The Learning Systems team at Ohio State is invested in making sure that CarmenCanvas runs smoothly and quickly for all users.
Toward that goal, we maintain the default course file quota in Canvas (750MB) and may work with instructors whose courses approach this limit to look for alternative solutions.
While 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.
- Identify and remove duplicate files and files that you no longer use.
- Move media or other large files to appropriate services.
- Optimize files you intend to upload.
File storage options
Explore the options below if you need to store large files outside of your CarmenCanvas course.
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, note that these recordings are only temporarily stored in Zoom for 120 days. We recommend downloading the recordings and then uploading them 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 video storage options include YouTube and Vimeo, if you are comfortable with their terms of use. Note that the Learning Systems team cannot provide support if students encounter problems with systems not provided by Ohio State.
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 Carmen.
Documents and images
For larger documents and image 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 for 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 content:
- Reduce the size of PDFs or transfer content to a Page in Canvas. PDF files are difficult to make accessible; Canvas pages are much easier for students to access using different device types and adaptive technology.
- Compress images.
PowerPoint specific optimization include:
- Improve mobile performance by removing audio, video, or animations.
- Convert to PDF for viewing online PDF files are difficult to make accessible; Canvas pages are much easier to students to access using different device types and adaptive technology.
- Record your PowerPoint with audio using Mediasite Mosiac or Mediasite Capture.
Requesting an increased quota
If you have assessed your material and moved and optimized your files as described above, but you still need a larger file quota for your course, please contact the Learning Systems team to discuss available options.
If we do increase your file quota, it would only be in a forum course. Courses copied from the forum would not need to have their quota increased.