SETTING THE COURSE

Designing Navigable and Organized Canvas Courses

​

Dale Coleman

Instructional Designer & Open Education Coordinator

Tacoma Community College

dcoleman@tacomacc.edu

Canvas Best Practices Series

This presentation is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license

Workshop

Objectives

By the end of this workshop, participants should be better prepared to:

Bailey, T. R., Smith Jaggars, S., & Jenkins, D. (2015). Redesigning America's community colleges: A clearer path to student success. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

“

How Can We Help?

• Provide Guidance for Prioritization
• Encourage Time Management
• Clarify Task Requirements

How Can We Help?

(By the start of next quarter.)

1.

Improve Course Navigation

Improve navigability by reducing visual and cognitive clutter. Consider the end-user in our course design.

Visibility

Constraints

The more visible a thing is, the more likely it will be used. The more hidden or obscured a thing is, the less likely it will be used.

Limit the range of possible interactions to avoid overwhelming the user. More options is not always better.

Declutter

Do your old lesson plans bring you joy?

Declutter the back end.

• Create a folder structure
• Delete or archive old files
• Implement standard file naming conventions

wk1_assignment

wk1_handout�wk2_assignment

wk2_handount

Declutter the front end.

• Sidebar minimalism
• Restructure walls of text

Create accessible navigation.

• Use Headers
• Tear down that wall of text

Boost those Ally scores

• Improve navigation for ALL your students.
• eLearning is here to help

Validate Links

2.

Organize Course Content

Create logical and consistent organizational structure throughout your course.

Fractal Design

Self-similar patterns. Replicated at multiple scales.

"Romanesco Broccoli" by Jon Sullivan is in the Public Domain, CC0

Fractal Design

Self-similar patterns. Replicated at multiple scales.

"Romanesco Broccoli" by Jon Sullivan is in the Public Domain, CC0

Fractal Design

Self-similar patterns. Replicated at multiple scales.

"Romanesco Broccoli" by Jon Sullivan is in the Public Domain, CC0

COURSE INTRODUCTION

MODULE OVERVIEWS

TILT

ELVIS

Context, Tasks, Completion criteria

At each level of the course make clear:

• What is being asked of the student?
• Why it is important?
• What are the steps?
• What does successful completion look like?

Course Intro Pages

• What are we doing?
• Why is it important?
• How do I benefit?
• How do I start?
• Who are you? (part 3)

(Accessible) Canvas Syllabus

Increase the usefulness (and use) of your syllabus.

Print option available

(Accessible) Canvas Syllabus

Increase the usefulness (and use) of your syllabus.

Link directly to header elements in conversations with students.

Not The Best.

Place your screenshot here

Not the best.

Place your screenshot here

No context for module title

Module contents in no discernable order

Loads of external links without context

No context for content titles

Much better.

With Zero Content Changes

Much better.

With Zero Content Changes

Easy for students to identify the correct week/module.

TEXT HEADERS! WOOT!!

External links ordered and contextualized

Now our module has a logical flow, and it is pretty clear how a student should approach this week.

Indent levels.

Much better.

By making small tweaks to the presentational layer, we have significantly clarified task requirements and baked in an implicit prioritization.

We can do more!

There are some simple content additions we can make to further clarify module objectives, and provide a clear path of progression for students.

Overview Pages

Begin each module with a brief introduction and overview that maps:

• Module Objectives
• Activities / Required Content
• Assignments / Deliverables
• Supplemental resources
• Required time estimates

"Romanesco Broccoli" by Jon Sullivan is in the Public Domain, CC0

Create simple landing pages for external links.

"Romanesco Broccoli" by Jon Sullivan is in the Public Domain, CC0

TILT

T ransparency

I n

L earning &

T eaching

TILT

T ransparency

I n

L earning &

T eaching

3.

Welcome & Orient Students

Introductory Modules should welcome students to the course, and provide a sense of direction.

PROTIP: Read this.

“

Do I “fit in here?

(Schmader & Sedikides, 2017)

Am I the type of person who belongs here?

Is being here helping me accomplish my goals?

Do other people accept and value who I am?

SELF-CONCEPT FIT

GOAL FIT

SOCIAL FIT

Am I the type of person who belongs here?

Is being here helping me accomplish my goals?

Do other people accept and value who I am?

SELF-CONCEPT FIT

GOAL FIT

SOCIAL FIT

People from systemically non-dominant groups receive disconfirming signals to questions like these more frequently than people from systemically favored groups.

Create a welcoming environment by reinforcing these messages:

• You belong here
• Being here will help you reach your goals
• We are connected to each other

How tho?

Course Welcome

• Video introductions prove you are a human
• Share how the course content impacted you
• Set the tone of the course
• Set ground rules for interaction
• Provide success tips
• And whatever else you want to do to personalize your course, and align students for success

Course

Culture

You may want to explicitly set standards for interaction.

• In your syllabus?
• In your introduction video?
• In a slide deck?
• In a discussion forum?

Intro

Forum

• Ask students what is important to them!
• Set the tone by participating
• Take the time to respond to your students

Anything Else?

Thanks!

Contact me to talk about this stuff.

Dale Coleman:

• dcoleman@tacomacc.edu
• 253-460-4469
• Building 16 - Room 112

Credits

Special thanks to all the people who made and released these awesome resources for free:

• Presentation template by SlidesCarnival
• Photographs by Unsplash
• Illustrations by Undraw.co