If you have already some familiarity with Canvas (e.g. because you use it in your face-to-face classes to distribute documents, record grades, etc.) you may want to consider using more of its features to help you deliver your class remotely.
Quick Start with Canvas
Canvas is a very helpful tool, but they make you go through a few steps to create your Home Page
(that students first see when they login to the Canvas site for your class).
If you first open Canvas for your class and there are no materials published yet, you need to…
- Create a New Page
- Set that Page as a “Front Page”
- Select your “Front Page” as a Home page
See how to create a custom front page and how to set a Canvas home page that includes your contact information and other key course information.
Canvas Show and Tell
Watch other Palomar instructors show you their class and explain how they did it
Super Simple Canvas (Video Training)
If you are staring a blank Canvas site for one of your classes, we recommend that you download the Simple Canvas Template File,
shown below, and Import it into your Canvas course. (Do this is the Settings area of your site). This will give you a few good “starter” pages.
We cover how to do this in the Training Session, but I will be providing a document here that explains how to do it in more detail.
Stay tuned.
- Making use of Canvas to distribute lessons, assignments, etc. (Video: 19:01)
- Download Simple Canvas Template File – Watch Instruction Video (5:20)
(IMPORTANT: Do not click on the file when it is downloaded! It is to be Imported into Canvas only)
Preparing for the Possibility
If you don’t already use Canvas much, start by:
- Learning content tools such as Pages and the Rich Content Editor
- Learning communication tools such as Announcements, Discussions, and the Inbox
- Adding your syllabus to Canvas (Upload it as a file and/or use the Canvas Syllabus tool)
- Learning assessment tools such as Assignments (details), Quizzes
- Assignments and Quizzes work with the Grades and SpeedGrader pages, should you choose to use them.
Avoiding Trouble
You may wonder why you created a Content Page and nobody can see it!
Canvas requires you to Publish each page that you would like each student to see.
Since Pages can “live” inside Modules (similar to folders), you have to remember to publish the Module for the student to be able to see any of the pages contained in the Module… even if those pages are published individually.
- Understanding how to publish individual items (pages, assignments, quizzes, discussions) in Canvas
- How to publish a Canvas class if you have not already done so
I’m Really Comfortable with Technology and I Want to Know Everything
There are many detailed guides on what you can do with Canvas. If you are just using Canvas for a few weeks, then we don’t recommend that you take the time to learn (and do) everything Canvas can do, at least not during a temporary change to instruction.
But…. if you are the kind of person that just has to know, then you can check out some of these extra Canvas resources.
We are certainly fans of Canvas and, if you want to learn to teach a fully-online class (or a hybrid class), we recommend you get the regular Canvas training we offer during the year.