Overview

Canvas offers three main dashboard views:

The Card View displays course cards which you can reorder, favorite, and color code to organize your courses for easy navigation. Published courses appear at the top and unpublished courses at the bottom. Courses can be added and removed from this view by marking or unmarking them as favorite.

The List View displays all course to-do items.

The Recent Activity View displays all recent activity for all courses

Note: Prior to summer 2023, the List View was the default view. In summer 2023 the default view will change to the Card View. You can change your dashboard view to the one that works best for you at any time.

Changing the Dashboard View

1. Go to your Canvas@Illinois dashboard. 
2. Click the vertical ellipsis menu at the top of the page and select your option from the options.
   
   

Additional Card View Options

Reordering Courses

Courses may be reordered by clicking on the course card and dragging it into position.

You can also reorder a course by:

1. Go to your Canvas@Illinois dashboard.
2. Click the vertical ellipsis symbol on the desired course card.
3. In the Move tab, you have several move options:
   • Move to top
   • Move up
   • Move down
   • Move to bottom
   • Unfavorite (This will remove the course from the dashboard.)

Favorite Courses

You can choose courses to appear on your dashboard by marking them as favorite. You can also remove courses from your dashboard by removing the favorite designation.

1. Go to your Canvas@Illinois dashboard. 
2. Select Courses from the left-hand menu.
3. Scroll down to select All Courses. 
4. Click the star icon to designate favorite courses. Click again to remove a course from favorites. Note: This page is organized by whether a course is current and published so you may need to scroll down to find the appropriate course.

Individual courses can be unfavorited from the dashboard by clicking the vertical ellipsis symbol on the card, selecting the Move tab, and clicking Unfavorite.

Nickname Course

Canvas course website titles are often not how you would refer to the course. You can set a course nickname to more easily identify the course.

1. Go to your Canvas@Illinois dashboard.
2. Click the vertical ellipsis symbol on the desired course card.
3. In the Color tab, enter the course nickname in the Nickname field.
4. You may also set the course color here.

Color Overlay

Color overlay is another useful way to organize courses.

To use color overlay:

1. Go to your Canvas@Illinois dashboard. 
2. Click the vertical ellipsis symbol and select Color Overlay from the drop-down menu. You must have selected Card View previously for this option to appear.

To change the overlay color:

1. Go to your Canvas@Illinois dashboard.
2. Click the vertical ellipsis symbol on the desired course card.
3. In the Color tab, set the course color.