Announcements
Announcements are a primary method of communication for instructors to get in touch with students via Canvas. Announcements allow instructors to post information and updates to all members of a course or a certain section of a course directly in Canvas. Students also receive an email notification when a new Announcement is posted.
The Inbox
The Inbox is a messaging tool used to communicate with a course, a group, an individual student, or a group of students. You can use the Inbox to communicate with others in your course.
Discussions
Canvas provides an integrated system for class discussions, allowing both instructors and students to start and contribute to as many discussion topics as desired. Discussions allow for interactive communication between two or more people; users can participate in a conversation with an entire class or group. These may be graded or ungraded and restricted to small groups or open to the entire class.
Groups
Your instructor may set up groups in your course. Groups are used as a collaborative tool for students who are working on projects or group assignments. A group workspace is created where students can create pages, announcements, collaborations, discussions, and calendar events for real-time collaboration.
Google Docs
Google Docs is a great place to collaborate on a group project. You can start a new collaboration using Google Docs in Canvas. Google Docs allows you to add up to 50 users per collaboration, and all users can view and edit a document at the same time. However, a Google file may be shared with up to 200 email addresses including viewers, commenters, and editors.