To view the course homepage, click on the name of the course on the course card on your dashboard.  HLS uses a standard homepage template. Although faculty are free to modify or use completely different homepages, most HLS homepages will look like the one below.

• To the far left is the blue user navigation bar [1]. This is where you can access your account information (including profile, profile picture, and notification settings), dashboard, list of courses, and calendar.
• Use the course navigation menu [2] to move around the course. The course title [3] is shown at the top of the page.  The main body of the home page has several sections: the course information table [4] is information directly fed from the Registrar. It contains information such as the faculty name, course time and location. Note that locations are often not fed until a week or two prior to the start of classes.  If you don’t want to see the Course navigation menu, you can collapse it by clicking on the three blue bars at the top of the page.
• The Syllabus and Course Materials section [5] is an area for faculty to add links and information about where syllabi and course materials can be found.  The Teaching Staff section [6] is an area for faculty to post their picture, contact information, and office hours. At the bottom of the page is a link to TLC (which stands for Teaching, Learning & Curriculum Solutions). We support Canvas and other classroom technology.  This section also has a link to the HLS library research guides [7].
• The right sidebar [8] shows any feedback you might receive from faculty through the Canvas system as well as any dated assignments or events coming up.

We have encouraged HLS faculty to add their syllabus to the Syllabus tab in Canvas.  You can click on the Syllabus tab on the left course navigation menu to access the Syllabus.  Some faculty might also link to the syllabus on the homepage.

Learn more about the Syllabus.

HLS faculty can provide course materials and readings to students in a number of ways.  If you are confused about where to access course materials, it is best to ask the your instructor directly.  The most common ways to access course materials are:

1. Link to course materials page (or similar name) on the homepage.
2. Link to course materials page (or similar name) on the course navigation menu.
3. Link to Files tab on the course navigation menu. Learn more about Files.
4. Link to modules on the course navigation menu or the homepage. Learn more about modules.
5. Series of buttons on the homepage (usually weekly) that link to materials for each week.

Accessing a document.  When you see a link to a document on a page, you will have three choices for accessing that document: a download link, a preview link (that looks like a magnifying glass) and a link that will open a new tab and download the document. If you want to preview the document before you download it, click on the preview link (magnifying glass).

Troubleshooting tip: always log on to Canvas using: canvas.harvard.edu (do not use harvard.instructure.com). You will not be able to access Course materials tabs on the course navigation menu if you log into the “instructure” address.

Troubleshooting tip: mobile apps and mobile devices sometimes have trouble accessing items on the course navigation menu.  If you have trouble, try using a laptop and/or logging in with a different browser.

Some HLS faculty use assignments. Assignments can be used to give students information about an assignment, including due dates. Assignments can also be configured to allow students to upload papers directly through the Canvas system.  You can access assignments in several ways:

• Through a link on the homepage
• Through the Assignments tab on the course navigation menu
• Through the Syllabus tab; scroll down to the action items table and click on the link to the assignment.
• On the Calendar, you can click on the assignment’s due date to access the assignment.
• Some faculty might also send an announcement with a link to the assignment.  See the Communications tab in this tutorial for more information on announcements.
• Learn more about submitting online assignments.

Some HLS faculty use Canvas to set up office hours and special events. You can find these events and appointments in your Calendar. The Calendar will also show any assignment due dates (if your instructor has set them up in Canvas).

• On the user navigation, click the Calendar icon.
• To see if your instructors have created any office hours, click on the “Find Appointment” button.  From the drop-down, select which class you are looking for office hours for and hit “Submit”.
• A list of active appointment groups will be listed on the page. Select a date and time that works for you and hit “Reserve”.  Learn more about signing up for appointments in Canvas.

After your course is published, your instructor can being using Canvas to communicate with students. There are three primary ways to communicate in Canvas: Announcements, Course Emailer, and Inbox. Most HLS faculty do not use the Inbox, but rather they will use a combination of Canvas announcements and the Course Emailer.

• The Course Emailer. Communications from the Course Emailer will go directly into your email account from the faculty member and will not be archived in Canvas.  Depending on how your instructor sets the permissions for the course email list, you may or may not be able to generate a new email to the entire class list. If you would like to use the course email list to communicate with the course, please ask your instructor.
• Announcements. Announcements will be archived in Canvas under the “Announcements” tab on the course navigation menu.  They will also generate a notification to your @law email account by default.

As a Canvas user, you are in control of how, when and where Canvas notifies you.  To adjust your notification settings, click on “Account” in the upper left corner (under your picture) and then click on the “Notifications” link from slide out menu.

Note:  If you are not receiving notifications to your @law email and if you have had a prior affiliation with Harvard (for example attended Harvard as an undergrad, or worked for Harvard previously), you might need to change your official email address in the Harvard identity system.  To find out which email is your official email, go to your Canvas dashboard and click your account icon (your picture).  Click settings.  Under “Ways to Contact” you will see an email address with a star after it.  This is your official email address.  To change this, email Harvard University IT (ithelp@harvard.edu) and ask them to change your official email address from the old email to your @law email. This will change your email throughout the Harvard system.

On the notification settings page, you can choose how often you want to be notified about various activities in Canvas.  If you want to be notified about changes to assignment due dates ASAP or daily, hover over the field to the right of the “Due Date” heading and choose either ASAP or daily.  The default is to notify you weekly about due date changes.

You can also add an alternate email or phone contact method by clicking on the “Account” icon and then the “Settings” link on the left navigation bar.  Then click “Add email address” or “Add Contact Method” (for a mobile number) on the right of the page and follow the prompts.

Once you’ve added the alternate contact method or email address, go back to Notifications and set your notification preferences for that new contact method.  Learn more about managing your Canvas notifications.

Receiving notifications about edits to a page or assignment in Canvas is a two-step process. Students must elect to receive such notifications, and teaching staff must elect to send such notifications.

First the student needs to change their notification preferences to receive a notification when teaching staff edit the page/assignment. This is the Course Content option in the Notification Preferences page.  Second, the teaching staff member must click a “notify users that this content has changed” option when they make the change.  If they don’t choose that option, they are electing to not send a notification.  If they do choose the option to send a notification, Canvas will only send it to users who have set their preferences to receive such notifications.

Also note: the Course Content notification only governs whether or not users receive a notification about changes/edits to the text or description fields of a page or assignment.  Assignment due date notifications are governed by the Due Date option in the notification settings.

You can access content from your past courses by clicking on the “courses” icon in the user navigation bar, then scrolling down the list of courses until you see the “past enrollments” heading.  Click on any of the course links to access the past course.

Canvas supports the most recent iterations of all major browsers. You can read more about browser compatibility on the Canvas Browser information page.

If you are using older versions, some browsers may produce a banner stating Your browser does not meet the minimum requirements for Canvas. If you have upgraded your browser but you are still seeing the warning banner, try logging out of Canvas and deleting your browser cookies. Here are instructions for clearing your cache on a PC and Mac.  Note that if you are having trouble accessing your course site or experiencing other erratic behavior, you might also want to clear your browser cache or try accessing Canvas in a new browser. 

If you are using an older browser, you can update your browser or you can dismiss the warning banner during the duration of your browser session. 

If you are on a library or other HLS computer and you receive a notice that the browser is out of date, please contact the HLS IT department at help@law.harvard.edu or call 617.495.9576.

Computer Specifications

Help:  You can get help 24/7 from Instructure, the company that owns Canvas, by choosing the 24/7 phone or chat options from the Help menu on the Global Navigation bar (top right of every Canvas page).  You can also get help from our team: the Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum Solutions (TLC) group at HLS Library from 8:30am to 5:30pm Monday through Friday, by choosing the “Harvard Canvas Support” option from the Help menu.  

You can also reach the TLC group by emailing: tlc@law.harvard.libanswers.com or calling 617-496-1316 during our office hours. For more about TLC at HLS visit our webpage.