Sharing and Importing Course Content in Canvas Commons

Canvas Commons is the perfect way to share content across varying courses. Content shared to Commons can be shared by any Canvas user. Content already shared to Commons can be imported into any user’s Canvas course. You can share a single page, an assignment, a full module, or even an entire course using Commons.

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Commons Availability

Canvas Commons (or Commons) is only available to instructors and Canvas administrators. It is not available for students. Therefore, students will not have the Commons icon displayed on their left-hand global navigation menu within Canvas. However, once you have imported content from Commons into your own course, you can choose how you want to make that imported content available to your students.

Sharing Content to Commons

These instructions work for Modules, Assignments, Pages, Files, Discussions, and Classic Quizzes.

  1. In Canvas, navigate to your Modules, Assignments, Pages, Files, Discussions, or Quizzes index page. (Example: In Course Navigation, click the Modules link.)
  2. Find the piece of content you would like to share to Commons.
  3. On the far right-hand side of the page, click on the Options (three-dot kebab) icon for that item.
  4. Select Share to Commons.
  5. On the Share Resource screen, make sure to select the All of College for Creative Studies checkbox. Fill in as much information as you can related to the content you are sharing including the Title, Description, Tags, and Grade/Level. This will help you and others easily search for your content once it has been shared to the Commons repository.
  6. Click the Share button to submit your content to the Commons repository.

It may take 30 minutes for your content to process and appear in Commons.

Sharing an Entire Course to Commons

You can share an entire course to Commons for others to import into their own course(s).

  1. In Course Navigation, click the Settings link.
  2. Click the Share to Commons link on the right-hand side of your screen.
  3. On the Share Resource screen, make sure to select the All of College for Creative Studies checkbox. Fill in as much information as you can related to the content you are sharing including the Title, Description, Tags, and Grade/Level. This will help you and others easily search for your content once it has been shared to the Commons repository.
  4. Click the Share button to submit your content to the Commons repository.

It may take 30 minutes for your content to process and appear in Commons.

Importing Content from Commons to Your Course

The Commons repository allows you to search for and import a wide variety of content into your Canvas course(s). You can import something as small as a file or as large as an entire course. You can even mark content as a “favorite” so that you can easily find it later to import into your course(s). To import content from Commons into your own Canvas course(s):

  1. In Global Navigation, click the Commons link.
  2. Use the Search by title, name, institution or tag 🔍 box to search for an item of interest. Click the Filter button to further narrow down your search. In this example, we’ll search for the words art project and filter to only see Undergraduate results.
  3. Click on the name of the item to view additional details about it. In this example, we select the project 3: performance art assignment.
  1. On the next screen, view the details about the shared resource including a Preview of the resource, Details of the shared resource (including an area to leave a comment for the author of the shared resource), and any Version notes the author has included.
  2. Click the Import/Download button on the right-hand side of the screen. A fly-out menu will appear on the right side of the screen.
  3. Place a ✅ checkmark next to one or more of your Canvas courses where you would like to import the Commons resource into, and click the Import into Course button.

Check the Status of Your Imported Content from Commons

You can easily check the status of the content you’ve chosen to import from Commons.

  1. Navigate to your Canvas course.
  2. In Course Navigation, click the Settings link.
  3. Click on the Import Course Content link on the right-hand side of your screen.
  4. Look under the Current Jobs heading. Items labeled Canvas Common Cartridge with the date/time you imported the item from Commons will show at the top of that list with a status label.

Additional Resources