Canvas Commons - a repository for learning resources

Last revised January 26th 2022

   Commons (in the Canvas main menu) is a digital library for storing and sharing educational content. 

You can use Commons to 

• store personal educational content
• share Canvas content and resources with colleagues, department, educational institutions, the world  
• search for learning resources that you can import into your Canvas course. 

 

Commons main menu

Commons has its own menu at the top of the page. The menu will help you orient yourself between searching for resources, managing those you have shared, imported, etc.

 

Find resources in Commons 

Click the Commons icon (1). Use the search field to search for content. To narrow your search you can apply search filters. Click the Filter button (2). 

    

You can select among the following filter options:

• Types (1), you can filter by resource type (e.g. Courses, Modules, Assignments, Quizzes et cetera)
• Grade/Levels (2), you can select specific grades or level of education to narrow your search
• Shared With (3), you can filter results by resources shared publicly, in your account, in a group, or in a consortium.

    

If you are looking for a colleague's material, you can, for example, apply the Shared With filter: (SUNET LMS in this case). Then only resources shared within your choice will be displayed.

Search results

            

Details about the search results, such as the author of the resource, the number of times a resource has been downloaded et cetera, are displayed on content cards.

  

  

Click the resource title to preview a resource as well as to, 

• View details, (1)
• Preview the content (2)
• Import/Download a resource (3)
  When you click the Import/Download button, a list of your courses will be displayed as well as the option to search for a course. Select the course(s) from the list that you want as a recipient.
• Add to Favorites (4) 
• Copy Resource Link (5)

 

Share Canvas content 

To share a course resource, locate it within the area page and click the Options icon (the three dots menu) (1). Then, click the Share to Commons link (2).

    

If you want to share an entire Canvas course, locate the course in question and click the name of the course you want to share to Commons. Then, click the Settings (1) link and after that click the Share to Commons link (2). 

 

When you share a course or a resource you can choose to set a content license (1), as well as add any additional (licensing, copyright, or usage) information about the course/resource (2)(3).

You must fill in:

• "Who can use this resource?" Select a sharing option.
• License (Read more about the different Creative Commons licenses here) Links to an external site. Click the Add Additional Information link for free text. 
• Title
• Description
• Image

Do not forget to click the Share button (4) to finish sharing Canvas content to Commons.