PAWS is the University of South Alabama's student self-service portal — where you register for classes, check your transcript and grades, handle holds, and manage the administrative side of enrollment. Canvas is separate: it is the course classroom where the actual coursework happens. The two are connected — your Canvas course enrollments update from the PAWS roster roughly every four hours — so if you just registered and a course is not in Canvas yet, that sync delay is usually why. PAWS for the record, Canvas for the work.
What PAWS is for
PAWS is the administrative hub: registering and dropping classes, viewing your schedule, checking grades and your transcript, seeing holds, and handling account tasks. If it concerns your record or your enrollment rather than your coursework, it lives in PAWS. It is also where you confirm things like a grade replacement actually posted to your transcript.
PAWS versus Canvas, and why it matters
Students conflate the two and then cannot find something. PAWS is your record and registration; Canvas is your classroom, where the readings, discussions, and assignments are. Knowing the split saves time: you register in PAWS, you do the work in Canvas, and you check grades in both, since Canvas shows course grades and PAWS shows the official record.
The four-hour sync, and the delay it explains
Canvas enrollments are updated from the PAWS roster roughly every four hours. That is why a class you just registered for in PAWS may not appear in Canvas immediately — it is waiting on the next sync, not broken. If a course is still missing well past that window, that is when to contact the registrar or support rather than assuming a bug.
Where a tutor fits
PAWS and registration are yours to run, but once your courses are live in Canvas we help with the work itself: understanding assignments, building them to the rubric, and keeping a semester on track.
Sources and verification
Facts on this page come from official sources; confirm current policies in the USA bulletin:
- www.southalabama.edu: the University of South Alabama's official site
- USA academic policies: the official bulletin on grades and grade replacement
- sacscoc.org: the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, USA's regional accreditor
- USA Satisfactory Academic Progress: the official financial-aid SAP policy