10 Canvas Tips

10 Canvas Tips: adapted from Matt Miller at Ditch that Textbook

Plan your Course before you start building

Set up Canvas like an Interactive Notebook

Create an easy way for students to see upcoming assignments

Use "Test Student" to preview

Be consistent when naming assignments

10

Use the embed feature to customize media

Hyperlink your weekly agenda

Organize everything in Modules

Use New Quizzes to showcase student knowledge

Connect Parents as Observers

Hyperlink a Weekly Agenda on the Homepage to make Canvas more manageable for students and parents. Students/Parents can see the agenda and can click on links to go exactly where they need to!

Decide BEFORE you build your class: where you put assignments? Materials? Videos, etc.? Will it be link through a Bitmoji Classroom on the homepage? Will you place everything in Modules? Will assignments go on the Calendar and resources in Modules? Will you use a page for a week at a glance? Find what works for you and stay with it.

Organize everything in Modules, and disallow students from viewing anything except your Modules and your Announcements. That way they will have to access all content and assignments through Modules and see information the way you want it to be presented.

Use the test student option to turn in material before you give the assignment to students. This allows you to get an idea of how it will look once submitted to help students along the way and for grading purposes. How do I view my course as a student?

Connect parents as observers in Canvas and have parents stay up to date on coursework!

Take a few moments to streamline your titles for all work before you assign them so that you can leverage Canvas's latest update of looking at items by assignment, module or alphabetical order. This is especially helpful for students who cannot manipulate their Gradebook the same way we do and just see a mass of names and grade. By using a system like Week-Day-Module/Unit students can find what they need to find more quickly.Think about the file names in advance and you'll thank yourself.

Quizzes can be more than multiple choice! Explore Hot Spot, Drag and Drop, Matching, and more with New Quizzes!

Set it up like a textbook or notebook. The students view the module and then progress through using the "next" button. Instead of it just being a mess of resources, the students now have an organized progressive unit. Search for templates in the Commons!

Connect parents as observers in Canvas and have parents stay up to date on coursework!

Embed videos using HTML with Canvas...especially YouTube videos. Through the code, adjust the time the video starts and ends! Focus a video on what is needed and not the entire thing.

Create a chart on your homepage to list due dates for upcoming assignments. Go to Edit > Insert Table > Choose 5x5. Label the days of the week in the first row and the dates of the month in the other rows. You can then enter upcoming due dates or important reminders right on the students' homepage.