Apply the IU Course Template to your Canvas course

On this page:

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

Important:

When you apply a template to your Canvas course, the settings and navigation in your course will be replaced with those in the template. Apply the template before you start creating or importing course content. If you apply it afterward:

You may overwrite your course syllabus or other content in your course. If you already created content in your course site, consider making a copy of the course before applying the template.
If you made customizations to the settings or navigation of the course, you may need to reset them.
If your course uses an eText, you will need to re-add the IU eTexts (Unizin Engage) tool to your course navigation. For help with course navigation, see How do I manage Course Navigation links?

To apply the IU Course Template to your Canvas course:

Navigate to your course and click Settings.
In the settings sidebar at the right or bottom, click 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The Apply Course Template button is only visible in unpublished courses.
Click Indiana University to expose the templates available to the entire institution.
Look for the template named "IU Course Template". To preview the template, click Preview. To apply the template to your course, click Apply Template. An informational pop-up will appear. Click Apply to proceed with applying the template.
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, click 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 which 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

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.

Important:

Modules containing one or more quizzes cannot be duplicated unless the quizzes were created with the New Quizzes tool. If you want to include classic quizzes in your modules, you'll need to add them to your modules after duplication.

From your course navigation, select Modules.
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.
Repeat the previous step to create as many modules as you'll need for your course.
After your modules are created, customize the module title and the content in the individual items to accommodate the instructional materials for each module.

Delete the template from your course

To delete the template from your Canvas course, follow the instructions at Reset your Canvas course content and settings.