Back to the U: Have questions about Canvas? We have answers.
For the last four years, students and teachers in grades three through 12 have been using Canvas, Union County Public Schools’ learning management platform. This portal is where teachers post content, assignments, resources and more.
This spring when all school buildings closed due to COVID-19, all students switched to virtual learning and UCPS made the decision to expand Canvas to all grades.
Fast forward to this new school year. Something else is happening with Canvas.
Parents are being urged to log in and observe what their students are doing and how they’re progressing.
“As a parent observer, parents can link with their child and they have their own canvas account and they see many of the announcements teachers make. They come right to the parent’s inbox. They can see their calendars. They can see their assignments. They can see their grades on assignments, the feedback they receive on assignments. They can’t see the work of other students. They’re just paired to their student, their child and they can see all the work their child does within all of their Canvas courses” said Casey Rimmer, UCPS’ Director of Innovation and EdTech.
So how do you get in and around Canvas?
Here are some quick tips:
How to access Canvas:
- For students, it’s my.ncedcloud.org and parents use ucps.instructure.com
- Students log in with the same username and password used to access their Chromebook and other UCPS systems.
How to access parent resources:
- Go to the EmpowerED Family Portal on UCPS’ page and click on the link for parents’ resources. https://www.ucps.k12.nc.us/Page/6519
- Inside parents’ resources, you’ll see information about how to be a Canvas Observer.
- Get a pairing code from your child when your child logs in to Canvas. With that pairing code, you’re ready to create an account and pair it with your child or children.
Explore what’s inside Canvas: The calendar lists assignments by due date and when meeting events are taking place.
- Set up notification preferences to customize notification frequency to your mailbox.
- If you have more than one child with multiple courses, all of the events will show up in one calendar.
- View by day, week and month.
- Toggle calendars on and off to look for specific course calendars.
Locate the Canvas parent app:
- Parents have the option of downloading the free Canvas app to their phone. You can access it from the UCPS app.
- The app has several videos and tutorials in English and Spanish.
Need help?