Student FAQs

Canvas is a learning management system that supports online learning and teaching. It allows professors to post grades, information, and assignments online. Canvas is used at Río Hondo College to create online courses, to replace some of the normal time spent in the traditional classroom as in “hybrid” or “blended” classes, or to supplement traditional classes as in “web-enhanced” classes.

Canvas uses your AccessRío username/password to login. Your AccessRío username is your first name dot your last name; followed by the last four digits of your student ID. Your default AccessRío password is your six-digit birthday with no separators.

For example, Maria Smith whose student ID is 000-77-1234 and birthday is August 1, 1975 would log on as:
USERNAME: maria.smith1234
*DEFAULT PASSWORD: 080175
*Your default AccessRío password might be a different password if you changed it in the past.

There are different ways you can use to access Canvas.
First method is to log in through the Río Hondo College Web Portal. To log in to the portal, please follow the steps below:

1. In your web browser, navigate to www.riohondo.edu
2. Click the “ACCESSRIO” Login link (top right)
3. Enter your RHC Portal username and password and click the Login button
4. Select the Student tab
5. Click on the Canvas button.

The second method is to directly log in to Canvas:

1. In your web browser, navigate to http://riohondo.instructure.com
2. You will be able to access the Canvas login page. Please enter your AccessRío username and password. It is a good idea to bookmark the login page in your browser, so you can still access Canvas even if the Río Hondo College Web Portal is down.

The third way to access Canvas is from the Río Hondo College website:

1. From the RHC website, click on the ACADEMICS & SUPPORT tab.
2. Under ACADEMICS, choose Distance Education.
3. Then, click on the Canvas Login link to access the Canvas login page.

It will be up to your professor to enable you to access your Canvas courses. You typically will not have access to your courses in Canvas until the first day of class. Upon registering, be sure to make note of when your course starts. And if you add after the course has begun, it will take one business day to access the course.

Canvas displays up to 20 course cards in the Dashboard. Thus, if you’re involved in many courses at once during a semester, you may not see all of your courses in the Dashboard. Here is a tutorial that explains how you can access all of your courses in Canvas.

Canvas Computer Requirements

No, they are not. All online courses require you to adhere to due dates for assignments, quizzes, discussions etc. If you register in an online course, expect to finish the course on the instructor’s timeline, not yours.

In order to access Canvas, you need a computer or mobile device with Internet access. Canvas can be visited via major web browsers including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Edge, and Safari, and is supported under Windows, Macintosh, and UNIX operating systems. Canvas also offers mobile phone applications free for download for mobile devices.

Canvas Apps

No, only students who are registered in an online or hybrid course can access Canvas. Some instructors, however, use Canvas to support or supplement their “in person” class instruction. Ask your professor if a Canvas course has been set up for your regular on-campus class.

If you are unable to log in to Canvas, it might be for one of the following reasons:

1. You are using the wrong username and password
2. You are not presently enrolled in any courses that use Canvas
3. The computer you are logging in with is not configured correctly

If you are having problems getting logged on, please fill out the entire “Canvas Support Form” to contact technical support.

Please contact the Office of Distance Education, either through email, phone, or in-person.

Your instructor has the option of enabling the Turnitin SimCheck anti-plagiarism tool to check assignments that are submitted online in your Canvas course. Please contact your instructor if you have any questions about Turnitin SimCheck.

Most current browsers are very security-conscious and often try to block files using Adobe Flash, seeing those file as a potential security threat. If the video does not display, or you are not seeing the play/pause button, etc., check your browser window for security alerts. Some browsers put a small shield to the right of the URL, some place a text alert at the bottom. Learn more about enabling mixed content by reviewing the Computer Requirements and scrolling to Browser Privacy Settings.

If you are unable to see your course in Canvas, it might be for one of the following reasons:

1. You are not registered for the course.
2. You need to contact your instructor to make sure that the course is using Canvas, and that the course has been published by your professor.
3. Your course may not have started yet. Refer to your schedule for starting dates.

If you are experiencing problems uploading a file, please check the following:

• The filename should not contain any spaces or invalid characters (no ampersands, commas, quotes, slashes, colons etc.)
• Acceptable characters for naming a file are standard letters, numbers, hyphens, and underscores.
• Acceptable file formats for uploading files through Canvas are: .doc, .docx, .pdf, .xls, and .xlsx.

If you continue having problems uploading the file, please fill out the “Canvas Support Form” to contact technical support.

If your computer is infected with a virus/spyware which can cause pop-ups and tracking of your surfing activities, then your computer may run slow and crash often.

You can try searching www.google.com for the name of the virus/spyware found on your computer in order to learn more about it.

Some viruses/spyware will not allow you to log in to Canvas, others only cause problems with certain Canvas tools, and some others do not affect Canvas, but they can be a security risk as your personal information is sometimes sent to the server that is running the virus/spyware.

Internet professionals have given the following two programs high ratings for removal of virus/spyware. Both can be found at www.download.com.
Ad-Aware by lavasoft.de
Spybot – Search & Destroy by PepiMK Software

Always make sure you do a Virus Scan and Windows Updates weekly.

If you are unsure how to do a Windows Update, please visit the Microsoft’s site at http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com and download the “Critical Updates.” This will help with the performance of your PC and also improve security issues.

With the constant changes being made to the Canvas pages, it is important that your browser always displays the most recent version of the page. If we change a page that your browser has cached, it is going to keep serving the old, cached version of the page and you won’t see our most recent change. That is why we ask you to clear your cache. Before clearing your browser’s cache, be sure to log out of Canvas and then close and restart your browser after clearing the cache.

How to Clear Your Web Browser Cache on Any Platform

Your instructor may have selected a textbook publisher that requires an access code. To obtain full access to content created by the textbook publisher, you must first purchase the assigned textbook and then register your Access Code. Publishers typically bundle the access code along with the new textbook. If you purchase a used textbook, you must also purchase an access code separately. You may purchase it online or at the Río Hondo College bookstore.

If you are having problems with your Access code, please contact your Instructor. Your Instructor may refer you to the Río Hondo College bookstore.

Because Canvas is web-based, printing is handled through whatever Internet browser you are using. Sometimes you can right-click the area that you want to print and look for a message similar to “Print This Frame.” If the course content is an attached file, such as a Word document, you can open the document and print it from that program.

Instructors use the “Grades” page to post your grades in Canvas. The link to this page is located in the left-hand menu of your Canvas course. When you reach the “Grades” page for your course, you will see your scores on graded work only. You might also view in this page scoring details, comments, and rubrics.

Note that Canvas is not the official repository for student grades at the college. The official college site for student grades is Banner and is managed by the Office of the Registrar. To find out when grades will be posted in Banner at the end of the semester, please contact the Admissions and Records Office by phone at (562) 908-3415 or by email at [email protected].

Canvas is built on open web standards and use minimal instances of Flash, so most features are supported on mobile devices. However, not all features of Canvas work on mobile devices.
Learn more about what features work with Canvas

Canvas currently offers apps free for download for mobile devices.
Tutorial for Canvas on iOS
Tutorial for Canvas on Android

Note: Canvas is accessible through mobile web browsers; however, the free Canvas Apps are strongly recommended due to their ease of use.

Yes, this is the Canvas Student Guide. This Guide contains extensive tutorials and explanations for students.

Once you have officially dropped an online/hybrid course, you will be removed from your Canvas course. This occurs once the system has had time to process this change in registration, typically one day.