Integrating Canvas and Top Hat will allow Top Hat to pull your class roster information from your Canvas course, and also push grades and attendance information from Top Hat to the Canvas Gradebook. If you’d like more information on Top Hat’s suite of active learning tools, please visit the Top Hat website.

More detailed information about the Canvas integration can be found in Top Hat’s knowledge base. Top Hat also supplies all users with technical support via live chat, phone (9a.m. – 9 p.m., Monday – Friday) and contact form (any time).

Logging into Top Hat

Navigate to the Top Hat website, click the “Login” button.

You’ll start by selecting your school.

You should be taken to Pitt’s SSO sign-in page – or if you are already logged in on your browser, it may take you straight to the course creation page.

If this is your first time using Top Hat, you may also be prompted to set your account as an Instructor or Student. If you have already created a Top Hat account with your Pitt email address, but are not redirected to the SSO sign-in page, you might also be prompted to merge your account with Pitt’s SSO account system. More on this available here: Top Hat Account Creation and Management.

If you are receiving an error message indicating that your email address is already in use, it is a symptom of there already being a Top Hat account created with the email address you are inputting.  More on this is available here: Email Address Already in Use

Creating your Course

Your initial course will be created during the registration process. After entering your university and account details, you will be prompted to create your first course:

Click the Create Course button.

When you complete the registration process, you will be taken into your newly created course! To manage your course settings, such as changing the name of your course, please see here: Professor: Editing your Course Settings

If you’re teaching multiple sections of the same course, we highly recommend that you create one Top Hat course for each section. This will make it easy to manage each group of students individually. If you’re teaching the same course but in a different semester, we also recommend creating a new copy of the course to keep the old section’s information intact. To transfer content between courses you can use our great copy feature: Professor: Copying or Duplicating Course Content

Syncing Top Hat with Canvas

In Canvas, go to Settings (1) and click on the Navigation tab (2).

Find Top Hat in the list of Navigation items (1). Click on the three-dots icon and Enable (2). Don’t forget to click the Save button (3) at the bottom.

Click on Top Hat from your Course Navigation menu.

If you have a pop-up blocker enabled, allow the pop-up from Top Hat. You may also be prompted to create a new account or to log in. If you have already created a Top Hat account, click on Log in.

Either choose to create a new Top Hat course (1) or select the Top Hat course (2) you would like to sync with the Canvas course and click Continue.

If you click on create a new course, you will be prompted to go to your Top Hat Lobby to create a new course.

If you choose a course to connect, select the course (1) and click Continue (2).

Another pop-up may need to be enabled. Once enabled, authorize Canvas and your courses will be connected!

Now that your Top Hat course is synced with your Canvas course, you can import your course roster into Top Hat, or export grades from Top Hat to the Canvas Gradebook. Please see Top Hat’s more detailed information on using the Canvas integration.

See also: Top Hat Training Webinars.