Impact: What is That New Yellow Button in Canvas?

This semester, we relaunched a Canvas integration called "Impact" which lets the Center for Digital Media better assist faculty and have greater insight on the use of Canvas and the integrated learning technologies. Impact can also launch targeted messages like reminding faculty to publish their course or helping students remove classes they have completed from their dashboard.

A major feature of Impact is that it provides faculty and students with just-in-time support for questions related to Canvas.

You may have noticed a new button that appears on the left-hand side of Canvas. This Support button provides access to a knowledge base for frequently asked questions. This new support hub hosts step-by-step guides on most features and an option to contact technical support for experiences not covered by the guides.

For example, if you are in the “Assignments” area of Canvas, clicking on the yellow button will give you articles that are related to Assignments (e.g., Creating assignments, Submitting Assignments, etc.). You can also get more specific help by entering phrases or keywords in the resulting search bar.

The knowledge base is available 24/7 and provides walkthroughs and tutorials for most technical issues pertaining to Canvas. If you cannot obtain a solution from the knowledge base and would like to reach out for assistance, you can also use the button to request help via email or get a phone number to call for assistance. Keep in mind that email and phone support is not 24/7.

If you do not like the placement of Impact’s yellow button, or if it covers items on Canvas you regularly need, you can reposition it.

To move the button, hover over the button and use the arrows to drag it up or down. You can also zoom out of your browser window by pressing the “CTRL” key (command key on a Mac) and the “-” key simultaneously. Zooming out will make the rest of the Canvas page slightly smaller while keeping the Impact button in place. This will help move the Impact button out of the way.

If you have not yet used Impact, click on it next time you are in Canvas!