A Short Guide to the New Canvas User Interface (UI) at Penn The new Canvas UI will appear in May 2016 between Commencement and the start of Summer Session I. Only a few design elements will be changing in the new UI. None of the key Canvas functionality to which you've grown accustomed will change. Features like Assignments, Quizzes, Pages, Modules, Announcements, Discussions, and Messages will not be affected. One change you will notice when logging into Canvas with the new UI is that your Canvas account's homepage, also known as the User Dashboard, looks different. New Dashboard

The other change you'll notice is that the navigation menu and a few other links that were located horizontally at the top of the old Canvas UI no appear vertically as a single menu on the left side of the screen:

Dashboard & Course Cards Links to Canvas sites for the current term appear in the center of the page in colored squares. These are called course cards. Each course card can have up to 4 content areas appear at the bottom of the card: Announcements, Assignments, Discussions, and Files Only those content areas that an instructor has made visible to students will appear on a course cards.

A number with a content-area icon indicates that new content has been added to this area. To access the content, simply click on the icon, and you will be brought to the content in the course:

You can customize course cards by giving them a nickname and by changing their color. You can also toggle between the course-card view of the User Dashboard and the Recent-Activity-Stream view, which is the User-Dashboard display found in the old UI:

Global Navigation Menu In the new UI, the Global Navigation menu has moved to the left side of Canvas. It conveniently aggregates all of your user-account links into a single, easy-to-use menu. It remains on the left side of your screen regardless of where you go in Canvas:

The Account link opens a tab with links to your Canvas profile, settings, notifications, and personal files:

If you are a Canvas Admin, the Admin link opens a tab with your sub-account links:

The Dashboard link is like the "Home" link for your Canvas Account--it brings you back to your User Dashboard.

The Groups link opens a tab with a list of links to your Canvas groups, if you happened to be enrolled in any.

The Calendar link opens your Canvas calendar.

The Inbox link opens your Conversation-Messages inbox.

The Help button open a menu with different options for receive assistance with Canvas.

Canvas Sidebar The Canvas sidebar remains on the right side of the User Dashboard, but it moves to the bottom of your browser window when viewing Canvas on a small-resolution screen.

The View Grades button has replaced the "Grades" link from the old User Dashboard. It appear below the sidebar.

Questions? Concerns? As you have seen, the new Canvas UI only has a minimal impact on the user experience and includes many design improvements like course-cards with content links and a more comprehensive Global Navigation menu. Please contact Courseware Support at canvas@pobox.upenn.edu if you have questions or need assistance.