Navigating the Canvas Desktop Experience as an Observer

Dashboard, Global Navigation, Course Navigation, Assignments, and Grades

To access Canvas for Citrus County Schools on your desktop or laptop computer, open your internet browser and enter https://citrus.instructure.com/login/canvas in the address bar.

In the video below, you will learn about the Canvas Dashboard, Global Navigation links, and about basic course navigation to view assignment details and grades. To view subtitles for this video, click the CC icon in the bottom right corner of the video. To read the transcript, click Read the video transcript under the video. You may also want to view the How do I navigate a Canvas course as an observer? guide.

Read the video transcript.

Canvas Course Interface

Navigating a Canvas course as an observer is simple. Let's take a look at the Canvas interface layout.

Observers can view Global Navigation, Course Navigation, Breadcrumb Navigation, Sidebar, and Help link.

The Global Navigation helps you get to where you want to go across all of your Canvas courses [1].
The Course Navigation helps you get to where you want to go within a Canvas course [2].
The Breadcrumb Navigation shows you the trail of your path within a course and gives you a quick and easy way to move backward [3].
The Sidebar (on the right side) will be mostly empty for Observers, but will come in handy when it's time to edit a course Page [4].
The Help link (question mark icon) is very important. When you need assistance from the Canvas Community, click the Help link [5].