Use of Canvas at the University of Nebraska must adhere to various policies and guidance. These policies existed previously and cover more than the Canvas learning management system; however, they are important to highlight for NU faculty as they engage in a variety of teaching activities through Canvas.
First, use of Canvas must follow University of Nebraska Executive Memorandum Number 16: Policy for Responsible Use of University Computers and Information Systems as well as the NU Student Code of Conduct. Specifically, per section 5 of EM16, unauthorized access to information systems including Canvas is prohibited. No one shall use the identity of another; nor shall anyone provide their authenticators/passwords to another.
Second, all content that is shared within Canvas must adhere to digital accessibility standards, specifically the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 AA Standard and University of Nebraska Executive Memorandum Number 47: Information and Communication Technology Accessibility Policy. Some key course design strategies to ensure Canvas content is accessible include but are not limited to applying captions to instructional video, ensuring that any PDF’s are accessible, considering font size and color contrast, and applying alt text to images.
Third, the University of Nebraska Medical Center is a HIPAA covered entity, which is described in University of Nebraska Executive Memorandum 27: HIPAA Compliance Policy. Canvas is not a HIPAA Compliant environment, which means it is not secure for Protected Health Information (PHI). Students and faculty should not use Canvas for storing or sharing PHI. All UNMC workforce is required to participate in and successfully complete initial and periodic HIPAA training appropriate to their responsibilities and their need for access to and use of PHI.
Finally, a Steering Committee was formed in Fall 2025 by Canvas Executive Sponsor (Interim EVP/Provost Dr. David Jackson) to make several key determinations about how the systemwide instance of Canvas at the University of Nebraska would be configured and to provide guidance to NU ITS on various Canvas-related procedures. Steering Committee membership includes: Dr. Kendra Schmid & Brooke Huntsmann (UNMC), Dr. Sarah Edwards & Matt Schill (UNO), Dr. Amy Goodburn & Steve Booton (UNL), Vicky Luke & Kelly Bruns (NCTA), and Scott Unruh & Lisa Neal (UNK). Jaci Lindburg, Rick Murch-Shafer & Leigh Lewis participated from NU ITS. The Steering Committee shaped guidance on five core issues regarding Canvas, which was reviewed/approved by NU Legal (as needed). A summary of key Steering Committee guidance for each of these five Canvas processes/procedures is captured below.
- NU faculty may merge courses. Per NU Legal, it is permissible to combine multiple sections of the same course; it is permissible to combine cross-listed, honors/non-honors, or graduate/undergraduate versions as long as grades and individual feedback remain private; and it is permissible to combine courses taught by the same instructor across campuses (e.g. UNL and UNO) so long as no grades or confidential student data is shared.
- There are two approved options for merging courses in Canvas. First, faculty may elect to merge in the PeopleSoft Combined Sections Table or the CourseLeaf CLSS Scheduling processes, which makes the merge transfer automatically into Canvas. Second, the instructor of record may independently merge desired sections directly using Canvas Course Utilities. Note, a faculty member will need to log in using NU credentials to use Canvas Course Utilities.
- This recommendation is focused on how course information (year/term, subject, course number, section, and course title) is displayed in Canvas for all NU campuses to improve consistency and usability in the NU-wide instance of Canvas.
- Naming standards that will be used:
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- Course Name
- Year/term, subject, course number, section, course
- 25FA MATH1320-001: College Algebra
- 25FA MATH101-001: College Algebra
- Course Code (short name that appears at top of the course when in Canvas)
- Subject, course number, section number, Peoplesoft course code
- MATH-1320
- MATH-101
- SIS ID (used as the Unique Identifier between PeopleSoft and Canvas)
- Subject, course number, section number, PeopleSoft course code, Campus
- UNO.MATH-1320-001.1258
- UNL.MATH-101-001.1258
- Courses on the NU-wide instance of Canvas will be retained 10 years, with an exception process created that could extend up to 15 years. Before any deletion occurs (beginning in 2036), ample communication would occur with faculty across NU.
- Existing campus-specific instances of Canvas used ~2017-2026 will be retained at least 5 years. Before any deletion occurs (no earlier than Fall 2031), ample communication would occur with faculty across NU.
- All courses will have default end dates (~10 days after a term to align with grading deadlines), which can be edited by individual faculty members. After a course’s end date, instead of appearing on the main page as a tile, the course can easily be found by clicking on the “All Courses” tab of Canvas.
- Instructors of record may add individuals to their course who have a legitimate need to be included. These may include another faculty member, observers, guest speakers, evaluators, internship supervisors, etc. The minimum level of access should be chosen that is aligned with the tasks an individual needs to complete.
- Instructors are not able to add individuals into a student role in Canvas, since it is intended that students need to enroll through official course registration processes. If a faculty member needs to have a student added to a course for an outstanding reason (i.e. to complete an incomplete from a prior semester and meet participation criteria), instructors can make a request to the ITS team (email: its-lmsteam@nebraska.edu), who will then add the identified student.
- In a limited number of specific and/or emergency situations (i.e. instructor illness, student complaint, federal/compliance issue, legal/subpoena issue), institutional leadership (i.e. Dean, Chair, Program Director) may need temporary access to a specific Canvas course without the instructor of record’s permission. More information about these exceptions - as well as the request form - is available here. In these situations, all approved emergency/specific access will be granted for one week unless otherwise specified for a shorter duration. Requests requiring access for greater than five business days must be formally established through PeopleSoft or CourseLeaf CLSS as part of the official course assignment or instructional role process to ensure appropriate tracking, compliance, and alignment with faculty ownership and data governance standards.
- A very limited number of staff/roles receive default heightened access to Canvas without additional notification to faculty due to the direct and legitimate necessity of such access in order to do their jobs. These include: (1) members of the NU ITS Academic Technology LMS team who conduct administrative and support functions across the root level of the system and (2) Instructional Designers and Accessibility Services staff who provide campus-wide or college-specific services for faculty and students. Instructional Designers and Accessibility Services staff will be granted the lowest degree of permission needed to effectively accomplish stated tasks (i.e. Instructional Designers who work at the college level would be given Designer access to the respective college sub-sub account only). All individuals with this access will complete required trainings/disclosures, and the VP of IT will review the list of who has this access annually to ensure accuracy, compliance, and legitimacy.
- If Deans, Chairs, or other academic administrators wish to have longer term (i.e. a semester or an academic year) heightened access to course content in a certain portion of Canvas for a legitimate reason (i.e. accreditation/assessment data pulls, Blueprint courses are utilized, certain tools are used to monitor for compliance/federal mandates like Regular and Substantive Interaction or “RSI), a Chair/Dean/Senior Academic Affairs Officer will approve this access and will also communicate details of this access to all faculty whose courses are in scope. If a Chair or individual is doing this type of work in a limited capacity and does not need access to individual courses but will have heightened access to Canvas for a limited period of time, NU ITS will seek the same approvals but no communication would be needed since individual courses will not be being viewed.
Use of Canvas Calendar for Non-Course Dates
- The Canvas calendar feature lives beyond a single course and could be utilized by a NU campus or the NU system to communicate key dates such as registration/enrollment dates, payment dates, university holidays, and graduation. However, it relies upon human processing (is manual) and there is currently no upload functionality within the software.
- With the NU-wide instance of Canvas, NU campuses will not be required to use the Canvas calendar for non-course dates. However, if an individual NU campus wants to use the Canvas calendar feature for non-course dates, they can opt in for the entire campus sub account (i.e. UNK) and need to identify a delegate (i.e. Registrar, AVC of Academic Affairs) to maintain, update, and verify the accuracy of dates entered for that respective campus sub account.
