Other Useful Features
Commons
What is Commons in Canvas?
Commons is a space where Canvas users can share resources with others, such as assignments, videos, page templates, or even entire courses. It can also be used to import content shared by others into your own course. Canvas’s Commons guides describe it as a place to search for, import, and share resources from Canvas courses. (Instructure Community)
Access settings
When sharing content to Commons, the teacher chooses who can see it. For example, content can be shared:
- only with the teacher
- with other users at the University of Iceland
- with the wider Canvas community
Commons allows resources to be shared privately or with broader audiences, depending on the sharing settings selected when the resource is published. (Instructure Community)
Benefits
Commons can be useful for several reasons:
- to let others reuse well-designed course content
- to save time by reusing materials created by others
- to keep important course materials محفوظ for later use
- to import content quickly into one or more courses
- to test content first in a sandbox course before importing it into a live course
00:07: How do I use comments? 00:09: In global navigation, click the comments link. 00:13: A resource in common can be a course. 00:15: Module quiz assignment discussion page, 00:19: document video, image or audio file. 00:24: Each resource type has a unique icon. 00:26: Look for these related colors and icons. 00:28: When searching for resources to find resources, in Commons, use 00:33: the search field you can search for keywords, such as author, institution, 00:37: or title. You can also search by outcome, Consortium 00:41: or group. 00:44: To sort search results, click the sort by drop-down menu. 00:49: To apply search filters to your search. Click the filter button. 00:54: Based on your selected filters. The number of results are displayed in the page. 00:58: To search everything available to you in Commons, leave the search field and 01:02: filters blank. 01:05: You can also view featured content in the results page featured content 01:09: includes high-quality content. That is featured in the common search page. 01:13: Featured content can be imported or downloaded like any other content in 01:17: Commons. 01:19: To narrow your search or to search by filter, use one or more of the filter 01:23: options. 01:25: A proof resources if your admin has enabled approved resources, you 01:29: can filter results to only show approved resources. 01:34: Type, you can filter by resource type such as courses, modules 01:38: assignments, quizzes, discussions Pages, documents 01:43: images, videos, or audio. 01:48: Content types, you can filter by template or open textbook. 01:53: Grade levels. You can select specific grades or level of Education, 01:57: to narrow your search example K-12 undergraduate 02:01: graduate. 02:04: Shared with you can filter results by resources, shared publicly in 02:08: your account in a group or in a Consortium. 02:12: When search results are displayed in, cardview resource, details are displayed 02:16: on content cards. Each card displays the following details. 02:21: A proof resource icon, identify institution approved resources, 02:25: note that the approved resources feature must be enabled by an account 02:29: admin. 02:31: Resource icon. Identify the resource type. 02:35: Title to preview a resource view more details or 02:39: import a resource. Click the resource title. 02:43: Grade level view, the grade level of the resource. 02:47: Author, view the author of the resource. 02:50: Downloads and favorites. Icons view the number of times a resource 02:54: has been downloaded and imported or added as a favorite. 02:58: To view resources in a list, click the Switch to list view link. 03:03: In the list view, resources, display in a list format. 03:07: To sort the list in alphabetic or reverse alphabetic order click, the title 03:11: sort icon. 03:13: To sort the list in alphabetic or numeric order for additional parameters. 03:16: Select a parameter and click the sort icon. 03:21: To preview a resource view more details or import a resource. 03:25: Click, the resource name link. 03:28: To designate a resource as a favorite. 03:30: Locate the resource in the list and click the favorite icon. 03:35: The resource added to favorites, message displays 03:39: To browse the resource list, click the page forward and page back icons. 03:45: The content overview page, loads the preview tab by default. 03:48: The sidebar contains further information and links 03:53: Favorites and downloads displays. 03:55: The number of times. A resource has been added as a favorite or downloaded 04:00: Date of last update date when content was last updated by an 04:04: author. 04:06: License displays either, the copyright or Creative, Commons content, 04:10: license. 04:12: Thumbnail and approved icon resource thumbnail. 04:14: And if applicable the approved resource icon, 04:19: Import download button button to download or import the 04:23: resource. 04:25: Size and type size of resource file, and the type of content. 04:30: Favorites button. Add the resource to your favorites. 04:34: Copy resource, link button, copy the resource link to your clipboard. 04:40: To preview resource content, click the preview tab. 04:43: The preview tab is shown by default. 04:47: In the details tab, you can view a summary of the resource and related information. 04:53: Description, a brief explanation or summary of the resource. 05:01: Account the account from which the resource was shared. 05:05: Great level, the suggested grade level for the resource. 05:09: Tags. Relevant tags are keywords to identify the resource. 05:14: Duration duration of an audio or video file only applicable 05:18: to audio or video resources outcomes outcomes linked 05:23: to a resource. Only applicable to Resources with linked outcomes. 05:28: Shared with sharing settings, such as account group, Consortium 05:32: public, private. 05:35: Reviews reviews by other users. 05:38: When you are ready to import a resource, click the import download button 05:42: and select a course. 05:45: To view any updates made to the resource, click the version notes tab. 05:50: Updates are sorted by date and time and may include a description of changes made. 05:56: You can share a variety of resources to comments from your canvas course, including 06:00: a canvas, course course, content and files. 06:05: To view a list of helpful comments, guides, click the guides link. 06:10: To access all the commons guides, click the canvas Commons guides 06:14: link. 06:15: To access a specific. Commons guide, click the link of the corresponding guide. 06:21: You can access the terms of use privacy policy and help in the footer 06:25: in any page in Commons. 06:28: This guide covered how to use Commons.
Teaching Two or More Courses Together
Two or more courses that are taught together can be set up to use one shared Canvas course site. Students from all included courses then access the Canvas site of the course selected as the main course. In many cases, it is practical to choose the largest course as the main course.
Unused course sites
To avoid confusion, course sites that will not be used should remain unpublished to students in Canvas.
Course name
The shared course name can include the course numbers of all combined courses. If this is not done when the courses are combined, it is possible to request it later by emailing hjalp@hi.is.
Final grade transfer
When final grades are transferred to Ugla from combined Canvas courses, only grades for students who were originally enrolled in the main course are transferred automatically. Final grades for students in the associated courses must be entered manually in Ugla. To do this, open the course under My Ugla > My Courses, then click the icon to enter final grades.
Course sections
When courses are combined, each course becomes a separate section within the shared Canvas site. Each section contains students from one course. This makes it possible to limit access to an assignment or other course content to students in one course only.
To view the sections:
Open Settings in the course navigation.
Open the Sections tab at the top of the page.
See also: Using Sections in a Course.
To request course merging
Send an email to help@hi.is with Combine courses in the subject line. Include the course numbers, the semester, and specify which course should be the main course.
Restore Deleted Content
Sometimes content is deleted by mistake during course cleanup. Canvas includes a commonly used recovery page where deleted course items may be restored.
Steps
- Open the course home page.
- In the browser address bar, add /undelete to the end of the course URL.

- Press Enter.
- A list of deleted items will appear.
- Find the item you want to restore.
- Click Restore.
Validate Links in Course Content
Broken links in a course can cause problems for students. Links may stop working after course cleanup, after content has been moved, or if linked material on the web has been removed. Canvas includes a built-in tool for finding broken and invalid links in a course. Instructure describes this option as Validate Links in Content in course settings.
Steps
Open Settings in the course navigation.
On the right side of the page, click Validate Links in Content.
Review the results and fix any broken or invalid links that are listed.
Enable New Course Features
Some Canvas features are optional or newly introduced and can be turned on or off in the course settings under Feature Options.
This may apply, for example, to Smart Search, AI discussion summaries, and other optional tools.
A good way to test new features is to enable them in a sandbox course first. It is also important to use Student View to check how the feature appears to students.
Steps
Open Settings in the course navigation.
Select the Feature Options tab.
Find the feature you want to use.
Change the feature state to Enabled.
Enable IgniteAI Search in a Course
IgniteAI Search was previously called Smart Search.
Steps
- Open Settings in the course navigation.
- Select the Feature Options tab.
- Find IgniteAI Search and enable it.
- Click Home. In most cases, the search will then appear.
- If it does not appear in the course navigation, open the Navigation tab.
- Check whether IgniteAI Search appears in the upper list of active course navigation links.
- If it does not appear there, move it into the active list.
- Click Save at the bottom of the page.
After this, IgniteAI Search appears in the course navigation menu on the left.

