First Steps
Create a prep site
Northwestern instructors may request an unpublished site in Canvas to prepare for an upcoming course, try new tools or apps, or to store and modify material from a previous course. Prep sites are not for teaching and cannot be made available to students. Prep site course material can be easily copied into actual course sites.
Set up your profile and notification settings
It's easy to set up your profile, add your picture and bio to Canvas.
- How do I edit my profile in my user account as an instructor? Links to an external site.
- How do I add contact methods to receive Canvas notifications as an instructor? Links to an external site.
- How do I set my Canvas notification preferences as an instructor? Links to an external site.
Please note: Notification settings cannot be customized for individual courses. These are global settings that will determine how and how often you are notified of a variety of activities across all of your courses.
Locate hidden courses
To see a complete list of all the courses you've taught or taken at Northwestern, follow the steps below. Remember, past and future courses might not be accessible to students, depending on the settings for each course.
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- Click "Courses" on the global navigation menu
- Click "All Courses" located in the bottom left corner
- The courses you have access to will be displayed in a list
- Click the star to the left of the course you want to add to your dashboard. Be sure the star color changes to orange
- From the global navigation menu, click "Dashboard" to confirm the course you starred is displayed
(For more information and screenshots to help with this process, see the Canvas Community page Links to an external site..)