Canvas - Calendar

How do I use the Calendar as an observer?  

The Calendar is a great way to view everything a linked student has to do for all their courses in one place. You can view calendar events by day, week, month, or agenda list. The calendar also includes access to the Scheduler, which is an optional scheduling tool in Canvas. However, observers cannot reserve appointments on behalf of a student.

Observers cannot view events in a student's personal calendar or appointments reserved through the Scheduler. Please note that an observer can view a student's reserved appointment(s) in the Canvas Parent App.

Open Calendar

In Global Navigation, click the Calendar link.

View Calendar

The Calendar displays everything you are enrolled in since the Calendar spans across all courses. In the navigation bar, you can choose to view the calendar in Week, Month, or Agenda view [1]. The view you choose dictates the style of the calendar window [2]. By default, the calendar appears in Month view.

The sidebar [3] shows a quick-view calendar, your list of courses and groups, and undated items for your courses and groups.

Add Calendar Items

Each calendar view shows any assignments or events that have been added to the calendar. You can add personal events at any time in the navigation bar by clicking the Add button.

View Calendar List

Each personal, course, and group calendar is identified by a separate color that populates the calendar view. Associated assignments for each course or group will appear within the calendar view for each calendar [1]. For instance, in the above example, assignments and events from the US History course will appear as purple in the calendar view.

By default, the first 10 course and group calendars will be selected and appear in the calendar view. To hide a calendar, click the box next to the name of the calendar [2]. Calendars that are not active within the calendar view display as faded text [3].

Note: Canvas will assign an arbitrary color for each calendar unless a custom color is chosen. Each calendar contains 15 default colors, but you can insert a Hex code to create any color of your choice. Colors set in Dashboard course cards also update in the calendar.

View Undated Events List

Expanding the Undated items link will show you a list of events and assignments that are not dated. The assignments and events will be differentiated by icons and by the personal, course, or group calendar color.

View Calendar by Month

In the Month view, click the arrow buttons [1] to move from month to month. To view events for the current date, click the Today button [2].

To view a specific date, click the month link [3] and type a date in the date field [4] or select a date from the calendar [5].

View Assignments and Events

Assignments are shown with an icon next to the assignment title. The icon reflects the assignment type: Discussion [1], Assignment [2], Quiz [3], or Events [4].

Each item on the calendar is color-coded to match the courses or calendars in the sidebar.

To view full details for an assignment or event, hover over the item [5].

View All-Day Events

All-day events display the Events icon and do not include a specific event time.

If you want to extend an all-day event across multiple days, hover over the edge of the event until you see a black arrow. Drag your event across all required dates in the current month.

View Wrapped Assignments and Events

Your calendar view may show entire assignment and event titles as part of the calendar entry. This calendar view is only available in the Month view and can only be enabled by your institution. The wrapped assignment and event title view allows you to view the entire calendar item without having to hover over the title.

View Calendar by Week

To view the calendar by week, click the Week button. The Week view shows all calendar items by date and time. Note that some assignments may be due at 11:59 pm, which appear at the bottom of the calendar view.

View All-day Events

All-day events appear at the top of the calendar week. These events do not include a specific event time.

Like in the Month view, if you want to extend an all-day event across multiple days, hover over the edge of the event until you see a black arrow. Drag your event across all required dates. In Week view, you can only drag your event to the end of the week that you are viewing.

View Calendar Agenda

To view all your calendar items in an agenda format, click the Agenda button.