There are many ways to create a welcoming Canvas course for your learners, from building instructor presence to organizing your instructional materials. Today’s blog focuses on some practical tips to make your Canvas course inclusive to a wide variety of learners.
First Impressions
First impressions are an important part of a Canvas course. Uploading a unique dashboard card and creating a Canvas course home page can go a long way to help with welcoming tone. When students sign on to Canvas, they’ll see all their courses represented by dashboard cards. You want your dashboard card to stand out from the rest and clearly indicate what your course is about. To set up your dashboard card:
- Go to your Canvas course
- Select “settings” at the bottom of the left hand Canvas course menu
- Under “Course Details” select “choose an image”
- Upload or select the image you want to have as your dashboard card
- Quick tip: Our Faculty Resource Center has a variety of sample dashboard cards ready for you to download and use! You can also find royalty-free images on Unsplash.com or through Adobe
Welcoming Home Page
Like a welcoming doormat may be the first thing you see when you approach a house, a home page can help situation and welcome learners into the online Canvas site. There is not just one way to create a home page in Canvas, though recommended elements include:
- A banner that draws students into the course with a relevant image
- Quick tip: Our Faculty Resource Center has a variety of banners you can customize and add to your course
- Key information about the course
- class format, meeting time/location, semester and year
- A clear place for learners to start
- A “start here” button or written instructions on navigating the course site
Course Organization
The importance of good course organization cannot be overstated. Organization can help foster student learning by creating conditions that help students meet course objectives and allow students to easily locate materials, submissions, and resources. Canvas provides a variety of tools to properly organize your course. These tools include:
- Customize your Canvas Navigation Menu
- To do this, go to “Settings” and then “Navigation.” You can drag and drop menu items by clicking the eight dots on the left hand side or clicking on the right dots on the left to quickly “disable” (remove) menu items. Click “Save” at the bottom.
- Focus on hiding menu items that students don’t need/won’t use in your course
- Organize menu items to lead students to the most important content in your course
- Organize Canvas Modules
- Modules are a way to organize content in your course
- Consistently organize and name your course content within modules
- Use text headers to chunk information
Accessibility
There are several important things to consider when addressing the accessibility of your Canvas course. Having multiple methods of access for your students is important. To get started with Canvas course accessibility, remember to check:
- All images have alt-text
- Videos have closed captions/transcripts
- Headings are logical and correctly formatted
- Color contrast
- Quick tip: use Canvas’ built-in accessibility checkers to assess content in pages, assignments, and more!
Classroom Community
Part of your role as instructor is fostering a community where everyone is comfortable and able to learn. In online courses, it is important to deliberately introduce yourself to learners. Here are some techniques for building up your presence through an instructor introduction:
- Prominently display basic contact and office hours information
- Provide some professional background and how this connects to the course
- Share some of your teaching philosophy with students
- Share what students can expect from you as their instructor
- Provide a photo or image that represents you
- Encourage students to reach out to you and tell them how you prefer to communicate
Student-to-student interaction also fosters community in a welcoming Canvas course. At the beginning of the course, we recommend creating a space for students to introduce themselves and get to know each other. Giving students the proper opportunity for this kind of interaction can go a long way. Some of the best ways to foster student-to-student interaction are:
- Discussion boards
- Group work
- Collaborative research
Clear Expectations
When expectations aren’t clear, students can become distracted and disinterested in course content. Here are some tips for effective instructions:
- Explain why students are being asked to complete this assignment
- Connect the goals of the course with various instructional materials and assessments
- Tell learners how to be successful in their submissions and what to prepare
- Utilize rubrics to provide clear structure for feedback
If you are interested in learning more, watch the full training here!
If you have any questions, schedule a consultation with ODLT!
ODLT – Upcoming Events
Quick Hits: Introduction to Academic Integrity Tools
September 17, 3:00-4:00 pm
Facilitated by Gray Jackson, Sr. Learning Tech
Join this quick hit to learn more about using academic integrity tools in Canvas! This training will introduce you to utilizing Turnitin, LockDown Browser, and Respondus Monitor in Canvas. This training is ideal for anyone new to using these tools or those who would like a refresher. When registering, please include any questions you have about this training topic.
Workshop Wednesday: Making Your Canvas Course Beautiful
September 23, 1:30-2:30 pm
Facilitated by Millie Tullis, Digital Learning Strategist
This workshop will cover simple strategies and handy templates you can use to make your Canvas pages and assessments consistent and effective. Specifically, this workshop will cover using icons, buttons, banners, and customizable page and assessment templates to make your Canvas course look inviting and clear.
Register here for Workshop Wednesday!
Contact Millie Tullis with any questions regarding these sessions.
Office of Digital Learning and Technology – Where Tech and Teaching Meet
