Canvas - Cidi Labs Design Tools

To launch the Content Editor Toolbox, use keyboard shortcut alt+shift+d for Windows or option+shift+d for Macs when editing a content page (you have to be in edit mode in order to activate Content Editor Toolbox). The Content Editor Toolbox will appear on the right side of your Canvas window.

After the first activation, you can set the Content Editor tools to launch automatically: select the gear icon at the top of the Cidi Labs toolbar (see below, left), then change the top setting to Automatically launch Design Tools (see below, right).

• Be mindful of your students’ cognitive load. Keep it simple.
• Students are typically task-oriented when accessing your course. Make it easy for them to find what they need quickly and without confusion.
• Dedicate your homepage to critical information, and keep any text brief. Students want the basics.
• Give your students a tour of your Canvas course and homepage to orient them. Do this in class or record a screencast they can access at any time.

• Design your pages as if they will be scanned, not read:
  • Visitors of online pages scan, then lock onto particular content. They don’t examine every word or every block of text
  • Visitors navigate largely through trial and error rather than careful, exhaustive selection
  • “Banner blindness”: attention is selective when browsing to accomplish a particular goal, rather than browsing to explore. Visitors often miss content like banners, menus or blocks of text that don’t appear related to their goals 
• Do not restrict navigation paths:
  • Information seeking online is nonlinear. Visitors do not follow a single or direct path to obtain the information they need
• Pay attention to layout before spending time on text:
  • “Pre-attentive processing”: the brain processes layout and information structure before digesting actual text on a page
• Run sub-pages through the Navigation Stress Test. Visitors should be able to answer the following questions quickly: Where am I? What’s here? Where can I go?

• Organize your schedule by week. Include this semester’s dates and topics in the headers (e.g., Week 1, Aug 26-30: Introduction). Don’t just label the week. Students won’t always remember which week of the semester they’re in, and will find an actual date more quickly.
• Don’t remove links from the left-hand navbar unless the tool is not used in your course. Students prefer to be able to access the information in multiple ways and they are more familiar with the Canvas nav bar paths. 
• If you add any homework to Canvas, include all homework, so students can see all their due dates in one place. If only including some homework, make this very explicit.
• Don’t nest content too deeply or require too many clicks. Three clicks is usually too many. 
• Include a “Contact Information” section that’s easy to find.
• If you enable the “Files” tool for students, take some time to clean it up and organize it. Alternately, you can create a tab on the homepage, or a module in your course, call it “Course Files,” and curate it.
• Put grades on Canvas and keep them updated. Students frequently tell OIT they want consistent access to all course grades in Canvas.If using a “More Resources” section, tailor resources to the course.

• If using a banner, customize it rather than using stock CU Boulder photos. If not customizing, delete the banner rather than taking up valuable space.
• Students can easily identify stock photos and in general those images decrease engagement. Conversely, students respond positively to custom images tailored to the course.
• Don’t style the page too differently from Canvas aesthetics, since it isn’t a standalone page. It should integrate with the default look and feel.