Quick Tips IMPROVE Series, Part 3: Pages Overview
Welcome back to Part 3 of our IMPROVE series. We’re on to the letter P in our IMPROVE acronym, which stands for Pages!
We’ve spent a lot of time talking about Modules so far, and for good reason -- they create the overall structure of the course content. Now that we have established that structure, we can move into creating the content for those modules.
In this post, we will discuss the purpose of Pages, how to create them, and how to add them to your modules.
Author note: This series is much more in depth than some of our previous RCID Quick Tips and focuses on universal course design as well as the Canvas tools themselves. While we broke this into several sections for emails, we've combined them for the blog to make it easier to navigate.
What are Pages?
When it comes to creating and presenting online content, the Page tool is one of the most flexible and robust tools in our arsenal, yet it has been overlooked by many since our transition to Canvas.
Simply put, a page gives you the space to share instructional materials with your students. Pages are different from course activities like assignments, quizzes, or discussions, in that there is nothing for the student to submit. Rather, you can leverage pages to group and present all kinds of content for students to read, watch, download, and interact with.
How can I use Pages in my course?
Just like we discussed when we were creating modules, the first step in creating pages is one of intention and design. Consider how you want to break down your content and how much content you want to present at one time (aka on one page) before the student moves on to the next item.
Figure 1: Sample module
In the screenshot of our sample module below, the content is broken into five pages (labeled 1-4 and 7). The first page contains an introduction and overview of the module, the second page contains an list and links to all the readings, and the third and fourth pages contain embedded videos for students to watch. Then, the activities that students need to complete -- a quiz (labeled 5) and an assignment (6) -- are linked in the module. Finally, one last page is used to summarize and wrap up the content of the module.
Ask yourself: What page breakdown makes sense for the way you teach your course?
There isn’t one right way to break down your content into Pages, and sometimes you might try a few different methods before you make your decision.
In our sample module above, we have broken our pages down by the type of content, e.g., introduction, readings, videos, etc. This is a great way to organize a fully online asynchronous course where students will be able to interact with the content piece by piece from start to finish. This setup gives room for the instructor to introduce and contextualize each module within the course, as well as each content item within the module.
However, we could have created pages based on topic instead, e.g., Lenses, Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO, etc. This could be a good option for a face-to-face course where you’ll be there in person to control the pacing and presentation of the content, and Canvas is used as a supplemental resource.
How do I create a Page?
Once you have determined how you will break your content down within your modules, you can start creating pages to house the content. There are two locations where you can start.
Option 1: Create a page from the Pages Index
The Pages Index is where all the individual pages in your course live. No matter how you create a page, the Pages Index will always give you the full list of every page in your course.
Instructions: Create a new page from the Pages Index
Note: Creating a page from the Pages Index does NOT add that page to a module.
Option 2: Create a page from within a module
You can accomplish two tasks at once by using this method, because not only will you be able to create a new page, but you will also be able to add it to a module at the same time. Here’s how (hint: this should look familiar if you’ve been keeping up with this series).
First, click the + button in the module heading.
A dialog box will pop up. From there:
- Use the drop-down menu in the top left and select Page.
- You’ll see a list of pages that you already have in your course. Click the [Create Page] option at the top of the list.
- Type in the name for the page.
- Adjust the indentation level if desired.
- Click the Add Item button to save.
Your new, blank page will be created and added to the end of the module. To edit the page, click on the title, then click the Edit button in the top right corner.
We’re going to leave you here for today, but watch for our next post on the Rich Content Editor (RCE), which is the tool we’ll use to finally start adding actual content to our pages.