Template Instructor Actions

Home Page

Summary: When you open a course in Canvas, the first thing you will land on is the Home page. This is where you introduce the class and provide easy navigation to the different locations within the Canvas course. Buttons for Meet the Instructor, Start Here, Announcements, Learning Modules, Resources, Student Support, and the Canvas Syllabus page are located on the Home page. This follows the Best Practice of providing easy and clear navigation.

Instructor Actions: You will need to provide the course title, your name, and the term in the upper banner. You will also want to customize the contents of the following: Meet the Instructor, Start Here, and Resources (this is course resources - NOT campus or student support). Student Support and Campus Resources (both of which are accessed through the Start Here module navigation) are complete, and the Modules and Syllabus link are self-populating as you build the course.

Meet the Instructor

Summary: It is very easy for students to feel isolated in an online course, so it is important that the instructor provide a reasonable amount of information to make them feel that there a real person on the other side of the screen. It is VERY important to include contact information, including office location and hours, a phone number, and an email - even if that is in the syllabus.

Instructor Actions: Tell a little about yourself. Get as personal as you are comfortable with, telling about your academic background, research interests, maybe even your hobbies. If there is anything that might impact your interactions with your students, you should include it.

Including an image, or better yet, a video, is another very good way to help establish that connection between you and your students, and is encouraged by best practice.

Start Here

Summary: The Start Here is a module that is recommended by all the recognized instructional design quality assurance bodies (Quality Matters, Online Learning Consortium, etc.). It introduces the purpose of the course, the learning outcomes, course policies, and the grading scheme. It is important that these things be available in the online course, even if they are available in the syllabus so they are easily accessible at any time.

Instructor Actions: Please edit the sections appropriately for your course. When including the policies, don't forget late work, absences, honesty, interaction, re-submissions, etc. The outcomes in this section are the course level outcomes. You should include the module level outcomes in the specific module.

Course Resources

Summary: The Resources button is the link to Course materials and resources. This section includes the top five requested resources, such as any required or recommended resources (text books, websites, journals, tools, etc.), and any other helpful resources you might feel are appropriate to recommend, including the campus or any professional libraries.

Instructor actions: Please include your texts, required software, hardware and other tools, memberships, etc. in this area. Let the students know up front what they will need to have for this course. Including available information on cost, access, or download directions (for example) will be helpful as well. You can also link to tutoring, professional journals, or even just helpful information if you think it will help your students succeed. This is the place for all the recourses and materials for your class.

(The next item that you will navigate to with the "next" button is a Question page for general course questions. This is not included in this introduction, but it is a helpful tool for students to ask general questions about the course.)

Student Support

Summary: The student support page should include any advice, resources, or additional policies that are relevant to your course, department, or college. This page is largely filled out, but you might want to include some other information.

Instructor Action: Please use this page to provide any addition Student resources that you think will be helpful, including how you are asking students to use their online learning space? Are students expected to complete assignments, discussions, and quizzes online? If this is a hybrid course, how much is face-to-face and what are the students expected to do in the online portions? If it is HyFlex, explain to the students exactly what that means. You can also include links to helpful documents about learning online such as the one below.

If your students are late or miss class, can how can they get the missed information? Will you be posting make-up assignments/resources in Canvas? If you intend to do so, you can provide details here. If not, discuss how students will make up their work.

Syllabus

Summary: The syllabus page is a self-populating page that acts as a dynamic schedule for your students. When you create an activity of any kind with a date attached, it will be added to the Syllabus page. It is NOT the same as the syllabus that you should include on the Start Here Page.

Faculty action: None required. This is a self-populating page.

Campus Resources

Summary: It is best practice to include a page within your course that specifically provides campus resources. This page is fully populated with the main topics that should be included. Please do not remove any of these resources, but if you would like to include some, please feel free.

Instructor Actions: There really isn't anything needed on this page, as the content follows the tenets of best practice put forth by all the national standards and guidelines. Feel free to add to it, if you like, however.