The following acceptable use document was created to protect the core functions of the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS) at Weber State University and to ensure that administrators can provide a secure and stable system for students and faculty.

Weber State University - Canvas Scope

Canvas by Instructure is a Learning Management System intended to support the instructional mission of WSU and is available for all faculty members and course delivery methods (online, face-to-face, virtual, hybrid, etc.). Canvas hosts official university courses provided by WSU via the Registrar. Faculty and student enrollments are updated before and during the semester. 

Acceptable Use of Canvas 

Academic courses 

• All academic courses are hosted in the academic instance of Canvas. Each course must have an associated CRN (e.g., 20514) and a unique course ID (e.g., 521448).
• Banner is the authoritative source of start and end dates for courses. Changing these dates should be done in Banner through the Registrar or department administrative assistants.
• If a student qualifies for an Incomplete, submit the Incomplete form (provided on the records website) to your department and contact WSU Online for further assistance.
• Course participation is managed by registration in Banner, and students must be officially registered to be added to a CRN-based Canvas course.

Sandbox courses

• Sandbox courses are non-enrollment courses used for testing, content development, or trying out new features in Canvas. These courses are available by request through the Sandbox Request form. Additional considerations include: 

1. A limited number of sandboxes are assigned per user.
2. Faculty with extensive course lists may experience system errors.
3. Sandboxes can only be removed from a faculty member's course list by an LMS administrator.  
4. Course development sandboxes are meant to be used before a course section is available in Canvas (e.g. begin development on a summer course in early spring) 
5. Sandboxes can be reset and reused as many times as needed.
6. Sandbox courses are not meant for matriculated students. All student activity needs to be tied to a CRN in an active semester.

Non-credit courses

• Non-credit courses are courses that do not offer academic credit but are used for training, continuing education, or personal development.
• Non-credit courses that do not need Banner CRNs can be requested through the Canvas Course Request form and hosted in WSU's Catalog instance of Canvas.
• If a non-credit course needs to appear in Banner, those CRNs may be requested through the Division of Online & Continuing Education and will be hosted in WSU’s academic instance of Canvas.

Canvas Course Storage

Each course is allocated 1 GB of storage for course content and development. Assignment submissions do not count against this quota.

• To keep imports manageable between semesters, please use an external file storage system like Google Drive, Box, or OneDrive to host large files, and link to them directly in your Canvas course.
• Kaltura, our media hosting service, should be used for video and audio files to conserve Canvas storage space. Media files in Kaltura can be easily embedded into your Canvas course.
• The integrated Media tool in Canvas supports files up to 500 MB. Bulk uploads are limited to 50 files at a time. Refer to the Canvas File Quotas guide for more details.
• Course export packages must be smaller than the storage quota of 1 GB to be successfully imported.
• Instructors should regularly monitor their Course Settings and clean up unnecessary files, discussions, and media at the end of each term.

User accounts in Canvas

All students and faculty with an active WSU account will automatically have a Canvas account.

• Nicknames are not allowed (usernames must match Banner).
• Official (legal) name change (e.g., after getting married) requests will automatically update display names in Canvas.
• Unofficial name changes are reviewed by the Office of Equal Opportunity and must be approved to be processed.
• Please choose an appropriate profile picture to represent yourself. WSU reserves the right to remove pictures that are not appropriate for a classroom setting.
• Active Faculty accounts are marked as Instructors and student accounts are marked as Learners in the Canvas Account Permissions. A student account should not be granted Instructor permissions in any course unless they are assigned to teach a course in Banner.
• Each user account is given 50 MB of personal storage for profile pictures and discussion content. Assignment submissions and course content do not count against this quota.

Canvas Bulletins, Calendars, and Announcements 

• Global system announcements are restricted to issues related to the Canvas LMS, its integrations, and emergencies that affect student, faculty, or staff wellbeing. We pride ourselves on providing an ad-free experience so students can access their course content without interference.
• Announcements and calendar events must be limited to 3-4 sentences, with links to additional resources if necessary. All announcements must be approved by the LMS administrators.
• Announcements and events must only contain text and screenshots (no banners, images, gifs, etc.). Text may be stylized (bolded, italicized, etc.) but the universal font in Canvas is required.
• Canvas global calendar events are managed by Student Access and Success.

Data Requests

The data housed within the Learning Management System is owned by the users who interact with the system.

• Users with protected data include students, faculty, and administration.
• The data in Canvas is subject to privacy laws, including FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act), and any requests to access sensitive data must follow university policies.
• Accessing sensitive data requires several levels of approval. Any requests for LMS data should be submitted through the appropriate channels, such as the Office of Student Success Analytics or the Chief Data Officer, in compliance with university policies and privacy regulations, including FERPA.

Common requests that are NOT within the Scope of Canvas

Faculty / Staff Training and Development

As of 12/11/2020, Human Resources and IT procured a faculty and staff training platform named Bridge. New faculty and staff training workshops will no longer be hosted in Canvas. 

Advertising / Marketing 

WSU's instance of the Canvas LMS is not set up for marketing products or services. Individual instructors can create course announcements for their students for class-related events. A Student Resources global menu item is located in every course that links students to a website, maintained by Student Access & Success.

Events

Public conferences and events cannot be hosted in Canvas. Reference policy on External Users for more information.

Academic Program Information

Basic information about a program including resources, tracks, requirements, events, etc. can be listed on a University website.

Student Clubs and Academic Groups

Student-run clubs, academic groups, and events work better in a forum/discussion-focused setting. Teachers in the WSU Online instance of Canvas are given extra permissions that are normally unavailable to students. Try using Canvas Free-for-Teachers, Discord, or similar collaboration tools.

Record keeping

Past courses are stored in Canvas in a read-only state to preserve records for future reference. Data storage limits may impact the length of time in which individual courses may be stored.

• The storage of sandbox and non-banner course material is not a core function of the LMS, so instructors are encouraged to back up important files using Google Drive or Box for long-term storage.

External Users

External users and guests are generally not permitted into WSU's academic instance of the Canvas LMS unless they are faculty/staff members from another institution serving on a WSU program accreditation committee.

External users reviewing courses for accreditation purposes will be restricted to a limited access period, monitored by a WSU Online Canvas administrator.

* Guidelines Last Updated: September 20, 2024 *