Course Building Best Practices

Start of Semester Checklist

This checklist outlines steps to help new and returning Texas A&M University instructors start their semester in Canvas and better ensure a positive digital learning experience for students.

Step 1: Create or Update Your Syllabus

The Texas A&M Canvas Template has a button linked to a pre-loaded syllabus page with the Minimum Syllabus Requirements. The syllabus menu option in Canvas is inactive and will not take students to the syllabus.

Create a Canvas Syllabus

Click on the Syllabus button on the homepage.
Click Edit.
Type your syllabus directly in the page or copy and paste sections from an existing syllabus document into the Canvas Syllabus Page.
Once finished editing, click Save.

For a guide to creating a Canvas syllabus, visit the Enhancing the TAMU Template page. Once the Syllabus page is finalized, link it to the Syllabus button on the home page.

Updating an Existing Syllabus

Once the syllabus document is updated, add it to the course by copying and pasting sections into the Syllabus Page in the Canvas Template. For a guide to creating a Canvas syllabus, visit the Enhancing the TAMU Template page. Once the Syllabus page is finalized, link it to the Syllabus button on the home page.

Upload to Howdy

Once the syllabus is updated, upload the PDF file to Howdy. Adding a PDF version of the syllabus in Howdy is required for undergraduate courses. View How to Upload Class Syllabus in Howdy for instructions.

For additional guidance, watch Editing the TAMU template (1:55).

Step 2: Merge Course Sections (if necessary)

Determine if merging sections is needed. To prevent loss of student data, this should be done before adding course content in Canvas. When making a request in the Online Request Course Administration (ORCA) website to merge courses, you will need to identify one section as the Master Course. Please follow the course merge deadlines. If a merge is necessary, follow these guidelines:

Merge prior to the deadlines associated with each semester.

Follow this guide or watch ORCA Demo Section Merging Feature (1:38) to create a merged course in ORCA.

Step 3: Export and Import or Copy Course Content

This step is only necessary if you are importing content from a development shell, a previous institution, another instructor, or a past Canvas course.

View the Copying Canvas Materials Between Courses chart to learn more about copying course content. This chart highlights important differences between course import and course copy.

To export or import course content, refer to the instructions in Exporting and Importing Course Content. Note that Texas A&M’s Canvas storage quota limits course imports to 1 GB. To minimize duplicate data, use the Import Specific Content option, which allows you to manually select the content you need. For help with export files larger than 1 GB, contact LMS Support.

For additional guidance, watch the video Importing Course Content in Canvas (1:52).

Step 4: Gradebook Setup

The Canvas Gradebook is used to enter grades, track student performance, and communicate with students. Setting up at the start of the semester helps ensure students see accurate grades and reduces work at the end of the term. Follow the steps below to get started:

Settings: Grading Schemes in Canvas (video) – Setting up a grading scheme ensures the Gradebook can be successfully transferred to Howdy.

Grades: Late and Missing Policies in Canvas (video) – Setting these policies at the beginning of the course ensures they apply accurately to all assignments.

Assignments:

Creating and Editing Assignment Groups (video) – For weight-based grading, organize assignments into groups that reflect your syllabus. Point-based courses may not need groups.

Creating Assignment Group Rules (video) – Set rules to drop the lowest or highest scores or exclude specific assignments from being dropped.

Bulk Editing Due Dates in Canvas (video) – If content is imported or copied from another Canvas course, update due dates to ensure late policies apply correctly.

Step 5: Organize Course Content

Use the Modules feature in Canvas to organize all course content, including files, assignments, quizzes, and discussions.

To support this structure, the Texas A&M course template automatically enables the following in the course navigation menu:

Grades

All other features and tools—Assignments, Quizzes, Discussions, Files, and Pages—remain hidden from student view to ensure they access content through the Modules. Enabling these items in the navigation menu allows students to bypass Modules, which can lead to confusion and disorganized course flow.

Content Creation

When building Modules, consider both organization and structure. The Module Anatomy resource provides guidance on how to structure your course effectively. To get started, click Modules in the course navigation menu and begin adding content.

Use Pages (created with the Rich Content Editor) to deliver information from instructor to student. Pages serve as the foundation of each module. The course template includes several pre-populated examples that you can copy and adapt as needed.

Assessment Creation

When designing your course, it is best to follow a backward design approach to ensure alignment with learning outcomes: Create assessments first, then build supporting content.

Assessments in Canvas can include:

Assignments: Allows for different types of submissions such as file uploads (ex: Word, PDF), URLs, text entry, media external tools.

Discussions: For asynchronous student interaction. These can be graded or ungraded.

Quizzes: For quizzes, exams, tests, or homework in a quiz-like format.

Third-Party Tools: External tools integrated into Canvas to enhance assessment experience.

Module Settings (Optional Features)

You can guide students through your course in a custom sequence by using features such as lock modules, add prerequisites, and add requirements.

To learn more, watch the video How to Lock, Add Prerequisites, and Publish Your Modules (3:26).

For additional guidance, watch the video Creating Module Content (3:06).

Set your Homepage: 

The Canvas template will automatically be applied to the new live course shell. If you would like to revert to a previously customized Home page, please refer to the instructions in Set Your Course Homepage.

The default Canvas Template Home page includes navigation buttons to student resources such as Syllabus, Office Hours, University Resources, Canvas Resources, and Mental Health.

Step 6: Check Accessibility of Course

Once all the course content has been finalized, it's important to review the Accessibility Report. Ally, our integrated digital accessibility tool generates a score for your course and highlights areas that may need improvement. The report also provides clear guidance on how to address any accessibility issues.

For more information, refer to the Understanding the Accessibility Report handout.

If you have further questions, please visit https://lms.tamu.edu/support.

Step 7: Publish Content

Publishing content for students involves three steps to ensure the course functions smoothly for instructors and students. 

Publishing Modules

1. Publish active modules when the course is published by

Locating the top line of the module. 
Clicking on the circle with a line through it. 
Once clicked, the circle will turn green with a white check mark inside.

2. View a course as a student. 

Click Home in the course navigation. 
Select Student View in the upper right-hand corner. 
Start on the homepage and navigate your course as a student. 
Fix any issues encountered.

Note: Course content delivered through LTIs (e.g. Google Assignments and Peerceptiv) cannot be previewed in student view. 

Publishing the Course 

Published courses and content will remain in a "read only" state for students until the first day of the semester.  

Publish a course by navigating to Home or Settings. 
Select Publish from the menu option on the right side of the screen.

Note: Published course content will remain in a "read only" state for students until the first day of the semester. To learn more, watch the video tutorial on Publishing Course Content.

Post-Publishing Considerations 

After publishing your course, continue to maintain an active instructor presence by using the following tools:

Announcements
Use announcements as the primary way to share updates about due dates, deadlines, and important course information.

Inbox
Communicate directly with students via email, either individually or in groups, using the Canvas Inbox.

Gradebook Messages
Use the “Message Students Who” feature in the Canvas Gradebook to contact students based on their progress in a specific assignment (e.g., Haven’t Submitted, Haven’t Been Graded, etc.). This sends targeted messages to selected groups.

Calendar
The Canvas Calendar gives students a clear, visual overview of their to-do items—including Zoom class meetings, assignment due dates (if dates are set in the assignment settings), appointments, and more.

SpeedGrader
Provide feedback directly on student submissions or via comments on an associated rubric.

Homepage Buttons
Use the Texas A&M course template by linking the weekly module buttons on your homepage to the appropriate modules you've created. Watch the video tutorial: Linking Homepage Buttons to Content (1:57) for additional guidance.

Welcome Message
Place a welcome message directly on your homepage or send it as an announcement. Watch the video tutorial: Adding a Course Trailer to a Canvas Course (3:31) for additional guidance.

Link Validator
Run the Canvas Link Validator to identify and fix any broken links in your course. Watch the video tutorial: Running the Link Validator (1:50) for additional guidance.

Accessibility Report
Use the Accessibility Report powered by Ally to address any flagged accessibility issues in your course content.

Tip: We recommend conducting all communication with students through Canvas. This creates a central hub where students know they can reliably send and receive messages related to course activities.

Large Course Setup

Canvas is a great tool for facilitating large enrollment courses (350+). However, additional thought and care is recommended when setting up large enrollment courses to maximize the digital learning environment. A few things to consider:

Use sections to leverage assignments and due dates
Leverage gradebook features like filtering and policies to cut down work when grading
Include only published content to limit the amount of content that needs managed

For a more detailed outline of designed a large enrollment course see Canvas Considerations for Large Courses.

Building from Scratch in Canvas

Building a course from scratch will allow you to organize your content more effectively, take advantage of the many features available in the Canvas LMS at TAMU, and improve the student learning experience. Using the template provided in every course shell, you easily can build your syllabus, content, assessments, and much more.

Set Up Your Canvas Course

All Course instructors will receive their live course shells in Canvas automatically before the beginning of the semester.

Navigate to ORCA where you can request course merging, cross-listing, and/or rename your course. From within ORCA, you also have the ability to enroll TAs, Graders, and Course Designers.

Tip: All individuals associated with a course in Canvas are required to have completed FERPA and Information Security Awareness training in TrainTraq. This includes Canvas course associate roles (Lead TA, TA, Designer, Grader, Grade Submitter).

If you need practice or development shells, email support@instructure.com. Practice and development shells do not have any associated student enrollments, so you can experiment and build your course content freely. Once you have finalized your course, you can move the content into a live course shell.

Set Your Course Homepage

Access your course to begin setting it up by following these steps to log in to Canvas:

Navigate to https://canvas.tamu.edu
Login using your TAMU NetID and password

The Texas A&M University Course Template has been added to all live course shells for instructors. It makes Canvas easier to use for course instructors and provides resources for students to augment their learning experience.

The template includes:

Four frequently used buttons designed to provide students with quick and efficient access to course information such as the Syllabus, Academic Resources, University Resources, and information about instructor Office Hours
Links to Canvas, Academic, and University Resources for students
A pre-built Syllabus page that contains the Texas A&M Minimum Syllabus Requirements which can be modified to add your course-specific content
Numbered module navigation buttons that allow students to access their learning materials directly from the homepage

Tip: After you modify the syllabus with your own content, you can print to PDF to add it to Howdy.

Modify the Course Navigation Links

The Course Navigation Menu is a series of links on the left side of your course that helps you and your students access different course areas.

A few pre-set course navigation buttons have been enabled to provide students a way to quickly and easily locate course content.

By default, these Canvas features are turned on for students to access:

Canvas also has features that are currently disabled from the student perspective. When enabled, students can use them to navigate directly to assignments, files, and quizzes without sequentially viewing all created content.

As a best practice, we recommend course instructors to add all course files, assignments, quizzes, and discussions into a Module to prevent skipped navigation to sequential content, add all course files, assignments, quizzes, and discussions into a Module.

Additional resource:
How to manage Course Navigation links?

Add Course Content to Modules

In the Texas A&M University course template, sample course content asset have been provided within the Instructor Module. These assets can be duplicated and added into Modules as necessary.

These assets include:

Overview and To Do List: A Page that introduces the Module and to do list of all of the required materials and assessments.
Presentation/Lecture: A Page formatted to embed lectures and presentation with a sample Google Slide.
Assignment: An Assignment with 0 points with sections for an overview, guidelines, and links to technical support.
Wrap-up and Looking Ahead: A Page that closes the module to re-cap the content and preview the upcoming Module.

Additional resources:
What is the Rich Content Editor?
Using Mediasite in Canvas

Organize Your Course Content

We recommend you use Modules to organize your course content. Using Modules enables you to organize your course that can make it easier for your students to navigate to specific resources and activities throughout the semester. In every course template, we have included weekly module buttons to allow for greater flexibility among all modalities.

Modules can also make it easier for you to manage and update the content in your course over time. All modules can be viewed by clicking the Modules tab on the course navigation menu.

Modules offer you logical and user-friendly options to determine how you want your students to progress through your course:

Lock a module until a specific date and time to ensure that students access course content at the appropriate time.
Prerequisites applied to entire modules ensure students complete each module in a specific order (e.g., students must complete Module 1 before they are able to access Module 2, etc.).
Requirements within a module ensure students complete each module item in a specific order (e.g., students must view a lecture video before they can access a quiz assessing their understanding of that lecture video).

We encourage you to take a look at our best practices for online teaching and learning to optimize the online learning environment for you and your students.

Tip: Use the Modules feature in Canvas to host all course content. These can be organized by week, chapter, or unit.

Set Up Gradebook

The Gradebook in Canvas is an efficient and powerful tool for entering grades, tracking student performance, and communicating grades to students. You can customize your Gradebook to your preferences by arranging and sorting columns, filtering by student names and assignments, and sorting by assignment type.

In Canvas, you can also create assignment groups to organize assessments and view grades in different groups. You can create groups for different types of activities, different modules of your course, or any other criteria that may be appropriate for your course setup and grading scheme. Your groups can then be weighted with different percentages to determine students’ final grades.

Tip: Use assignment groups to categorize assignments in a way that makes sense for your course. The benefit to this could be for organizing assignments, weighting final grades, and much more. Using weighted groups allows you to weigh an assignment group for a specified percent of the final grade.

Further resources:
How to use the Gradebook?
How to create assignment groups?
How to weight course grades based on assignment groups?

Create Assessments

Before creating and managing assessments in Canvas, course instructors should first approach the complex topic of assessment with a plan that aligns with their instructional objectives and content. After you have decided what type of assessment you need to create, build them in Canvas using the resources provided below.

Assessment Type Decision Tree

Use the decision tree below to choose which type of assessment to create based on your goals and learning objectives:

Add Graded Assessments

In Canvas, there are multiple ways to assess student learning:

Assignments: For file-based or text-based submissions (e.g., Word documents, PDFs, PowerPoints, typing in content directly).
Discussions: For asynchronous interaction to keep discussion of ideas and course concepts going beyond the classroom.
Quizzes: For quizzes, tests, exams, and homework assignments in a quiz-like format.

Tip: Incorporate Rubrics and use the Speedgrader to grade assignments, discussions, and quizzes.

Further Resources:
How to use Speedgrader?
How to add a rubric?

Use the Communication Tools in Canvas

Communication is key to maintaining a strong connection to your students and ensuring your active presence in your online course. Canvas has many options available for communication. Instructors can personalize their messages by posting audio and video messages in Discussions, Speedgrader, Inbox messages, and Announcements. Here is a list of the communication tools you can take advantage of in Canvas and a brief description of the uses for each:

Announcements: Use Announcements to serve as the main communication source for students to receive updates for your course due dates, deadlines, and other just-in-time information.
Inbox: Use the Canvas inbox feature to send an email to students individually or in groups.
Gradebook messages: The Canvas Gradebook has a feature called "message students who" which allows you to message groups of students based on their status in relation to a specific assignment. This feature allows you to send simultaneous messages to all of the students who fall into certain grade-related categories for a specific assignment.
Calendar: The Canvas Calendar tool provides students with a to-do list in a calendar format, including Zoom class meetings, assignment due dates, appointments, and more. Note: Be sure to add due dates to learning activities to ensure students can view them via the calendar.
Speedgrader: The SpeedGrader tool can be used to add feedback inline with student submissions, or through comments on a Rubric.

Tip: We recommend conducting all of your communication with students through Canvas to create efficiencies for you and a central hub where students know they can navigate to to communicate about course activities.

Accessibility in the TAMU Template

The Center for Teaching Excellence provides the best practices for implementing essential design components into your course. These design practices will help you to create an effective online learning environment for your students.

Texas A&M’s template has been pre-loaded into every course shell and is 100% accessible out-of-the-box. In conjunction with Ally, you can continue to add content to your course shell that can be reviewed for accessibility at any point in the semester. Course Teaching roles in Canvas (Teacher, Alternate Teacher) can access the Accessibility Report to identify the accessibility score for a course, as well as receive step-by-step instructions for how to improve existing content to keep courses as accessible as possible throughout the semester.

Ally is a third-party tool that is integrated into our instance of Canvas at TAMU that supports accessibility by providing color-coded gauges that automatically rate the accessibility of course content. TAMU has enabled Ally globally in Canvas so all course content is rated for accessibility in real-time. These ratings are visible to roles associated with instruction (Teacher, Alternative Teacher).

For additional resources on how to review the accessibility in your course, learn more on how to use Ally in Canvas.

Copying Canvas Materials Between Courses

Course Export and Import vs Course Copy

Content from courses in Canvas from a previous semester or in Development shells can be moved into the live course shell for the upcoming semester. Use the table below to determine what method should be used for moving content from one semester to another.

Feature	Course Export and Import	Course Copy
Ally/Accessibility	Alternative descriptions added through Ally will only be available in the new course. If descriptions were added within Canvas (i.e. using the Rich Content Editor), then the descriptions will migrate.	Using the course copy method means that no matter which way an alternative description was added, Ally will display them for students in the new course.
Announcements	Announcements are carried over the same with each method. Announcements don’t retain the name of the user who originally created the course content. After importing, instructors will need to manually modify dates and subscribe to or enable notifications for Announcements. It is recommended to NOT migrate announcements and re-build them.	Announcements are carried over the same with each method. Announcements don’t retain the name of the user who originally created the course content. After importing, instructors will need to manually modify dates and subscribe to or enable notifications for Announcements. It is recommended to NOT migrate announcements and re-build them.
Assignment Groups	Assignment groups do not carry over. They are placed in an assignment group called Imported Assignments. Duplicate Assignment Groups may also be seen which do not contain any assignments. Empty Assignment Groups can be deleted.	Assignment groups are carried over and assignments are placed within the same assignment group that the course was copied from.
Assignments	Assignments are carried over the same with each method. Assignment dates are reset when migrating. To adjust assignment due dates for holidays, or other days when there will be no class, use the bulk update due dates and availability dates feature in Canvas to update multiple assignments and assessments at one time.	Assignments are carried over the same with each method. Assignment dates are reset when migrating. To adjust assignment due dates for holidays, or other days when there will be no class, use the bulk update due dates and availability dates feature in Canvas to update multiple assignments and assessments at one time.
Classic Quizzes/Question Banks	Classic Quizzes can be brought over successfully using both methods. Question banks are not tied to quizzes and are considered separate when using export/import. Any quiz questions linked to question banks will be linked to the previous question bank and will need to be relinked to the one copied over.	Classic Quizzes can be brought over successfully using both methods. Question banks are not tied to quizzes and are considered separate when using export/import. Any quiz questions linked to question banks will be linked to the previous question bank and will need to be relinked to the one copied over.
Discussions	Discussions are carried over the same with each method. Discussion dates are reset when migrated and will need to be manually updated.	Discussions are carried over the same with each method. Discussion dates are reset when migrated and will need to be manually updated.
Files	Any files that are imported will create a separate copy in the new course.	Any files that are explicitly copied will have a new copy in the new course. If files are not explicitly copied the files may still work but will be referencing the file in the original course.
Grade Posting Policy	The grade posting policy from the original course will override the grade posting policy in the new course in each method. Additionally, imported assignments will retain their assignment posting policy from the original course.	The grade posting policy from the original course will override the grade posting policy in the new course in each method. Additionally, imported assignments will retain their assignment posting policy from the original course.
Groups	Group sets do not copy over as part of the copy. If instructors have grouped assignments in their course and if there are existing group sets in the new course, it will be linked to the group set with the same name. If there are no group sets in the new course, the assignment will be linked to a new Project Groups set.	Group sets do not copy over as part of the copy. If instructors have grouped assignments in their course and if there are existing group sets in the new course, it will be linked to the group set with the same name. If there are no group sets in the new course, the assignment will be linked to a new Project Groups set.
New Quizzes/Item Banks	Currently, exporting New Quizzes is not an available functionality. That will change as soon as the seamless migration is in place.	New Quizzes can only be copied when using the All Content Option. Questions that pull from Item Banks may pull from previous course Item Banks. If the same new quiz is imported more than once, Canvas retains the original. A duplicate must be used for updates. Importing the same quiz will also override any student submissions in the quiz.
Rubrics	Rubrics are carried over the same with each method.	Rubrics are carried over the same with each method.
Third Party Tools	Third-party tools are brought over with each method. However, there are a number of external applications that need to be updated configured to work correctly in the new version of the course.	Third-party tools are brought over with each method. However, there are a number of external applications that need to be updated configured to work correctly in the new version of the course.

Considerations when Moving your Course

If you have a course in Canvas from a prior semester or that you have built in your Development shell, you may find that you need to move all of the content into the actual course shell for the upcoming semester.

What to consider before importing your course content into another Canvas course:

Some external tool assignments, like Gradescope, Peerceptiv, and Perusall may need to have their links updated when exporting the course over.
Copying and pasting lists of file links from one course to another will break those links. A best practice to follow is to use the export/import tool to copy files from one course to your other course, instead of copying and pasting the link.
To adjust assignment due dates for holidays, or other days when there will be no class, use the bulk update due dates and availability dates feature in Canvas to update multiple assignments and assessments at one time.
An exported quiz with questions linked to a question bank will not include an export of the question bank. If you want to import the quiz into another course along with question banks, you may prefer to import specific content and select Question Banks.
Canvas exports do not include backups of student interactions and grades. Grades can be exported separately as a comma separated values (CSV) file.
If you import a New Quizzes assessment and then re-import the same assessment, Canvas will revert to the original assessment. To import changes to a New Quizzes assessment, you must duplicate the assessment and then import it into your course.

Export Your Course

You can export a Canvas course to give to someone in another Canvas account or to create a copy as a backup on your local computer. You can import an export file into Canvas at any time.
Exports are packaged as IMSCC zip files, which can only be opened by programs that support Common Cartridge files.

From the course that you would like to export, click Settings in the course navigation
Click the Export Course Content link located on the right-hand side.
In the Export Type heading, click the Course radio button.
Click Create Export.
Note: If you have previously exported the course, Canvas will display prior exports under the Content Exports heading.
View the progress bar. Exporting a course in Canvas may take a few minutes, depending on its size. You will receive an email when the export is complete.
When your download is ready, click the New Export link.

Note: Content exports expire after 30 days and can no longer be downloaded.

Import Content

When importing course content with the Course Import Tool, you can choose to Import all Content or Import specific content. We recommend using the Import specific content option if you would like to leverage the new template provided in your shells.

Import All Content

From your new course, click Settings in the course navigation
Click the Import Course Content link located on the right-hand side
In the Content Type drop-down menu, choose the Canvas Course Export Package option
Locate the downloaded export and choose the .imscc file you want to import
Select All content
Click Import

The Current Jobs section displays the status of your import. Running reports display a progress bar indicating the time remaining to complete the import.

Import Specific Content (recommendation)

From your new course, click the Settings link in the course navigation
Click the Import Course Content link located on the right-hand side.
In the Content Type drop-down menu, choose the Canvas Course Export Package option
Find the Source file that was downloaded from the export and choose the .imscc file you want to import
In the Content section, click the Select specific content radio button
Click the Import button
A progress indicator displays the upload status by percentage
In the Current Jobs section, click the Select Content button

Content can be individual items or a content group. Content groups show the number of items within the group. To view content within a group, click the arrow to expand the content of the group.

If you would like to leverage the new template provided within your course shell, review the following content groups to determine if you would like it migrated to the new course:

Modules
Assignments
Quizzes
Question banks (Note: Item banks will not migrate)
Discussion topics (Note: only the topics will migrate, not student submissions)
Pages
Rubrics
Files

9. Click the Select Content button

The report displays a menu bar with the time remaining to complete the import. View the content from any completed imports by accessing any link in Course Navigation.

Copy a Canvas Course

When importing course content with the Course Import Tool, you can choose to Copy all Content or Select specific content. We recommend using the Import specific content option if you would like to leverage the new template provided in your course shell.

From your new course, click Settings in the course navigation
Click the Import Course Content link located on the right-hand side
In the Content Type drop-down menu, choose the Copy a Canvas Course option
Search for the course you would like to copy.
Select the Migration Content Type

All Content

Select All Content
Click Import

The Current Jobs section displays the status of your import. Running reports display a progress bar indicating the time remaining to complete the import.

Specific Content (recommendation)

In the Content section, click the Select specific content radio button
Click the Import button
A progress indicator displays the upload status by percentage
In the Current Jobs section, click the Select Content button

Content can be individual items or a content group. Content groups show the number of items within the group. To view content within a group, click the arrow to expand the content of the group.

If you would like to leverage the new template provided within your course shell, review the following content groups to determine if you would like it migrated to the new course:

Modules
Assignments
Quizzes
Question banks (Note: Item banks will not migrate)
Discussion topics (Note: only the topics will migrate, not student submissions)
Pages
Rubrics
Files

5. Click the Select Content button

Course Storage Limitations

There is approximately 1GB allotted for each Canvas course. If you try to migrate a course that is larger than 1GB, you will receive an error that states, "Your migration cannot exceed 1000MB." Your course export package file size must be smaller than the quota for your course as shown in course statistics. If the course is larger than the storage limit, you may opt to import specific content.

Resources

Link Validator

After you have imported your course content, use the Link Validator to verify if all links are working in your course.

Below are the steps for how to run the Link Validator in your course:

From the course navigation, click Settings
On the right side-bar, click Validate Links in Content
If this is your first time running the link validator, click Start Link Validation. If you have already run the link validator, click Restart Link Validation
- Tip: The Link Validator will need to be restarted every time you navigate to this page as it does not update after you have made changes in the course.
View the links and make changes to the content within your course
To confirm all links are resolved, click Restart Link Validation to verify

Check the Accessibility Report

The Texas A&M Template that has been added to every course by default is 100% accessible. After you have added your content to your new shell, we recommend checking the Accessibility Report provided through the ALLY tool for your course to verify the accessibility score and make updates if necessary.

Below are the steps to run an accessibility report for your course:

From the course navigation, click on Accessibility Report
- Note: This tool is not accessible to students and is used to aid instructors with their course content.
Review the accessibility of your course and make changes, if necessary within the Content with the easiest issues to fix or Fix low scoring content
The ALLY tool will guide you through how to resolve any issues with your content

For additional information on how to use the ALLY tool in Canvas, refer to the following resources:
On-Demand: Ally in Canvas training
Ally in Canvas Instructor Resources

Additional Resources

Course Design Checklist

The Center for Teaching Excellence provides the best practices for implementing essential design components into your course. These design components will help you to create an effective online learning environment for your students.

Course Design Checklist PDF
Mobile Course Design Checklist PDF

Canvas Community

To navigate deeper into what Canvas can do, check out the Canvas Guides.
Canvas Instructor Guides
Canvas Video Guides

CTE YouTube Channel

CTE YouTube Channel provides viewers with videos about Canvas, LTI tools, and much more. Viewers will find the CTE team demoing specific Canvas features, best practices, and third-party tools supported by the University.