Canvas For Designers

Canvas Designer Guide
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License

Table of Contents
Resources for Designers ........................................................................................................................... 4
The Designer Role ........................................................................................................................................................ 5
Sample Courses ........................................................................................................................................................... 6
Canvas Orientation Courses......................................................................................................................................... 6
Improving the Accessibility of Your Course .................................................................................................................. 7
Assignments .............................................................................................................................................. 9
Assignments: Grouping By Assignment Type............................................................................................................. 10
Calendar .................................................................................................................................................. 11
Calendar: Adding Lectures as Events......................................................................................................................... 12
Course Home Page ................................................................................................................................. 17

Pages: Building the Course Front Page...................................................................................................................... 18
Discussions ............................................................................................................................................. 23
Discussion: Posting and Responding to Discussion Topics ....................................................................................... 24
Files ......................................................................................................................................................... 28
Files: Sharing Files with Students............................................................................................................................... 29
Mobile ...................................................................................................................................................... 31
Designing Course Content for Mobile Devices ........................................................................................................... 32
Modules ................................................................................................................................................... 33
Modules: Organizing Course Content in Modules ...................................................................................................... 34
Outcomes ................................................................................................................................................ 42
Outcomes: Writing Course-Level Learning Outcomes................................................................................................ 43
Pages ...................................................................................................................................................... 44
Pages: Using Pages ................................................................................................................................................... 45
Pages: Previewing Documents in a Page................................................................................................................... 47

Quizzes ................................................................................................................................................... 48
Quiz: Using Quizzes and Polls.................................................................................................................................... 49
Rubrics .................................................................................................................................................... 57
Rubrics: Using Rubrics to Evaluate Student Submissions.......................................................................................... 58
Syllabus ................................................................................................................................................... 59
Syllabus: Example Syllabi .......................................................................................................................................... 60
Resources for Designers
Page 4
Canvas Designer Guide Updated 10/18/14
The Designer Role
The Canvas Designer Guide is a growing collection of best practices in Canvas course design. Do you have any
ideas or courses you would like to share? If so, please send your public course URL to training@instructure.com.
Role Permissions
The Designer Role is a course-level role, akin to the Student, Instructor, and TA roles in Canvas. By default, the Designer
does not edit grades, add/remove other users, or have access to the faculty journal. They can edit course content, however,
even after the course has started.
Generally speaking, the Designer Role is best suited for the instructional designers or curriculum writers who write and
manage course content, while the Instructor Role is for teachers and faculty charged with facilitating meaningful learning
interactions with their students.
Page 5
Sample Courses
Sample courses are found in our Canvas Course Collections manual.
Canvas Course Collections
The Canvas Course Collections (CCC) is gallery of public courses and course screenshots that effectively showcase one or
more features and tools of Canvas and highlight various examples of course designs.
These collections are meant to serve as resources for the Canvas Community for design ideas.
Visit collections.instructure.com to view sample courses.
We welcome feedback and ideas related to the CCC. If you have any questions or comments related to any of the course
collections, please email ccc@instructure.com
Canvas Orientation Courses
Do you have a Canvas training course that you would like to share? If so, please email training@instructure.com
and we'll add yours to the list.
Note: The resources on this page will be moving to our new Canvas Course Collection 1 (CCC1) manual in 2014.
Canvas Training for Students
1. Wright Career College New Student Orientation

2. Howard Community College Canvas Training for Students
3. Bucks County Community College Canvas Basics for Students
4. Rider University Canvas Student Center
5. Edison State College Student Orientation
6. University of Central Florida, Center for Distributed Learning click-thru Student Canvas Tour
Canvas Training for Instructors
1. Brown University Intro to Canvas

2. Utah State University Canvas for Bb Vista Users
3. Weber State University Faculty Orientation to Canvas
4. Howard Community College Canvas Training for Faculty
5. Massasoit Community College Faculty Resource Site
6. Snow College Online Canvas Orientation
7. Rider University Canvas Faculty Center
8. Samuel Merritt University Faculty Online Training Course
9. University of Central Florida, Center for Distributed Learning click-thru Faculty Canvas Tour
10. Auburn University, The Beginner's Guide to Canvas for Instructors
11. University of St. Francis, Canvas Overview Video
Page 6
Other Canvas Resources
1. Calvin Theological Seminary Canvas Central

2. New Mexico State University Instructor Resources
3. Bucks County Community College Canvas Logbook
4. Edison State College LMS Selection Process
5. Edison State College Canvas Resources & Rubric Examples
6. University of South Florida How to Teach Online (in Canvas)
Improving the Accessibility of Your Course
Various state and federal laws have requirements aimed at making education accessible to as many people as
possible. For instance, making sure that classrooms are wheelchair accessible would be an effort to comply with
these laws and policies. Online classes need to be accessible as well. Here are some best practices to use in
Canvas. If you have additional suggestions, please contact community@instructure.com.
Design
Keep the design simple, clean, and uncluttered.

Use alternate text tags for images. For example, you can add alternate text when you embed an image from the
web or from Flickr creative commons. If you have an image in your course file you want to use, you can add an alt
tag by switching to HTML view. Doing this will mean that people who use a screen reader to read aloud the
contents of a web page will hear an auditory description of the image.
Rather than pasting in raw URLs, link to words that describe the link destination. Again, this will help people using a
screen reader understand where the link will take them.
Use other formatting besides color (bold words, different size font) to distinguish between important items in your
course. Changing the font size rather than using different colors will benefit those people who cannot differentiate
colors.
Learn to use CTRL+ and CTRL- or CMD+ and CMD- to resize the text in the course for the visually impaired.
Video
Caption YouTube Videos.

Use the link icon in the Rich Content Editor to embed a YouTube video. It will auto-embed the video and link to the
title of the video. Visit How do I link to a YouTube Video? in the Canvas Guides for more information.
Screen Reader Programs
Macintosh: VoiceOver (latest version for Safari)

PC: JAWS (latest version for Internet Explorer 10 & 11)
PC: NVDA (latest version for Firefox)
There is no screen reader support for Canvas in Chrome
Resources
Creating Accessible Electronic Content

Canvas Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT)
Enabling Keyboard Navigation in Mac OS X Web Browsers
Page 7
Tips & Tricks
By pressing the comma key, a pop-up window with keyboard shortcuts will appear for keyboard navigation on the following
pages in Canvas:
Assignments Index Page

Calendar
Course Settings: Navigation Tab
Discussion Threads
Gradebook
Modules Index Page
SpeedGrader
Page 8
Assignments
Page 9
Assignments: Grouping By Assignment Type
John Goodman of Bridgerland ATC has organized assignments in his Digital Media course into six groups: Readings, Video
Viewings, Quizzes, Tests, Projects, and Video Critiques. Students can see this same view if they click on the 'Group
Assignments by Type' button in the right-hand Sidebar.
Page 10
Calendar
Page 11
Calendar: Adding Lectures as Events
One of the easiest ways to begin using Canvas is to add assignments and lecture notes to the Calendar. Just
adding the titles along with their respective due dates does a great service for students, as they see those
reminders on their Dashboard and in their own Calendar. They will also receive automatic notifications via their
preferred communication channels, such as text messaging, Facebook, Twitter, or personal email addresses.
MATH 214 Elementary Differential Equations
Bong-Sik Kim uses a simple formula to help his students stay on track in his face-to-face courses. First he adds Assignment
names to his Calendar. You can see from the drop down that he typically creates two kinds of assignment groups: groups for
his tests and final exam and another group for homework. He doesn't grade his homework in Canvas; he just uses Canvas
as a course communication tool for students in his face-to-face classroom.
Page 12
After adding assignment shells, he adds calendar events for each of his lectures.
Page 13
He chooses to edit the Full Details of his Calendar events. This takes him to the Rich Content Editor, where he can add a
PDF of his lecture slides as well as details about the homework assignment that will follow that lecture.
Page 14
The end result is a calendar that looks like this. Notice that there are calendar events for lectures [1] and calendar
assignments for homework and tests [2, 3].
Page 15
The student sees the Syllabus as the Course Home Page, which contains a short description of the course at the topic of the
page and a chronological course schedule on the home page, which Bong-Sik Kim has set to the Syllabus page. The
students can also quickly access course announcements and course files from the navigation on the left hand side. Finally,
Bong-Sik Kim uses Pages to share helpful links with his students and to link out to detailed story problems that the students
must solve. The end result for the student is a very simple but effective Canvas course that complements what he is doing in
the classroom and helps the students stay on track.
Page 16
Course Home Page
Page 17
Pages: Building the Course Front Page
Intro to Skateboarding
Jared Stein of UVU has developed a simple course home page using the table layout feature in the Rich Content Editor.
Each of the five weeks in this course addresses a different skateboarding technique. Each week, students are required to
submit demo videos of their skating skills.
Page 18
Math 7
Laurie Baker of Sweetwater Union High School District has created a colorful Course Home Page in a two column layout
with yellow- and blue-highlighted headings. This simple page effectively leads students to key resources, projects, and how-
to videos for Canvas.
Page 19
Anatomy & Physiology II
Bill Hanna of Massassoit Community College designed his Course Home Page to link out to other content pages that will
help orient his students to how the course works, policies, outside resources, and help.
Page 20
Leadership for School Problem Solving
John Nash, from the Department of Educational Leadership Studies, in the College of Education at the University of
Kentucky, has linked to a public Google chat gadget on his Course Home Page so that his students can reach him at any
time. He has also embedded a short video explaining how the Conversations feature works in Canvas.
Page 21
Digital Media
John Goodman of Bridgerland ATC uses HTML and images to create a clean-looking and informational Course Home Page.
He clearly lays out the objectives of the course as well as the Assignment pass-off sheet. This is a very effective way of
sharing with students what they will be asked to perform in the class.
Page 22
Discussions
Page 23
Discussion: Posting and Responding to Discussion Topics
Pre-Class Reading & Response
Gideon Burton of Brigham Young University posts discussion topics to guide students through pre-class readings. Notice
that he has linked directly to readings and assignments.
Page 24
Burton reinforces good student participation in the class discussions by pointing out when and how they have fulfilled course
outcomes.
Page 25
English 102
In this unit-by-unit course, Sam McCool of Nevada State College posts two-part discussion topics. Students are required to
answer five questions in their post and then rate the post of a group mate out of five points with a detailed response justifying
their response.
Page 26
English A1 (12th Grade)
Denise Crlenjak provides several good examples of interesting discussion prompts for her 12th grade English class. She
uses colored text and embedded videos to make the posts more interesting. She also asks students to submit essays via the
Discussion forum, so that the entire class can read, evaluate, and discuss.
Page 27
Files
Page 28
Files: Sharing Files with Students
For help with Files, please view the Files lessons.
Sharing and hiding files from students
Dr. Ulrich of Wharton University uses Canvas to supplement an engaging, hands-on class about becoming better innovators,
problem solvers, and designers. He shares multiple files with his students to assist them as they complete projects and
assignments but he chooses to keep his lecture slides in a private folder that he can access during classes.
Page 29
Sharing PowerPoint slides
Sally Coleman teaches a course on Northern Renaissance Art and uses Files to share all of her PowerPoint slides and
images with students. Clicking the "Fullscreen" option in Files makes it possible to preview presentations without opening
Microsoft PowerPoint on a computer.
Page 30
Mobile
Page 31
Designing Course Content for Mobile Devices
Canvas is built on open web standards and uses minimal instances of Flash, so most features are supported on
mobile devices. With the growing use of mobile devices, courses should be built with best practices for mobile in
mind.
Mobile Browsers
Canvas can be viewed on any mobile browser. However, the Canvas interface is optimized for desktop displays,
so using small form factors such as phones may not be a pleasant experience in using Canvas. We recommend
trying our mobile apps.
Mobile Applications
Instructure provides two native mobile applications for Canvas users:
Canvas by Instructure. This app is free and supports both iOS and Android devices. Depending on the
device, not all Canvas features may be available on the app at this time.
SpeedGrader App. This app is specifically designed for instructors and allows them to grade student
submissions on the go. This app is also free and is currently only available for iOS tablets.
Learn more about how Canvas features appear on the mobile apps via the Canvas Mobile App Guides:
Canvas by Instructure iOS Phone Guide

Canvas by Instructure iOS Tablet Guide
Canvas Mobile Phone Student Guide (Android)
Canvas Mobile Phone Instructor Guide (Android)
SpeedGrader iOS Tablet Guide
Page 32
Modules
Page 33
Modules: Organizing Course Content in Modules
There are several different ways to organize a module so that it is easy for students to navigate. The following
lesson contains several examples.
Engage, Explore, Apply, Review
Calvin Theological Seminary has chosen to organize their module with four text headers: Engage, Explore, Apply, and
Review. Each of these sections contain readings, assignments, and quizzes that give student the opportunity to review and
reflect on different materials.
Page 34
Lab & Lecture Notes
Bill Hanna of Massasoit Community College uses Canvas to post his lab and lecture notes. He posts materials as the
semester progresses.
Page 35
Topic by topic
This AP Human Geography course contains modules organized by topic. Each topic is divided into introductory notes,
vocabulary, case studies, a focused response question, resources, and a quiz.
Page 36
Modules for Blended Oceanography Course
Jared Stein of UVU has put together a blended learning experience. Students read and watch introductory material and take
a quiz before the class. Videos are posted for in-class use, followed by assignments, discussions, or lab materials.
Page 37
Prerequisites in Modules
This "Introduction to Pastoring" course is laid out sequentially, so students are required to finish one module before
unlocking to complete the next one. Notice how Module 2 is greyed out so students cannot progress before completing pre-
requisites.
Page 38
Quiz Completion
In this training course about Canvas, Weber State University organized their modules with quizzes at the end (while also
adding a completion criteria).
Page 39
Assessment-based Modules
John Goodman of Bridgerland ATC uses the Modules page to organize assessments (readings, video critiques, quizzes, and
tests). This is an effective strategy that puts the emphasis on students doing work as much as they are consuming new
information.
Page 40
Modules for self-study courses
Pages, Discussions, Videos, and Self-check Quizzes work together to keep this Italian Cuisine course fun and engaging.
Most of the module items in this course are set in strict sequential order, so that learners absorb and digest the information
step by step.
Page 41
Outcomes
Page 42
Outcomes: Writing Course-Level Learning Outcomes
English 291 Learning Outcomes
Gideon Burton of Brigham Young University created four Outcomes for his Early British Literary History course, along with
detailed bullet points further defining what types of behaviors he is looking for.
Page 43
Pages
Page 44
Pages: Using Pages
Canvas allows flexibility in building courses through Pages. You can create multiple pages within your course and
use Modules to organize them.
Academic writing wiki
Mr. Nathan Kelber of University of Maryland uses the Pages feature in Canvas to create a course wiki that follows the outline
of the two required texts for his Rhetoric and Composition course. The wiki is a shell where students can share their notes
and reflections as they complete their required readings.
Page 45
A resource page that students can edit
For his 12th grade Economics class at the International of School of Panama, Mr. McGlothlin created a simple wiki page
editable by students. Students contributed links to YouTube videos and web pages that helped them to study course
material.
Page 46
Pages: Previewing Documents in a Page
English 1010
For her English 1010 course, Sarah Orme of Utah State University uploaded the Assignment handouts she normally prints
out and gives to her students. Now her students can go to one page and read or print any of the assignment descriptions.
Page 47
Quizzes
Page 48
Quiz: Using Quizzes and Polls
Medical Mission Service Training
The Christian Health Service Corps has designed a simple Multiple Choice and True/False quiz for students to take at the
end of each module.
Page 49
Quiz on Course Policies
Dr. Ulrich of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania created a quiz around course policies that reminds
students of their obligations during the course.
Page 50
Find-out Polls
In this course, Public Health and the Educated Citizen, the designer has included short polls that students can answer during
or before class.
5 Minute "Entrance" or "Exit" Quiz
Page 51
5 Minute Quiz with Access Code
In this course on Public Health and Education, Mike Caulfield of Keene State College created a 5-minute quiz with an access
code. This quiz could be administered at the beginning or end of a class based on an assigned reading.
Students
1) answered it individually first, then
2) talked to one another about their answers, then
3) answered it a second time.
Page 52
This allowed the instructor to:
a) see immediately which students did not get it
b) see how many students improved with instruction
c) call on students who selected the right answer to explain their thinking to the class
d) respond to common misunderstandings
Example of Voluntary Poll
Another example of a voluntary poll.
Page 53
English A1 (12th Grade)
Denise Crlenjak creates a fill-in-the-blank quiz to test her student's understanding of literary terms.
Page 54
Quiz to "Rate My Answer"
For his 12th grade Economics class at the International of School of Panama, Mr. McGlothlin created a quiz where students
had to evaluate his answers based on a grading scheme he provided. The five quiz questions (listed below) require students
to assign points and justify their answers.
Page 55
Another Example
Page 56
Rubrics
Page 57
Rubrics: Using Rubrics to Evaluate Student Submissions
Sam McCool of Nevada State University uses letter-grade rating levels for each of the writing assignments required for his
English 102 course. His evaluation is divided equally between Content, Organization, Mechanics, and Grammar.
Page 58
Syllabus
Page 59
Syllabus: Example Syllabi
Introduction to Research Using Off-Campus Library Services
Julie LaDell-Thomas has chosen to edit her Syllabus description with a short bio, course description, course goals, technical
requirements, textbook info, expectations, and a short description of communication methods. She also summarizes course
contents with a week-by-week outline and schedule. Finally, she pastes in the course grading policy and grading scale.
Page 60
Leadership for School Problem Solving
John Nash of the University of Kentucky has chosen to build an extensive Syllabus description for his Education leadership
course, which includes:
contact info,
course description,
textbook info,
course policies,
accommodation info,
grading scale,
bibliography, and
course calendar outlining each week's activities.
Page 61
English 1010
Sarah Orme of Utah State University has built a Canvas course that will supplement face-to-face instruction in her English
1010 course. One of the fastest ways to get started in Canvas is to upload your syllabus file and link to it on the Syllabus
page. Students can then use the preview to see the Syllabus in Canvas.
Page 62
Intro to Psychology (11th Grade)
Ms. Urroz from the International School of Panama uses the Syllabus page to lay out the topics for each of her class
sessions as well as homework. CW (Class Work), HW (Homework), Quizzes, Tests, Projects, and Presentations are all
clearly listed in chronological order. All of these items were added as Assignments in Canvas, though several of them are
empty and require no student submission.
Page 63

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Sample Courses ........................................................................................................................................................... 6

Canvas Orientation Courses......................................................................................................................................... 6

Improving the Accessibility of Your Course .................................................................................................................. 7

Course Home Page ................................................................................................................................. 17

Pages: Previewing Documents in a Page................................................................................................................... 47

Resources for Designers

The Designer Role

Sample courses are found in our Canvas Course Collections manual.

Canvas Course Collections

Visit collections.instructure.com to view sample courses.

Canvas Orientation Courses

Canvas Training for Students

1. Wright Career College New Student Orientation

Canvas Training for Instructors

1. Brown University Intro to Canvas

Other Canvas Resources

1. Calvin Theological Seminary Canvas Central

Improving the Accessibility of Your Course

Keep the design simple, clean, and uncluttered.

Caption YouTube Videos.

Screen Reader Programs

Macintosh: VoiceOver (latest version for Safari)

Creating Accessible Electronic Content

Tips & Tricks

Assignments Index Page

Assignments: Grouping By Assignment Type

Calendar: Adding Lectures as Events

MATH 214 Elementary Differential Equations

Course Home Page

Pages: Building the Course Front Page

Anatomy & Physiology II

Leadership for School Problem Solving

Discussion: Posting and Responding to Discussion Topics

Pre-Class Reading & Response

English A1 (12th Grade)

Files: Sharing Files with Students

For help with Files, please view the Files lessons.

Sharing and hiding files from students

Sharing PowerPoint slides

Designing Course Content for Mobile Devices

Instructure provides two native mobile applications for Canvas users:

Canvas by Instructure iOS Phone Guide

Modules: Organizing Course Content in Modules

Engage, Explore, Apply, Review

Lab & Lecture Notes

Modules for Blended Oceanography Course

Modules for self-study courses

Outcomes: Writing Course-Level Learning Outcomes

English 291 Learning Outcomes

Pages: Using Pages

Academic writing wiki

A resource page that students can edit

Pages: Previewing Documents in a Page

Quiz: Using Quizzes and Polls

Medical Mission Service Training

Quiz on Course Policies

5 Minute "Entrance" or "Exit" Quiz

5 Minute Quiz with Access Code

1) answered it individually first, then

2) talked to one another about their answers, then

3) answered it a second time.

This allowed the instructor to: