Quercus (Canvas) Notifications helps instructors, students, and course staff stay informed about activity in their courses. Notifications can provide updates about announcements, assignment deadlines, grades, submission comments, Inbox messages, and other course activities.
Users can customize how often they receive notifications through email or mobile push notifications. Notification preferences are managed individually and do not control how other course participants receive updates.
Managing Your Notification Settings
To customize your notifications:
- Sign in to Quercus.
- Select Account > Notifications from the global navigation menu.
- Under Settings for, select Account to manage notifications across your courses.
- Locate the notification type and contact method you want to adjust.
- Select the notification icon and choose your preferred frequency.
Canvas provides four notification settings:
- Notify immediately: Receive notifications as soon as possible. Delivery may be delayed by up to one hour.
- Daily summary: Receive a daily summary of notifications.
- Weekly summary: Receive a weekly summary of notifications.
- Notifications off: Do not receive notifications for that activity.
Available settings vary by notification type and contact method. Changes to notification preferences take effect immediately.
For detailed instructions, consult Canvas’s How do I manage my Canvas notification settings?
Managing Notifications for Individual Courses
By default, your account notification preferences apply to all your Quercus courses. You can also customize notifications for an individual course.
To manage course-specific notifications:
- Select Account > Notifications.
- Under Settings for, select the course you want to customize.
- Adjust the notification preferences for that course.
Course-specific preferences override your account-level settings for that course. You can adjust these preferences independently of your account settings.
You can also enable or disable notifications for an individual course using the Enable Notifications setting.
For detailed instructions, consult Canvas’s How do I manage notifications for a single course?
Managing Contact Methods and Mobile Notifications
Quercus sends email notifications to the confirmed email addresses associated with your account. Your University of Toronto email address should remain your primary contact method.
To review or add contact methods:
- Select Account > Settings.
- Under Ways to Contact, review your email addresses.
- If needed, select Add Email Address and follow the instructions to confirm the new address.
Unconfirmed email addresses cannot receive Canvas notifications.
Users of the Canvas mobile apps may also receive push notifications for supported activities. Push notifications can be enabled or disabled, but daily and weekly summaries are not available for push notifications.
Notification preferences changed in the Canvas Student mobile app may override those configured through the browser.
For detailed instructions, consult Canvas’s How do I add contact methods to receive Canvas notifications?
Receiving and Responding to Course Communications
Quercus email notifications are generally sent from notifications@instructure.com. If you are not receiving expected notifications, check your junk email folder and, in Outlook, both the Focused and Other inboxes.
At the University of Toronto, students are responsible for receiving and reading communications sent to their official University-issued email accounts. Students should ensure that their email information in ACORN is current and regularly check their University email.
Although University email may be forwarded to another provider, forwarding can be less reliable than accessing the institutional account directly. Students remain responsible for receiving University communications.
For information about these responsibilities, consult the University’s Policy on Official Correspondence with Students.
When responding to Quercus Inbox messages, users are encouraged to sign in to Quercus and reply through Inbox. Canvas may support replying directly to notification emails, but attachments included in email replies are not transferred into the corresponding Canvas Inbox conversation.
Important: Notification settings determine how users receive alerts, not whether course content or communications are available in Quercus. Instructors should not assume that all students receive notifications immediately or have enabled notifications for every activity.
Additional Information and Support
For further information, consult Canvas’s Notifications reference, which explains notification types, default settings, and the activities that trigger them.
For assistance with Quercus notifications, contact your divisional Quercus support team or consult Quercus (Canvas) Support.