Accessing Canvas and creating your account

To begin, open your web browser (for example, Internet Explorer, Safari, Google Chrome, or Mozilla Firefox). If you are using an institution-specific Canvas site, consult any information you have received from your school, specifically looking for the URL (web address) for your school's Canvas site. After we address how to log in for institutional Canvas accounts, we will cover how to access and log in to a Free for Teachers account.

Accessing your institution's Canvas site

To access your institution's Canvas site, perform the following steps:

1. Open your web browser and enter the URL for your institution's Canvas site.
2. You can also copy and paste the URL from any informational e-mails you may have received from your institution. While your institution's Canvas URL may follow a variety of formats, a common formula for the institutional Canvas URL is http://institution.instructure.com in which you will enter the actual name of your school instead of "institution".
3. If you have instructions from the IT or administrative team at your school, follow those instructions to set up your account. As mentioned previously, each situation is slightly different, so you may need to get support for your specific case if you have questions.

Often, you will receive an e-mail invitation to join Canvas that includes a link to follow and clear step-by-step instructions once you follow the link to Canvas. In other cases, the institutional ID that you use to access your school e-mail account or registration system may automatically be carried over to Canvas, depending on how your school has integrated Canvas with the rest of their management systems.

Tip

In most cases, if your institution uses Canvas as its LMS, you do not need to create a Free for Teachers account. However, consult members of your institution's IT or administrative department for specific instructions if you are not sure.

Creating a Free for Teachers account

The following steps will walk you through how to create your own Free for Teachers account within Canvas:

1. To create a Free for Teachers account, open your web browser and navigate to canvas.instructure.com.
2. When the page loads, click on Need a Canvas account? Click here, it's free! and you will be taken to a registration page.
   
3. Select whether you are a Teacher, Student, or Parent from the Title drop-down menu.
4. Then, fill in your information on the registration screen, take a look at terms of use and privacy policy, check the You agree to the terms of use and acknowledge the privacy policy checkbox, and click on the blue box at the bottom-right corner of the window. This box will read Start Teaching, Start Learning, or Start Participating depending on whether you are a teacher, student, or parent. The following screenshot displays what you will see when you create an account as a Teacher:
   
5. Once you submit your registration, you will receive a confirmation e-mail as well as a welcome e-mail. The confirmation e-mail will include a link that you must follow to complete your registration and create your password.
6. Once you have followed the e-mail link to confirm your registration, you can log in at http://canvas.instructure.com again using your e-mail address and a new password to begin using Canvas!