Start a learning session with your students (for teachers)

Learning sessions let you run interactive, real-time activities in Canva with your students. No email addresses or Canva accounts are required. You control when the session starts and ends, and students can join instantly using a short code or QR code. Perfect for quick classroom activities, brainstorming sessions, or collaborative projects.

• Students join using a short code or QR code. No Canva account is needed.
• Sessions automatically end after 2 hours, or you can end them anytime.
• Up to 50 anonymous students can edit without logging in. To allow up to 100 students to edit, they'll need to be logged in to Canva.
• Only teachers, administrators, and owners can start a learning session.
• Starting a session changes your design access to "anyone with the link can edit"
• You cannot change access settings while a session is active.
• When the session ends, your original share settings are restored.

Your session is now live. Students can join by scanning the QR code with their device camera or visiting the URL and entering the 6-digit code.

While your session is active, you’ll see:

• A notification banner showing the session is live
• Names of all students who have joined (both logged-in and anonymous)

To view who's joined:

1. Open the shared design in Canva.
2. Select Share.
3. Select the visitor count to see the full participant list.

While your session is active, use pause when you want to:

• Explain instructions before students begin
• Demonstrate changes in the design
• Give feedback without interruptions
• Highlight a key point for students

When a session is in pause:

• Students switch to view-only mode
• They can still see the design and live updates
• They can’t make edits until resumed
• Their work is saved automatically

When a session ends:

• Anonymous students immediately lose edit access
• Students who are logged into Canva retain their original access level

No, sessions automatically end after 2 hours. You can start a new one anytime.

No, students can join as anonymous editors using the QR code or link.

If you close the design or leave a live learning session, it’ll stay active for up to 30 minutes. After that, it ends automatically. You can start a new session anytime if you need to jump back in.

Short codes expire after 20 minutes or when you end the session. There’s a countdown timer on the join screen showing how long the code is valid. If students can't join:

• Check that your session is still active. Look for the notification banner.
• If the code has expired, start a new learning session to generate a new code.
• Share the new link or QR code with your students.

This happens when you've reached 50 anonymous users. Students who are logged into Canva can still join as editors (up to 100 total). To help fix this:

• Ask students with Canva accounts to log in before joining
• Or end the current session and start a new one for a different group

If students have trouble scanning:

• Make sure the QR code is clearly visible on screen or printed material
• Students can manually visit the URL and enter the 6-digit code