Build - Your Course Structure In Canvas

As discussed in the earlier Orientation modules, there are a number of different options for course home pages, and a choice between organizing course content with either Pages or Modules. Once you’ve chosen an approach, you can sort your class content and activities into those tools.

Current best practice is to focus students on key tasks, linking to those tasks in one, consistent location, and guiding students to the next step in a course. This means reducing the course navigation elements to a bare minimum. Home, Grades, and maybe a tool like Panopto or the Library links may be all your students need. Access to Quizzes, Files, and other activities can be provided in links from modules or pages. 

In many courses, students will repeat a similar set of tasks each week. They’ll read and watch content, complete a set of assessable activities, then check their grades. When using Modules, there is usually one task per line of the module. If Pages are the main organizer, there’s more freedom in layout, but at some point a list of tasks should be presented to students.

Two organizing schemes we’ve found effective are:

• Arrange by concept or theme: Everything associated with that concept, whether links to readings and videos, slides, assignment materials, quizzes, etc. all go in that module or page. This approach is used in this course; everything for each topic is contained in the module for that topic.
• Arrange by time: Everything that’s covered in that period of time (usually a week) is in that page or module; the module becomes a step-by-step list. (See sample screenshot).

One method we don’t recommend is sorting content and activities by type, e.g. one page/module is PowerPoints, one page/module is journal articles, etc. This forces students to search around for the content and activities for each week of the course.

Within each Module or Page, some approaches that have worked include:

• One task, for example reading a journal article or completing a quiz, is an item in the module. The module guides students through the work.
  • Variation: Create a single page listing all the reading materials for that week/unit. Add the links to quizzes and assignments in the module list, in addition to putting them on that page.
• Post all the readings, videos, and other supporting materials for an assignment in the prompts for that assignment.

Regardless, the approach you use should be consistent throughout the course. 

Online and hybrid courses

Particularly with online and hybrid courses, we highly recommend using Modules, with each week of the quarter structured into that module. As described in the previous page, schedule-flexible classes lack the context cues and in-class reminders of what to do next. Using one module per week helps students connect course activities with the calendar.