ATRC Help Documentation

Canvas Course Navigation Menu: How to add a redirection

It is possible to create a custom course navigation menu in a Canvas course you teach, that will take students to whatever website you’d like. Just keep in mind that if you are redirecting students to another location within Canvas, you may need to update the redirection each semester, since internal Canvas course locations are different for each course site. If you’re redirecting to an external web site though, you should be good to keep reusing the link across semesters.

Here’s how you create a redirection:

  1. Go into your course, to the Settings area, and go to the Apps tab.
    screen capture showing the course Settings, with the Apps tab selected and the word "redirect" in the search box
  2. Click the “Redirect” app, then click the “+Add App ” button.
    shows the "Redirect" icon, a blue curved arrow, and the "+Add App" button
  3. Fill in the details that determine how the redirection will work.
    shows the details interface, but the actual text and what to fill out are detailed in the main text below

    1. In the Name field, put what text you want to display on the course navigation menu.
    2. In the URL Redirect field, put the exact address of the site to redirect to. For best results, browse to the website and copy the address, then paste it into this field. When possible, be sure you specify a “secured” location (i.e. the link will start with https:// and not just http://).
    3. Of the available checkboxes, be sure to select “Show in Course Navigation” to make your link appear in that location. If you are redirecting to a web site leave the “Force open in new tab” selected; only clear this if you are redirecting to another location within the Canvas course.
  4. Click the “Add App” button.

You may need to refresh the course before you’ll see the new Redirect link on your course navigation menu. Once you have the link, be sure to test it!