Canvas Course Overview

Canvas Tutorials Canvas Course Overview

Instructor Getting Started Module

Course Options

 Canvas courses are designed to reduce the time you spent creating content and managing the course assignments. Please review the tabs below to learn more about to setup a Canvas course.  If you have questions or need help setting up your course, please contact Information System and Services for help. 

How Canvas Courses Work

There are several ways to design your courses in Canvas. It really depends on what type of course (see course formats) you are teaching and your style of teaching as to how you will design your course. The video below will give you general overview of how to build a Canvas course. 

521 - Course Layout: Customization Links to an external site. from Canvas LMS Links to an external site. on Vimeo Links to an external site..

Important Updates

In the  October 19, 2019 update Links to an external site. there was a big change in the how the course menu appears to instructors.  In the screen shot below the current menu is on the left and the new menu is on the right. Review the numbered items below. 

Changes to the course menu

  1. Current active link – Indicates current page you are viewing. This link currently displays in blue highlight color with white text. After the October 19, 2019 update, the current active link will display in black text with black vertical line next to the text.
  2. Active Links – This indicates links that are currently available to students. Currently, these links display in black text. After the October 19, 2019 update, all links (active and inactive) will appear with blue text.
  3. No Content/Hidden links – In the current course menu, any links that do not have content or have been hidden by the instructor will display with grayed out text. After the October 19, 2019 update, these links will be styled the same as active links but include an eyeball/slash icon to the right of the text.  Note: Menu items that are hidden by default from students will not display the eye/slash icon. This will include the Multi-Tool, Attendance, Studio, and Settings. This may also include third party textbook integrations as well.  If you enable New Analytics after October 2019 release, students will be able to see the New analytics option in the course menu and home page.
  4. You can view the following guide for details on how to manage links.

Course Design Tips

In a blank course instructors can copy content from a previous semester course  by clicking add existing content. This will display the import screen where you can copy a canvas course or use other import options. Instructors can also access the import screen by clicking Settings in the course menu. Then on the settings page click Import Course Content. This will display Import screen. Once content is copied to the course, the course home will be whatever was set in the course you copied from when using the Copy a Canvas course option. 

If another instructor shares a Canvas course package with you via email, download the package to your computer. Use the following guide for steps on how to import the package into a course. 

Another way content can be shared with you is through the Canvas Commons. Please view the following page for directions on using the Canvas Commons. 

Course design is an important aspect of teaching online. Please review these pages for tips and tutorials on how to streamline the course development process.

Design Tools Tips

Design Tools is a course integration that allows instructors to streamline course development. Training sessions are offered during the spring and fall semesters.  Please see Professional Development page Links to an external site. in the Faculty Commons Links to an external site. for the latest workshop sessions.  

The default home page is the Modules page. A course cannot be published until there is a published module in the course. Instructors can choose a different option for the course home. It is strongly recommended that instructors make the course home the module page or Page/Front Page option as the course home page. Instructors can use Design Tools to customize page as the home page. 

Canvas Guides

Note: These guides are maintained by the Canvas Documentation Team and are available on the Canvas Community site Links to an external site.. Some of the information in these guides may not apply to the Lake Land College instance of Canvas. If you have a question about a feature mentioned in these guides, please review Getting Help page for details on who to contact at Lake Land College.