How to Enable the Smart Search Feature in Canvas
To enable the Smart Search feature in your Canvas course, follow these steps:
- Access Course Settings:
- Navigate to your course in Canvas.
- In the course navigation menu, click on Settings at the bottom.
- Go to the Feature Options Tab:
- In the course settings, you will see several tabs across the top of the page. Click on the Feature Options tab.
- Enable Smart Search:
- Look for the Smart Search option in the list of available features.
- To enable it, toggle the switch to the ON position.
- Confirm the Feature is Enabled:
- Once the toggle is switched to ON, the Smart Search feature will be active in your course navigation menu.
- Refreshing your browser may be necessary for the navigation link to appear.
- You can now use the enhanced search functionality within your course content.
Important Notes:
- This is not a Canvas App and does not require any additional installations. Simply enable it from the Feature Options as described above.
- If you encounter any issues, refer to the detailed How to Enable Smart Search instructions on the Canvas Community site.
Ever since Palomar College started using Canvas, the “Assign To block” has been present at the bottom of the edit screen for anything that gets a grade. This includes assignments, quizzes, graded discussions… anywhere that faculty can set due dates and availability dates.

Starting on Saturday, July 20th, this interface in Canvas is changing. The functions remain the same, but rather than having the classic block display on the edit page, now there is a link to set the assign functions.

Clicking the “Manage Assign To” link opens up a side-bar with a slightly modified set of controls.

This new interface should make it easier to set the dates and times. The field showing who the work is assigned to works the same as the classic Assign To block, so that is unchanged.

Keep in mind that if you need to modify the dates on multiple assignments, you can still do so all in one place. Just follow the instructions from “How do I bulk update due dates and availability dates as an instructor?“
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:
- Go into your course, to the Settings area, and go to the Apps tab.

- Click the “Redirect” app, then click the “+Add App ” button.

- Fill in the details that determine how the redirection will work.
- In the Name field, put what text you want to display on the course navigation menu.
- 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://).
- 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.
- 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!
If you have any technical problems with Canvas please refer to the Help menu at the bottom of the global navigation menu (visually there is a circle with a question mark in it at the lower left of the Canvas screen).
Palomar’s Canvas system is administered and supported by the Academic Technology department. We offer training workshops on using Canvas, and our current offerings may be found online listed in the 3PD system. In addition to workshops, there are a number of videos and instructional documents available on the ATRC blog:
And, of course, there is a plethora of information about using Canvas on the Canvas Community site.
Most of the questions students have about their Canvas courses revolve around the actual course content or course layout, so most questions really need to be asked of your instructor. To find contact information for your instructor, please visit the Palomar College Directory and either search for your instructor by name or look up the department contact information.
It can take a bit of time for changes in the enrollment system to percolate over to Canvas, so if you have just signed up for classes it may be up to three hours before you will see the new course listed in the Canvas All Courses list. Similarly, if you just applied for admission to Palomar, it may take up to three hours for your Canvas account to be generated.