Canvas Learning Management System

Canvas is UIC's new LMS

Canvas is UIC’s learning management system used to support teaching and learning across instructional formats. Canvas may be used to:

  • support and enhance face-to-face instruction
  • deliver and manage content for blended or hybrid courses
  • serve as the primary environment for teaching and assessing online courses

Canvas course sites are created automatically for most CRN-based courses listed in the course catalog. Instructors typically gain access to their Canvas course sites approximately 90 days before the start of the semester. Students are enrolled in Canvas courses about two weeks before the semester begins, based on Banner enrollment data.

Canvas course sites are unpublished by default. Instructors control when their course is published and available to students.

Canvas retains course content on an ongoing basis, allowing instructors continued access to past courses for reference, copying, or reuse. Older courses may be subject to institutional data-retention and storage policies, but archived courses remain accessible to instructors for instructional purposes.

Canvas courses that are over 3 years old are flagged for archival (SUYY) and then archived by default every June 1. Once a course is archived, the content is no longer available for instructors.

What kinds of files count toward the 2 GB limit and offers guidance on best practices for managing course files effectively.