Q. What are some tips for organizing my Canvas course?

5 simple things you can do in Canvas to help your students 

Build your Canvas course so it’s organized and clear so your students know what they need to do and where they will find things. These 5 tips will help you do that. 

1 Be clear and organize your content  
Course modules are typically organized by topic or chronologically by week and can provide a clear and coherent roadmap for your students. Within a module, use text headers to further divide content in an intuitive way, for example, to separate readings from discussions. 

•  Create a module for each week of the semester and add course materials, and links to readings, assignments, quizzes, and other activities. 
• Include a Week One Overview to reinforce the purpose of the activities. 
• U se Text Headers to visually organize module content.  

Here are the main benefits of organizing your course content into modules: 

•  Creates a clear path to the course materials for students. 
• Tracks each student's progress through the modules via the View Progress button.
• Can be set to open automatically at a certain date and time. 
• Allows you to set Prerequisites and Requirements for how students get access to course content (e.g. you can set up week 2 module so that it’s only visible to students who have successfully completed the week 1 module) 

Using modules Canvas guide  

2 Use the course navigation menu to direct your students 
Hide unnecessary or redundant items on the course navigation menu. This simplifies things for students by directing them to modules where assignments, discussions, readings and lectures, etc., are found. To do this, hide files, assignments, quizzes, rubrics, outcomes, etc on the course menu. This also prevents students from navigating directly to assignments where they can bypass important course content. 
Managing the course navigation menu Canvas guide  

3 Setup your gradebook to match your syllabus  
Add assessment descriptions, points, due dates and other information that will help students plan each week. Make sure your gradebook settings match up with your grading policy in the syllabus. Consider using weighted groups to give more impact to larger assignments. You can set Canvas to drop the lowest grade (or several) in a group, if that is part of your policy. Gradebook settings and weighted grades Canvas guides

4 Check course for accessibility 

Use the Accessibility Checker in the rich content editor to detect common accessibility errors such as not labeling images, tables, or improperly formatting lists. This is critical for students, especially those using assistive technology such as screen readers. Accessibility Checker Canvas guide

Quickly check your course for broken external links or links to unpublished files with the Link Validator tool. Link Validator tool Canvas guide 

5 Use Student View to verify your course is designed with your students in mind 

Student View allows instructors to see what course content, assignments, quizzes, and other activities look like from a student’s vantage point.  Student View can be helpful as you review your course to ensure that the assignments and course materials you’ve created work as intended.  

Student View can also be used to submit dummy assignments in your course, which will allow you to practice using the Speedgrader and entering grades in the Canvas Gradebook. Student View Canvas guide.