The Office of Distance Learning's Technical Support group is dedicated to helping FSU students with their online learning needs. Contact us any time you have a question, a problem, or any feedback. We are here to help you have the smoothest experience possible!
If you're having trouble with Canvas, you do not necessarily need to contact your instructor regarding simple technical issues! If it is something more serious, our ODL Technical Support specialists will let you know when it is important to contact your instructor.
To access Canvas, simply log in to my.fsu.edu and then click the Canvas icon under "myFSU Links." When you're done working in Canvas, make sure to log out of both Canvas and myFSU!
To avoid any confusion about due dates, we recommend that you make sure your Canvas account is set to the correct timezone for the region you are located. Having the wrong time zone in your user settings can cause a great deal of confusion, especially if you are a Distance Learning student!
You can easily change your name in both Canvas and other FSU systems by updating your info in Student Central. While it is possible to change your name through Canvas, that change only affects our Canvas system. The name change won't carry over to any other FSU system, like myFSU, FSU webmail, registrar records, etc., so changing your name in Canvas only could cause your instructors some confusion when they upload your grades from Canvas to the Registrar at the end of each semester.
The following conditions must be met in order for you to see your course in Canvas:
If you are trying to access a file, page, or any other item in your Canvas course and you run into the error message below, don't panic! This message usually indicates that your instructor has not published that item, so your classmates are also unable to access it. Please contact your instructor to let them know that you are unable to access the item.
Our office is open from 8am to 5pm (EST), Monday through Friday except during FSU holidays. Ninety-five percent of the time, we respond in less than two hours.
See our Canvas Notification Settings Guide. If you are using an email address other than your @fsu.edu address to respond to emails, then it is important to add that email address to your Canvas account. If you do not add that email address to your Canvas account, then you will not be able to successfully reply to a Canvas email notification using that account. This means that your instructor and fellow students will not receive your response unless you add this email address to your Canvas account.
Pro tip: Make sure to check your official FSU webmail inbox regularly to make sure you don't miss important university announcements and other communications. Canvas messaging is great, but it does not completely replace FSU's email system.
You can access your instructor's feedback on your assignment by clicking into the Canvas course and then clicking the Grades link on the course navigation menu. On your Grades page, you will see an icon that looks like two speech bubbles appear to the right of your grade for an assignment. Click on this icon to access your instructor's feedback. Alternatively, you can click on the assignment name itself to view both your assignment submission and your instructor's feedback side-by-side.
Canvas recently added a feature that will display a confetti celebration animation upon successful submission of an assignment. This confetti animation will only display for regular Canvas assignments and Canvas assignments that utilize the Turnitin Direct integration. It will not display when submitting a Canvas Quiz or Exam, posting to a Canvas Discussion, or submitting an assignment that utilizes the old Turnitn LTI integration. Keep in mind: You can opt out of this feature if you don't like it, but keeping it enabled may help you to ensure that you've submitted certain assignments correctly. You can also use the steps below to ensure that you have successfully submitted your assignment.
For regular Canvas assignments:
For Turnitin Direct assignments, see Students: How to submit Turnitin Direct assignments. For Turnitin LTI assignments, see Students: How to submit a Turnitin Assignment in Canvas. We strongly recommend downloading your Turnitin digital submission receipt for every Turnitin LTI assignment you submit.
The first thing to do is not to panic! Take a deep breath. Often, if you lose access to a quiz or exam while you're taking it, if you log out of Canvas and log back in again and try to regain access to your quiz or exam, you will get back in with no problem. However, if the quiz or exam is timed, the timer will keep running while you are trying to get back into the quiz or exam.
If you are not able to get back into the quiz or exam within a few minutes, immediately email your instructor to let them know what's going on and that you need help getting back into the quiz/exam. Copy [email protected] on this email. ODL Technical Support cannot give you access to any assignment without your instructor's permission, but in case your instructor is not able to give you access to the quiz/exam immediately, if they respond to your message asking our Helpdesk staff to assist you we will be able to help you regain access.
If your instructor uses a weighted grading scheme and also implements extra credit opportunities, you may see that your weighted grade total reads 200%. Please see the article "Students: Why is my weighted group total out of 200% instead of 100%?" for more information.
Has the class started yet? Most instructors don't let their students submit anything until 10 days before the semester begins; some don't allow submissions until the first day of the semester.
Or, try another web browser. Some browsers seem to present more display issues, so we recommend using Google Chrome or Firefox.
If you are typing in a long assignment or discussion post, always type it in a word document or notepad and save your changes periodically. Then, copy that text and paste it into the submission text box in Canvas. This will ensure that you don't lose your work due to a network connectivity issue.
Do not rely on the To Do calendar in Canvas to tell you everything you need to do - not everything is listed there. Make sure to check each course for information and refer to any syllabus and course schedule that you instructor provides. Also remember to check your official FSU webmail inbox regularly to make sure you don't miss important course communications that may not be sent through Canvas.
Canvas's mobile app can help you to stay up-to-date and complete some tasks in Canvas on-the-go! However, you can't do everything in the mobile app. If you can't access something in the mobile app, then use a computer or try the internet browser on your phone instead. We don't recommend taking a high-stakes exam or completing other significant assignments on the mobile app.
Receive Canvas system announcement notifications (the messages that display on your Dashboard) in your email inbox so that you can stay in the know on the go!
Be sure to check your official FSU webmail inbox regularly to make sure you don't miss important university announcements and other communications. Canvas messaging is great, but it does not completely replace FSU's email system.
