Blog
Practical guides to getting your course material out of Canvas, and what to do with it once you have it.
The end-of-semester Canvas checklist
A printable checklist for saving your Canvas courses before access ends: the five settings to check today, what to download in which order, and how to verify it worked.
Read the guideHow to download lecture videos from Canvas
Canvas embeds video from six different systems, each with its own rules. How to tell which you have, and what works for Studio, Panopto, Kaltura and Echo360.
Read the guideHow to get a transcript of a Panopto lecture
Panopto has probably already made one, and captions are often allowed when downloads are not. How to get it, and how to transcribe one yourself.
Read the guideHow to save Canvas quizzes, Pages, discussions and announcements
Pages, quizzes, discussions and announcements are not files, so no download reaches them. The built-in export, its deadline, and what it leaves out.
Read the guideWhat a Canvas access token is, and what it cannot do
What a Canvas access token grants, what it cannot reach, why yours now expires, and what to check before pasting one into any tool.
Read the guideCanvas download tools compared: extension, script or app
Browser extensions, Python scripts and desktop apps for downloading Canvas, compared against each project's own documentation, by one of them.
Read the guideHow to back up a Canvas course before you lose access
Canvas's own export stops working once a course concludes. What to save first, in priority order, and how to check the backup is complete.
Read the guideWhat Canvas's Download as Zip actually misses
Measured across 33 real Canvas courses: how many files a Files-tab zip misses, how often the tab is switched off entirely, and what is never in it.
Read the guideHow to save your Canvas assignment feedback
Canvas exports your submissions in one click but not the feedback on them. How to save annotations, comments and rubrics before access ends.
Read the guideHow to get your Canvas files into NotebookLM
What NotebookLM accepts, why it cannot reach Canvas, how to choose sources that matter, and what to do with lecture recordings.
Read the guideHow to download all your files from Canvas
Every way to get your Canvas course files onto your computer, compared: Download as Zip, submissions, browser extensions, scripts and a desktop app.
Read the guideCanvas access after graduation
How long you keep Canvas after graduating, the three ways access disappears, and a checklist for saving your courses, feedback and recordings first.
Read the guideHow to download Panopto lecture recordings
Why Panopto downloads are off by default, how to get them enabled, what your university allows, and how to keep a lecture as audio or a transcript.
Read the guideTwo reference tools rather than guides: the Canvas URL directory, and the same 4,757 institutions as CSV and JSON.