Notifications are alerts that let you know an event has occurred in Canvas. You can set global notifications that apply to every course, and you can set notifications for individual courses.
Notifications that apply to all of Canvas are accessed by clicking on your Account in Global Navigation, and then selecting Notifications.
Setting Notification Preferences
Notification preferences allow users to select how and when they want to be notified when various events occur within a course. The options are: Right Away, Daily Summary, Weekly Summary, Never.
Review step-by-step instructions for setting your Notification Preferences: Canvas Guides - Notification Preferences.
Best Practices
- Set only the most important items as "Right Away." (Ex - Announcements, Conversation, Conversation Message)
- Anything selected as a Daily Summary will be sent in one email at the end of the day (Ex - Discussions, Submissions, & Late Submissions).
- Hover over the course activity type to see a description.
- Push Notifications come from the Canvas App and are all enabled by default as "Right Away." Select only your most important items (as listed in #1) and change the rest to Never.
- Getting too many emails or push notifications? Not getting enough? Adjust your notification settings at any time as you learn more about what notifications that you do and do not want.
Recommendations
| Item | Email Notification | Push Notifications for Devices (via the Canvas Student App) |
| Due Date (if a due date changes) | Notify me right away | Yes |
| Course Activities /Submission Comment (instructor feedback, comments on grades) | Notify me right away | Yes |
| Announcement (instructor posts an announcement) | Notify me right away | Yes |
| Grading (when new grades are posted) | Notify me right away | Yes |
| Conversation (Inbox message from your instructor) | Notify me right away | Yes |
| Alerts / Global Announcements | Notify me right away | Up to you |
Push Notifications
To receive push notifications, you must have the Canvas Student App on your mobile device and you must have enabled notifications. Then you can manage your preferences in the Push Notification column. Please be aware that push notifications can only be sent to your mobile device right away or not at all. Daily and weekly notification options are not supported.
Additionally, setting preferences inside the app will override preferences set in the notifications page.
Note: Some categories include limited availability for push notifications. Unsupported notification types display the Unsupported icon (null sign) in the settings. Unsupported notification types cannot be enabled.
Setting Notification Preferences for a Single Course
You can manage notifications for a single course on the Course Notification Settings page, which is accessed from Home/View Course Notifications. Course notification settings only apply to the course in which they are set.
To receive course notifications, you must first set your Canvas notification preferences.
Note: Once a notification preference is changed in your course, the course notification preference will override preferences set in your Account Settings. You must continue to manage that notification type within your course.
How do I manage notifications for a single course as a student?
Troubleshooting
- Notifications are sent to Canvas contact methods as specified in your account. You cannot receive notifications if your contact methods are unconfirmed. If you are not receiving Canvas notifications, please confirm your Canvas contact methods.
- The Canvas Student app supports setting notification preferences. However, setting preferences inside the app will override preferences in the browser version of Canvas.