Pepperdine Canvas Site Types

Overview

Pepperdine Canvas is intentionally designed with a focus on academic, course-based instruction. For example, sites that will be primarily used for file sharing are best suited for Shared Drives in Google Workspace, while sites serving a student-facing academic purpose may be appropriate for the LMS.

Please review the following guidelines and support resources if you are looking for effective, collaborative digital spaces beyond official course instruction. Prior to requesting a Pepperdine Canvas site, Pepperdine faculty and staff members must review the following definitions, use cases, management practices, and user support guidelines. Students are not eligible to request a Canvas site. Please note that submitting a request for a Pepperdine Canvas site does not guarantee approval. Each request will be reviewed to ensure it aligns with the University’s guidelines for LMS usage.

If needed, please see additional information concerning legacy project sites in Courses/Sakai.

University Guidelines

Please select an item below to expand and learn about available options.

Official Class Sites

Definition: "Official Class Sites" are formal academic courses offered through the University's student information system (SIS), WaveNet. These are for-credit courses tied to academic terms, course codes, and official student enrollments and faculty teaching assignments.

Characteristics:

Linked to the official course schedule in WaveNet
Site creation is automated based on the course creation schedule
Enrollments are automatically managed
Appear under Courses > All Courses in Canvas
Typically labeled by term code, term, course subject, number, section, and modality (e.g., 2252 Summer BA 212.21OL)

Use Cases:

Teaching and managing official academic courses
Delivering graded assignments and assessments
Tracking student progress and participation
Conducting synchronous and asynchronous instruction

Google Workspace

Definition: Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) is a suite of cloud-based productivity tools—including Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drive, Groups, and Sites—used for collaboration, storage, and project work that does not require LMS-level structure or functionality. Options like Shared Drives are ideal for collaborative projects, Google Groups for announcements, and Google Sites for informational websites. See Google Workspace email guides to get started with a Google Group that can be used across all of Google Workspace.

Eligibility:

All University students, faculty, or staff

Characteristics:

Not connected to SIS or academic records*
Offers collaborative editing in real-time
Access managed via Pepperdine email and Google Drive sharing permissions
Ideal for informal or cross-functional collaboration
Does not support grading tools or structured course delivery
Permissions and visibility can either be narrow to specific individuals or shared broadly

*Except for class email distribution lists, which are automated based on official WaveNet class enrollment information.

Use Cases:

Committee collaboration
Internal department documentation
Cross-departmental planning or working groups
Cross-institutional collaboration
Resource repositories or team workspaces

Support Staff Responsibilities:

Recommend Google Workspace for needs that do not require a Pepperdine Canvas structure (e.g., no grading, no SIS-linked enrollments)
Assist with Google Drive sharing and permission settings
Clarify when a Google Site might be more appropriate than a Pepperdine Canvas site
Direct users to IT Training for general Google Workspace support
Remind the community about University information classification and protection and Google Workspace Storage Policy

Academic Program Sites

Definition: "Academic Program Sites" are Pepperdine Canvas sites used for narrowly-defined academic purposes. They are not tied to an official course or automated enrollments. These sites are intended for student-facing purposes and often serve as hubs for ongoing academic resources, support, or services within a school or program.

Eligibility:

University faculty or staff

Characteristics:

Created manually upon request and approval
Must meet eligibility requirements
Enrollment is managed manually by site owners or maintainers
Contains academic content but is not tied to graded coursework or an official class roster
Can be ongoing, "termless" sites

Use Cases:

Program-level resource centers (e.g., GSEP Writing Center)
School-specific academic support sites
Long-term academic initiatives, not bound to a term

Training Sites

Definition: "Training Sites" are intended to provide structured training, onboarding, or professional development resources for faculty and staff. The sites are intended for larger community audiences (e.g., all faculty, all staff) vs. localized or small groups.

Eligibility:

University faculty or staff

Characteristics:

Created manually
Enrollment is managed manually by site owners or maintainers
May be self-paced or facilitated
Content curated to support skill-building and onboarding processes

Use Cases:

Faculty orientation to Pepperdine Canvas
Ongoing professional learning communities
Skill-based training modules

Class Staging Sandboxes

Definition: "Class Staging Sandboxes" are pre-designed Pepperdine Canvas course shells created to provide a consistent structure and layout for multiple courses. These spaces can be used for staging or designing classes.

Eligibility:

Academic faculty or support staff

Characteristics:

Managed and designated by instructor, school, or program staff
Designed to be customized before import into a live course shell
Ensures branding and consistency across multiple courses

Use Cases:

Standardizing look and feel across all courses in a program or school
Providing a ready-to-use structure for faculty teaching specific subjects
Staging and designing Class Templates managed by instructors or School Staff

Personal Sandbox

Definition: Personal Sandbox sites are private Pepperdine Canvas spaces for individual faculty or staff to explore, build, and store course content.

Eligibility:

University faculty or staff

Characteristics:

Limit 1 per user
Accessible only to the site owner unless shared
Content can be copied into official course shells when ready

Use Cases:

Developing course materials in advance
Maintaining personal repositories of teaching resources (excluding media/video files)
Testing Canvas tools privately

Key Differences at a Glance

Option	Created By	Linked to Term/Course	Automatic Enrollments	Use Case
Official Class Sites	SIS (automated)	Yes	Yes	Academic, for-credit course sites.
Google Workspace	Students, faculty, or staff	No	No	Committee collaboration, internal department documentation, cross-departmental planning/working groups, internal/external research projects.
Academic Program Sites	Manual request (Approval Required)	No	No	Student work not tied to official class sites.
Training Sites	Manual request (Approval Required)	No	No	University or School training initiatives.
Class Staging Sandbox	Manual request (Approval Required)	No	No	Design a school-wide, program-wide, or individual class template.
Personal Sandbox	Manual request (Approval Required)	No	No	Developing and testing LMS features.

Request a Site

Pending approval, requests may take up to fifteen (15) business days to process.

Pepperdine Canvas Site Request

Tips for Support Staff

Review the above University Guidelines and Legacy Project Site Process. Always confirm with the requester whether they need a Pepperdine Canvas site or should use Google Workspace instead.
Encourage users to use class sites for anything involving students, assessments, and grading (i.e., official use).
Guide faculty and staff to Pepperdine Canvas sites for student work not tied to official class sites, when appropriate.
Review the differences between migrating a Sakai project site and requesting a new Pepperdine Canvas site; guide faculty and staff accordingly.

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