The course creation guide was built to help you plan for the upcoming semester. This guide takes you step-by-step on how to create a well-designed course for your students. If you have any questions or would like to have a meeting to discuss your course, please contact us at ocats@iastate.edu.
Step 1: Create a Canvas Course
Acess your course
To request a course shell, please select the options that fit your needs.
| Prepare to Teach |
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| If you cannot find a course within the “Unliked Registrar Sections,” you may not be listed as the instructor of record, or the course has not been released in the system yet. To correct this, please contact CVM Canvas Support at cvmavhelp@iastate.edu. After this, Canvas will automatically update the course record, and the course should be visible on your end. |
| Request a Course Shell |
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| You may request a course shell or an organization shell with this tool as your sandbox site. This sits can be used for practice, testing, or archiving content. Manage |
Common settings
Step 2: Manage Canvas Content
Annoucnment
You can create an announcement to share information with all users in your course.
Module
Modules are used to organize course content by weeks, units, or whatever organizational structure works for your course. One you create modules, you can add content items, set prerequisites, and add requirements.
Assignment
You can create online assignments for students to submit their assignments through Canvas.
Discussion forum
Discussion boards can be used as a place for students to interact with each other and the materials in the classroom. Discussions can be graded or ungraded.
Class Quizzes and New Quizzes
You can create several types of quizzes in Canvas, including Practice Quiz, Graded Quiz, Graded Survey, and Ungraded Survey. There are many types of questions that you can choose from: multiple choice, true/false, fill-in-a-blank,Likert scale, matching, numerical, formula, essay, file upload. You can also set up the quiz to shuffle answers, enforce a time limit, restrict access, multiple attempts, and see quiz response.
**Canvas has developed New Quizzes to replace the current quiz function, Classic Quizzes. The sunset timeline provides specific information on Canvas’ transition schedule. The ISU transition to New Quizzes is tied to and dependent on Canvas’ timeline and ability to meet its milestone commitments.
Group work
Canvas Groups allow the instructor to not only put students in groups, but once assigned to a group, each group of students gets their own Canvas course that is connected to the course in Canvas. Within a group Canvas course, students can converse with eachother, upload resources and files to eachother, and they can complete group assignments.
Step 3: Publish a Canvas Course
Before the start of the semester, you will need to enroll students in your course and publish your course so it is viewable by all students. To do that, go to “Prepare to Teach” in the “Global Course Administration tool, check the status and publish the course.
Technical Support
If you have any concerns or difficulties about Canvas, please reach out to us! We will assist you as soon as possible.
| CVM IT Service (Instructional Support) |
| Iowa State University Solution Center 24/7 |
| 24/7 Canvas Support by Instructure |