Apply and customize the IU Course Template for your Canvas course

• Overview
• Apply the template to your course
• Adapt the template to your course
• Create additional modules
• Delete the template from your course

Overview

The IU Course Template is a collection of instructional assets to help you get started with developing your face-to-face, hybrid, or fully online course in Canvas. Created by the UITS eLearning Design and Services team, this fully accessible template includes a home page, a syllabus, a "Getting Started" module for students, and a sample module with a module overview page, interactive lecture placeholder, discussion topic, and an assignment. To review the template structure and content before copying it to your course, visit the preview course in Canvas.

Apply the template to your course

To apply the IU Course Template to your Canvas course:

1. Navigate to your course and select Settings.
2. In the settings sidebar at the right or bottom, choose Apply Course Template. You'll see a pop-up with information and instructions.
   Note:

   The Apply Course Template button is only visible in unpublished courses.
3. Select Indiana University to expose the templates available to the entire institution.
4. Look for the template named "IU Course Template". To preview the template, select Preview. To apply the template to your course, select Apply Template. An informational pop-up will appear. Choose Apply to proceed with applying the template.
5. The template will be copied to your course immediately, but it may take a few minutes for the template to be fully imported. To check the import status, open the Settings tool. In the sidebar, choose Import Course Content, and review the status of the first item under "Current Jobs".

Adapt the template to your course

The template is a starting point for your course. You can keep the elements you like and remove or modify the ones that don't quite fit. You can also add tools, materials, and activities as needed.

Begin by reading and following the instructions on the course home page to customize it. Carefully review and customize each element in the template to reflect the particulars of your course. As your review each item, look for and follow the instructions that appear in boldface surrounded by brackets. For example:

[Note to instructors: Replace the bullet points below with the information that pertains to this assignment.]

If you plan to use the Canvas Modules tool for organizing the materials and activities in your course, continue with the next section. If not, delete the "Week 1" module from the Modules tool, but leave the tool enabled so students can access the "Getting Started" module.

Create additional modules

There are two options for creating modules from the sample module and content in the template:

Option 1: Duplicate modules manually

The template includes one sample module. If you'd like to create additional modules, you can duplicate the sample. Duplicating a module also creates copies of the module's items, that is, the pages, assignments, and discussions that make up the module.

Before duplicating the sample module, review the structure and content to make sure it works for your class. Add, remove, or modify the module items as needed. Once you are satisfied with the content and structure of the module, begin making copies.

1. From your course navigation, select Modules.
2. At the upper right of the "Week 1" module, open the Options menu (...) and select Duplicate. A copy of the module and its items will be added to the Modules tool. The word "copy" (or "copy 1", "copy 2", etc.) will be added to the name of the module and each item.
3. Repeat the previous step to create as many modules as you'll need for your course.
4. After your modules are created, customize the title and instructions or instructional content in each module item with material appropriate for your course.

Option 2: Duplicate modules with the Multi-Tool

The Module Builder utility in the DesignPlus Multi-Tool, an external app from Cidi Labs, allows you to quickly create a complete set of modules for your course. Also, unlike the manual method described above, the Multi-Tool offers support for duplicating classic quizzes. To use the Multi-Tool to generate course modules from the IU Course Template:

1. Open the Settings tool in your course and from the settings sidebar, select Multi-Tool.
2. On the Multi-Tool home page, select Module Builder. Under the "Existing Modules" heading, Module Builder displays the two modules that are part of the template.
3. Scroll down to the "New Modules" heading.

   

   1. Use the "Module Prefix" dropdown to select the prefix that should be applied to the beginning of each module and item name (for example, Module, Lesson, Week, etc.). You can even designate your own custom prefix.
   2. For "Number of Modules to Create", enter the number of modules that will be needed to cover all of your instructional content in the course.
   3. For "Starting Number", leave the value at 1. You will eventually delete the sample module that was included in the template.
4. Next, you'll create the Module Pattern. The module pattern is the sequence of content and activities that should appear in most or all mod ules.
   1. Since each module will begin with an overview page, under "Add Items" select Page to add a page to the pattern as the first item. A page row is added to the module pattern:

      

      1. Use the "[Blank Page]" dropdown to the select the sample module overview page, Week 1: Overview, as the page template.
      2. In the "Page Name [Optional]" box, enter Overview, Introduction, or something similar. When Module Builder creates your module, the page name will be preceded by the prefix and module number. For example, "Lesson 1: Overview", "Lesson 2: Overview", and so on.
   2. Use the item options under "Add Items" to add the other items to your module pattern. The number, type, and order of items in the module pattern is up to you. For each item, you will enter a name, and select the template in the template dropdown. Where appropriate, use the items provided in the sample module as template files. For quizzes, select [Blank Quiz] since the sample module does not include a sample quiz. Additional considerations:
      1. For assignments added to the pattern, enter the submission type, the point value, and the "[Display grade as]" value.
      2. For graded discussion topics added to the pattern, enter the point value and the "[Display grade as]" value.
      3. To move any item in the pattern, select the handle to the left of its icon and drag to the desired location.
5. Review the module pattern to make sure you've added all the necessary items and the requested parameters for each. Your module pattern should look similar to the example below:

   

6. After you are satisfied with the module pattern, at the lower left of the "New Module Pattern" panel, select Generate Module List. A preliminary, editable list of the modules and their content items is generated beneath the heading "Customize Modules".
7. Under "Customize Modules", review the module list and make changes as needed. You can add, modify, or delete individual items in the module list, or you can return to the module pattern to regenerate the list from scratch.
8. When you are ready to create the module content according to your specifications in the module list, select the Add Modules to Course button located at the bottom of the "New Module Pattern" panel as well as at the bottom of the page. It can take several minutes to generate the complete set of modules.
9. Once the job is complete, the new modules and their content will have been added to your course. You can review them in the Canvas Modules tool, or under the "Existing Modules" heading in the Module Builder. You can also use the list under "Existing Modules", to add, remove, or modify items in each module. If you make changes to a module, be sure to select Update This Module to save your changes.
10. After your modules are created, customize the instructions and instructional content in each module item with material appropriate for your course.
    Tip:

    To add or update available, due, until, and feedback dates for assignments, discussions, quizzes, and pages, try the Multi-Tool Due Date Modifier. This utility provides an efficient interface for setting item dates individually or in bulk.
11. Finally, unpublish or delete the sample module from the IU Course Template so students won't see it.
    • To unpublish the module and its content:
      1. Navigate to the Modules tool.
      2. Locate the module named "Week 1" immediately following the "Getting Started" module.
      3. Open the module status menu and select Unpublish module and all items.
    • To delete the same module:
      1. If you are not already in the Multi-Tool, open the Settings tool in your course and from the settings sidebar, select Multi-Tool and then select Module Builder.
      2. Under the "Existing Modules" heading, select the module named "Week 1" immediately following the "Getting Started" module to display the module's content.
      3. To delete the module without deleting the items it contains, select Delete Module. To delete the module and its contents, select Delete Module and Contents. After you confirm your selection, the content will be deleted.

Delete the template from your course

f, after applying the IU Course Template, you decide you don't want to use it, follow the instructions at Reset your Canvas course content and settings.