Easily check for broken links in Canvas
Why do we love this feature?
If you have ever encountered a “Page Not Found,” “404 Error,” or similar message while navigating the internet, then you know how frustrating broken links can be. Thankfully, Canvas provides instructors an easy way to check for broken links in their courses. Checking for broken links prior to publishing your course for students allows you to ensure students are able to access any links you provide, either to content outside of Canvas or to unpublished content within Canvas.
How to validate links in Canvas:
- Open the Canvas course.
- Select Settings from the left-hand course navigation menu.
- Select Validate Links in Content from the menu on the right-hand side of the page.
- Select the Start Link Validation
- This will begin the link validation process. Depending on the number of links in your course, this may take a few moments. You will know the process is running because you will see “Loading…” displayed on the blue button.
- Review the list of broken links (if any). The any broken links are found in the course, Canvas displays the number of links, followed by the name of the content item and the content’s associated invalid links. By default, the Show links to unpublished content checkbox is selected. Any broken links in unpublished content will also be listed.
- Update the links within your course content by selecting the name of the content item and editing the content as necessary.
- After you update your content, you can validate your links again by returning to the Link Validator page and selecting the Restart Link Validation button. This will refresh the list of broken links to reflect any edits you have made.
