Tech Tips Corner

Course Design Considerations in Canvas

An effective course design is an intentional planning of a course to help students achieve the desired learning outcomes.

To deliver impactful learning experiences, you need to consider:

  1. The importance of Needs Analysis – 3 W’s: Who, What and Why
  2. Create a roadmap to the learning journey, collecting and organizing the content
  3. Delivery of compelling instructions
  4. Evaluation of the Learning Outcomes

Your course needs the following course navigation links:

  1. Home: The landing page
  2. Announcements: Course announcements
  3. Modules: Course content with Quizzes and assignments organized in groups
  4. Discussions: All available discussions
  5. Grades: All grades from graded activities
  6. Zoom : For synchronous class meetings

The Home page should look like a front page of a website with easy access to the following information:

  1. Pages with general information:
    • course introduction,
    • outcomes,
    • course materials,
    • contact information,…
  2. Navigation Buttons:  that links to the different modules in the course
  3. Main course materials: course text, e-resources etc.
  4. Links to some course tools that need extra visibility or an explanation.

A Sample Home Page with navigation buttons

To create navigation buttons, you can use: MS Word, canva.com, Google docs, google drawings, etc.
Steps to create button image using canva.com:

      • Create a free an account in canva. It is FREE!!!
      • Click on Create a Design on the upper right corner.
      • Select a banner or a flyer.
      • From the tool bar on the left side, select the desired template from Templates.
      • Edit the text in the template to your needs.
      • Select suitable photo from Photos.
      • Select icons and shapes from Elements to add to your button.
      • Click on Download button on the top right corner.
      • Select the File Type as PNG(High Quality).
      • Click Download to save the image of the button to your computer.
      • A sample image of my button.

The above steps can also be followed to create a banner for the course home page.

To create navigation buttons in the Canvas Home Page:

    • Open the Course Home Page.
    • In the Rich Content Editor, insert the image of the button, using the Image tool.
    • Select the image and resize the button to the desired size.
    • Select the button and click on the Link tool.
    • Select Course Link or External Link from the drop down list.
    • Select the desired link.
    • Click Save button.
    • View the Home Page in Student View and check the navigation buttons linked to the different modules.

To know more, view the link : Canvas Course Design Guidance

Some sample course designs to check: List of Courses