Think of Canvas as your digital classroom – it's where you access course content and announcements, submit assignments, and receive your grades and feedback.
Log in using your RMIT ID (the letter 's' followed by your student number) and password. Forgotten your password? Reset it.
Courses should appear in Canvas seven days before the official course start date. If your course has already started, it will appear in Canvas 24 hours after you add it in Enrolment Online.
If you have further questions, contact your Course Coordinator.
You may have noticed that Canvas recently introduced dark mode on the mobile version of the app.
While the mode is still being tested and refined, there may be elements of the app that are harder to read and see in dark mode.
If you’re having trouble with using dark mode on the mobile app, you can change it back to light mode by following these instructions (PDF, 21MB).
Canvas is RMIT's online Learning Management System (LMS), where you can find all of your course announcements and content, including class notes and resources. On Canvas you can listen to lectures, complete online assessment tasks, view and submit assignments, and receive grades and feedback.
Students explain what Canvas is, how to navigate the interface, find course materials, submit assignments and more.
If you’re a new student, there are some simple things you should do to get set up on Canvas.
Canvas notifications can be personalised based on your individual preferences. You can choose for Canvas to send personalised notifications as email or text message alerts so you don't miss out on important course information and keep track of updates or activity from each of your courses, such as, due dates, announcements and grades.
Your notification preferences will determine:
It’s important you understand how to manage Canvas notifications to ensure you receive important messages quickly, while limiting others to avoid being inundated.
The table below shows the types of Canvas notifications that exist, and how RMIT recommends you set up your notification preferences.
Change your notification preferences by logging in to Canvas, then, in the left-hand navigation menu, click Account > Settings > Notifications.
Check out this Canvas Community post for more information about notifications.
Please note: these settings apply to all your courses. If you would like to set your notifications for individual courses, you can find out how by watching this course-level notification preferences instruction Canvas video.
| Course activities | Explainer | Email notification | Text notification |
|---|---|---|---|
| Due date | Due date changes for assignments and quizzes | Immediately | No |
| Grading policies | Changes made to assignment weighting, points, grading scheme, grading status | Send weekly | No |
| Course content | Changes made to pages, assignments or quiz content | Send daily or send weekly | No |
| Files | Files are added to a course | Send weekly or do not notify | No |
| Announcement | When a new announcement in your course is created | Immediately | Yes |
| Announcement created by you | There is a reply to your announcements | Send daily or weekly | No |
| Grading | Grade changes in the course. Including entering or changing a submission grade and posting assignment grades | Immediately | Yes |
| Invitations | Invitations to web conferences, collaborations, groups, peer reviews, and peer review reminders | Send daily or weekly | No |
| Submission comment | Assignment submission content | Send daily | No |
| Discussions | |||
| New topic | A new discussion topic thread is created | Send daily | No |
| New reply | New replies on topics you are subscribed to | Send Immediately | No |
| New mention | You are mentioned in a discussion thread | Send Immediately | No |
| Reported reply | Your activity in a discussion thread has been reported | Send Immediately | No |
| Conversations | |||
| Added to Conversation | You are added to a conversation | Send weekly or do not notify | No |
| Conversation message | New Canvas inbox message | Send weekly or do not notify | No |
| Conversations created by me | You create an internal Canvas email | Do not notify | No |
| Scheduling | |||
| Appointment signups | A new appointment is created in your calendar | Send daily or Send weekly | No |
| Appointment cancellations | Appointments are cancelled | Send daily or Send weekly | No |
| Appointment availability | Applies to changes to appointment time slots | Send daily or Send weekly | No |
| Calendar | New calendar events are created or changed | Send daily or Send weekly | No |
| Conferences | |||
| Recording ready | A conference recording is ready | If used send daily | No |
| Alerts | |||
| Global announcements | Institution-wide announcements (also displayed on dashboard) | Immediately | No |
Yes, the above information is a recommendation only. You can change your notification settings at any time. It is each student’s responsibility to ensure the settings are appropriate for their course.
Courses should appear in Canvas seven days before the officiual course start date. If your course has already started, it will appear in Canvas 24 hours after you add it in Enrolment Online.
If you can’t see your course on your Canvas dashboard, click on Courses in the navigation panel to the left of your dashboard. Scroll down and select All courses at the bottom. If your missing course is in the All courses list, click on the star symbol next to it to make it appear on the dashboard.
If you still can’t see your course, this might be because it's still being prepared. Your teachers have been working hard to get your course content ready. It’s a big process, so we are being careful to make sure we get it right, but rest assured, they’ll be up there soon.
If you have any concerns about your course not being on Canvas, then please contact your teacher/Course Coordinator.
If you need technical support, there is a 24/7 live chat function available in the navigation bar under Help > Canvas Support on your Canvas dashboard.
Add an image and fill out your profile so that teachers and other students can quickly identify you in course discussions.
You can also check your ‘Display name’ in Canvas (under ‘Settings’) reflects your preferred name and update this if desired. Learn more about Canvas and your preferred name at Update your personal details.
Find each of your course assignments by going to your Canvas Dashboard, clicking on a course, then selecting Assignments. Familiarise yourself with your assignments and when they’re due.
Please note: normally, you can submit your assignment an unlimited number of times up to the due date (there will be a 24-hour delay if you resubmit more than three times). However, your instructor may choose to limit the number of times you can submit an assignment. Limiting the number of submissions applies to all students who must complete the assignment.
Download the Canvas Student app via the App Store or Google Play Store for mobile devices and allow notifications. This is important as teachers may communicate room changes to you through Canvas announcements.
Turnitin is part of RMIT’s online assignment submission process used within Canvas.
Turnitin promotes academic integrity – the demonstration of integrity, honesty and fairness in your scholarly activities – by checking that your assignments are your own work and that you have acknowledged the work and ideas used from other sources.
RMIT may use tools to detect the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in assessments where AI tools are not permitted.
Turnitin will accept the following file types:
Files can be submitted directly from your computer or via non-RMIT Google Drive or Dropbox accounts. You will need to log-in to these services to authorise the submission.
The assignment being submitted must contain more than 20 words, must be under 40MB, must not exceed 400 pages in length, and must not contain spaces in between every letter.
You can resubmit an assignment using the same steps listed under Submitting an assignment (see above). Resubmitting your assignment will replace the original submission with the new file.
By default, assignments can be submitted an unlimited number of times in Canvas. However, your teacher/Course Coordinator can choose to limit the number of times you can submit an assignment. If there is a limit applied, the number of attempts is displayed on the assignments page. Limiting the number of attempts applies to all students assigned to the assignment.
When you submit an assignment, Turnitin generates an originality report by scanning your work and comparing the text against sources in its database. The report shows where matches have been found with an overall percentage of how much of the text is original. Your submitted assignment is also added to the database to reduce plagiarism.
If your teacher has provided access for you to view the Similarity Report, you can view your assignment's 'similarity score' from the View/Complete link for the assignment. To view your submission click on the View button on the Assignment Inbox page. Your Turnitin Paper will open in Feedback Studio in a new window.
A Turnitin digital receipt confirming your submission will be available from Turnitin for download. The digital receipt contains the file name, assignment title, author, date and time the assignment was submitted.
To download your digital receipt, click the download button in the submission tools area of the Turnitin toolbar. In the pop-up that appears, select Digital receipt.
More information on how to obtain your digital receipt is available in the Navigating Turnitin Student Guide (PDF, 412 KB).
The Canvas Community has guides, answers to common questions and forums where you can ask people for help.
Acknowledgement of Country
RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Luwaytini' by Mark Cleaver, Palawa.
