Canvas Templates that Integrate Inclusive Course Design Principles
Summary:
This resource provides an overview of a set of templated courses available in Canvas Commons, what they are, and how an instructor might choose one of these templates.
To help you make more substantial revisions to your Canvas course to integrate principles of transparency, belonging, and accessibility, the Center for Teaching Excellence at UVA has developed five ready-to-use templates.
There are two types of templates available: weekly overview templates and specific class schedule templates. Each uses Canvas Pages as their foundation and include a formatted home page along with 14 weekly pages that vary in the format and level of detail. These templates align with principles of inclusive course design.. For example, each template:
- promotes transparency by using the Canvas homepage as a central landing page where students can navigate the rest of the course. Each of the 14 weekly pages are consistently formatted to aid students’ understanding of course expectations.
- includes places for instructors to support students’ sense of belonging, such as a ‘tips for success’ section and a place to share more about yourself as an instructor.
- attends to accessibility, including alt image text, descriptive hyperlinks, and use of headers.
Below we summarize each template type and provide recommendations for when you might want to use one template over another.
Template 1: Weekly Overview
The Weekly Overview templated courses are structured around the content covered and the assignment due each week. This format allows instructors to consolidate all learning materials, assignments, and assessments onto a single page, facilitating straight-forward navigation for students. These templates work well for structuring your course around topics as well.
Both Weekly Overview templates have a similar number of pages, differing only in layout and color scheme. They include the following pages you can import into your course:
- Homepage
- Course information & Introduction to Course
- Course Syllabus
- Assessment Type & Grading
- Tips for Success
- Weekly pages (14 weeks)
- Weekly Overview
- Weekly Objectives (“Weekly Overview Template” only)
- Reminders
- Introduction to topic (“Weekly Overview Template” only)
- Reading/Videos/Podcasts (“Weekly Overview Template” only)
- Assignments
- In-Class Materials (“Weekly Overview Template 2” only)
Weekly Overview Template (100% accessible)
This Weekly Overview template features a highly detailed weekly overview page, making it ideal for instructors who prefer to provide extensive details and have specific objectives for each week. This layout has been successfully used by other UVA faculty for asynchronous online courses.
Weekly Overview Template 2
This Weekly Overview template features a more simplistic design than the previous one, having fewer details on the weekly overview page. It is ideal for instructors who prefer broader course information without breaking down objectives and topics by week.
Template 2: Specific Class Schedules
The Specific Class Schedule templates are formatted so instructors can organize the course based on the frequency of weekly meetings each week. In this format, instructors can communicate to students what needs to be completed before, during, and after each class period.
There are three course templates using the schedule format:
- Class Once-a-Week Template 1
- Class Twice-a-Week Template 1
- Class Three-Times-a-Week Template 1
These templates are ideal for instructors who want to set clear expectations for students regarding pre-class preparation and post-class activities. The three templates share a similar design, with variations in the weekly overview page depending on the number of weekly meetings. All three templates include the following pages you can import into your course:
- Homepage
- Course information & Introduction to course
- Required Texts
- Assessment types & grading
- Weekly schedule
- Tips for success
- Weekly pages (14 weeks)
- Topic
- Before, during, & after class for each day
- Upcoming
How do you choose a template?
Not sure which template is best for your course? Here’s an overview of the five templated courses.
Interested in getting started with one of these templates? Check out this Teaching Hub resource to get step-by-step instructions for importing a template into your Canvas course.
Not a UVA instructor? Don’t worry! These templates are available in Canvas Commons, a digital library available to any instructor who uses Canvas as their Learning Management system. Learn more about Canvas commons.