Canvas User Guide

Table of Contents

Canvas Learning Management System and openEQUELLA

openEQUELLA is an advanced digital repository that can be integrated with the Canvas learning management system. From within Canvas, users can access the openEQUELLA repository to search, create and manage content such as images, audio, video, packaged content, web links, text, PDFs and Microsoft Office™ documents. Content can then be incorporated into Canvas courses. The purpose of this guide is to demonstrate to users how to integrate openEQUELLA resources using Canvas. Users will learn how to search for, create and manage available resources, and how to add these materials to courses. For information on configuring openEQUELLA in Canvas, refer to the openEQUELLA Canvas Configuration Guide.

Please note that this guide has been developed using openEQUELLA version 6.3 (GA) and Canvas and as such may differ in appearance to your own installation. Contact your system administrator for access to extra features or to reconfigure your installation.

Canvas homepage and course page

Log in to Canvas to display the Canvas homepage.

Courses can be viewed and selected by selecting the Courses drop-down at the top of the page.

Click Modules from the course page navigation menu to view the course modules and existing content.

Adding content to Canvas course modules

openEQUELLA content can be added to Canvas course modules in two ways:

  • Selecting the Select resources from openEQUELLA option from the course navigation menu. Using this option opens the openEQUELLA Integration screen, which lists all the Canvas course modules on the right, and allows the user to search for and select multiple resources to add to one or more course modules.
  • Selecting the PLUS button beside a specific course module from the Modules page. Using this option allows the user to select openEQUELLA as an external tool, and add a single resource to the selected module. S

Accessing the openEQUELLA Integration screen

To add an openEQUELLA resource to a course

  1. Select an appropriate course (e.g. Physiology) from the Courses drop-down. The Course page displays.
  2. Select Select resources from openEQUELLA from the course navigation menu. The openEQUELLA Integration screen displays.

Adding openEQUELLA resources from within a Canvas module

openEQUELLA resources can be added to a Canvas course module from the module itself. Using this method allows the user to add a single openEQUELLA resource at a time, and that resource will be added to the course module the openEQUELLA Select screen was accessed from.

To add an openEQUELLA resource to a module

  1. Select Modules from the course navigation menu. A list of course modules display on the screen.
  2. Click the PLUS button beside the module the resource is to be added to. The Add item to Module name dialog opens.
  3. Select External Tool from the Add drop-down list. A list of available external tools displays.
  4. Locate and select openEQUELLA from the list. The openEQUELLA Select page displays.
  5. The Select screen has the following links at the top of the page:
    • Home – click to return to the home page
    • Search – click to open the standard openEQUELLA Search page.
    • Browse – click to browse results from hierarchy topics and sub-topics.
    • Contribute – click to contribute a new resource to openEQUELLA.
  6. Select the required item using the select buttons. NOTE: Selection is restricted to one item per selection session. The My selections dialog displays.

Select the required version option (if applicable). Click X to remove the selection. Click Select a Different Resource to swap the selected resource to a different one.

  1. Click Return Selection. The Add item to Module name dialog displays.
  2. Click Add Item. The resource link is added to the Canvas module.

Managing resources in Canvas

Resources added to Canvas module can be managed in the following ways:

  • Click on the more menu icon to the left of the link to drag the link either to a different location within the current module, or to another module within the current course.
  • Click the cloud icon to ‘publish’ an item. This changes the status from ‘draft’ to ‘published’ within the course module. Click the same icon to ‘unpublish’ a published item.

From the Edit menu:

  • Select Increase indent to indent the item within the module.
  • Select Edit to open the Edit Item Details dialog.

The Title, URL and Indent options can all be edited. Select the Load in a new tab checkbox to open the item in a separate tab.

  • Select Remove to delete an item from the course module

To view a resource

  1. Select the title link to display the resource selected. Depending on the type of resource (pdf, docx, jpg,etc.), the object will display using a default viewer. openEQUELLA summary pages display using the openEQUELLA Resource summary page.

Adding openEQUELLA resources to the Canvas HTML editors

The openEQUELLA repository can be used as a search destination for content-creation functionality within Canvas. Images (and other resources) from openEQUELLA can be added using Canvas’s HTML editor.

To add openEQUELLA content to the Canvas HTML editor

(Note: openEQUELLA content can be accessed from any of the Canvas HTML editors. These HTML editors exist in a number of places in Canvas, and this guide will refer to just one of those.)

  1. On the Canvas Course page, select Assignments from the navigation menu, then click + Assignment. The Create new assignment page displays with the HTML Editor.
  2. Select the openEQUELLA icon from the HTML editor toolbar.

NOTE: The second, larger openEQUELLA icon (Insert openEQUELLA links) has been added by Canvas, and does not link to the integrated openEQUELLA instance. It opens the OER repository. The same OER content can be accessed via Cloud search results from the integrated openEQUELLA.

The openEQUELLA Select screen displays.

The Select screen has the following links at the top of the page:

  • Home – click to return to the home page
  • Search – click to open the standard openEQUELLA Search page.
  • Browse – click to browse results from hierarchy topics and sub-topics.
  • Contribute – click to contribute a new resource to openEQUELLA.
  1. Select the required item using the select buttons. NOTE: Selection is restricted to one item per selection session.

The My selections dialog displays.

Select the required version option (if applicable). Click X to remove the selection. Click Select a Different Resource to swap the selected resource to a different one.

  1. Click Return Selection . The selection displays in the HTML Editor.

Push to LMS

openEQUELLA content can be added to Canvas course modules using the Add to external system function accessed from the Resource summary page Actions menu in native openEQUELLA.