Getting your Course Ready

5 Quick Steps

Follow these five quick steps to get your course site up and running:

Step 1: Customize Your Home Page

  1. Set your homepage. Display either Modules or Syllabus as your homepage depending on your organisation structure.
    By default, all NUS courses are set with the "Course Modules" as the homepage. 

  2. Hide unused course navigation Links to an external site. to ensure that the course site is simplified and not cluttered with unwanted navigation items.
    (Go to Navigation from the Settings menu to hide the unwanted Course Navigation links and reorder them to your preference). 

To change the layout for your homepage, you can click Choose Course Home Page in the right-hand menu on the Home Page which offers 5 other homepage options: 

screenshot of the Canvas Choose Home Page menu with 5 options
  • Course Activity Stream: shows your students the most recent activities for your course including announcements, discussions, assignments, and conversations.
  • Pages Front Page:  create and set a front page as your home page. Please note that you have to publish the page before you can set as the Front Page.
  • Course Modules:  outlines the course and how to navigate the course content organised by modules. This is the default setting for NUS courses. 
  • Assignment List:  shows all assignments or tasks required throughout the course with upcoming and recent assignments at the top of the page.
  • Syllabus:  displays the content or document on your Syllabus page as the Home Page.

Step 2:  Update Syllabus Page

Update your Course Syllabus and make it visible, so that even all un-enrolled students can view it before the term begins, assisting them in their course selection during the Course registration (CourseReg) exercise.   

Step 3:  Add Course Content & Assignments

Consider how you want to use your Canvas site. You can use it as a central organizing place for course materials and resources, as a communication tool, as a place for assignments and assessments, as well as a place for group work and collaboration.

  1. Import a template from Commons to start with a preferred structure
  2. Add course Files, Pages, Assignments, Quizzes, and/or Discussions.

Based on our experience, we suggest you use both Modules to organize your course and Syllabus. Modules will help you and your students keep track of content, assignments, and grading, and can be organized by weeks, lessons or topics (e.g., lecture, lab, and precept). Visit Build Your Course Site for details. Instead of building a course site from scratch, you may choose to import one the course templates we have created, which you can then edit, adding your own content. 

NOTE: Importing one of these templates will overwrite content or settings in your Canvas site. It is recommended that you import these templates into an empty site.

  1. Choose Import from Commons, and search for “NUS template” or “National University of Singapore” 
  2. Select your preferred template. You may preview the structure before import  
    • NUS Template #1: 13-Week template 
      This course template provides a week-by-week organisation structure to help you with the design and development of a course that is 13-weeks long.
    • NUS Template #2: 6-Week template
      This course template provides a week-by-week organisation structure to help you started with the design and development of a course that is 6-weeks long. This template can be used for mini-semesters and special semesters.
    • NUS Template #3: Topics template
      This basic course template provides a topic-by-topic organisation structure to help instructors get started with the design and development of your course.
  3. Click Download/Import, and select Import to Course 

 

Step 4: Review and Publish the Course

  1. Review your course in Student View before you let your students access it—that way you can verify that they see what you intend them to see.
  2. Publish your course when you are ready to allow students to access your course.  NUS courses on Canvas are not available to students until the instructor clicks Publish.

Screenshot of the side bar on course homepage

  • On the homepage, click Student View to preview the course. This will allow you to see the course the way your students will see it, and make edits and adjustments. It is particularly useful to review how the Course Navigation Menu appears to your students.  
  • Click Publish to make your course available to your students.  The grayed-out Publish button will turn green once your course is published.

Step 5: Send an Announcement

After the course is published, consider sending a welcome message to your students. The announcement will be delivered directly to the students (according to their notification preferences) and posted in the Announcements area.  An announcement may include: 

  • An explanation of how you and your students will use the Canvas site this semester.
  • A description of how you have set up your course and where they can find course material and assignments.
  • A reminder for your students to check the calendar for due dates and download the Canvas student app.

Let's take a look at how to build your course site in the next module. To continue learning, click "Next".