Canvas Course Design Recommendations

Importing Content Into An Empty Course Shell

The Import Course Content feature allows you to copy all or specific course content (e.g., files, assignments, modules, pages, and discussions) from a previous Canvas course into a new course shell. The import feature does not copy student data from the previous course, such as grades or discussion responses.

Use the Adjust events and due dates feature to automatically populate your new syllabus with the upcoming dates (as opposed to previous dates).

Here are step-by-step instructions for how to copy content from another Canvas course and how to adjust dates

Note: You only have access to import content between courses in which you are enrolled in the role of TA, Faculty, or Course Admin.

Copying Content Into an Active Course

Use caution when importing content into an existing course. Importation overwrites existing content, so only copy the specific content you require, using the Select specific content option.

We recommend using the Adjust events and due dates feature to either remove or shift dates. This will prevent:

• populating the exisiting Syllabus with the previous course's past due dates
• notifying students of all imported content, assignments, and quizzes 

Here's info on how to copy content from another Canvas course and how to adjust dates

An organized and consistent Modules page provides links to all the course resources in a recommended order, efficiently guiding students to the materials, activities, and assignments required to complete each section. A well-built Modules page is easy to re-use, or modify for schedule changes.

To make Modules the home page:

1.     Click on Home in the left column. Click Choose Home Page on the right side

2.     Select Course Modules and save

Note:  You can now remove the corresponding "Modules" link from the left column, as it is redundant—see the section on adjusting Course Navigation below!

The Canvas Syllabus page is connected to the Calendar, Assignments, Quizzes, and Grades pages.  As you add due dates in the Settings of any assignments, quizzes, or events, the Assignments Summary table at the bottom of the Syllabus will automatically update.

We recommend including:

• Contact information
• Lecture meeting location and times
• Learning Objectives
• Grading Criteria
• Requirements and student responsibilities
  
  

Note: We recommend setting due dates in the settings of each assignment and event, and NOT including dates within the title text of assignments and events. This will prevent you having to edit each individual title if the schedule changes, or you reuse the assignment/event in a future course.

Here's info on editing a Syllabus page in Canvas

Upload any course material files you want students to be able to access into your new course. Here's info on importing pre-existing, migrated, or archived content

Recommendations for course structure:

• Utilize a consistent organizational structure (see the example module structure below)
  • This will enable students to easily navigate their learning
• Utilize Text Headers when adding content to the course
  • When you Add item to Module, choose Text Header from the drop-down menu and type in the title of your header
• Avoid using dates as headers
  • This makes it much easier to reuse your Canvas course, and adjust the schedule when needed
• Use the Indentation feature to visually group related materials
  • Students can ‘collapse’ these items when they are no longer needed, simplifying course navigation

Module Structure Example:

 
•  Module Title (don't use dates)
  • Supplemental Material (Text Header)
    
    • Reading 1 (link to file)
    • Reading 2 (link to website)
  • Video 1 (link to website)
  • Video 2 (link to website)
  • Activities (Text Header)
    
    • Forum Discussion (link to discussion)
    • Collaborative project (link to project)
  • Assignment (link to assignment)
  • Quiz (link to quiz)

Note: Use prerequisites if you want students to move through your content sequentially.

Here's info on setting prerequisites for a Module

Here are step-by-step instructions on reordering and hiding redundant or unnecessary links

Lecture Media links for recorded lectures will automatically appear in your navigation a few hours after your first recorded session. Visit MedScheduler to schedule lecture capture

In order for course materials (e.g., readings, images, spreadsheets) to be accessible by students, they need to uploaded to Canvas and marked as Published. Canvas stores these files in the Files section, which by default is available to students. If you plan to keep materials used in exams hidden from students until they need to be used, we strongly encourage you to publish all uploaded materials and disable the Files link in the course navigation. By instead linking to individual materials directly from module items, Assignments, and Quizzes, students will be unable to inadvertently access exam materials. This also prevents discovering broken links during exams.

Here's info on hiding navigation links

Announcements

Announcements help you reach a large number of students at once for one-way communication. Canvas automatically notifies students according to their Notification preferences. 

Use Announcements when you want to:

• Point students to internal and external resources in the form of written content, attachments, or audio/video comments
• Remind students about upcoming deadlines
• Announce events that may be of interest to your students
• Feed a custom RSS feed related to the topic of the course to your students

Discussions

Discussions within Canvas provide an integrated system for you and your students to start and contribute to discussion topics. Discussions can also be created as an assignment for grading purposes and can be integrated with Canvas Grades.

Use Discussions to:

• Follow-up on a conversation or questions that began in a face-to-face classroom
• Test student understanding about conversations in class
• Allow students to debate ideas presented in class amongst themselves, while still in a supervised setting
• Use student input on the discussion boards to enhance and improve the effectiveness of class sessions

Inbox

Canvas' Inbox tool functions very similar to email, using Canvas' internal messaging system. It should be used for two-way communication about items related to your course.  Students are alerted to new messages on their dashboard screen upon logging in, and can choose to receive messages via email or texts.

Use the Inbox to:

• Communicate directly with a single student, student groups, or people with designated roles (e.g., TA's, Course Administrators)
• Have a private communication between you and a student or student groups
• Quickly address messages to groups or selected invididuals in large classes without having to search for their email addresses

Adding Event and Due Dates

Events you create on the Calendar will not appear on the Assignments page or in the Gradebook. However, Canvas quiz and assignment due dates automatically show up on both the Canvas Calendar and Syllabus page. You can create events with due date times as well as all-day events. Here's info on creating Canvas Calendar events

Syncing to Google and Outlook

The Calendar feed will contain events and assignments from the Canvas Calendars for all of your enrolled courses. Here's info on importing the Canvas Calendar feed onto a device

Scheduling Sign-up Events with the Scheduler

Scheduler is a Calendar tool that creates appointment groups within a course or group. Students can sign up for a time slot within the appointment group. You can set appointment time slots to allow one or more students to sign up at a time.

Instructors can use Scheduler as a virtual sign-up sheet to:

• Create lab appointments
• Schedule TA sessions
• Schedule group meeting times
• Assign presentation times

Here's info on creating events with the Scheduler

Canvas Quizzes can be easily created question by question, or reused using the Import Course Content feature. 

Question Banks offer a hybrid between these two options, and across courses. Use Canvas Question Banks to collect an abundance of questions and make future exams more random and robust. Here's info on creating Question Banks

Question Groups place multiple questions within a section, randomly ordered for students to answer. Within the group you can choose the number of questions to be answered and how many points to assign each question.

Add questions to your group in several ways:

• Create and add an individual question from scratch
• Link to a Question Bank to reference all questions in that bank
• Search for specific questions from a question bank using Find Questions

Note: If you need your questions to appear in a specific order, do not place quiz questions inside a question group.