This design tier is a starting point for designing a new course or redesigning an existing one. This level focuses on items that will help you organize your content, make sure your students can navigate your course, and ensure that the necessary basics are in place.
Course organization
- Use a Front Page as your course home page to welcome students into your course (see Setting a Canvas Front Page ). A home page acts like the cover of a book, helping students know they are in the right place, making them feel welcome, and giving clear directions about how to get started in the course.
Design tip: After a couple of weeks, consider updating your course home page to reflect students' changing needs. The welcome and Start Here information may no longer be as relevant. If your course content is organized in Modules, you can set Modules as your course home page to help students navigate their coursework.
- Create a Start Here page that tells students about your course and provides step-by-step directions on what they need to do to get going on day one.
- Have an "About Me" page to introduce yourself to your students. Tell them about your professional qualifications, but also share why you love teaching this course and what excites you about the content. Online courses can sometimes feel impersonal. An "About Me" page helps students connect a face and personality to their instructor.
- Use Modules to organize your content. Modules help students know what to do and in what order to do it. Add content for them to review on Pages that come before the related Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes.
A template for each of these is available as part of WSU Online's full course template .
Syllabus
A syllabus template is available as part of WSU Online's full course template , and the Teaching and Learning Forum has a Syllabi Construction and Design website full of resources. Make your syllabus easy for students to find and reference throughout the semester using the Canvas Syllabus feature.
- Include your expected grading response time so students know when to anticipate feedback on their work.
- Include your expected communication response time so students know when they can anticipate a reply.
- Use a repeatable, low-point syllabus quiz to verify that students have read and understood your syllabus, especially highlighting policies and expectations specific to your class.
Technical quality
- Verify that your content respects copyright and licensing requirements.
- Textbook chapters and other copyrighted materials should only be shared when permitted by the copyright holder, applicable licenses, or copyright exceptions.
- Check with your college's subject librarian to determine whether articles from library databases can be downloaded and uploaded into your course. A better method is often to provide a link to the article so students can access it directly through the library.
- Use images that you have permission to share, including appropriately licensed Creative Commons or public domain images. Resources such as Pixabay and Unsplash offer images under their respective licenses. Always review the terms of use and provide attribution when required. Once you have an appropriate image, you can upload and embed it in Canvas .
- Use the Link Validator in Canvas to identify broken or inaccessible links in your course content. Remember that some external links may be flagged even when they work correctly, so review the results.
- Ensure that course materials are accessible to all students, prioritizing content students will need at the beginning of the semester. Use our course accessibility tips to help identify and correct accessibility issues.
- Use the Accessibility Checker in the Canvas Rich Content Editor and the Ally Accessibility Report to identify and address common accessibility issues in your course materials.
- Check our mobile-friendly design tips to ensure that students can access and navigate your course using phones or tablets.
Design tip: To check how your course looks and behaves on smaller screens, resize your browser window and observe how the layout adjusts. You can also preview your course using the Canvas mobile apps. Test important course activities on a mobile device whenever possible.
- Include technical support contact information on a Resources page.
- Include contact information for products used specifically in your course, such as textbook publishers, software, apps, and Canvas integrations.
- Include Weber-specific technical support and training contacts for any products you use, such as:
- Canvas
- Kaltura
- Annoto
- Testing Centers
- Honorlock
- IT Support