any requirements set for completion. You may want to change the module requirements to require students to view all pages in a course, or remove the requirements entirely if you'd like to remove any you've previously set. The following sections outline how to change or remove the module requirements for one of IT Training's course modules.

Go to the module you want to set the requirements for, and click the module options button () at the right side of the top of the module to open the module options menu.
In the module options menu, click – this will open the Edit Module Settings panel on the right side of the page.
In the Edit Module Settings panel, under the Requirements heading, click to add requirements for the module.
To require students to complete all of the content pages in the imported module:
1. First, select the Complete all radio button.
2. Next, in the Content box underneath the Requirements radio buttons, choose the first page in the module from the first drop-down menu, and choose View the item in the second drop-down menu.
3. To add the next content page as a requirement, click underneath the first Content box, and repeat step 2 in the second Content box to choose the second page in the module.
4. Repeat step 3 until all pages from the module have been added as requirements.
5. If desired, you can also click the checkmark next to “Students must move through requirements in sequential order” to make sure students read through the content in sequential order.
Click at the bottom of the Edit Module Settings dialog box to save your changes.
At this point, if students have previously satisfied the module requirements, you may get a message asking if you want to re-lock the module or if you want to let students continue in the course without redoing the module. If you want to have students redo the module, click “Re-Lock Modules”. If you want to allow students to continue through the content, click “Continue”.

Go to the module you want to remove the requirements for, and click the module options button () at the right side of the top of the module to open the module options menu.
In the module options menu, click – this will open the Edit Module Settings dialog box.
In the Edit Module Settings dialog box, under the Requirements heading, click the icon in the upper right corner of the Content box for the content you want to remove.
Click at the bottom of the Edit Module Settings panel to save your changes.

To learn more about working with module requirements in Canvas, view the following page on the Canvas Community site: How do I add requirements to a module?

Updating a Canvas Commons resource used in a course

From time to time, IT Training will publish updates to content shared in Canvas Commons. These changes won't automatically sync to your course, so you'll need to check Canvas Commons from time to time to see if there are any updates to resources you've imported into your courses.

When a resource is updated, you’ll see a notification near the upper right corner of the Canvas Commons page, as well as a number next to Updates in the Canvas Commons navigation at the top of the screen indicating how many resources you’re using have updates, similar to the following screenshot:

Canvas Commons page showing Updates indicator in navigation at top of screen and pop-up notification about course update in upper right corner of screen.

Make sure to check Canvas Commons regularly for updates to resources you’re using in your courses, as the notifications for content updates will only appear on the Canvas Commons page.

The following accordion contains instructions for updating Canvas Commons content you’re using in your courses.

In a web browser, navigate to https://canvas.iu.edu, and log in with your IU username and passphrase.
To navigate to Canvas Commons, in the navigation bar on the left side of the Canvas interface,
Click
To view Canvas Commons resources that have updates, in the navigation at the top of the Canvas Commons page,
Click Updates

On the Updates page, you’ll see a list of Canvas Commons resources that have updates, similar to the image below:

Updates page in Canvas Commons, described in the following paragraph.

Each item in the list will display information about when it was updated, what changes were made, what Canvas course you’re using the resource in, and what version of the resource is currently used in your course, as shown in the following screenshot:

NOTE: If none of the Canvas Commons content you’re using has updates, you’ll see a graphic here that says “Nothing To Update”.

To update a Canvas Commons resource used in your courses, at the bottom of the listing for that specific item,
Click
To confirm you want to update the resource, in the pop-up that appears underneath the Update button,
Click

The resource will update, and once it’s finished updating, it will disappear from the list of updates. The updated content will now appear wherever the resource is used in your Canvas courses.

A note about breaking the connection between your course and Canvas Commons resources

There are some actions you might take with content in your Canvas courses that can break the connection between a Canvas Commons resource and the course it's used in. For example:

If you edit content that was imported as part of a Canvas Commons resource, this may break the connection between that content and Canvas Commons.
If you copy a course from semester to semester, and that courses uses Canvas Commons resources, the copied courses will not be connected to the Canvas Commons resource that was used in the original course.

If the connection between a Canvas Commons resource and a course is broken, you won't be able to apply any updates made to the resource. To fix this, re-import the resource by following the instructions for importing a resource from Canvas Commons. After re-importing the resource, the connection between the course and Canvas Commons will be re-established.

Import Resources from Canvas Commons

Importing a resource from Canvas Commons

Changing Module Requirements

Changing the module requirements to have students view all pages

Removing the module requirements

Updating a Canvas Commons resource used in a course

Updating Canvas Commons resources used in a course

A note about breaking the connection between your course and Canvas Commons resources