Working with a Collaborative Course Template

This template was created by Susan Detrie and Emory's Teaching and Learning Technologies team to assist faculty and staff members in building courses in Canvas.

This template is for courses that will use a Syllabus, Assignments, Grades, a Quiz (and let you know about question banks), content Pages, Discussions, as well as Modules. It also includes the use of Collaborations (here we use Google Docs), Chat and Conference tools. As you build your course, it will allow you to see many of the tools available to use in a course but you can also delete anything you don't want to use, including this page. In the template you will notice:

The Instructor Page

It is possible to access an instructor information page from the homepage and every content page for each unit in the course. Add a picture and your contact information. A short biography is great too!

The Syllabus and Assignments

You can copy and paste the course Syllabus into the syllabus page by navigating through the left navigation bar. (There is also a link to the syllabus through a button on the homepage and each content pages for each unit.) If you tend to change your syllabus often you can also link to it.

In addition, as you add an assignment on the Assignments page, it will automatically be added to a list at the bottom of the syllabus page and in order of all the assignment due dates you add. These dates will also populate the calendar in the calendar tool and the Coming up list on the right sidebar on the homepage.

The Assignments list will allow you to group Assignments (by clicking the + Group button) into categories, which can aid you later in weighting different categories of Assignments, from Discussions to papers and exams.

To weight your Gradebook just click the Gear icon next to the + Assignment button in Assignments.

Currently, there are a set of Assignments that are both grouped and weighted to provide a sample which you can delete.

Using an Image Grid on a Homepage

The image grid on the homepage looks complicated but is a simple way to personalize your course content. It is really just a TABLE which you can create in EDIT mode by selecting the bottom far left icon and selecting the number of boxes you want in your table by selecting the blue squares. To use the existing TABLE, you can upload eight small images (.jpeg or .png) with dimensions of 250 pixels by 250 pixels (or any square dimension) into FILES. 

You can then replace the eight images by

(1) selecting EDIT on the page in the upper right,

(2) clicking on the image you want to replace, and then

(3) selecting the image icon in the rich content editor. Next 

(4) select your image from the Canvas library,

(5) type in a name in the 'alt text' box (for people who use screen readers) and

(6) type in 180 x 180 in the Dimensions box to adjust for the size required on the homepage. Then

(7) Relink each image to the correct course page by selecting the desired image and then looking for the correct page in the far right list of pages and clicking on it to LINK

(8) finally, select SAVE in the lower right.

If you would like to use weeks or topic names or add more units--or subtract them the Teaching and Learning Technologies team can help you. Or if you want to switch to a simple banner image the team is here to assist. The 'Unit' identifier images are 250 x 50 pixels, but if you create your own and upload them change the width to 180 pixels when it prompts you for dimensions when you replace those images in the table.

More About the Homepage

Other items that can be found on the homepage are a space for a course introduction, space for course objectives and navigation buttons to: the syllabus, an instructor page, course questions and Canvas Guides for Students.

These add shortcuts and links to frequently used items in a course.

These buttons can all be changed and linked to other places you may feel are important. They allow instructors to add navigation that might not be represented in the menu list on the left.

Content Pages

On each content page, you will be able to create links to every resource for the week and also write a brief summary or directions for students. You may also add a relevant image or delete the sample on the page. This helps organize and consolidate resources students need. Under some circumstances, you can add a second page. As a user experience principle, long pages are less desirable. 

It is easy to link to discussions, assignments, quizzes and content in Canvas you added by looking at the right-hand side of the interface in EDIT mode and under the three tabs: Links, Files, and Images. There you will see links to Pages, Assignments, Quizzes, Announcements, Discussions, Modules and Course Navigation, as well as links to your course files and course images.

You can connect to them after you (1) click EDIT and (2) select text on the page OR put your cursor inside the Edit box, and (3) then clicking on an item to the right. The selection and subsequent click create a LINK between the selection on the page and the items found under Links, Files, and Images. You will see a yellow box over your selected text or area on the page when the link is created.

Using Modules to Organize Course Units

Modules are the go-to Canvas tool that allows you to create an outline and/or table of contents for the course-- and a way for both you and students to access every element in the course week by week OR unit by unit OR topic by topic. Modules allow you to divide up a course using dates and/or concepts and include links to the major elements required for each. For example, you can link to a page with your list of readings, a discussion, an assignment, a quiz or external links and course tools. Modules help organize the course and provide a course version of the 'site' map we find for websites we visit or can be viewed as a kind of table of contents for your course.

It is best not to put large numbers of files in the Modules area, but instead add content pages that contain course files. This allows you to provide organization, directions, and information to the students instead of just a file alone.

Conferences can be used for online lectures, online office hours, and student group meetings. (Conferences can accommodate up to 50 people according to Canvas support.) Conferences make it easy to conduct synchronous (real-time) meetings. Conferences allow you to use real-time audio, video, demo applications on your desktop, share presentation slides, or demo any online resources. Currently, Canvas uses BigBlueButton Links to an external site.. Conferences allow for recording a meeting, but remember that the recordings are only available for the two weeks following the conference and some instances you may want to leave your audio on while turning off video to maintain a stable connection for participants.

Collaborations allow you to set up and link to Google Docs or Office 360 docs you can use for collaboration and student group work.

Chat functions well for group interaction and especially for interaction in small course groups. A sample has been set up for you to see. If you click on the entries in chat you will see a garbage can that allows you to easily delete the existing samples.

Assignments and Quiz Examples

A quiz and assignments have been added as examples. This template, in particular, also has sample students divided into three groups, enabling group work. (Remember to give descriptive group names to groups so students do not end up in more than one 'Group 1'. Students' group's names appear under the Courses link on the far left of the interface, meaning they may be in multiple groups and can't tell which group is for which course.) 

There is also the potential to add rubrics (when you create the assignment) that you can use in grading. Speedgrader allows you to open the student's assignment, add comments, annotate, work with a rubric (or not) and give student direct feedback.

The sample quiz lists the possible question types you can create --and it's worth noting Canvas allows you to create question banks for your course. In Quizzes, click on the gear icon next to the + Quiz button to access the Question Bank function.

Discussions

This template also includes several online discussions. These discussions could be stand-alone discussions or work as continuations of class discussions.

If you haven't tried online discussions as an extension of class, they can allow for deeper reflection, elaboration and space for quiet students to emerge.