Learning with a well-organised Canvas course page is the perfect way to make students love and appreciate the lessons. You can turn your digital classroom into a place where you and your audience can find an engaging and immersive educational environment. Your course page is like a blank page where you can bring in relevant content and customise the page to become a vibrant and inspiring learning tool.
This guide will explore how to customise your Canvas course page using its various features to structure your online course. Remember that you can choose from layouts such as the course modules, syllabus, or custom page to help your students learn unhindered.
The Art of Customising Canvas Course Pages
If you want to enhance the learning experience for the students and make it easier to access the course, customising the course page helps greatly. It makes the lessons organised and enjoyable, helping students and the instructor get the most out of it.
Creating a well-layered page on Canvas is easy to do. You can add, adjust, or remove any content on the page according to your preference. Students can find relevant tools to help them in the course, such as images, videos, links, texts, etc. All the links to the assignment, announcements, quizzes, resources, etc, are available on the navigation bar, and students can click to take them directly to the pages.
Having a well-customised page helps for easy navigation. It also involves using custom images and intuitive elements that capture students’ attention. The instructor can create a consistent and organised look and feel that makes the class and its materials straightforward to understand.
Overview of the Canvas Interface
To understand Canvas, you must be familiar with the course homepage and how the interface works. You can arrange the appearance of the homepage depending on your preference or the course. It’s easy to customise your Canvas to represent your teaching style. Here are the features of the Canvas interface.
- Navigation bar: You will see this feature at the top of the page. You can find other course elements from the navigation bar, like the modules, discussions, assignments, grades, homepage, etc.
- Announcements: As an instructor, it’s essential to leave vital information to the students about the course. If there are updates, changes, or new information, they are displayed in the announcement to help keep the students informed at all times.
- Modules: Structuring the course to help the students access it quickly is achieved with modules. The lessons may have different modules, each with classes, assignments, experiments, and other valuable resources. This is to ensure that the students understand the teaching and flow seamlessly.
- Deadlines reminders: The good thing about using Canvas is knowing the course schedules, quizzes, and assignment dates. It is a great feature that helps students manage their time and avoid missing deadlines.
- To-do list: The tool lists all the important events and assignments here. The students can always refer to the to-do list to see all the work available for them to do.
- Feedback: Here, students can get feedback from the instructor based on their performance on the last assignments.
- Course calendar: It displays every schedule and event, including dates of assignments, quizzes, etc. With the calendar, students know what awaits them in the course and how to plan.
- Course syllabus: Every instructor will give the students the whole syllabus of the course at the beginning of the lesson. It includes all there is to know about the course, from the objectives and calendar to events, etc. Students can see the syllabus and prepare ahead for all they will learn.
With Canvas, there is always a platform for communication between the course instructor and the students. These tools help to encourage interaction using chat features or video options to form a collaboration.
Step By Step Guide on How to Customise Your Canvas Course Page
Set the homepage
- First, log in to your canvas, go to the all-course section, and select the course you want.
- Go to the course navigation section in the settings and choose a homepage from the options available. You can set your preferred homepage style, whether as a course syllabus, modules, or custom page. For each option, you have to edit to get the final result. If you have set your preferred homepage before, it will open up to the home page.
- For example, if you want to create a custom page for the course, go to the “Pages Index.” You will see a +Page button. Click on it to create a new page. From the column headings, set how you want to sort the page. There are three options: sort by title, last edited, or creation date.
- To customise the syllabus as your homepage, use the “Edit” button to set the page and add images, links, text, or files. Name the page and add images, Iinks, text, and videos.
After setting the homepage, you would like to proceed with these steps:
- Set the navigation links: Scroll to the “Navigation” icon and select all the links you want to appear on the menu. You can do this by changing the order of items on the course navigation menu.
-
- Publish the page: The next step is to choose between publishing or unpublishing the page. Click on the circle, and if published, it will show a green check showing its status.
- Use student view to see changes: Preview the customised page using the student view option to see how it looks when people access the course. Ensure everything is in place and as it should be after previewing the new layout.
Layout and Aesthetics
The dream of anyone trying to get others to participate is to create something functional and attractive. For example, https://www.slotozilla.com/uk/ is an online platform that provides up-to-date information and reviews on casino games in the UK. It is a trustworthy site where you can get detailed reviews of each game so you can read and find the one that interests you. Users can play from the extensive collection of free games, especially slots, with no registration required.
The website uses aesthetically pleasing design choices that make players want to know more and play casino games on Slotozilla. The same applies to your Canvas course page. It’s essential to use attractive colours, fonts, and layouts that resonate with your student’s needs. Here are tips on how to make students more interested.
Colours:
- Use colours that represent the brand and what the course is about.
- Avoid using too many colours. Keep it minimal and simple.
- Choose two contrasting colours, one for the background and the other for the text, to help with better assimilation.
Fonts:
- Choose from the different available writing fonts for the course. For example, you can choose fonts like Times New Roman, Arial or Calibri.
- Ensure that you make the headings stand out from the body by using bigger font sizes for them.
- Use readable font sizes and avoid sizes that are too small, making them difficult to read or sizes that are too big and look ambiguous.
Layout:
- Arrange the features, such as the resources, assignments, and announcements, for easy navigation.
- Use a straightforward cut layout design throughout the sections of the page.
- Use appropriate bullets, headings, subheadings, and proper structuring.
- Add videos and images to help explain the text further.
Conclusion
Customising your Canvas course page is about how you want to create your personalised educational platform. It brings enthusiasm, engagement, and effective communication between the instructor and the students.
You have the tools that will help you craft a unique and personalised virtual classroom. With all the helpful features at your disposal with Canvas, you only need to create an atmosphere that will give your audience a meaningful learning experience.
