Personalize Your Template
Now that you have your template uploaded, you can begin to make it your own. Below are instructions for:
- editing your Homepage (and reverting to formerly saved versions)
- editing Module Landing Pages and Other Pages
- editing the Modules list
| EDITING THE HOMEPAGE |
To begin editing any page in Canvas, click on the Edit button in the upper right corner to open the editing window.
Let's begin with changing the image. Click on and delete the current image. Next, click on the Images tab on the right side. Choose Upload Image and browse for the image you want. Once selected, add Alternative Text information so that people who cannot see an image due to a slow internet connection or using assistive technology, such as screen readers, can get a description of the image. Finally, click Upload and your image will appear.
You can resize the image by using the corner points and dragging it to the desired size. (Click on image if you do not see the corner points.)
Next, let's add some text. Delete and type in the text you want for the course name. Add topic names to each week. Note: Templates come with links to the first page in each week's module. Leave the Week links as is to avoid breaking them. See more information on the How to Create Links page.
If you decide that you would like to change the cell colors on the homepage, you can click the cell you want to edit, then click on the Table Icon in the toolbar to navigate to Cell and then Cell Properties.
This will open the Cell properties window. Click on Advanced and replace the Background color Hex Code with your own and click OK. (Don't panic if you don't have a hex code. You can use Google Color Picker Links to an external site. to find one. See below.)
When you have opened Google Color Picker Links to an external site., find the color you want and then copy the Hex Code that appears in the HEX area and paste into the Advanced Cell properties Background color box.
Click Save to see your final result. Click Edit if you want to make more changes.
If you are not happy with your results, you can revert to any previously saved version of your page via the Page History. To access the Page History, click on the 3 dots next to the Edit button and choose View Page History from the menu.
Here you can see all of your revisions. Click on a revision to view it. Once you have located the revision you want to revert to, click on Restore this revision and click the X to close the Revision History window.
| EDITING MODULE LANDING PAGES & OTHER PAGES |
The template homepages all link to the first page of a module rather than the module itself. (We call this the Module Landing Page.) We do this because if you link to a module, the result is that the student is thrown into the Module List. However, one drawback is that if you change the title of a page you will break any links to it. Not a great design choice on the part of Canvas. Therefore, we recommend leaving the titles on the module landing pages as is. If you want to change them, make sure you check out the How to Create Links page.
- Next, notice that you can change the image in the same way we changed the image of the homepage above.
- We suggest changing the first header from "Overview" to your topic name.
- Note that we are using Header 3 for headers and for accessibility, it is best practice to use headers rather than enlarged paragraph text. (Also, avoid colored or underlined text as these indicate hyperlinks and become confusing to the reader.)
- On the To Complete or Submit list, link to discussions and assignments (see How to Create Links ) and avoid using specific dates as these will all need to be changed when you copy the course in the future. Use days of the week instead.
| EDITING MODULES |
Modules in Canvas are very flexible and easy to use. If you click on the 3 dots at the right side of the module header, you will find a menu that lets you Edit the module name along with other choices such as Delete or Duplicate the entire module. Note: Deleting the Module does not delete the contents. All pages, assignments, discussions, etc. remain in the course. Also, the Duplicate function does not work if there is a Quiz in the module. (Remove quiz temporarily to duplicate.)
Items with modules also have a dropdown menu that allows you to Edit the title, Duplicate the item or Remove the item. Duplicated items will have "copy" added to their titles. You can edit this. Removed items will still be in the course, they just won't appear in the module.
You can drag and drop both modules and items by grabbing the 8 dots on the left side of the module or items. You can even drag items between modules.
You can add items to a module by clicking on the Plus Sign + on the right.
This will open a window that shows all of the options you can add: Assignment, Quiz, File, Page, Discussion, Text Header, etc. Once you select you item type, you can find the item to insert.
If the item, such as a page or a discussion, does not yet exist, you can add it directly by selecting [New Page] or [New Discussion] or [New file], etc. and giving the item a name. Then click on Add Item. The page, assignment, discussion, etc. will be appear in the module and you can fill out the items details whenever you are ready by clicking on the item name to open, and then clicking Edit.