Navigating Your Course

It's critical to understand how students will find the teaching materials you place in Canvas.

In your in-person classes, instruction happens in fairly predictable ways—students come in through the door at the assigned class time, sit in chairs designed for students, and you lead the class. You and your students have had years of practice at this model.

In online and virtual classes, however, both time and space are different. You may have both synchronous and asynchronous elements to your course, and students may wander around within the course in many ways—and not always through the door you would expect!

Guide your students to the "right places" at the "right times"!

Because Canvas has so many "doors," you'll want to provide some navigation help or guidance for your students. You can do this a couple of ways:

Written instructions on the course Home Page with a reminder of what steps the student needs to take to be successful, and where there should click to access the course content. Consider also including this guidance in your course orientation Module.
- Feel free to supplement with the official Canvas guide on navigating a course as a student.
A navigation video, made by you, that "walks" your students through the various features of your Canvas course and what they are expected to do with those features. Like the written instructions, this can be featured on your Home Page or in your Orientation Module.

Staying on the path

Even though you've explained your course navigation, you will want to reinforce what you've established and explained in a few ways. This prevents your students from getting "lost"!

Tell your students about all your class activities, verbally and/or in writing in live Zoom sessions and in Announcements
Use Modules to show your students all the class activities that surround your "due date" items.
In the instructions for your Assignment (or Quiz or Discussion ), give a clear list of the associated activities that the student is meant to complete first. Ideally this is a concise list, with links, so your student's next move is learning, not searching for the reading, video, and meeting schedule.
In your Modules, use Requirements and Prerequisites so that your student can't accidentally proceed if they've missed something important. (And all your activities are important!)