Canvas Sections

The “Assign To” function in Canvas Modules help with content management within your course and can create a personalised learning experience. It allows lecturers to customise modules for specific students or sections, tailoring content to meet their learning needs. Targeted content delivery ensures that only relevant modules are visible to each group and can facilitate different learning paths for different groups of students. 

This feature is particularly valuable for differentiated instruction, allowing you to tailor materials to meet the diverse learning needs of your students. For instance, you can provide supplementary resources to students who require additional support, while offering advanced materials to those who are ready for more challenging content. By customising the assignments based on individual learning needs, you can enhance the educational experience for each student.

Example Scenario

Seminar Group 1 attends the Monday seminar, which is led by James, the co-lecturer of the course. James has a unique approach to conducting seminars compared to other tutors. They provide additional resources and introduce supplementary texts to enhance the learning experience. Each week, James shares reflections exclusively with their seminar group.

By creating a Canvas Module for the seminar, they can use the Assign To functionality to limit the access to only the students that are part of that seminar group. This content will only be viewable to the students in that section and not other on a course. This allows for those students in Seminar Group 1 to see the materials but not interfere with the rest of the content on the course. 

You can see below that the Canvas Module for Seminar Group 1 has only been assigned to the section containing students in Seminar Group 1.

At a Module level you can see that the module has Assign To applied:

By clicking on the link you can see which sections the Assign To has been applied:

To learn how to use the Assign To function in your Canvas Module, please visit How do I assign a module to individual sections or students?

The “Assign To” function in Canvas Pages helps with content management within your course at a page level. It allows lecturers to customise pages for specific students or sections, tailoring content to meet their learning needs. Targeted content delivery ensures that only relevant pages are visible to each group and can facilitate different learning paths for different groups of students. This can be a stand alone page that students access with a link or as part of a module, maintain the learning flow of the module and adding additional resources for students that need them. 

This feature is particularly valuable for differentiated instruction, allowing you to tailor materials to meet the diverse learning needs of your students. For instance, you can provide supplementary resources to students who require additional support, while offering advanced materials to those who are ready for more challenging content.

These resources can also be time-limited, ensuring that students have access to them only for as long as they need them.

Example Scenario

The module leader wishes to include resources in their Canvas course that are only visible to students who need them. These resources are intended for students identified as struggling and who would benefit from additional exercises. By using the “Assign To” functionality for pages, the module leader can assign these students to a specific section and apply this section to the relevant page. This ensures that while these targeted students see the same module content as the rest of the cohort, they also receive additional pages to further support their learning.

Below you can see on the page there is button to Assign to the page:

From the Assign To settings, you can apply the sections you wish to view the page. In this example, the students that require the additional resources are part of Student Segment 1. You can also apply dates for this resources to be available to those students:

Targeted announcements in Canvas enable lecturers to send personalised messages to specific sections or groups of students within a course. This ensures that each group receives relevant information, enhancing the relevance and impact of the communication. Additionally, it streamlines information dissemination by preventing unnecessary clutter, as students only receive messages pertinent to them.

Example Scenario

James, the co-lecturer for the module, wants to send an announcement to students in Seminar Group 1, reminding them to review the resources before the session. Since this message is only relevant to Seminar Group 1, he doesn’t want other students to see it. By using the “Post To” option in a Canvas Announcement, he can ensure that the message is targeted specifically to students assigned to the Seminar Group 1 section.

Below, you can see a Canvas Announcement specifically targeted at students in Seminar Group 1. This targeting is achieved by selecting Seminar Group 1 in the “Post To” section of the announcement settings:

Courses on Canvas remain open for 18 months from the 1st of September of the academic year they are part of. After this period, the course transitions to read-only mode, preventing further interaction but still allowing content to be viewed. This measure helps to prevent old courses from cluttering Canvas dashboards. However, this can pose challenges for students with resits or external candidates who need access to the previous year’s course for instruction or assessment. By using Canvas Sections, course access can be extended for these specific users while keeping the course closed for the rest of the cohort.

Example Scenario

A number of students require access to a Canvas Course as external candidates. They need access to a Canvas course from the previous academic year to study and submit an assessment set in that year. By using Canvas Sections, the module leader can extend the access to this course for those students, allowing her to access the materials and submit them to submit their assignment. The module leader will assign a start and end date to the Canvas section, apply the “Students can only participate in the course between these dates” option, and ensure Olivia is enrolled in this section. This approach allows these students to have extended access to the course without reopening it for the rest of the cohort.

You can see below that the custom access dates have been set for the students in this section (1) and by click on the "Student can only participate in the course between these dates" (2) extends this access. 

With Canvas Sections, you can assign assignments to specific student groups and even set different deadlines for the same assignment across these groups.

Example Scenario

Module leader Helen is teaching a co-taught module with two cohorts enrolled in the same Canvas course. While the teaching content is largely the same for both cohorts, Helen wants to assign slightly different assessments to each group. By using sections, she can set distinct assessments for each cohort within the same course.

Using Canvas sections, you can set up delegated marking for your course. Within Canvas SpeedGrader, you have the option to filter by section. This allows you to assign students to specific marking sections, which can then be filtered. When filtered, SpeedGrader will display only the students in their assigned grading section, excluding other submissions.

To do this, from the student list in SpeedGrader, select sections (1) then select the name of the section you wish to filter by (2).