Teaching and Learning Resource Center

Carmen File Quota and Storage

The eLearning Support team is invested in making sure that CarmenCanvas runs smoothly and quickly for all users. Toward that goal, we maintain the default file quota in Canvas (750MB) and may work with instructors whose courses approach this limit in order to look for alternative solutions.

As you may have discovered, a Canvas course has a file quota of 750MB. This number does not include:

  • Uploaded student submissions
  • Content included in Pages
  • Media created using the Media Comment tool built into Canvas

We recommend conducting a complete evaluation of your course files to keep within this quota. Recommendations include:

  • Identify and remove files that you may no longer use or are duplicates
  • Move media or other large files to appropriate services
  • Optimize files you intend to upload

File storage options

Video

Large files, especially videos, take up a significant amount of room in Canvas. They can also be problematic for students to access if they are not hosted on a service intended for media delivery.

If you are sharing CarmenZoom cloud recordings in your course, these recordings are only temporarily stored in Zoom for 120 days. We recommend downloading the recordings then uploading to Mediasite for long term storage and sharing with students in Carmen. Mediasite also provides analytics that can help you gauge how well your students are engaging with your content. 

Other options include YouTube and Vimeo, if you are comfortable with their terms of use.

Using the Media Comment tool for creating videos within Canvas is ideal for brief messages or content that will change each semester, such as weekly introductions or summaries of past activities. If your media will not change from semester to semester, store your videos outside of the Carmen.

Documents and images

For larger files, especially if students will primarily be downloading them to use offline, please explore resources such as Microsoft OneDrive. For more information see the Using OneDrive with Carmen guide

Optimizing files

Optimizing files such as images, Word documents or PowerPoint slides for the web is a process that makes your files smaller. Smaller files are easier for instructors to upload and students to download.

In some cases, the same techniques also make your files more accessible for students using assistive technology.

To improve the student experience and reduce your overall file storage footprint, you might consider the following suggestions for optimizing your content:

PowerPoint specific optimization include: 

  • Improve mobile performance by removing audio, video, or animations.
  • Compress images within PowerPoint.
  • Convert to PDF for viewing online.
  • Record your PowerPoint with audio in Mediasite.

For assistance optimizing your files, please contact the Digital Union in Enarson Hall.  

Requesting an increased quota

If you have assessed your material and moved and optimized files as appropriate but still feel you need a larger file quota for a particular course, please contact the eLearning Support team to discuss the available options.

If we do increase the file quota, it would only be in a forum course. Courses copied from the forum would not need to have their quota increased.