From power outages to pandemics, various scenarios may interrupt District instructional operations. When facilities become unavailable, for whatever reason, instructors can use a variety of tools to provide an alternative means of communication and instruction for students.
Most instructors will eventually have a large number of courses on their Canvas Dashboard, including "official" courses generated by the college, as well as "sandbox" (development) courses they created manually.
Faculty can create their own development courses in Canvas. These are sometimes referred to as "sandbox" courses, since they are a place to explore, experiment and build new things.
One of the most fundamental elements of a course is the syllabus. This is a good starting point for faculty just learning Canvas, and an essential asset for students.
The "Rich Content Editor" (RCE) is a core Canvas tool used to enter text and other content in a wide range of areas. The RCE is the basis for the Pages tool, but it is also used for Announcements, Assignment instructions and submissions, Discussion prompts and posts, Quiz questions, and more.
Instructors can preview their Canvas course as a student at any time. This is an essential part of developing and testing a course before it is actively used by students.
A course can either be "Published" or "Unpublished," as determined by the instructor. When official courses are first created, they are not in a Published state. Instructors with course content should Publish the course prior to student access.
Instructors can add an image to the course card displayed on the Dashboard. This image adds interest, and will help students and instructors visually distinguish one course from others.