Canvas Course Organization and Layout

Canvas Course Organization and Layout

In this workshop, we will dig deeper into Modules, Pages and Files and how these elements can be used to create a feature-rich course that is organized in an intuitive and logical manner. We will look at:

●  Some Canvas Course Examples

●  Pages and Different Page Types

●  Modules

○  How to control access to content within them

○  Linking different type of content

●  How to Control Access to and within your course

○  Teacher/Student Role

○  Groups

○  Collaborations

Examples of Exemplary Courses

collections.instructure.com

What are Pages

The Pages menu link lists all pages you have created inside Canvas and is a place for

you to generate a new content page inside Canvas. Pages are wiki-like web pages and can be edited by students if desired. Pages can include text, links to other course content, and multimedia content. Audio files, YouTube and other web videos automatically embed on a page.

Because pages are created directly inside Canvas, you can edit them directly inside

Canvas. You can use the same page in multiple places, such as in multiple Assignments or Modules. By editing it once, you’ve updated it everywhere a page is referred.

How you Might Use Pages

●  Custom Front Page
Will act as your homepage, what students see first!

●  Resource Page
Create list of links to specific content such as videos, files, websites etc.

●  Information Page
Gives specific directions and refers to other resources. This page might be created on the fly and be the first item listed within a module, explaining the other linked content in the module

●  Wiki Page
A page that links to other pages and creates a structure, can be edited by others

●  Canvas Embed Page
Page that contains embedded information. You can actually copy Embed codes from various websites to create content.
Some examples include, Youtube, Vine, Vimeo, Twitter….
http://guides.instructure.com/m/4152/l/40719-how-do-i-embed-a-video-in-a-page

Modules

Modules allow you to create the structure of the course. You can use modules to organize your course by weeks, units, or chapters, etc…. With modules, you are essentially creating a unidirectional linear flow of what you would like your students to do.

Each module can contain links to Pages, Files, web URLs, links to discussions, assignments, quizzes, and links to other third-party content. You can easily add items to your module that you have already created in the course. You can also create new items on the fly within the module.

Canvas Roles

Each user in a Canvas course has a defined role. Each role has specific capabilities and access rights within the course. For example, if you have the role of teacher or higher, you can add other instructors and students to your course and see all content in the course. For a complete list of roles here at USF please reference this Canvas Role document here https://usf.service-now.com/sys_attachment.do?sys_id=1821e8398110f100a8982f6c7023414d

Groups

Groups are like a smaller version of your course and are used as a collaborative tool where students can work together on group projects and assignments. Within each group, students can create pages, announcements, collaborations, discussions, and calendar events in real-time. As the instructor you can use groups to target content to specific people who are assigned to that group by creating that content in that group. You can also send emails and announcements per group.

Collaborations

Canvas leverages Google Docs to allow multiple users to work together on the same document at the same time. Collaborative documents are saved in real-time, meaning a change made by any of its users will be immediately visible to everyone.

Appendix

Canvas Pages - http://guides.instructure.com/m/4152/c/23858

Canvas Modules- http://guides.instructure.com/m/4152/c/23855

Canvas Groups- http://guides.instructure.com/m/4152/c/23850

Canvas Collaborations-http://guides.instructure.com/m/4152/c/23834

Design Resources

Banners and Icons

https://www.canva.com/

●  A Banner Creation Tool. Note: A good rule of thumb for Banner dimensions is 780px X 120px

●  Also can be used to create new icons

Colors

https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel/

http://www.color-hex.com/

Images

http://www.freeforcommercialuse.net/

http://www.morguefile.com/

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Image Editor

http://seashore.en.softonic.com/mac

http://www.getpaint.net/index.html

Fonts

https://icons8.com/

http://www.dafont.com/

http://www.fontsquirrel.com/

http://losttype.com/

https://www.google.com/fonts

https://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/

http://www.webmirra.com/2013/12/05/15-useful-free-icon-fonts-for-designers/

USF CIT Canvas Course Organization and Layout