Do you need a rapid strategy to guide your students' learning? Looking for a way to design or organize your Canvas learning modules? Interested in exploring best practices for designing your course?

Click on the tabs below to find out more about how to design and organize modules.

Layouts FAQs

What is the Course Design Layout?

This layout is like a course shell or template that includes detailed instructions and videos for you to quickly get started with your course design in Canvas.

After you have downloaded the layout from Canvas Commons into your course, you may choose to use part or all of the layout in your course. And you may edit it and duplicate the modules as needed.

Watch the Course Design Layout Video Tour

What are the Module Design Layouts?

If you do not wish to download the full Course Design Layout in your course, you may download only Module 0 or Module 1 from Canvas Commons. Module 1 has written instruction about what to put in each module bucket as well as video instructions (e.g., about how to use Cavas tabs and buttons). Module 0 is the module that you should duplicate for your course. It has basic instructions for you to start designing you r module. The video instruction are not included so you will not have to spend time deleting the video before you start using Module 0.

May I copy certain elements of the layouts from one course directly to another?

Yes, however, you would need to download them in your course first.

As an instructor, you may copy individual element (e.g., pages, discussion forum, assignment, etc.). If, for example, you like the tabs in the Course Design Layout or the Module Design Layout (Module 0), you may use the Direct Share Feature to:

Currently, there's not an option to copy an entire module via Direct Share. An alternative would be to share your module via Canvas Commons and then download it into your other course (find out how).

If you are not an instructor in a course (or you do not have permission enabled for the Course Content - add / edit / delete permission enabled) you will not be able to copy any course element directly from one course to another.

Access Layout

To download the layouts from Canvas Commons:

View the instructions here.
Search for Course Design Layout via Canvas Commons.
Search for Module 0 via Canvas Commons.
Search for Module 1 via Canvas Commons.
To quickly find all the layouts, search for Firm Faith.

Canvas commons

To use the Course Design Layout:

Watch the Course Design Layout tour (also located on the Course Design Layout homepage).
Select Modules (see the left tab of your Canvas page in the layout) and watch all the videos instructions in Module 1. The videos are also located in this google folder: Course Design Layout Videos
Duplicate Module 0 (provided in the Course Design Layout and the Module 0 layout) as many times as needed.

To use Module 0

Select Modules (see the left tab of your Canvas page in the layout) to access Module 0.
Duplicate Module 0 as many times as needed.

Consider Quality Matters Standards

Murray State University has subscribed to Quality Matters (QM), a non-profit organization focused on helping faculty with continuous improvement of online and blended courses.

QM created a research-based rubric to help faculty determine the quality of their online and blended course design.

QM also provided an emergency remote checklist to that includes steps for starting, next steps and long-term consideration for remote teaching for classroom-based classes.

What would you like to do?

Review QM Annotated Rubric

Review QM Remote Checklist

Subscription Benefits for Murray State includes (but are not limited to):

Access to the QM fully-annotated higher education rubric.
Access to the web-based automated rubric tools, for informal (unofficial/internal/ self) course reviews for the development and improvement of online or blended courses.
Discounts on QM professional development, official QM-managed course reviews, conferences, and events.
Ability to create MyQM accounts which gives all faculty and staff access to our tools and resources and their personal QM Activity, including certificates of training and/or course certification.

Access the QM Automated Rubric Tool

Faculty may conduct self-reviews of their online courses using the QM’s self-review tool. These reviews will be seen by only the faculty who conducts the self-reviews (unless the faculty decides to share the reviews). There is no limit on the number of self-reviews that each faculty may conduct. To access the self-review tool, complete the following steps:

Visit www.qualitymatters.org
Create a MyQM account: Click on the MyQM link located at the bottom left of the Quality Matters home page.
Enter your Murray State email address. If you have an existing QM account, you may sign in or request a new password if needed. Alternatively, you may check "No, I am new here" and follow the prompts to create an account.
Once your account is created, you may access the self-review tool by clicking on the following links that are located on the left menu: My Tools → Course Review System, and then select Start a Self-Review (from the bulleted list below the Welcome message).

Consider OSCQR

The OSCQR Rurbric and Process is a comprehensive professional development resource designed to assist faculty with continuous improvement in the quality and accessibility of online courses.

The OSCQR Process provides a framework and dashboard to support a campus tailored and scalable approach to improving instructional design and accessibility of online and blended courses.

The OSCQR Rurbric, a central component of course review, is a flexible and customizable tool that can be tailored to meet your unique needs. The rubric can be effectively utilized for both new and mature online courses.

View OSCQR Rubric

Watch Video Tutorials

Get Course Shell

Do I need a Course Shell?

You might be interested in applying what you learned in a Canvas Course Shell and importing your work to an official course at a later date.

If you do not already have a shell (or have access to the actual Canvas course that you will design or redesign), you may request a shell via the Murray State University Service Catalog using the "Request a Development, Training, or User Group Course in Canvas" service request.

Alternatively, you may register for a Free for Teachers Canvas account and start a new course that may be used to download the course design layout.

As you complete the activities in this challenge you will be able to apply what you learned in your Canvas Development Course Shell (or Canvas course).

What would you like to do?

Request a Canvas Course Shell

Review What's a Course Shell?

Get a Free Canvas Account?