Canvas Course Storage Considerations
When teaching with Canvas, it is important to understand that your college has set a maximum storage size for your courses. When you upload content and save it to a Canvas file folder (docs, presentations, images, and video files) it counts against that storage size. By default your Canvas course shell will have 3 Gigabytes of storage allocated. It is important to be mindful of this limit and the number/types of content you place into your Canvas course.
If you have questions about the maximum storage size of your course, contact Online Learning Pathways.
Best Practice for effectively managing your Canvas Storage:
- If you reach your max storage capacity in Canvas, it is likely the result of loading video files into Canvas. Video files can be huge and will likely use up your storage quickly. But there’s an easy fix!
- Instead of uploading big video files (like Zoom class recordings) directly into Canvas:
- Link to a ConferZoom cloud recording, or...
- Upload each video file to external hosting service, where they can also be captioned,and then embed each video into your course (on a Page, Assignment, Discussion, or Announcement) by pasting a web link to the video.
- To avoid reaching the storage limit in Canvas we recommend using Cloud Storage repositories like Microsoft OneDrive or Google Drive.
- With the SDCCD Microsoft 365 Migration, all SDCCD staff and faculty will be able to use Microsoft OneDrive to store and share files to and from Canvas. OneDrive will allow you to store up to 1000 Gigabytes of files before you reach your storage cap. You can visit our page on how to integrate Microsoft 365 into Canvas.
- Another resource we recommend using especially if you already use Google products such as Docs, Sheets, and Forms is Google Drive. Keep in mind that your storage is capped at 15 Gigabytes but you also have the ability to integrate Google Drive into Canvas.
Video Hosting Service OPtions
- Canvas Studio
- Built into Canvas
- Offers video storage
- Offers inline quizzing
- Student viewing metrics can be added
- 3C Media Solutions
- A homegrown CCC supported hosting service from TechConnect
- Requires a 3C Media account to upload videos
- Videos can be shared as Unlisted or Public
- Instructional videos in support of distance education are captioned upon request (contingent upon funding)
- YouTube
- A free, popular service from Google
- Requires a Google account to upload videos
- Videos can be shared as Unlisted or Public
- Auto-captions can be edited for accuracy