This policy applies to all courses hosted in the UM System Canvas environment and establishes a standard Canvas course storage quota of 3 GB to promote efficient use of institutional resources, ensure system performance, and encourage best practices for instructional content management. It will be reviewed periodically by academic technology leadership and may be updated to reflect changes in system capacity, instructional practices, or institutional priorities.
Standard Course Storage Quota
The default storage quota for Canvas courses is 3 GB. The quota includes all files stored within the course, including:
- Uploaded documents (PDFs, Word files, PowerPoint, etc.)
- Image, audio and video files uploaded directly to Canvas (not those in Panopto)
- Files stored in course Files, Pages, Assignments, Quizzes, Discussions, and embedded content
Why enforce a limit?
- Improve Canvas performance and reliability
- Reduce long-term storage costs
- Promote accessible, well-organized course design
Requesting a Quota Increase
Quota increases are not guaranteed, and increases may be temporary (for a single term or project) or reviewed periodically for continued need. Since a limit increase may be temporary, instructors are encouraged to use TidyUP to remove unused, outdated, or duplicate files and to avoid uploading video files to the course. Use Panopto or Voicethread where appropriate for video and audio storage.
Requests to increase a course’s storage quota above 3 GB will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis using the following criteria:
Pedagogical Necessity
A quota increase may be approved if:
- Large files are essential to achieving documented learning outcomes and those files cannot be stored outside of Canvas.
- The course requires students to access or submit high-resolution media, datasets, or specialized files that cannot reasonably be hosted externally.
Course Modality and Discipline
Consideration may be given to courses that are media-intensive by design.
Appropriate Use of External Tools
Before approving an increase, the following must be demonstrated:
- Video content is hosted in Panopto and embedded in Canvas when possible.
- Google Drive or OneDrive repositories have been considered, but are not feasible.
Compliance and Accessibility
All content associated with a quota increase must meet institutional accessibility standards and comply with copyright and licensing requirements.
Request and Approval Process
- The instructor or instructional designer submits a quota increase request by emailing at@umsystem.edu and includes the following information:
- Course name and Canvas course ID
- Current storage usage
- Requested new quota amount
- Justification aligned with the criteria above
- Canvas administrators review the request in consultation with instructional design and/or academic technology staff as needed.
- Approved increases are applied at the course level and documented.