How to Organize Your Canvas Course with Modules

An intentionally designed Canvas course site benefits both you and your students, providing a clear structure that supports student success, and eases course management.

An up-to-date Canvas site will allow students to:

Access course materials
View their grades
Find Zoom links for virtual sessions
See due dates
Locate your contact information and office hours

We recommend starting with an empty Canvas site to minimize clutter and avoid reproducing Blackboard issues in Canvas. Follow the outline below to choose your starting point and systematically add the content you need.

Choose Your Starting Point

There are multiple ways to attack building in Canvas. Either of the options below are a good starting point. Choose ONE that works for you

New Course Section in Canvas

If you are teaching in Canvas in Winter 25, you will get your course site for use with students by the end of the Fall 2024 semester. An email with the exact dates will go out next week.
You can build directly into this site and take it live with your students on your own in Winter 25.

Canvas Sandbox

You should have one or more already.
If you want a new one, email faculty.help@wccnet.edu
If you build in a sandbox, the content there can be copied directly into a shell for use with students.

Canvas Building Blocks

Your Organizational Approach

When you are building a Canvas site, you will need to organize these building blocks into a path that students can follow as easily as possible. You may end up innovating within this design as you get more experienced in Canvas, but this approach will give your sites good bones.

We recommend using your course schedule to set the structure of your site.

One Module Per Week - content added as separate items

Canvas module with items under

We recommend this approach. It is the easiest for students to navigate, easier for faculty to move content, and is consistent with our online and blended classes.

Create a module
Within the module

Add materials, assignments, discussions, and/or quizzes in the order you want students to encounter them
You don’t need a To-Do list here, as the module will appear in a ordered list format
How do I add course content as module items?

Best Practice for All Organizational Styles

Once you’ve determined the organizational style you’ll use for your class, use these best practices as you build out the details:

Look at it from a student's point of view

List everything in the order you want students to interact with it.
Review your course in student view to experience their path.

Create a predictable pattern

Make each module similar

Consistent design helps students understand your course and plan their time more effectively

Include timing & actions in all titles

Module titles should

Include timing & topic
Match the language used in the course overall, e.g.

Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, etc
Module 1: Introductions, Module 2: Fractions, etc

Material & action titles should begin with verbs to signal what the student should do:

Read: [Written Thing]
Watch: [Video Thing]
Complete Assignment: [Thing They Need To Do]

Getting Content into Your Canvas Course

When the content you want is in Blackboard

Text & images

Copy and paste text or images from BB

BB Quizzes:

If you have tests/quizzes that only exist in BB, email faculty.help@wccnet.edu to migrate them to Canvas.

The Blog and Journal tools do not exist in Canvas, so:

Create an Assignment or Discussion Board in Canvas
Copy/paste your Blackboard content into the Canvas Assignment or Discussion Board

When you have content in another Canvas course

Copy modules or individual content from any Canvas course you are enrolled in. - Using the "Copy To" feature
Email Facutly.help@wccnet.edu to copy a whole course site.
To Copy Images:
- If you copy (CTL+C) then paste (CTL+V) an image from one Canvas course to another, it does NOT bring the image to the files. The image will appear as a broken link to students.
- Use "Copy to" to bring the entire page/assignment to the new course, or
- download the image and upload it to the new course.
Note: if you use "copy to" to bring a page to a course and there is already a page with the same name, the new one will overwrite it. The same goes for assignments and tests.

When your content is on your computer or in your mind

Create a Page, Discussion Board, or Assignment in your Canvas site and type away OR
Upload files from your hard drive to your Canvas site OR
Create a link to content on the internets in your Canvas site OR

When you want to add Canvas content from another instructor

If it’s an individual item or module, your colleague can Use “Send to”.
If it’s an entire course, they should email faculty.help@wccnet.edu

When You’ve Completed Your Canvas Site

TAKE A BREAK

Get a colleague, friend, or family member to review your site, and share their experience with you. You might ask them to use the following questions to guide their review:

Do the students need guidance navigating the course?
Do they need direct links to any content?
Will they benefit from a direct link to the current module?
Anything else they may need?

Review their feedback and make changes as you feel make sense.

Then, review the Home Page Set-Up document, and take another look at the home page for the course you’re working on. To guide your review & possible revision, ask yourself the following questions:

Do the students need guidance navigating the course?
Do they need direct links to any content?
Will they benefit from a direct link to the current module?
Anything else they may need?