T2MTU: Opening Shared Canva documents, and Changing Your Canvas Course Image

by Amanda Dills
1/7/25

Happy New Year! For today’s Tuesday Tune up, we are sharing 2 different tips.

Click on the video below to play the video, and/or keep reading for written directions and links:

Tip 1: Open up Canva workspace BEFORE opening up a shared Canva link.

Many Canva users have multiple workspaces inside their account, or even multiple Canva accounts. This can make it tricky when you’re opening up Canva template links or shared Canva documents, as your account will automatically save these documents in whatever workspace of your Canva account that you opened most recently.

Here is an example of a template link you can use to test this:

https://www.canva.com/design/DAGZ2QSTWaE/7eoqWDRWdSMn4qgdsGrHsg/view?utm_content=DAGZ2QSTWaE&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=publishsharelink&mode=preview

BEFORE clicking on the link above, open your Canva account, and make sure that you are inside the workspace where you want this new document to be saved. (You can switch between workspaces – AND accounts – using the drop down menu in the upper right hand corner of your Canva home screen.)

Now that you’ve pre-opened up the workspace where you want the new document saved, click on the link above and follow the prompts to open up a new file from the template.

Tip 2: Change your CANVAS course thumbnail image

On your Canvas dashboard, students and instructors see “cards” for each course in which they are enrolled. In courses you are teaching, you have the ability to customize these cards with images, designs, or even animated gif files.

Here is how to do this:

1. Create or find the image you want for your course thumbnail, and make sure it is downloaded to your computer.
   • I would suggest saving this image as a PNG file (if it’s not animated) or a GIF file (if it has animation or movement)
2. Go to Course Settings.
3. In the “Image” area of the first “Course Details” tab, select “Remove Image” if necessary. Then click Choose Image and follow the prompts to upload the image you just saved in step 1 as the thumbnail image of your course.

Now both you and your students will see this image on their Canvas dashboard in the tile for the course.

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Related Articles

For more information, check out these Canva-related articles:

• T2MTU: Canva Polls & Quizzes
• T2MTU: Opening Shared Canva documents, and Changing Your Canvas Course Image
• T2MTU: Sharing Canva Presentations
• T2MTU: Accessing Francis Tuttle’s Canva Workspace
• Canva
• T2MTU: Embedding a Canva Document into a Canvas Page
• T2MTU: Canva “Bulk Create”
• T2MTU: Canvas’s Layer & Arrange Tool
• T2MTU: Canva’s “Magic Expand”

And these Canvas-related ones

• T2MTU: Opening Shared Canva documents, and Changing Your Canvas Course Image
• T2MTU: “Bulk Grading” in Canvas
• T2MTU: Canvas Dashboard Clean-up
• T2MTU: Resetting Column Order in Your Gradebook
• T2MTU: Embedding a Canva Document into a Canvas Page
• T2MTU: Canvas Grade Scheme Updates
• T2MTU: Canvas Content Editor Updates
• T2MTU: Moving Canvas Total Grade Column
• T2MTU: Student Sorting in the Canvas Gradebook
• T2MTU: Gradebook Filters

And as always, if you have any questions or need assistance from ID3, please do not hesitate to reach out!

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