Early Bird

Fall Canvas course shells now available

Get started early on creating next semester’s courses.

By Information Technology Services

April 8, 2021

Instructors planning to teach fall courses can now access student-facing course shells that have been automatically created and added to their Canvas profiles. It is recommended to start early to avoid problems that may occur when many users are attempting to manipulate new courses at the same time.

Instructors can find these courses in their All Courses list, which is accessed by clicking the “Courses” icon in the Canvas navigation bar, then the “All Courses” link (near the bottom). If instructors are expecting a specific course but do not see it in this listing, they should contact their department’s class-schedule coordinator to ensure that they have been added as an instructor for that course in Banner. If that doesn’t resolve the issue, please contact the ITS Service Desk at 303-352-7548 or submit a ticket through support.msudenver.edu.

Once instructors are ready to begin building their fall courses, they can take advantage of the self-help tutorials posted on the Center for Teaching, Learning and Design MSU Denver Ready site. The Introduction to Canvas page includes tutorials such as the Course Copy Guide, which provides instructions on transferring content from an older course to a new one, and the Post-Import Checklist, which offers tips on keeping the course organized and functioning after it has been copied. Instructions for sharing a Lead Course (a similar process) are also available in the Top 10 Tutorials Guide.

NOTE: When copying a Canvas course, please be sure to use only the “selected content” option. Some content from other courses will be part of the institutional blueprint or are settings/tools that should not be copied from one semester to another. When selecting which specific content to copy to a fall student-facing course, do not select the following options:

• Course Settings
• Syllabus Body
• External Tools

Instructors looking for help with course design, course facilitation, instructional accessibility or other instructional-design and best-practice elements can visit the CTLD Ready website – specifically, the Drop-In Support and Self-Help Tutorials pages.

For technical questions or concerns, please contact the ITS Service Desk at 303-352-7548 or submit a ticket through support.msudenver.edu.