What is the purpose of Canvas Commons?
Commons is a learning object repository that enables educators to find, import, and share resources. It is a digital library full of educational content that allows Canvas users to share learning resources with others and import those resources into a Canvas course.
You can do the following in Canvas Commons:
- Create a personal learning object repository.
- Build a course from scratch with relevant materials shared by other Canvas users.
Examples of Canvas Commons Uses include the following:
- Content that will help instructors build their Canvas courses. See Comparing Blueprints, Templates, Commons for more information.
- Resources that instructors can add to their course and technology resources to support instructors and students.
- Divisional content that will help students use Canvas more effectively, like how to manage Canvas assignments or discussions in your programs.
Important/Best Practices
- Our Commons area is JHU specific. We do not see or have access to resources from other schools and they don’t have access to our resources.
- Students can not access materials on Commons. Just faculty and staff.
- Don’t Share University Wide: When sharing in commons you have some options of where to share.
- University-wide means just that, everyone in the university can see and use your content.
- We are trying to prioritize content in University Commons that serves large populations.
- It is better to save your content to your own area or share directly with the colleagues.
- Sharing privately with yourself in the Commons is great for future use/backup of content.
- Direct Links: You can use direct links to commons as long as the person is logged in first.
- Outcomes: This doesn’t apply to JHU as we use AEFIS.
- Videos should not be uploaded to Commons directly. JHU uses Kaltura and Panopto (depending on your division) to host video content.
- Importing makes a copy but does not change the course in Commons.
- After a commons asset is created, additional content be added to it; you have to re-share and update it in the Commons.
- Note, if you try to import Commons in courses, and it can affect your course quota, not user quota.
- To share a Quiz Bank, you would need to follow a process similar to sharing rubrics by adding all questions from the bank into a blank quiz, then sharing the quiz to the Commons.
- After it is imported, the questions can then be added back into a bank in the new course. Here’s a link that explains how to do this (this references multiple banks).
- Talk to your teaching and learning center before trying this process for support.
How To Use
Open Commons
In Global Navigation, click the Commons link.
Find Resources
- A Resource in Commons can be a course, module, quiz, assignment, discussion, page, document, video, image, or audio file.
- Each resource type has a unique icon. Look for these related colors and icons when searching for resources.
- To find resources in Commons, use the Search Field [1].
- You can search for Keywords such as author, institution, or title. You can also search by consortium or group.
- To sort search results by Most Relevant, Latest, Most Favorited, or Most Downloaded, click the Sort by drop-down menu [2].
- To apply search filters to your search, click the Filter button [3].
- Based on your selected filters, the number of results are displayed in the page [4].
- To search everything available to you in Commons, leave the search field and filters blank.
- You can also view featured content in the results page [5]. Featured content includes high quality content that is featured in the Commons search page.
- Featured content can be imported or downloaded like any other content in Commons.
![Canvas > Commons and Sharing Documentation > CommonsDoc_2.png (Find Resources) Featured content can be imported or downloaded like any other content in Commons.](https://canvas.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/CommonsDoc_2.png)
Filter Search Results
To narrow your search, or to search by filter, use one or more of the filter options.
- Approved Resources [1]: For any enabled approved resources, you can filter results to only show approved resources.
- Type [2]: You can filter by resource type (e.g., Courses, Modules, Assignments, Quizzes, Discussions, Pages, Documents, Images, Videos, or Audio).
- Content Types [3]: You can filter by template or open textbook.
- Grade/Levels [4]: You can select specific grades or level of education to narrow your search (e.g., Undergraduate, Graduate) if setup.
- Shared With [5]: You can filter results by resources shared publicly, in your account, in a group, or in a consortium.
![Canvas > Commons and Sharing Documentation > CommonsDoc_3.png (Filter Search Results) To narrow your search, or to search by filter, use one or more of the filter options.](https://canvas.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/CommonsDoc_3.png)
Share A Commons Resource – Best Practice
You can share a variety of resources to Commons from your Canvas course, including a Canvas course, course content, and files.
![Canvas > Commons and Sharing Documentation > CommonsDoc_9.png (Share A Resource) You can share a variety of resources to Commons from your Canvas course, including a Canvas course, course content, and files.](https://canvas.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/CommonsDoc_9.png)
We recommend that you select to share to Only Me as the best resource option for future use.
![Canvas > Commons and Sharing Documentation > CommonsDoc_9B.png (Share To Only Me) We recommend that you from here select to share to Only Me as the best resource option for future use.](https://canvas.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/CommonsDoc_9B.png)
View Commons Guides
To view a list of helpful Commons guides, click the Guides link.
![Canvas > Commons and Sharing Documentation > CommonsDoc_10.png (View Commons Guides) To view a list of helpful Commons guides, click the Guides link.](https://canvas.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/CommonsDoc_10.png)
Access Commons Guides
- To access all the Commons guides, click the Canvas Commons Guides link [1].
- To access a specific Commons guide, click the link of the corresponding guide [2].
![Canvas > Commons and Sharing Documentation > CommonsDoc_11.png (Access Commons Guides) To access all the Commons guides, click the Canvas Commons Guides link. To access a specific Commons guide, click the link of the corresponding guide.](https://canvas.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/CommonsDoc_11.png)
Accessibility
- Follows Canvas Accessibility Standards.